<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Okay, I now have further proof that 1967 was a long time ago.\u00a0 When Doug Ingle passed away on May 25, 2024, I told one of the kids at school I was going to do an Iron Butterfly tribute.\u00a0 It should not have surprised me when they asked, \u201cWho?\u201d\u00a0 I went through all the reference points I could muster, \u201cYou know, <\/span>In- A -Gadda-Da-Vida?\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>I even sang the organ \/ guitar riff that drives the song (you will have to look it up – there is no way to translate the sound in print).\u00a0 I got a blank stare followed by, \u201cNope, I don\u2019t know that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Desperation led me to dig out a newer cultural touch point:\u00a0 \u201cDo you remember the <\/span>Simpsons<\/span><\/i> episode where Bart tricks the congregation into singing what Rev. Lovejoy announces as <\/span>In The Garden of Eden <\/span><\/i>by I. Ron Butterfly?\u201d\u00a0 Again, a blank stare.\u00a0 After looking up the date of said <\/span>Simpsons <\/span><\/i>episode (Season 7, Episode 4 <\/span>– Bart Sells His Soul – October 8, <\/span><\/i>1995), my student\u2019s lack of familiarity with the reference made perfect sense.\u00a0 Even my \u2018up to date cultural references\u2019 have been left behind for the younger generation.\u00a0 Enough whining about getting old – let\u2019s get on with the true purpose of this <\/span>FTV:\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>a profile of a band that is still touring, just without any original members still on this side of the sod – Iron Butterfly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Doug Ingle was the founding vocalist and organ player when the band formed in San Diego in 1966.\u00a0 Ingle was first a member of Jeri and the Jeritones and then the Palace Pages, the immediate precursor to Iron Butterfly.\u00a0 The original members of Butterfly included Jack Pinney on drums, Greg Willis on bass and Danny Weis on guitar.\u00a0 When vocalist Darryl DeLoach joined the band, his parent\u2019s garage became the site of near nightly rehearsals.\u00a0 The most notable personnel change was the addition of drummer Ron Bushy (formerly of the Voxmen) after the band relocated to Los Angeles.\u00a0 In L.A., they began making regular appearances at the Galaxy Club and the Whisky a Go Go.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Early 1968 found the band under contract to Atlantic Records and their first album, <\/span>Heavy, <\/span><\/i>was released on the Atco label on January 22, 1968.\u00a0 When the rest of the band quit, Ingle and Bushy were faced with the prospect of not having a band to tour the new record.\u00a0 They quickly recruited bassist Lee Dorman and 17 year old guitarist Eric Brann (or Braun).\u00a0 There had been interest in the guitar slot from Jeff Beck, Neil Young and Michael Monarch (who would later join Steppenwolf), but Braun got the nod.\u00a0 Some state that two of the band members (bassist Jerry Penrod and vocalist DeLoach) left the band after the new guitarist joined.\u00a0 This version says they were not comfortable with Braun\u2019s age and the amount of time it took him to learn the band\u2019s songs.\u00a0 Regardless of this popular lore, when the band was filled out again, the pieces of the band necessary to carry the <\/span>Heavy <\/span><\/i>load (pun intended) were now in place.\u00a0 Former guitarist Weiss and Penrod would later go on to found the band Rhinoceros.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I found conflicting accounts of this period so suffice to say, in the period after <\/span>Heavy<\/span><\/i> was released, the classic era of Iron Butterfly began.\u00a0 The result of this unit was their best known recorded work, the album <\/span>In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The title track had been written earlier when Ingle was in the process of putting away a gallon of red wine (and by this, I do not mean he was putting it on a shelf).\u00a0 When he played it for Bushy, the drummer scribbled the lyrics as he heard them being slurred by the now inebriated organist.\u00a0 Thus, <\/span>In The Garden Of Eden<\/span><\/i> more famously became <\/span>In-A- Gadda-Da-Vida.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>There is an urban legend that says the album length track was recorded when the studio engineer told them to keep playing as he adjusted the mics and mixing board levels.\u00a0 Supposedly the engineer recorded the whole jam and it was so good the band used this rehearsal track on the album.