Iron Butterfly Playing a 50's Burst? Full Concert - Live at Danish TV - 1971

[marshall1987]

If I didn't know any better, I'd say the Iron Butterfly guitarist stage left is playing a 50's burst in this You Tube video. I never would have imagined this from the Iron Butterfly.

They were an American psychedelic rock band best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", providing a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of hard rock music.

Iron Butterfly - Full Concert - Live at Danish TV - 1971 - Remastered

At 24:41 mm:ss there is a real good front on shot of the Les Paul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXF1MdH8u1I


Disregard if previously posted. Thanks.

 

[brandtkronholm]

If the Les Paul in the video is a 'Burst, then it could be identified by the modifications done to the top.

Also note the long guard on the ES with block inlays. I think it's a re-necked 345; I see a varitone switch.

 

[marshall1987]

If the Les Paul in the video is a 'Burst, then it could be identified by the modifications done to the top.

Also note the long guard on the ES with block inlays. I think it's a re-necked 345; I see a varitone switch.

It's a switch of some kind, but whether it's a varitone is open to conjecture. It clearly doesn't have the trim ring around the switch. I think it's a 335 with custom wiring. Take a look at it around 53:05. That might make more sense. Love the white "smiley" replacement treble knob on his guitar!

The Les Paul has an odd set of unused bushings set further back in the top. Maybe someone dicked up a Bigsby conversion and it was subsequently corrected. Definitely appears to be a burst in my judgement. Take a look at the oblique view starting at 50:47.

Both guitars show evidence of having been worked on or modified. I'm hearing some stereo imaging in my headphones. The audio quality is top notch too.

They do a bang up performance of In-A-Gadda. Listen with stereo headphones! This number is just dripping with soul!

Look for the "Easter Egg" in the crowd shot towards the end.....hmm....what's that I see?

 

[rbig80]

I love this video, I have watched it many times. This is a great version of the band with Mike Pinera and Rhino. I have wondered about that Les Paul also. In an interview, Rhino said he had a 57 Les Paul in Iron Butterfly.

 

[DANELECTRO]

I don't know if this is the same video that was originally posted in this thread, but its the first time I've seen it anyway. Larry Reinhardt is definitely playing a 1950's Les Paul (burst or a refined Goldtop). Closeups appear around the 6:10 and 16:20. At 16:50 you can see a screw hole from a Bigsby. At 17:00 there are a couple of symmetrical spots visible between the stopbar and the end of the guitar and when he turns they appear to be screw heads, so maybe those would be marks that would help to identify the guitar, although I don't recall seeing any such thing in the serial log.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

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Larry Reinhardt wasn't the original guitarist and didn't play on the recorded version. He joined later after a stint in The Second Coming (with Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, and Reese Wynans). Reinhardt’s guitars included a ’57 Gibson Les Paul gold-top, a ’57 Fender Stratocaster, and a ’50s Gibson TV model.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was Atlantic Records' largest selling album until Led Zeppelin's debut.

The record was on the charts for 140 weeks, and stayed in the Top 10 for 81 weeks. The 17 minute song song was the longest recorded track up to that time, and it was recorded in one take. Iron Butterfly were the first band to receive an RIAA platinum award BTW.

 

[bluesky636]

Here's the performance from 1968 with the original band members: Doug Ingle, Ron Bushy, Lee Dorman, and Eric Brann.

Love the psychodelic "special effects". Don't know why anyone is surprised that the later group guitarist would be playing a Burst. After all, it was just an old, used guitar in 1971.

Iron Butterfly were in my top four favorite bands in 1968 along with Steppenwolf, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix. I still remember hearing In-A-Gada-Da-Vida for the first time through a real stereo system (instead of my plastic portable) in a high school friend's tiny bedroom: Marantz receiver (back when Saul Marantz ran the company), Dual 1209 turntable with Shure V15 cartridge, and first generation Bose 901 speakers. It was truly epic. My friend was a drummer in our high school band and he gave a running analysis of the drum solo. Oh to be 14 years old again (70 years old now). Still have the album on CD. Might have to listen to it again later today.

 

[garywright]

a friend of mine had two copies of that album ..one on his upstairs stereo and one on his basement stereo ..needless to say he was a huge fan ..I loved that entire album ..flowers and beads..possession..and inagadda ..particularly the very end of the drum solo when the organ softly blends in

 

[57gold]

I don't remember Iron Butterfly as having 2 guitarists. One of my first albums, think I got it Christmas 1969, drove my WWII veteran Dad mad playing it incessantly, "what's with all the bongos?"

Guitarist I remember hearing about was a young kid, I was 12 and he was 17 when he recorded it, a guy named Erik Brann. Thought I saw him with a Moseley guitar. AN olde neighbor had one and his brother a Farfisa organ. Found the Moseley strange, 0 fret, kind of heavy, awkward design, tiny frets, plinky sounding through the kids' BF Bassman amp that they played organ and guitar through.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

I don't remember Iron Butterfly as having 2 guitarists. One of my first albums, think I got it Christmas 1969, drove my WWII veteran Dad mad playing it incessantly, "what's with all the bongos?"

Guitarist I remember hearing about was a young kid, I was 12 and he was 17 when he recorded it, a guy named Erik Brann. Thought I saw him with a Moseley guitar. AN olde neighbor had one and his brother a Farfisa organ. Found the Moseley strange, 0 fret, kind of heavy, awkward design, tiny frets, plinky sounding through the kids' BF Bassman amp that they played organ and guitar through.

Yes, he played a Mosrite while he was the sole guitarist in the group (and he wasn't the original guitar player, either, BTW).

Erik left the band in December, 1969. He was supposedly frustrated with his band-mates, who were likewise disappointed in his musicianship.

He was replaced by two guitarists; Mike Pinera (whose group Blues Image had opened for Iron Butterfly on their 'Vida' tour) and Larry Reinhardt (from the Second Coming).

Pinera and "Rhino" Reinhardt had already been rehearsing with the band since September that year after Brann made himself unpopular with the rest of the group.

Iron Butterfly, like many groups of the era, had a high turnover rate throughout their existence.

 

[Xpensive Wino]

Here's the performance from 1968 with the original band members: Doug Ingle, Ron Bushy, Lee Dorman, and Eric Brann.

The original members were Doug Ingle, Jack Pinney, Greg Willis, and Danny Weis. Darryl DeLoach joined soon after. Jerry Penrod replaced Willis after the band moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1966. Pinney left to return to school. Bruce Morse then replaced Pinney until Ron Bushy joined when Morse left.

Everyone except Ingle and Bushy quit after recording Iron Butterfly's first album in the late summer of 1967. Lee Dorman and Erik Brann joined and were on the second LP, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.

Despite the success of the title track, the band went through several more personnel changes until they eventually abandoned the franchise in 1971.

Various motley iterations followed in later years involving dozens of musicians, and the enterprise became a parody of itself eventually. The last surviving "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" member died earlier this year.