Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 128

Record label: Atco

Produced: Jim Hilton

Recorded: Gold Star Studios, Hollywood, California and Ultra-Sonic Studios, Hempstead, Long Island; spring 1968

Released: June 14, 1968 (UK) July 25, 1968 (US)

Chart peaks: None (UK) 4 (US)

Personnel: Doug Ingle (k, v); Ron Bushy (d); Lee Dorman (b, v); Erik Brann (g, v)

Track listing: Most Anything You Want; Flowers And Beads; My Mirage; Termination; Are You Happy; In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Running time: 36.00

Current CD: Atlantic 8122721962

Further listening: Heavy (1968) deluxe re-issue, Iron Butterfly: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1996) includes three versions of the song – the original epic, the single and a live version – plus all original album tracks

Further reading: www.ironbutterfly.com (official)

Download: Some tracks available on iTunes

Technically speaking, there was no Iron Butterfly on the night the band christened the glorified riff that would become its biggest hit and ticket to immortality. The band had already made one album, Heavy, but because of disputes between its producers and Atlantic and between members of the band, Iron Butterfly were no longer airborne. While the two remaining members, keyboardist Doug Ingle and drummer Ron Bushy, looked for new members, things grew so dire that Bushy was actually hawking pizza at a Sunset Strip nightclub. One night, upon returning to the apartment he shared with Ingle, Bushy found his roommate in a state of delirium. Not only had he been up for nearly two days, he had consumed almost a gallon of Red Mountain wine and possessed all the verbal dexterity of a caveman. He told Bushy he’d been writing a new song. Bushy could not make out the words, so he wrote them down phonetically: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Only later did he learn that Ingle had been mumbling, ‘In the Garden of Eden’.

Of course there is more to the song than its weird title. A classically trained keyboardist, Ingle needed constant reminders not to play bass with his left hand. Bass player Lee Dorman took one of those superfluous lines and simplified it to make what is arguably the most primal riff in all of rock. Though the other (surprisingly poppy) tunes on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida were recorded in Hollywood, the famed 17-minute opus was recorded on Long Island, while the band took a break from touring with Jefferson Airplane.

When they turned up at Ultra-Sonic Studios, producer Jim Hilton had not yet driven out from New York City. To save time, studio owner Bones Howe asked if there was a song they could play to set volume levels. ‘We said, “We have this really long song that we want to record and throughout it we have solos where each instrument is featured,”’ says Dorman. Perfect. Off they went with what the band assumed was a sound check. For some reason, the engineers rolled tape, and they got virtually the entire song in one take. Though Atlantic first balked at releasing the heavy epic (it had to be edited down to 2.52 for radio play), the label finally gave in and must be glad they did. The album sold 4 million copies in the US alone; until Led Zeppelin came along it was Atlantic’s top seller.