Track Listing

1. Most Anything You Want
2. Flowers and Beads
3. My Mirage
4. Termination
5. Are You Happy
6. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1177 in Music
• Published on: 2000
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Japanese reissue features 6 tracks packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. Atlantic. 2006.

Amazon.com
Iron Butterfly's 1968 album veritably defined the burgeoning genre of hard-rock, primarily by way of its utterly over-the-top title cut. Reportedly composed by keyboardist/lead singer Doug Ingle in such a stoned-out, numb-tongued condition that he couldn't properly pronounce its intended title--"In the Garden of Eden"--the track seemed almost a parody of every excessive inclination of psychedelia. Melodramatic vocals, repetitive riffing, aimless solos--you name it, this 17-minute behemoth had it. Aided by FM DJs who loved to program it in its entirety so they could take "legitimate" breaks, it became an unavoidable hit--and an anthem of its era. --Billy Altman

Customer Reviews

In The Garden Of Eden, Baby....
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.

Think Of It As An Extended LP
Remember extended LPs, those records you'd buy which had one song you liked? Remember how you convinced yourself it was OK to buy it, even though you didn't like the rest of the album? It was OK then, and it is OK now. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" has five songs you never heard of, and one song you should know.

In the rock-and-roll canon, that great list of songs everyone generally agrees is great, you'll find a few Elvis, Stones and Beatles tunes. Zeppelin will have their share, and you'll see the Doors, Clapton, Buddy Holly and other familiar names repeated throughout that list. Then, somewhere close to #100 or 150, you'll see 'Iron Butterfly'. Who? It doesn't matter who. It matters what. The what is "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," a 17 minute work of rock-n-roll art.

To say Iron Butterfly was a one hot wonder is only relating half of the story. This wasn't like "People!" whose cover of "I Love You," hit high and then was forgotten when band members split to do other things. That's a real one hit wonder. Iron Butterfly had one hit, but it would be like if Zeppelin only gave the world "Stairway to Heaven." The one song is enough to seal them in rock-n-roll history.

Has anyone covered this song? No one cares, because this is the version everyone wants.

The rest of the album is classic psychedelia. It is not bad, but they are all B-sides to a drum solo dynamo. Like Skynard's guitar in "Freebird," the drum solo here is what everyone talks about. The physical endurance to carry it off, and the musical strength to sustain the rhythm back into the song is amazing.

Buy the CD, record it to your hard drive, then do as I do, pop it in your playlist while you surf the net.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

The title track is a true rock classic
I don't have much to add to what the others said about this album, musically, but I have an important recomendation. The tracks other than the title track are forgetable, but the title track is what it is all about.

I have the original Atlantic CD, and it is the *worst* sounding CD I have. There are terrible drop outs on the vocals. I also have the Rhino reissue version and it sounds *great*. Besides being remastered for good quality sound, it has bonus tracks of the live version if I-A-G-D-V (also great, some people like it better than the studio version) and the single version. So unless the Atlantic version has been remastered (and I don't know if it has been), don't get it and get the Rhino version instead - for the much improved sound quality and the bonus live track.

Of course, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida contains the mother of all drum solos. It seems to have influenced every drum solo after it.