How Iron Butterfly’s psychedelic romp ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ was a fluke
It might not always be clear, but the hippie movement produced a number of brilliant acts that are overlooked in favour of their most prominent peers, such as The Doors and Jefferson Airplane. Whether it be Vanilla Fudge, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band or even Country Joe and the Fish, plenty of compelling outfits were operating when Jim Morrison and Grace Slick were at their peak. Arguably, the best of this set is Iron Butterly, whose first three records, Heavy, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and Ball, released between 1968 and 1969, are all highlights of early psychedelic rock.
Whilst Iron Butterly boasts many stand-out moments, including ‘Soul Experience’ and ‘You Can’t Win’, the 1968 hit ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ has been regarded by some as their masterpiece since release. Despite the debate surrounding the song’s cultural significance, it is hard to doubt its allure, particularly given the context of the time. To be clear, this is regarding the entire 17-minute album version, which far surpasses the quick single edit in quality.
This dark piece of psychedelic rock fused raga influences with the far-out essence of the flower-power movement, augmented by the broader idea that life wasn’t as starry as many believed. The Vietnam War raged on, and the threat of the draft weighed heavily on the minds of all those suitable, meaning that the darkness conveyed was purely authentic.
The track grows so ominous that during the middle section, the moment in which frontman Doug Ingle’s keyboard takes centre stage, the supposition that Italian prog-rockers Goblin drew on it for their bewitching soundtrack to 1977’s Suspiria starts to take hold.
Due to the chilling sound of ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’, the song has been noted as the first moment in the metal genre – but this is another contested point, as the band members themselves have denied the link, explaining that commentators always tried to pigeonhole them. This didn’t account for their complete act, as the band were always concentrated on “melodic consciousness” rather than the idea of heaviness or psychedelia.
Regardless, the song – and subsequent album – was so successful that the San Diego outfit were the first to receive an in-house platinum album award from Atlantic Records, with them influencing the likes of Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Soundgarden and Queens of the Stone Age in the process.
The most intriguing aspect of ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ is that, in reality, it was a total fluke. As keen-eyed fans and the band have pointed out, it is an unexpectedly sloppy performance, with the mistakes apparent for all to hear. In a 1998 edition of Mix Magazine, Ingle and drummer Ron Bushy were quoted as saying that the song was a total accident and that they were only really getting started during that time. Pretty ironic for a song regarded as their masterpiece.
The extract reads: “The band members, including Ingle, recollect that they were barely, if at all, aware they were being recorded. According to Bushy, the engineer just ran the tape and said, ‘Why don’t you run through something, and we’ll get the balance here on the stuff. Run it through one time.’ I didn’t want to think about it. When those red lights are on, a lot of times, it will screw me up. I couldn’t see them from where I was.'”
As the band stormed through the song, Ingle started wondering what was going on: “‘We were like, ‘Is this guy dense? How much time does he need?’ So after we finished, he said, ‘come on in guys, I’d like you to hear this.’ [The engineer] Don Casale… had captured the song on the first take. They immediately overdubbed the vocal and the guitar solo, and the song was complete.”
