Who the hell DOESN'T want some Iron Butterfly?

Well, I DON'T, really, but after the damn Buckeyes just tortured ME with a wretched  performance
in which they nearly lost to NORTHERN ILLINOIS (!), I thought why not drag out these cheeseball semi-"classics"........

Iron Butterfly, of course, would be TOTALLY and COMPLETELY forgotten today, were it not for the notorious, side long "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", which I bet you haven't sat through in, what 35 years? (no cheating with the "single edit"!)......actually it's a pretty cool track in a campy sort of way, for it's time it was fairly innovative, so, thusly a TRUE period piece.....I would use a rip of my Dad's scratched up vinyl copy for ya to get the "full effect", but it really DOES sound shitty, so let's go with some crispy clean digital rips to thrill you this evening.

Actualy thier first album was the (somewhat underappreciated, actually) "Heavy",  released with a lineup of organist/vocalist Doug Engle, drummer Ron Bushey, bassist Greg Willis, and guitarist Danny Weiss......I'll bet 85% of rock fans today have never heard this, it's no classic, but again, for its time, fairly innovative, I challenge you to listen to this and not at least appreciate it if you are a fan of late 60's psych (the first two tracks "Possesion" and "Unconcious Power" are decent examples of the sound of the era)

Willis and Weiss left and were replaced by Lee Dorman and 17-year old Eric Brann, and then came "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"........at one time it was the number one selling album in the history of Atco records, or so they said, and it's, taken at face value, an inferior effort to "Heavy", IMO.......as mentioned before, the side-long title track, while VERY hard to deal with these days, was, nonethless, quite innovative at the time.......again, if you haven't heard it in many years, I challenge you to listen and not crack a smile (or even outright laugh).

That's really about it for the "real" Iron Butterfly, even though they went on and on and on and on with hundreds of members and albums and who really cares, but I do have a couple more relics of theirs, Brann (for some reason) took over lead vocal duties for the third effort "Ball", which is medicre at  best in my opinion but is still quite identifiable as Iron Butterfly......worth a listen only from a scholarly, historic, curiosity perspective.

Last  (for what I have) and certainly least is the 1970 live album, creatively titled "Live".......listed in the book "The 50 Worst Rock N Roll Albums of All Time", it's not quite THAT bad, but it's bad, and THIS side long version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" has, interestingly, never, ever been heard more than once by any human being.

OK, like I said they went on and on, but that's not something we really wish to investigate.....if this isn't enough  Iron Butterfly for ya, you either are related to Doug Engle or have distinct masochistic tendencies.

Imagine what I will drag out tomorrow evening if the Vikings torture me to the degree they did last
week, so let's ALL become Vikings fans for tomorrow!

HEAVY-01 Posession/02 Unconcious Power/03 Get Out of My Life Woman/04 Gentle As It May Seem/05 You Can't Win/06 So-Lo/07 Look For the Sun/08 Fields of Sun/09 Stamped Ideas/10 Iron Butterfly Theme

IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA-01 Most Anything You Want/02 Flowers and Beads /03 My Mirage/04 Termination/05 Are You Happy/06 In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

BALL-01 In the Time of Our Lives/02 Soul Experience/03 Lonely Boy/04 Real Fright/05 In the Crowds/06 It Must Be Love/07 Her Favorite Style/08 Filled With Fear/09 Belda-Beast

LIVE-01  In the Time of Our Lives/02 Filled With Fear/03 Soul Experience/04 You Can't Win/05 Are You Happy/06 In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Groovy, man, no?