In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
{{short description|1968 single by Iron Butterfly}}
{{about|the song|the album|In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (album)}}
{{Infobox song
| name = In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
| cover = Inagaddadavida-single.jpeg
| alt =
| caption = Cover of the 1968 German single
| type = single
| artist = Iron Butterfly
| album = In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
| B-side = Iron Butterfly Theme
| released = {{Start date|1968|06|14}} (album)
{{Start date|1968|07|31}} (single){{Cite web|url=http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Iron+Butterfly&titel=In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida&cat=s|title=Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida|first=Steffen|last=Hung|website=Hitparade.ch}}
| recorded = May 27, 1968|
| studio = Ultrasonic Studios, Hempstead, New York, U.S.
| genre = {{hlist|Acid rock{{cite book |author1=Ray Broadus Browne |author2=Pat Browne |title=The Guide to United States Popular Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3rJxPYT32MC&pg=PA431 |year=2001 |publisher=Popular Press |isbn=978-0-87972-821-2|page=431}}|progressive rock{{cite book |title=Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey|last1=Brewster |first1=Bill |last2=Broughton |first2=Frank |date=1999 |publisher=Headline Book Publishing |page=124 |isbn=978-0747275732}}|psychedelic rock{{cite book |author=Robert Dimery |title=1001 Songs: You Must Hear Before You Die |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UH_EOUR4tmkC&pg=PT1076 |date=December 5, 2011 |publisher=Octopus |isbn=978-1-84403-717-9 |page=1076}}|hard rock{{cite book |title=The Avant-garde and American Postmodernity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hv00wyBJ_e0C |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-61703-490-9 |page=177}}|occult rock{{cite book |title=Folk Horror Revival: Harvest Hymns. Volume I- Twisted Roots |page=55}}}}
| length = {{unbulleted list|{{Duration|m=17|s=5}} (album version)|{{Duration|m=2|s=52}} (single version)}}
| label = {{hlist|Atco|Atlantic}}
| writer = Doug Ingle
| producer = Jim Hilton
| prev_title = Unconscious Power
| prev_year = 1968
| next_title = Soul Experience
| next_year = 1969
| misc = {{Audio sample
| type = single
| file =
| description = "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"
}}
}}
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (derived from "In the Garden of Eden") is a song recorded by Iron Butterfly, written by band member Doug Ingle and released on their 1968 album of the same name.
At slightly over 17 minutes, it occupies the entire second side of the album. The lyrics, a love song from the biblical Adam to his mate Eve, are simple and are heard only at the beginning and the end. The middle of the song features a two-and-a-half-minute Ron Bushy drum solo.
A 2-minute-52-second 45-rpm version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was Iron Butterfly's only song to reach the top 40, reaching number 30,{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/iron-butterfly|title=Iron Butterfly|magazine=Billboard|access-date=July 6, 2020}} while the album itself reached number four on the album chart and has sold over 30 million copies.{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:{{Cite web|url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/music/gloriously-indulgent-orgy-iron-butterfly|title=Gloriously indulgent orgy from Iron Butterfly|last=Harford|first=Jeff|date=2012-10-06|website=Otago Daily Times Online News|access-date=2019-10-10}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ocregister.com/2012/12/22/iron-butterflys-lee-dorman-dies-in-laguna-niguel/|title=Iron Butterfly's Lee Dorman dies in Laguna Niguel|date=2012-12-22|website=Orange County Register|access-date=2019-10-10}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/iron-butterfly-bassist-lee-dorman-dead-at-70-57180/|title=Iron Butterfly Bassist Lee Dorman Dead at 70|last=Coleman|first=Miriam|date=2012-12-22|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=2019-10-10}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/lee-dorman-iron-butterfly-bassist-dies-at-70|title=Lee Dorman, Iron Butterfly bassist, dies at 70|date=2015-03-26|website=Associated Press|access-date=2019-10-10}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.today.com/news/iron-butterfly-bassist-dies-70-1C7704498|title=Iron Butterfly bassist dies at 70|website=TODAY.com|date=December 22, 2012 |access-date=2019-10-10}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/07/iron-butterfly-brings-metal-charts/|title=Saturday Evening Post -Iron Butterfly brings Metal to the Charts|date=2018-07-20|website=www.saturdayeveningpost.com|access-date=2020-02-26}}{{Cite web|url=https://lfpress.com/2012/12/22/iron-butterfly-bassist-lee-dorman-dead-at-70/wcm/e18a8c6d-60e7-416d-b6cc-b00ee879f4d7|title=London Free Press- Iron Butterfly Bassist Lee Dorman Dead At 70|date=2012-12-22|website=lfpress.com|access-date=2020-02-26}}}} An 8-minute-20-second edit of the song was included in the soundtrack to the 1986 film Manhunter.{{Discogs master|267523|type=album}} In 2009, it was named the 24th-greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.{{cite web |url=http://music.spreadit.org/vh1-top-100-hard-rock-songs/ |title=Vh1 Top 100 Hard Rock Songs |publisher=Spreadit.org |access-date=December 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212180319/http://music.spreadit.org/vh1-top-100-hard-rock-songs/ |archive-date=February 12, 2009}} It is also often regarded as an influence on heavy metal music and one of the firsts of the genre.{{cite book |author=Various staff of the publisher |year=2007 |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Rock Guitar Songs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SphIgOuzkcC&pg=PA86 |publisher=Alfred Publishing |isbn=978-0739046289}}{{cite book |author=William Phillips |year=2008 |title=Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaheav00phil |url-access=limited |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaheav00phil/page/n141 117] |isbn=978-0313348006}}
Background
