In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (song)
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- This article is about the song. For the album, see In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (album).
Image:In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.jpg "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", released in 1968, was a 17 minute rock song by Iron Butterfly, released on the album of the same name, occupying the entire second side of the album. 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 while under the influence of LSD. 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 couldn't hear correctly; he simply distorted what Doug Ingle answered when Ron asked him for the title of the song.
The song features a memorable guitar and bass riff, and repeats 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, and probably one of the most famous in rock.
Image:Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Riff.PNG
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 popular culture
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 starts into a 17-minute version of "In The Garden Of Eden" (by "I. Ron Butterfly") before Rev. Lovejoy catches onto the gag by stating, "This sounds like rock and/or roll!"; the aged organist collapses at the end of the performance.
An eight minute cut of the song was featured in the climax of Michael Mann's thriller Manhunter.
The song also appeared in an early episode of Home Improvement, as well as in the film, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
The song was covered by the Power Metal band Blind Guardian in the 2006 single release "Fly".
The song was covered by the Thrash Metal band Slayer on the soundtrack of the movie "Less than zero" and on their album "Soundtrack to the Apocalypse."
A commercial by Fidelity Investment Co. began airing in March, 2006, featuring the song.
Trivia
- "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is considered to be the song that ushered in the era of acid rock.
- "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" takes up the entire second side of its original record.
- The version edited and released as a single omits (among other things) Ron Bushy's drum solo and leaves roughly three minutes of music.
- Peaking at #4, the song spent 140 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart.
- When Doug Ingle originally wrote the song, he had not intended for it to run seventeen minutes long.
- This album was produced by Don Casale, who also produced albums by the The Four Seasons, Aretha Franklin, and others.
- The famous riff was used by the group Chase at the end of their 1971 track "Get It On".
- In the controversial video game Postal 2, the Postal Dude says "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Baby!" when taking cat nip and going in slow motion.fr:In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida