Ball 1969 Album

Iron Butterfly

Here we find Iron Butterfly in an envious yet very difficult position, trying to quickly followup one of the strangest commercial successes in pop music history. Little wonder it made an immediate impact - nearly topping the charts, going Gold - then fading from view just as fast, derived by critics as a wobegone relic-before-its-time. The actual truth is a bit murkier. Ball attempts to take their staunch, street-hippie sound, and spin it off into different directions, but often it's a struggle even though there are moments where you feel like they hit the right vein. Part of the problem is their is no big drawing card like an "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". Instead, it's a coherent set of songs in varying styles. On the one hand, it shows they were looking ahead to the next stage of their development, but on the other hand, this did not meet public expectations. Regarding the material itself, the band has even dropped the hippie mindset, and fallen into a depressing funk. This works in spurts - for example, "In The Time Of Our Lives" is an epic, paranoia-stuffed classic - but wears thin as you get through the record.