In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
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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 organ and guitar solos, which are interrupted in the middle by an extended drum solo, one of the first such solos on a rock record.
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In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida riff
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 1970s 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 1995 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. The song is also played during the climax of Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon, and the scene and music were faithfully transferred to the film adaptations Manhunter (1986) and Red Dragon (2002).
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-Vidafr:In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida