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Iron Butterfly - Ball Audio CD

A fair review of the Iron Butterfly "Ball" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Iron Butterfly reviews here, or go back to the Iron Butterfly tabs.

Iron Butterfly Band: Iron Butterfly
Title: Ball
Rating:
Release Date: 1999-11-16
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: In the Times of Our Lives 2: Soul Experience 3: Lonely Boy 4: Real Fright 5: In the Crowds 6: It Must Be Love 7: Her Favorite Style 8: Filled With Fear 9: Belda-Beast 10: I Can't Help But Deceive You, Little Girl [*] 11: To Be Alone

Excellent
In fact, they were Atlantic's flagship band. It now may be hard to fathom, but when Led Zeppelin toured the states in early 1969, Iron Butterfly were the bigger act when both were on the bill. In-A-Gadda-Di-Vida came out the year before, 1968. and the title track was the first real FM radio staple. No Zeppilin, no Yes, no King Crimson, no such thing as progressive rock. Want to hear prog? Iron Butterfly' only realy competetors was Hendrix, maybe Vanilla Fudge.

Curious, then, that when they released Ball as a follow up, Iron Butterfuly stuck to conventional rock songs. "In The Time Of Our Lives," "Lonley Boy," and "Real Fright" may have had varied styles among them, but they never strayed far from conventional or what was then called "heavy" rock.

In sum, this album is a nice listen, and not just a period piece. All the songs are well written. Doug Ingle had a booming voice if not a great range, and even the fuzz guitar holds up--well, reasonably-- today, even though you can tell it is straight out of 1969.

The problem for Butterfly was, rock was getting both more progressive and heavy by the month in 1969. This band could be king of the roust when "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was slicing Gary Pucket and Frankie Vallie to ribons in 1968. But now, Ball was competing with Led Zeppelin II and Court Of The Crimson King. Both these bands also had better writting and understood how to create extended pieces. Fuzz rock was kid's stuff next to Page and Fripps brutal and complex attacks. By the time Ball bounced, rock had passed this band by.

But it is still a great album for the songs. Had it come out a year earlier, or if Butterfly had written a proper prog piece and goosed the distortion, more of today's metal singers might be derivative of Doug Ingle and not Robert Plant.

.


keepin' the ball rollin'
When I think about psychedelic sounds, I believe some of the tracks on THIS album are the ultimate example of that. I'm really surprised more people aren't aware of Iron Butterfly's Ball.

Yes, it's true some of the songs sound a bit dated, but who cares? No one seems to care that Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn is stuck in the late 60's, so the same shouldn't be a problem with this Iron Butterfly album.

Not only does the album contain psychedelic pop songs similar to the stuff from side one of the previous Iron Butterfly album (you know, the popular album) but there's also a few songs that sound VERY different from anything I've ever heard before, such as "In the Time of Our Lives". I have NEVER heard a vocal melody like that combined with a strange atmosphere from a late 60's song. Talk about standing apart from everything else around that period in time.

"Real Fright" reminds me of those old Castlevania video games, or Dracula himself for that matter. In fact, the lead singer frequently reminds me of Dracula's voice, haha. Don't ask me why!

"Lonely Boy" makes me think the band must have been influenced by the likes of the Righteous Brothers, and two songs in particular that capture the psychedelic style so well would be "Soul Experience" and the closer, the 6 minute "Belda-Beast". Now THOSE are two incredibly cool songs.

I highly recommend this album to fans of hard rock, blues rock, space rock, and especially psychedelic rock.


What??
I saw these guys in late '68-maybe'69---all I remember is the drummer vomited,I got a headache and then I went home. Does anybody really remember these guys? "In-A-Gadda-" was the ultimate FM thud-rock psuedo-heavy stoopid song. There are much better examples of this type of music. Vanilla Fudge anyone??? .


Iron Butterfly "Ball"
Talsma is a bona fide know-nothing. I also agree that Mr. To say that Iron Butterfly "never broke true" (did he mean "never broke through"?)is a total joke. My God, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, and although "Ball" didn't sell the numbers it's predecessor did, it clearly shows IB expanding their sound, growing and venturing into new musical ideas. The album has it's weaker moments, but there are killers too, like "In The Time Of Our Lives" and "Soul Experience. " I saw and heard Butterfly play some of this album live at the Fillmore East in NYC and they did the material well. All in all, not my favorite Butterfly effort, but a very good one.


what?
Talsma" before me quite clearly is not. For somebody who tries to sound smart, this "J. Metamorphosis, with the exceptions of "Shady Lady" and "Stone Believer", is in no way near as good as Ball. Likewise, Ball is just about as good as its two predecessors. Even with a change of line-up the band produced beautiful music of great quality, so do not be fooled by a bogus review.


You can see a complete list of all Iron Butterfly discography, or go back to the Iron Butterfly tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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