By: Brad Gallagher
Iron Butterfly’s iconic 1967 rock song. At 17 minutes and 5 seconds long, it took up the entire B side of their second album. It is said to be the second longest song in rock and roll history. Only Rush produced a longer song. But what does it mean? Is it an old Italian phrase, or maybe Latin? The album producers thought that it sounded like something from an eastern religion. After all, many rock artists, like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, were experimenting with eastern religions back in the late 60’s. But no, it is nothing like that. In fact, it is much more simple.
As The Story Goes:
Doug Ingle, the lead singer and keyboard player of Iron Butterfly wrote the song. Ingle’s father was a church organ player, which may have contributed to his use of the long drawn out organ riffs throughout the song. And, his connection with the church was most likely where he got the idea for the song in the first place. You see, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is a love song. In particular, it is love song sung by the first man, Adam, to the first woman, Eve.
In a gadda da vida, honey
Don’t you know that I’m lovin’ you
In a gadda da vida, baby
Don’t you know that I’ll always be true
Oh, won’t you come with me
And take my hand
Oh, won’t you come with me
And walk this land
Please take my hand
There are a total of 30 words in the whole song, and after composing it, Ingle played it for drummer Ron Bushy who wrote down the words that Ingle sang. Now, as the story is told, Ingle had consumed a gallon of red wine while composing the song that night. And when he played it for Bushy, he was so intoxicated that his words were almost unintelligible. It turns out that Ingle was singing “In the garden of Eden, honey”. But Bushy heard “In a gadda da vida, honey”, and that is what he wrote down.
Ingle had never intended for the song to run for 17 minutes either, but one day while the band was waiting in the studio for their producer, Jim Hilton, to arrive, they played it to pass the time. As they played the song, it turned into a regular jam session. Little did they know that their recording engineer, Don Casale, had the tape rolling the whole time. When they were done, Casale played it back for them. The recording had a few mistakes in it, but it sounded so good to the group that they decided not to do another take, and that recording is what is on the album. All 17 minutes and 5 seconds of it.
So if you have a chance, download In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, or better yet, find an original copy on vinyl and listen to it as loud is you can. If you listen carefully you might even be able pick out a few of their mistakes. And from time to time throughout the song you can even hear them talking in the background.
And come back and see me real soon here on As The Story Goes.
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AS THE STORY GOES 