Written for Song Lyric Sunday –
“Talented with Potential, but Didn’t Pan Out”.
Here’s where the theme took me.
Tag: Psychedelic Rock
Captain Beyond
Written for Song Lyric Sunday.
Here’s how the theme inspired me.
That’s Entertainment – Letter P
Welcome back to “That’s Entertainment!” –
The A To Z Challenge.
I hope you enjoy my musical selections.
Let’s see what’s up today!
Re-mem-mem, re-mem-mem-mem-ber?
This week in Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday post
entitled ‘Brush With Fame’ he has asked us to
write about a song from a forgotten band.
Written for Song Lyric Sunday, here’s my choice.
Eric, Jimmy & Jeff, Oh My!
This is Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag – Week 49 and we are
asked to choose a song by a group or solo artist whose
name begins with the letters X, Y or Z. This is my choice.
ROAD HOGS
This is Week 44 of Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag and we are
being asked to choose a song by a group or solo artist whose
name begins with the letters S or T. This is my choice.
The Iron Age
Written for Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag week #21 where we are asked to write
about a song by a group or solo singer beginning with the letter I or J.
There was a lot was happening in music in May of 1968 with people making headline news. Gary Puckett and the Union Gap came out with “Young Girl”. Janis Joplin went solo. The Throggs released “Love Is All Around” in the US. Jane Asher reported on a live TV interview that she was breaking up with her boyfriend, Paul McCartney. Hugh Masekela was at #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Grazing In The Grass” and Cream started a four-week run at #1 on the album chart with Wheels On Fire.
A little further down the listings, the second album from a heavy-and-hard-rocking band out of San Diego, California entered the album chart for the first time – with a bullet at #117! Ok, not the highest of chart debuts, I admit, but some would say this now-legendary set of tunes became the first heavy metal album to hit the charts and opened the floodgates for many a longhaired, guitar-wielding group to blast us with some serious riffs and overlong guitar solos.
The band was Iron Butterfly and the album was called “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, baby.
The track was recorded on May 27, 1968 at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. The story goes that the recording which is heard on the album was meant to be a soundcheck for the engineer. However, the engineer had rolled the tape and when the rehearsal was completed, it was agreed that the performance was of sufficient quality that another take was not needed.
According to legend, the group members were so stoned when they recorded the track that they could neither pronounce the title “In the Garden of Eden” nor end the track, so it ended up filling the whole side of the album, coming in at a full 17 minutes of psychedelic rock.
However, another side of the recording story says that the drummer was listening to the track through headphones and could not clearly distinguish what the vocalist was singing. He wrote down the name according to what he heard and in the end they went with “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.
I don’t know about you but I think the first explanation is much more interesting .… and plausible! Well, either way, it didn’t matter. The album that contained the 17-minute title track went on to sell over four million copies in the US alone, with another one million shipped abroad. Not bad for a stoned jam in the afternoon.
The 2-minute, 52 second 45-rpm version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” was Iron Butterfly’s only song to hit the top 40, reaching #30. The original “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” album has the distinction of being the first album to go Platinum in the US, when the Platinum Award was instituted in 1976. In 2009 the song was named the 24th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.
Here is Iron Butterfly with ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.
Big thanks to Glyn for hosting Mixed Music Bag every week.
Thanks for joining me today and spinning more tunes.
See you on the flip side. 😎
NAR©2024
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.
IN THE GROOVE (April 11, 2023)
Do you remember when I told you last week that we’d be going on a trip today? And do you remember when I used that old phrase “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!”? Well, there’s a whole lot of tripping going on here and they were definitely smoking!
“Purple Haze”. Yeah, baby! The name alone sounds trippy. This is the music I cut my teeth on.
There can’t be anyone reading this who hasn’t heard of Jimi Hendrix. Written in 1967 by Jimi, “Purple Haze” showcases his extraordinary talent and inventive guitar playing. Listeners interpret the song as referring to a psychedelic experience; Hendrix described it as a love song. Hmm, interesting.
Regardless of what people may think of this type of music, nothing can change the fact that “Purple Haze” launched not one but two revolutions: late-sixties psychedelia and the unprecedented genius of Jimi Hendrix. “Purple Haze” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and has been called one of the greatest guitar songs of all time.
You decide. Here is the Jimi Hendrix Experience and “Purple Haze”.
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!
Far out, man! His guitar fingering was amazing!
Ok, here’s the question of the day:
Jimi Hendrix is a member of an exclusive and extremely unique club. What is the name of that infamous club?
The answer will be given next week.
As a reminder, here’s the question from last week.
Can you name the doo-wop group who had a hit revival of “You Belong to Me” in 1962?
A few of you got it right (you know who you are)! And the answer is … The Duprees.
Well, whaddaya say we score some snacks and meet At The Movies on Thursday? And don’t forget to check out Deb’s “trippy” post tomorrow!
‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky!
See you on the flip side.
I’m The Sicilian Storyteller
NAR © 2023
The Elephant's Trunk 