Iron Butterfly

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  I'm Bill Price, and in this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, we’ll look back at the history of Iron Butterfly, one of the psychedelic bands of the late 1960's.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

In this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, we’ll look back at the history of The Iron
Butterfly, one of the psychedelic bands of the late 1960's.

The Iron Butterfly was formed in San Diego, California in 1966. The group’s original
lineup consisted of Doug Ingle, Jack Pinney, Greg Willis and Danny Weis. Soon Darryl DeLoach also joined the band. When the group moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1966, Jerry Penrod replaced Greg Willis. Then Jack Pinney left the band in order to return to school, he was replaced by Bruce Morse. Then after Morse left the group due to a family emergency, he was replaced by Ron Bushy.

The band first appeared at the Bido Lito’s club in Hollywood, later they regularly
performed at the Galaxy Club and then at the Whisky a Go Go. After signing with the Atco Records label in 1968, their debut album titled “Heavy” was released. However by mid 1967, after the album had been completed, most of the band members had left, except for Ingle and Bushy. The two band members then faced the possibility of the album not getting released. Replacements were quickly found which included Lee Dorman and Erik Brann. Interestingly, Jeff Beck, Neil Young and Michael Monarch had expressed an interest in joining the band as Weis’ replacement. All three would go on to successful careers. Monarch would later join Steppenwolf. Penrod and DeLoach became frustrated with the 17 year old Eric Brann and the amount of time it took Eric to learn the bands’ songs. So, they both left the band. Again replacements followed. 

With a new lineup The Iron Butterfly released their second album in 1968, titled “In A Gadda Da Vida”. The album’s title track, which ran for 17 minutes, was edited down to 2 minutes and 52 seconds so that it could be played on the radio. At the time it was standard practice for radio stations not play records that ran more then three minutes. After it’s release, the single went on to become a top 30 hit. The single’s B-side was the instrumental “The Iron Butterfly Theme”. In December 1968, the album was awarded a gold disk by the RIIA and remained on the Billboard
charts for 140 weeks and sold over 30 million copies.

Here is a sample of “The Iron Butterfly Theme”.

“In A Gadda Da Vida” has an interesting story. While drinking a whole gallon of red wine, Ingle wrote the song. After becoming intoxicated, he auditioned the song for Bushy, who wrote down the lyrics. However since Ingle was slurring the words due to the wine, what Bushy heard was “In A Gadda Da Vida” instead of “In the Garden of Eden”.

In the summer of 1968 the band performed in their first national US tour along with The Jefferson Airplane. At the end of 1968 they recorded the next album titled “Ball”, which was released in 1969 and reached the number 3 position on the Billboard charts. In August the band was scheduled to perform at Woodstock, but due to a delay at the LaGuardia Airport in New York, The Iron Butterfly did not appear at the music festival.

After a performance in San Diego, in December 1969, Erik Brann left the band. He
became frustrated with the group’s refusal to adopt a more hard rock sound. The new band lineup added Mike Pinera and Larry Reinhardt. In August 1970, the next album release was titled “Metamorphosis”, which reached the Billboard top 20. While touring in Europe in early 1971, Ingle had become tired of constant touring and the direction the band was taking, and announced his intention to leave the band.

The remaining members recorded a single titled “Silly Sally”, which failed to make it in to the charts. It was to be their final recording. A final US tour performance was held at the Central Oregon Community College in Bend, Oregon on May 1971.

In 1974, a promoter contacted Brann about reforming The Iron Butterfly. Brann reunited with Bushy and added Philip Kramer and Howard Reitzes to the band’s lineup. The new group was then signed to MCA Records, with the first album release in January 1975 titled “Scorching Beauty”. After the album’s release, Bill DeMartines replaced Reitzes. The band then toured for the remainder of the year and in October 1975 released the album titled “Sun and Steel”. Unfortunately both albums failed to generate any significant sales. By 1977 poor management and only playing in small venues caused the band to wind down. There was a new group formed called Magic by Bushy, Kramer and DeMartines, while Dorman assembled a new Iron Butterfly lineup consisting of Jimi Henderson, Larry Kiernan, David Love and Kevin Karamitos. They toured primarily in the southern US and by late 1978 the group’s members included Dorman, Karamitos, Pinera and John Leimseider. 

For the remainder of the late 1970's and beyond, the band was in a constant state of flux, and a revolving number of band members. In the fall of 1978, Ingle and Pinera was offered an opportunity to tour in Germany. The band’s lineup consisted of Ingle, Pinera, Rhino, Dorman and Bushy. However just before departing for Germany, Dorman’s father became ill. Keith Ellis was recruited to fill in for Dorman in case he had to return to the US. Ironically during the tour, Ellis died in Germany on December 12th, 1978.

After the tour, the group performed in the US for a few shows and then the members went their separate ways. In the 1980's and 1990's, the band made several appearances under various member lineups. In 1999, Ingle retired from performing. In 2003 Erik Brann died on July 25th and Darryl DeLoach who was the original vocalist died on October 3rd. 

In September 2010 The Iron Butterfly received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 20th Annual San Diego Music Awards. Founding members Larry Reinhardt died on January 2nd, 2012 and Lee Dorman died on December 21st. The last surviving member, Doug Ingle died on May 24th, 2024.

On May 25th, 1968, The Iron Butterfly performed at the Swing Auditorium in San
Bernardino, California, as one of the supporting acts for the The Jefferson Airplane. After The Rolling Stones’ first US concert at the Swing Auditorium in 1964, it became a popular venue for rock groups up until the early 1980's. Be sure to check out the Swing Auditorium podcast for the history of the venue.

We will conclude with The Iron Butterfly’s “In A Gadda Da Vida”.

This has been a look back at the story behind one of the psychedelic bands of the late 1960's, The Iron Butterfly.