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Listening to the album version pretty well dispels this story as a myth.\u00a0 Jeff Beck claimed he heard the band at the Galaxy Club six months before the <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> album was released.\u00a0 Their second set that night was a 35-minute version of the song.\u00a0 In the studio (Ultrasonic in Hempstead, NY), it was pared down to \u2018only\u2019 17 minutes.\u00a0 A single that cut out the extended solos clocked in at 2:52 and became the band\u2019s only Top Forty hit (reaching No. 30) while the album climbed to No. 4 on the charts.\u00a0 The album sold a remarkable 30 million copies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have related in a previous <\/span>FTV <\/span><\/i>that there were two bands in the Marquette area performing the album\u2019s title track.\u00a0 East of Orange was arguably the most popular dance band in the area for many years and they did a spot on rendition of the album length track.\u00a0 Orange played a two band bill with the more famous Marquette band The Excels (they had put out a couple of records) when I was a sophomore in high school.\u00a0 The Orange guitarist at the time was a college kid from Detroit named Larry Kinsey whom I had jammed with the previous year.\u00a0 Larry and his bass playing roommate wanted to keep their chops up during the school year in anticipation of summer gigs back home.\u00a0 My parent\u2019s basement across the street from their dorm made it convenient for them and a wonderful learning experience for me during my freshman year.\u00a0 I was pleasantly surprised to see Larry playing with East of Orange the next fall.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0East of Orange ended their first set at the Armory with their showcase version of <\/span>Vida.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>I never played the full song with a band, but I nicked a lot of my own drum solo patterns from Butterfly\u2019s Ron Bushy and Orange\u2019s drummer (whose name I never did learn).\u00a0 Bushy had a set with more toms than the Orange drummer\u2019s kit (like mine, his was a standard four piece set) but he showed me it was possible to play Bushy\u2019s inventive solo on a much smaller kit.\u00a0 Even with the personnel changes E of O had over the years I saw them, they never did a bad version of <\/span>Vida.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Excels were riding their \u2018we have a record out\u2019 fame at that time and were the headlining band.\u00a0 They came out in fancy satin looking stage duds (think The Beatles Sgt. Pepper outfits) and sporting Beatles-like sideburns and mustaches.\u00a0 They followed Orange\u2019s twenty minute <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> by playing the 45 RPM version.\u00a0 The Excels omitted the entire solo section.\u00a0 The 45 RPM version used a four measure drum break to connect the two halves of the song.\u00a0 Do not get me wrong.\u00a0 The Excels were a great band, and they did a credible version of the 45 RPM single. I was disappointed they opened their set like that right after Orange did the full album version.\u00a0 I told my buddies, \u201cLet me on the stage, I will show the drummer how the solo goes.\u201d It was a strange decision on their part (and no, I did not storm the stage).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the wake of the album\u2019s release, IB was sent on tour in the summer of 1968 with Jefferson Airplane.\u00a0 The end of that year found them back in the studio working on their third album.\u00a0 <\/span>Ball<\/span><\/i> was released in January of 1969 and climbed to No.3 on the <\/span>Billboard Chart.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 I can still see the album cover in my brain because classmate Mylon Koski brought his copy to our Geometry class and kept raving about it.\u00a0 More touring would follow and the band was set to join the now legendary lineup at Woodstock in August of 1969, but it never happened.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Iron Butterfly found themselves stranded at NYC\u2019s LaGuardia Airport waiting for a helicopter ride to the Woodstock venue.\u00a0 Their manager sent a telegram to the festival organizers demanding the band be flown in to immediately take the stage, to immediately get paid after their set, and then to immediately be flown back to the airport.\u00a0 Woodstock production coordinator John Morris claims he sent an acrostic telegram in reply that said, \u201cFor reasons I can\u2019t go into \/ until you are here \/ clarifying your situation \/ knowing you are having problems \/ you will have to find \/ other transportation \/ unless you plan not to come.