In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, released in 1968, was a
seventeen-minute rock song by Iron Butterfly, released on an album
that shares the song's title.
The song features a memorable guitar and bass riff, and sustains
this riff for almost the entire length of the song. The riff is
used as the basis for extended keyboard and guitar solos, which are
interrupted in the middle by an extended drum solo, one of the
first such solos on a rock record.
Media:Iron
Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Riff.mp3
The lyrics are simple, and heard only at the beginning and the
end. A commonly repeated story says that the song title was
originally "In the Garden of Eden," but in the course of rehearsing
and recording singer Doug Ingle slurred the words into the nonsense
phrase of the title. But the truth (according to the liner notes on
'the best of' CD compilation) is that drummer Ron Bushy was
listening to the track through headphones and he just couldn't hear
correctly and simply distorted what Doug Ingle answered when Ron
asked him for the title of the song.
The song is significant in rock history because, together with
Blue Cheer and Steppenwolf, it marks the point when psychedelic
music produced heavy metal. Later heavy metal and progressive rock
acts like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin owe much of their sound, and
even more of their live acts, to this recording.
In a famous The Simpsons episode, Bart Sells His
Soul, the writers paid tribute to Iron Butterfly by
having Bart Simpson replace the hymn books with sheet music for
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." The entire church started into a 17-minute
version of "In the Garden of Eden" (by "I. Ron Butterfly") before
the minister caught onto the gag.
Track Listing from the Album
Side A
- Most Anything You Want
- Flowers And Beads
- My Mirage
- Termination
- Are You Happy?
Side B
- In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
