Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Lyrics
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 handIn 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
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Iron Butterfly In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. What does it mean?
Few songs in rock history are as emblematic and representative as Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. The song, strongly marked by the presence of the organ and also well known for its recognizable guitar and bass riff, is one of the great works of the genre. However, it is easy to listen to her and ask the question: What does “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” mean?
To find out, you don’t have to dig too far, although it helps to understand the context in which the song was composed. And it is that this song is practically an animal work, in which the band got carried away while recording it to the point that the entire song lasts an outrageous 17 minutes and five seconds. This, at the time, was enough to take up an entire album side.
The song comes from the album of the same name, published in 1968. It goes without saying that, at that time, there were not a few musicians who, for inspiration or simply as a way of life, experimented with alcohol and drugs, especially with the psychedelic Does this mean that the band had a vision that made them title the song like that? Did someone discover a hidden language? Is there something “mystical” in the name of this song?
No, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Sometimes a binge or a high is just that, even though drug use has been romanticized throughout history. And, contrary to popular belief, not all artists – and perhaps even most of them – are efficient under the influence of any type of narcotic substance or even drink.
The reality of this title, plain and simple, is that someone did their job while drunk. Popular legend has it, the one that is transmitted by word of mouth, that the author of the song, Doug Ingle, keyboardist and vocalist of the Iron Butterfly, was tremendously drunk and/or drugged during the recording of the demo. He was so drunk that what at first had to be sung as “In The Garden Of Eden” ended up sounding precisely like “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.
Sticking to the written sources, however, Songfacts tells us that the original title was indeed going to be “In The Garden Of Eden”, but someone, we insist, possibly drunk, misspelled the title on a copy of the song. The demo Coincidences of life, an executive of the record company that managed the band read it and thought that the title was even better than the original. It’s not hard to see why, given that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were, in that epic, experimenting with Asian music and instruments.
From a sales point of view, if the title of the song sounded more exotic and therefore could sell more, what difference did it make if it was misspelled? What at first could be a mistake ended up becoming the opposite. The drunkenness could have gotten the guy he wrote on that label a promotion!
The lyrics, on the other hand, have no mystery, since it is simply about a guy who reaffirms his love for the woman he loves.
The exotic sold, but not the length
When Doug Ingle wrote the song, he didn’t intend for it to be 17 minutes long. However, chemistry is chemistry, and once he started playing the band, that’s how long the recording lasted. However, that made the executives less amused, and they decided to cut the single, possibly so it could play on the radio. Do you know how long it was? In a ridiculous two minutes and 52 seconds. This means that literally 14 minutes of the song were cut.
Is “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” really a great song in this format? Obviously, the theme lost much of its charm, which is in the long drum or organ solos performed by the band. The old lady organist who appears in a certain episode of The Simpsons almost killed her to play the whole thing!