Like millions of others, I bought this album way-way-way back when, partly on the strength of the music and partly on the mystery of the title.
Did you have this album?
Did you play this album more than once?
Were you relieved when you found there was a sub 3 minute version of the title track instead of the 17+ minute opus on the album?
Or maybe to paraphrase a popular idiom, if you can remember hearing this album, you weren't really there.
Regardless of whether you thought this was a masterpiece or an indulgent prolonged jam that went too far, the facts speak for themselves. In 1968/69 it sold over 8 million copies, more than any other record in the history of recorded music to that time and received the music industry's first ever 'Platinum' album. Iron Butterfly were also the first band to fill an entire side of an LP with just one song. Even more remarkable is that this l-o-n-g track was recorded as a soundcheck filler but after the rehearsal they reckoned it was so good that another take wasn't needed.
The stories surrounding the track and album title are legendary - and sometimes confusing and contradictory. All versions rely on the fact that the song was MEANT to be called "In the Garden of Eden".
One story relates to the soundcheck recording .."According to legend, the group was so stoned when they recorded the track that they could neither pronounce the title "In the Garden of Eden" or end the track, so it rambles on for a full 17 minutes, which to some listeners sounds like eternity.
Another story states .."The title was supposed to be "In The Garden Of Eden." Someone had written "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," possibly while drunk, on a demo copy. A record company executive saw it and decided to use it as the title, since it sounded exotic and Eastern spirituality was big at the time, with The Beatles going to India and The Rolling Stones experimenting with Indian instruments.
Yet a third tells us .. "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"."
Somewhere in there I suppose is the true tale of the title, but in the end it doesn't matter too much. What resulted was a piece of history.
The band were meant to be playing at Woodstock in 1969 but were stuck at the airport in New York. They telegramed their situation, they were promised a helicopter, nothing happened and then they got a telegram back from the Woodstock promotion manager reading ..
For reasons I can't go into
Until you are here
Clarifying your situation
Knowing you are having problems
You will have to find
Other transportation
Unless you plan not to come."
The first letter of each line in the telegram made it clear that the band was not welcome.
Lee Dorman who played bass guitar and did backing vocals, left the group in 1971 and went on to form Captain Beyond. Their claim to fame is that they recorded one of my all time favourite tracks, 'Sufficiently Breathless' from the 1973 album of the same name. If you go back to last year I did a VINYL VAULT entry of Captain Beyond on 6 June 2020.
Between 1966 and 2020 there have been over 60 members of Iron Butterfly but despite still playing and touring they haven't released a studio album since 1975.
If those little orange pills you took in the 60's ever give you a flashback, dig out this album, play side 2 and taste the colours man !!
2 links to the title track
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