Rhino Handmade's bringing on the heavy-duty rock for its newest title, giving you four great, unreleased early shows from Iron Butterfly in a new two-disc set.
When the San Diego quartet took New York's Fillmore East in the spring of 1968, they had one album, Heavy, under their belts but a myriad of lineup changes that would put veteran bands to shame. At the time, the band was singer/organist Doug Ingle, drummer Ron Bushy and new guitarist and bassist Erik Braunn (all of 17 at the time) and Lee Dorman - both of whom replaced the recently-departed members Danny Weis, Jerry Penrod and second vocalist/percussionist Darryl DeLoach, who had left after recording sessions for Heavy.
The shift in personnel wasn't the only sign of things to come, though. While the sets draw heavily from Heavy's track lineup, including "Possession," "Unconscious Power" and the double set closers "So-Lo" and "Iron Butterfly Theme," the sets include songs that would be committed to tape by the new lineup for their next, smash hit of an album, including the album's eventual title track, the hard-driving jam "In-a-Gadda-de-Vida," not yet the Top 40 single that would drive sales of the forthcoming record to over 4 million domestically but not nearly lacking in intensity.
Featuring the first and second sets of both nights at The Fillmore East from the original 1/4" four-track tapes, a psychedelic black and white cover (iron-on transfers of which will be available with the first 1,000 orders) and new liner notes from Rolling Stone veteran David Fricke, this is the set to get if you're a fan of classic psychedelia. You can buy the set here and hit the jump to check out the track list.
Iron Butterfly, Filmore East 1968 (Rhino Handmade, 2011)
Disc 1: Friday, April 26, 1968
- Fields of Sun
- You Can't Win
- Unconscious Power
- Are You Happy
- So-Lo
- Iron Butterfly Theme
- Stamped Ideas
- In-a-Gadda-de-Vida
- So-Lo
- Iron Butterfly Theme
Disc 1, Tracks 1-6 from first set; Disc 1, Tracks 7-10 from second set.
Disc 2: Saturday, April 27, 1968
- Are You Happy
- Unconscious Power
- My Mirage
- So-Lo
- Iron Butterfly Theme
- Possession
- My Mirage
- Are You Happy
- Her Favorite Style
- In-a-Gadda-de-Vida
- So-Lo
- Iron Butterfly Theme
Disc 2, Tracks 1-5 from first set; Disc 2, Tracks 6-12 from second set.
All tracks previously unreleased.
Just pre-ordered this today; looking forward to giving this a listen! Would love a legit release of the "Heavy" lineup live; there's at least one show in circulation, from the Galaxy Club.
I've also pre-ordered this, but I'm a bit chagrined to see that only portions of the four recorded sets are being included. (If you believe the Rhino site, only two songs from the second sets of each night are on there; that information differs from the above set breakdown.) I'm hoping The Second Disc has it right and these are the complete concerts.
I'd also love someone to solve the mystery of the officially released Iron Butterfly Live album. The version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida on that album is clearly edited, and not very well; I wonder why, and when the entire set (or sets?) was/were recorded. That album includes three songs from Ball, as well as one from Heavy and two from In-A-Gadda, so it's definitely later than this Fillmore set. I hope that if this 1968 set sells well, Rhino will release one or more complete concerts that made up the Live album.
And speaking of Ball, will a truly remastered edition of that ever come out? The versions I have heard are low volume and no dynamic range. A crime for this criminally overlooked album (although, I'll admit, I like Metamorphosis better than Ball).
I was very fortunate to see the Butterfly in Denver with the Steve Miller Band and the Straight Records version of Alice Cooper two months before these shows. Iron Butterfly was so muscular and lyrical....and so on the top of their game then. Really looking forward to this set!