“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”(1968) by Iron Butterfly

This is what I’m talkin’ about!  Iron Butterfly’s magnum opus(Latin for great work).  The best of the Iron Butterfly’s efforts is an organ filled acid trip.  Full of classic riffs and monstrous songs.  There’s actually only six tracks on here.  The whole second side is dominated by the seventeen minute long epic “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda”.  Most people totally forget the first side though.  Five great psychedelic tracks come before and I will take the liberty of dissecting them for you.

The album kicks off on a high note with the trippy rocker “Most Anything You Want”.  This is my favorite of the fist side.  A catchy and powerful riff opens with all instruments pounding it out.  A big change from the slow and creepy organ opening on the previous album “Heavy”.  Then, pretty vocal harmonies come in and add to the rhythm throughout the song.  It’s all about making some girl happy(maybe the most written about subject in music).  A masterful organ solo in the middle gives the song some more depth. 

Then we move on to the forgotten flower power anthem “Flowers and Beads”.  The lines each start with “flowers and beads are one thing but…[fill in the blank]“.  It is really a reminder of what the whole flower power, hippie thing was about.  Not flowers and beads but love, baby!

Now for a couple more creepy/spaced out numbers.  The first is “My Mirage”.  The lyrics are first rate again, “In my mind I see a mirage on the wall, but unfortunately it’s not there at all…”  I really love the tripped out stuff that Doug Ingle sings on this album.  It all culminates in the finale of course.  Then comes the paranoid “Termination”.  This song has the second most identifiable riff on “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.  I can’t say what the song is about but it sounds like the rest of the stuff.  That’s the thing about “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.  Be ready to get nothing but psychedelic rock n’ roll.  Not a lot of diversity on this one and that could be good or bad.

The closing track on side one is “Are You Happy”.  This is a nice song.  Definitely my least favorite but it’s good up until the breaks when they belt out a bunch of “Are you happy?!!!!!” in a very crude manner.  Kind of scary and reminds me of Jack Bruce singing the banal “We’re Going Wrong” from “Disraeli Gears”.  The solos are top notch though.

Now lets get to the second side.  Let me give a little explanation of the title of the song and album “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” for anyone who doesn’t already know.  Rumor has it the song was originally written and called “In The Garden Of Eden” but Doug Ingle was so stoned when he sang it the lyrics just came out all slobber mouthed.  The boys liked it and kept it that way. 

So, whats so great about this song?  Well most of you have heard the single version that consists only of the core song.  You already know what makes that great.  The main riff is an absolute classic heavy riff and is the reason so many like to call Iron Butterfly an early heavy metal group, which they are clearly not if you listen to more then that single.  Add to that the literally tripped out lyrics and you have a #1 Hit on your hands(not really a #1 Hit for you perfectionists).  Anyways, the version on the album is actually seventeen minutes and if I had to compare to other long epic songs I would say the song structure is comparable to The Doors “Light My Fire” and the instrumentation is probably more like a cross of Mark I Deep Purple and Cream(manly the drumming).  There is no doubt this song is epic and if you haven’t, you should really listen to the full seventeen minute version some time.  The drum solo is probably the most interesting of the boring drum solo genre and the organ, guitar, and bass are all superbly bad in the technical sense but fantastic in soul and feeling.

This album is an acquired taste as it has an overall sound to it that almost makes it sound like a concept album.  If you were to buy any Iron Butterfly album, no any psychedelic hard rock album it must be “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.

Best Song: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Album Rating: 8/10