Live - IRON BUTTERFLY***

In The Time Of Our Lives/Filled With Fear/Soul Experience/You Can't Win/Are You Happy/In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

The sole live release from heavy rock pioneers Iron Butterfly. Unfortunately, but alas predictably, it includes their best known song, the highly self indulgent In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. (US:20)

"Some of these tracks, namely their signature tune, suffer from the live treatment, while others benefit. Liking the studio version of IGDV as much as I do, it's really tough to get my head in a place that can appreciate this unnecessarily sped up live version. You Can't Win is one that sounds better here. Overall, the prevailing sound on this is hard rock, as you would probably expect."

"The classic Iron Butterfly Live from 1970 is an acid trip through the worst nightmares of the 60s, which starts with the sordid notes of In The Time Of Our Lives, baroquely driven by the terrifying Doug Ingle's organ and his Bela Lugosi-esque vocals, segueing into a gorgeous version of Filled With Fear."

"It’s the live version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida that’s the shining star on this live album. Compared to the studio version, they play it a little faster, the bass line is both further up in the mix and more buzzy, the audience reaction/participation is not too obtrusive, and the drum solo is better."

"At this point, after the success of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album the band must have been on a high and with good reason - not many bands have released a song that is almost twenty minutes long let alone have a huge hit with it. It is done here in all its glory and with some added confidence, oozing psychedelic insanity with its driving, droning, hypnotic riff and stoned lyrics."

"This could have been a terrific album, especially since Iron Butterfly were not the type of band to excessively enhance their sound in the studio. It starts out well enough, with primal versions of In The Time Of Our Lives and Filled With Fear from the then recent Ball, and the jangly anti-war anthem You Can't Win from their oft-neglected debut album. But then, the albatross. Yes, it would be the definition of cheating the audience to go to an Iron Butterfly concert in 1969-70 and not hear In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida in its full-blown glory. But putting it on the back of the resulting album means that well over thirty minutes of album space was devoted to this track alone. If it were appreciably different from the studio rendition, including it here might have some merit, but it's not."