In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

by

Iron Butterfly

Edit

The use of the organ in the 60's instantly reminded me of the Doors and Ray Manzarek, whose signature organ made "Light My Fire" a hit. There's a bit of organ solo reminiscent of "Light My Fire" in "Most Anything You Want." But Iron Butterfly made their mark by the title track of their second album, which originally came out six days before I was born. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is a verbal corruption of "In The Garden Of Eden" or "In The Garden of Life", vida being Spanish for life. And given their name, iron indicating hard, butterfly being a delicate creature, it's easy to see that along with the Who and Blue Cheer, they were the forerunners of heavy metal.

The idyllic 60's love and happiness feeling is underscored in "Most Anything You Want", where the big goal is "I just want to make you happy and spend my lifetime with you." The piercing electric guitar complements lead vocalist Doug Ingle's organ well. And also noticeable is Ingle's deep and resonant lead vocals, which gives the band and this album quite a distinction.

"Flowers And Beads" is an idyllic skipping tune like the Turtles' "Happy Together". A title like that smacks of what the Summer of Love, which was the year before this album's release, was about. And yes, the corny and trite, "Girl I love you, I love you, I need you in this lifetime/girl I just know I love you, don't you think my love is true?" definitely makes this a period piece. The harmony vocals recalls the Beatles, and this song is "She Loves You" taken to another level, only now it's "I love you."

"My Mirage" recalls the Doors, particularly the punchy chords of "Five To One" but with harmonies recalling the Byrds. This was a song written in memory of a friend of the band who died in an accident.

"This is termination, the outcome of your life." Guitarist Erik Brann wrote and sang lead in "Termination", which was inspired by the sirens from Greek mythology. Love that fuzzy guitar.

The hard-driving guitar and drums of "Are You Happy?" made me realize why IB was placed in the heavy metal section of my music store.

Three versions of the title song are present. The complete 17 minute version, which I'll never be bored of, from opening organ arpeggio (where notes are played one by one instead of all at once), bassline, then the guitar, and Doug Ingles' spectrally deep vocals, the fiery guitar solo, drum solo, organ solo, elephant bellows effect by Erik Brann, all the way up to Ingle signalling the final minutes by going "two three four". Given what the title was a slurred version of, the concept of walking with a special one in a paradise continues the theme of the Summer of Love: "Oh won't you come with me and take my hand, oh won't you come with me, and walk this land, please take me hand." Along with other songs, they also play an extended if not the full version of this song in the concert film "Musical Mutiny" with some amaterishly added psychedelic art effects. So much better than Slayer's thrashed version on the Less Than Zero soundtrack.

The live version was from their 1970 live album. The tempo is slightly quicker than the studio version. This one has the various solos in the middle and clocks in at 18:50.

And the final is the abridged 2:52 single edit which made it to #30 on the Billboard charts. A bit unsatisfying given the long meandering full version.

This deluxe version by Rhino Records contains extended liner notes and the original notes, as well as the cool lenticular cover of the butterfly that seems to flap its wings if you tilt it. All that remains for me is to find someone to take my hand in that garden of life.

This album was a seminal part of every teenager's album collection (including mine) in the 60's right along with the obligatory Hendrix and Cream albums. Granted, the remaining tracks couldn't compare to the title cut, but at 17 minutes plus, who the hell cared?

That said, I would recommend that anyone considering buying "In a Gadda Da Vida" purchase a turntable and buy a used copy in vinyl at a record store. The sound quality of the CD is the worst of any album I've ever heard. The guitar solos in particular were mixed down way low and lose the ambience and sonic clarity of the record. The only thing stopping me from giving this CD a lower rating is the fact that at least someone had the guts to try and do it...and at least left the drum and organ solos in pretty good shape.