Iron Butterfly Music Group

A van containing what are thought to be the remains of Thousand Oaks businessman and former Iron Butterfly bassist Philip Taylor Kramer will be hoisted out of a canyon to be studied for clues, authorities said Monday. The vehicle was discovered over the weekend in a canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was badly damaged after careening more than 400 feet off Decker Canyon Road, about 1 1/2 miles east of Pacific Coast Highway. A human skull and bones were recovered at the crash site.

Certain bands will always be identified with one definitive song: Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird." And Iron Butterfly's 17-minute opus of acid-rock, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." That dark, keyboard-heavy title song filled one side of an LP in 1968 and spent 140 weeks on the charts, selling more than 4 million copies.

In 1968, a fledgling band called Iron Butterfly released an album featuring a decidedly unorthodox acid-rock song that rambled on for 17 minutes and included a 2 1/2-minute drum solo. Executives at the band's label, Atlantic Records, cringed at the prospect of marketing an album whose title track took up the entire side of a vinyl LP and came with the tongue-twisting title "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." Efforts to persuade the San Diego-based group to edit its opus proved futile.

In-a-gadda-da-vida , honey, don't you know that I love you . In-a-gadda-da-vida , baby, don't you know that I'll always be true . --From "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida," Iron Butterfly's 1968 hit Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida" stands today as one of the classic pieces of late-'60s kitsch, evoking images of patchouli oil, love beads and liquid light shows. But in 1968 the song--all 17-plus minutes, including the renowned drum solo--was nothing short of a pop monument.

A van containing what are thought to be the remains of Thousand Oaks businessman and former Iron Butterfly bassist Philip Taylor Kramer will be hoisted out of a canyon to be studied for clues, authorities said Monday. The vehicle was discovered over the weekend in a canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was badly damaged after careening more than 400 feet off Decker Canyon Road, about 1 1/2 miles east of Pacific Coast Highway. A human skull and bones were recovered at the crash site.

Certain bands will always be identified with one definitive song: Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird." And Iron Butterfly's 17-minute opus of acid-rock, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." That dark, keyboard-heavy title song filled one side of an LP in 1968 and spent 140 weeks on the charts, selling more than 4 million copies.

In 1968, a fledgling band called Iron Butterfly released an album featuring a decidedly unorthodox acid-rock song that rambled on for 17 minutes and included a 2 1/2-minute drum solo. Executives at the band's label, Atlantic Records, cringed at the prospect of marketing an album whose title track took up the entire side of a vinyl LP and came with the tongue-twisting title "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." Efforts to persuade the San Diego-based group to edit its opus proved futile.

In-a-gadda-da-vida , honey, don't you know that I love you . In-a-gadda-da-vida , baby, don't you know that I'll always be true . --From "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida," Iron Butterfly's 1968 hit Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida" stands today as one of the classic pieces of late-'60s kitsch, evoking images of patchouli oil, love beads and liquid light shows. But in 1968 the song--all 17-plus minutes, including the renowned drum solo--was nothing short of a pop monument.