\u201d\u00a0 The meaning was clear that the band were not (immediately) welcome.\u00a0 The propriety of this family friendly newspaper will not allow me to unravel the mystery of the hidden message – that you will have to do on your own.\u00a0 Iron Butterfly was invited to Woodstock, but they got lost in the shuffle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After the band\u2019s final tour date in San Diego on December 13, 1969, Braun left the band.\u00a0 He had been unhappy for sometime.\u00a0 He wanted the band to move toward a harder rock sound.\u00a0 As his dissatisfaction grew (and in anticipation of Eric leaving), the band began secretly rehearsing with two new guitar players in September of 1969.\u00a0 Larry Reinhardt (who had played guitar in a pre-Allman Brothers band called Second Coming) and Mike Pinera would join as soon as Braun exited the band.\u00a0 Pinera\u2019s band, Blues Image, had opened for Butterfly on their last tour and are known mostly for their one-hit, <\/span>Ride, Captain Ride<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Ironically, the Pinera \/ \u2018Rhino\u2019 Reinhardt duo pushed the band in the harder rock direction Braun had wanted to see.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When my first band, The Twig, were gigging for money my senior year in high school, I talked to a guy at a frat party who had seen the Pinera\/Rhino lineup in concert.\u00a0 He mentioned Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes opened for Butterfly.\u00a0 During the headliner\u2019s set, Nuge and Pinera had a \u2018guitar battle\u2019.\u00a0 I was not familiar with the term so he explained it:\u00a0 \u201cThey would trade solos and try to outdo each other.\u00a0 By the end, they were both blasting the auditorium with feedback that was just a little painful on the ear drums.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The last time I heard anything about Mike Pinera, he was touring with the Classic Rock All-stars.\u00a0 When they performed at the Calumet Theater, the line-up included Peter Rivera on drums and vocals (Rare Earth), Jerry Corbetta on keys and vocals (Sugarloaf), and Dennis Noda on bass and vocals (Cannibal and the Headhunters).\u00a0 They were a formatable cover band, only in this case they \u2018covered\u2019 each other\u2019s hits from their previous bands.\u00a0 Pinera did <\/span>Ride, Captain Ride <\/span><\/i>(of course) and a shortened version of <\/span>Vida.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>The band\u2019s fourth LP, <\/span>Metamorphosis, <\/span><\/i>was released in August of 1970.\u00a0 The group was touring Europe with Yes in 1971 when Ingle announced he was leaving the band.\u00a0 The endless touring had worn him out and the guitar based sound of the band wasn\u2019t meeting his expectations.\u00a0 When he left, they expanded their blues and soul direction even further adding horns that made them sound more like Blood, Sweat and Tears than the original Iron Butterfly.\u00a0 Ingle stuck it out for one more tour with Black Oak Arkansas.\u00a0 When the final date wrapped in Bend, Oregon on May 23, 1971, Iron Butterfly disbanded.\u00a0 A secondary reason for the breakup was made later by Pinera – the U.S. Internal Revenue Service was dogging the group for unpaid taxes.\u00a0 Dorman and Reinhardt would then go on to found Captain Beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first inevitable reunion came about when a promoter contacted Braun who, with Bushy on board, signed a contract with MCA records.\u00a0 The rest of the band was populated with their friends and they released their first new music since 1970.\u00a0 <\/span>Scorching Beauty<\/span><\/i> was released in January of 1975 followed by <\/span>Sun and Steel <\/span><\/i>in October of the same year.\u00a0 The membership merry-go-round began to spin in earnest and if one includes the four musicians still performing under the name Iron Butterfly, some 65 musicians have been in the band.\u00a0 Up until 1999 when Ingle officially retired, there were many iterations of the band including more than a few reunions of the classic lineups from the <\/span>Heavy <\/span><\/i>to <\/span>Metamorphosis <\/span><\/i>days.\u00a0 Each of the <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> album members cycled through the band at least four or five times right up until they began to leave this mortal coil.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Guitarist Braun was the first, passing away in Los Angeles on\u00a0 July 25, 2003 at the age of 52.\u00a0 Lee Dorman had a history of heart trouble and looked pretty rough in the videos captured just prior to his death on December 21, 2012 at the age of 70.