Though it was not recorded until their second album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was written during Iron Butterfly's early days. According to drummer Ron Bushy, organist-vocalist Doug Ingle wrote the song one evening while drinking an entire gallon of Red Mountain wine. When the inebriated Ingle then played the song for Bushy, who wrote down the lyrics for him, he was slurring his words so badly that what was supposed to be "in the Garden of Eden" was interpreted by Bushy as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".{{Cite AV media notes |title=Iron Butterfly: Live at the Galaxy 1967 |year=2014 |author=Dave Thompson |author-link=Dave Thompson (author) |type=Liner notes |publisher=Purple Pyramid Records}}{{cite web |url=http://www.catalogs.com/info/bestof/top-10-drum-solos-of-all-time |title=Top 10 Drum Solos of All Time |website=Catalogs.com |date=October 24, 2011 |access-date=June 6, 2017}}
Even though nearly all of Iron Butterfly's songs were quite structured, the idea of turning the minute-and-a-half-long ballad into an extended jam emerged very early on. Jeff Beck claims that when he saw Iron Butterfly perform at the Galaxy Club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in April 1967, half a year before the band recorded their first album, their entire second set consisted of a 35-minute-long version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. The track was recorded at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, New York.{{cite web |last1=Thorp |first1=Harrison |title=Meet Don Casale, the man behind the sound of superhit 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' |url=https://www.therochestervoice.com/meet-don-casale-the-man-behind-the-sound-of-superhit-in-a-gadda-da-vida--cms-14682 |website=The Lebanon Voice |access-date=2 October 2021 |date=26 July 2020}}
=Musical references=
The song contains a musical quotation of the Christmas hymn "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", included by Ingle because he "wanted to touch the spiritual." The song's structure and drum solo refer to the Congolese Christian Missa Luba, which Erik Brann introduced to the group.{{cite web |first=John |last=Robinson |date=November 5, 2014 |title=I answer your rock questions, Part VII |work=99.1 WFMK |url=https://99wfmk.com/ironbutt/ }}
Reception
Cash Box said that it was an "eerie blues work with a pounding rhythm backing and hypnotic chord structures".{{cite magazine |title=CashBox Record Reviews |date=August 17, 1968 |page=18 |access-date=2022-01-12 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/60s/1968/CB-1968-08-17.pdf |magazine=Cash Box}}
Track listing
;1968 single
- A. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – 2:52
- B. Iron Butterfly Theme – 3:24
;1971 single
- A. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Part 1) – 4:14
- B. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Part 2) – 3:53
;1979 reissue
- A. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – 3:10
- B. Easy Rider – 3:06
Charts
Other versions
The Incredible Bongo Band covered the song in 1973.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/bongo-rock-mw0000448570|title=Bongo Rock - Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo |website=AllMusic}} The composer and percussionist David Van Tieghem released a version and two remixes in 1986.{{cite web |url=http://www.vantieghem.com/discography |title= Discography |website= vantieghem.com |access-date=April 12, 2018}} 16 BIT (a German dance project from 1986 to 1989 by Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti) recorded in 1987 a single "(Ina) Gadda-Da-Vida",{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/16-Bit-Featuring-Eddie-Hind-Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida/master/84669|title=16 Bit Featuring Eddie Hind - (Ina) Gadda-Da-Vida | Releases|website=Discogs}} also included in album Inaxycvgtgb.{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/16-Bit-Inaxycvgtgb/release/23219|title=16 Bit – Inaxycvgtgb|website=Discogs}} New Jersey psychedelic band 6 Feet Under recorded a version in the late 1960s.{{cite web |url=http://psychedelicized.com/playlist/other/6-feet-under/ |title='6 Feet Under' at Psychedelicized.com |access-date=May 17, 2017}}
In 1987, Slayer recorded a cover version that appears on the Less than Zero soundtrack. Rapper Nas sampled the Incredible Bongo Band's cover version of the song on his singles "Thief's Theme" and "Hip Hop Is Dead".
In popular culture
- Ron Bushy's drum solo was the inspiration for Ringo Starr's drum solo on "The End" from the Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles.{{sfn|Womack|2014|pp=258, 259}}{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=361}}
- The song is prominently featured in the finale of the 1986 film Manhunter, in which serial killer Francis Dolarhyde plays the song (via an 8-track tape of its parent album) throughout the shootout.{{cite journal|last=Mottram |first=James |date=March 2011 |title=Manhunter |journal=Total Film |issue=177 |pages=112–116 |editor1-first=Day |editor1-last=Aubrey}}
- The song is featured in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, "Bart Sells His Soul". Bart Simpson tricks the congregants of a Sunday mass at the First Church of Springfield into singing the song as an opening hymn titled "In the Garden of Eden" by "I. Ron Butterfly". Reverend Lovejoy describes the "hymn" as "sound[ing] like rock and/or roll" and punishes Bart for the prank by making him clean out the organ pipes, which he has "befouled with [his] popular music". Homer recalls a time when he and Marge "used to make out to this 'hymn'". The church organist, Gertie, an elderly woman, collapses after finishing the seventeen-minute long song.{{cite news |author=Laurel Randolph |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/08/cooking-the-simpsons-million-dollar-birthday-fries.html |title=Cooking The Simpsons: Million Dollar Birthday Fries |work=Paste Magazine |date=August 17, 2016 |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826231114/https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/08/cooking-the-simpsons-million-dollar-birthday-fries.html |url-status=dead }}
See also
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book
| last=MacDonald
| first=Ian
| year=2005
| author-link=Ian MacDonald
| title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties
| publisher=Pimlico (Rand)
| location=London
| edition=Second Revised
| isbn=1-84413-828-3
}}
- {{cite book|last= Womack |first= Kenneth | author-link = Kenneth Womack | year= 2014 |title=The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn= 978-0-313-39171-2 }}
{{Iron Butterfly}}
{{Adam and Eve}}
{{authority control}}