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In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

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This article is about the song. For the album, see In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (album).
The album cover of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.

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's 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.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida riff

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 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, in Criminal Minds at the beginning of the episode "The Tribe," and in the movie Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
  • The song was covered by the power metal band Blind Guardian for 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.
  • In the controversial video game Postal², the Postal Dude says "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Baby!" when taking catnip and going in slow motion.
  • The Smashing Pumpkins played the song's riff as a tease before random songs during almost every single show of their 1996 promo tour.
  • In an episode of That '70s Show, Hyde and Fez listen to the song.
  • The guitar riff was played in a van on the show Mission Hill in the episode "Big Brother's Boner."
  • The guitar riff is played by American comedian Wayne Federman on his electric ukulele as part of a hard rock medley.
  • The opening sequence of the Supernatural episode "Skin" features the song's famous riff and some of the lyrics.
  • The famous riff was used by the group Chase at the end of their 1971 track "Get It On."
  • The song is mentioned in an episode of Baywatch Hawaii.
  • In Nas' 2004 song titled "Thief's Theme", there is an interpolation of the guitar riff.

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. Ironically, Bushy's solo is not as long as people think; it only runs about 6 1/2 minutes, from the 6:30 mark to a little past 13 minutes. Then the band returns to the song's main riff.
  • Peaking at #4, the album 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.
  • One of the reasons why the song became so popular is because it was played on the radio frequently. Disc jockeys loved playing this song because while it was playing on the radio, they could then take a 15-minute break.
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