\u00a0 Dorman was preceded in death by one of Braun\u2019s replacements, \u2018Rhino\u2019 Reinhardt in January of 2012 – he was 63 years old.\u00a0 Ron Bushy had a string of his own health problems and in later years, his participation in the band became sporadic.\u00a0 Their website announced he passed away at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica on August 21, 2021.\u00a0 He was 79 when he succumbed to esophageal cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps it is only fitting that the original founder of the band, Ingle, would be the last one standing even though he was no longer active in the band\u2019s affairs when he died.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What does a famous rock musician do after his successful band goes away?\u00a0 Ingle managed a recreational vehicle park in the Los Angeles National Forest between 1974 and 1978.\u00a0 He later spent time painting houses in Washington, Oregon, and California.\u00a0 No doubt these pursuits left him available for the cycle of band reunions he took part in up to his retirement in 1999.\u00a0 Having an album like <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> still selling on the classic rock charts over the years certainly would have\u00a0 helped his revenue stream.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mike Pinera joined Butterfly after the <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> album, but the musical road he traveled after the band broke up was interesting.\u00a0 Besides his involvement in several IB reunions, he didn\u2019t let any grass grow under his feet.\u00a0 In 1972, he and Jimi Hendrix\u2019s drummer Mitch Mitchell formed a band called Ramatam.\u00a0 Next up was The New Cactus Band in 1973 and 1975\u2019s Thee Image.\u00a0 Pinera joined Alice Cooper\u2019s band and toured with him from the late 1970s into the early 1980s.\u00a0 This would explain his inclusion of <\/span>School\u2019s Out<\/span><\/i> in the Classic Rock All-Star shows.\u00a0 He also put out two solo albums, <\/span>Isla <\/span><\/i>(1977) and <\/span>Forever <\/span><\/i>(1979), both on Capricorn Records.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a founding member of the CRA, Pinera has found himself touring with the four previously mentioned members as well as Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad), Goldy McJohn (Steppenwolf), Prescott Niles (The Knack) and Albert Bouchard (Blue Oyster Cult).\u00a0 Besides Bouchard on drums, the 2019 edition of the band featured former members of War, Oingo Boingo, and The Moody Blues.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0RIP to the original <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> members of Iron Butterfly.\u00a0 During my sophomore year of high school, I was the drummer in the pit orchestra for our high school musical, <\/span>Bye Bye Birdie.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>A girl in the cast asked me if I knew the drum solo from <\/span>Vida <\/span><\/i>so I played a bit of it for her.\u00a0 At a later rehearsal, I was warming up by playing a bit of Ron Bushy\u2019s solo when the bass player came in with the guitar \/ organ rift.\u00a0 Maybe it was because the director became annoyed with us, so we made it our ritual to preface each rehearsal with this snippet of the song.\u00a0 This eventually attracted the attention of Gene Betts and Mike Kesti who started joining in even though they were not in the pit orchestra.\u00a0 When all of us conspirators got to jam at the cast party at the end of the play\u2019s run, I just had to drop in my bit of the <\/span>Vida<\/span><\/i> drum solo even though we didn\u2019t actually play the song.\u00a0 In a matter of weeks, Gene, Mike, and I were learning songs in my\u00a0 basement that we would be playing for the next two years as The Twig.\u00a0 And yes, I continued to slip a little <\/span>In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida <\/span><\/i>into every drum solo.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Exactly which I. Ron Butterfly clip were you expecting?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Okay, I now have further proof that 1967 was a long time ago.\u00a0 When Doug Ingle passed away on May 25, 2024, I told one of the kids at school I was going to do an Iron Butterfly tribute.\u00a0 It should not have surprised me when they asked, \u201cWho?\u201d\u00a0 I went through all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3239,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236\/revisions\/3239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}