Iron Butterfly: The Lost Broadcasts auf DVD

The Lost Broadcasts are a series of Audio and Visual CD/DVD sets featuring performances that have rarely been seen since the original transmission on German television, in some cases more than forty years ago. Some of the artists featured within the series are legendary and these "Lost" performances will be a fine addition to any music fans collection. The series covers a number of styles and genres however all of the performances are of a high calibre.

Iron Butterfly is an American rock band originally formed in 1966 by keyboardist Doug Ingle and drummer Ron Bushy. The band underwent a number of personnel changes around Ingle and Bushy until the band recorded the album they are most associated with in 1968. That album was In A Gadda Da Vida. The album's title coming from the song which took up one whole side of the album is a derivative of In The Garden Of Eden. The original version of the song was seventeen minutes plus and included a two minute drum solo and keyboard and guitar solos which was unheard of at the time. The album would go on to sell four million copies in America alone and worldwide it is believed the album tops twenty five million. An edited version of the title track would also become a big hit for the band on the singles chart briefly widening the bands appeal.

Iron Butterfly were considered to be an early heavy metal band although in truth the band were more a cross between the Blues and Psychedelic bands of the times. What the term heavy metal probably meant in those far off days was not the same as Heavy Metal of the seventies and eighties. In this case it was possibly meant to describe the band as being "Far Out" and heavy as in having depth and meaning.

Whilst the bands heyday was the late sixties they did enjoy reasonable success through to the early seventies until 1971 when the band split for the first time although over the years the band has re formed to varying degrees of success. The band also appeared at the concert to celebrate Atlantic Records fortieth Birthday Concert in 1988 where they were in the esteemed company of Yes, Genesis and Led Zeppelin. More recently they received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 20th Annual San Diego Music Awards.

This DVD features a session filmed in January 1971 just four months before the band split. The two songs come from the bands fourth album Metamorphosis which had been released in late 1970. The line up of the band at the time featured founder members Doug Ingle and Ron Bushy alongside newer members Mike Pinera on vocals and guitar and Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt on guitar The two songs here are Easy Rider (Let The Wind Pay the Way) and the extended track Butterfly Bleu which took up most of the second side of the album at just over fourteen minutes long. In this version the band extended it to twenty minutes. The other song from the album Easy Rider (Let The Wind Pay The Way) which at the time was an American hit single stays pretty much true to the recorded version on the album. (gonzomultimedia. co. uk)