Light & Heavy: Best of

Iron Butterfly | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 19, 1993)
• Original Release Date: January 19, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B0000032YA
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,925 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Import CD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good package, but does not merit title, August 29, 2001

By 

Todd M. Pence (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Light & Heavy: Best of (Audio CD)

This collection covers everything essential from the first four Iron Butterfly LPs. Although purists may bemoan the (perhaps necessary) inclusion of the single version of "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida" instead of the 17-minute album version, this album includes just about every worthy track from that period. (Actually, the entire Iron Butterfly studio output from this period, including the seventeen-minute "Vida", could all fit on 2 CDs). I personally would have picked "Slower Than Guns" over "Easy Rider" from Metamorphosis, but hey. Rhino's packaging and track information is up to their usual standard. However, Rhino's neglect and refusal to ackowledge the two mid-seventies albums Scorching Beauty and Sun And Steel (the latter far and away the best album the band ever did) means that the collection cannot truly earn "The Best Of" moniker and must be docked points for incompleteness.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Collection, August 23, 2000

By 

JOHN SPOKUS (BALTIMORE, MARYLAND United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Light & Heavy: Best of (Audio CD)

Iron Butterfly in their classic era was not the greatest band in the heavy psych genre, but more than listenable nonetheless. Doug Ingle's cheesey organ was a cool garagey touch, much like Manzarek in The Doors; however I find myself more interested in Butterfly these days than Morrison's drunken nonsense. Butterfly always featured some cool bass playing (my instrument)as well. Here you get a good overview of the albums that matter (ie.while Ingle was still in the band)and the single version of "In A Gadda Da Vida". This collection is about the best way to experience them because some of the original albums are a little spotty.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars nostalgia at best, June 7, 2004

By 

matt tan canada (montreal, quebec, CANADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Light & Heavy: Best of (Audio CD)

i couldn't give it 5 as i am not an iron butterfly purist.
however, i must say i did enjoy this album. when the music first came out i hated it becasue i thought in a gada da vida was the most boring of all the music of that era... a listen to moby grape will tell you why. however, i was judging it as a musician at that time. today, some millions of years thereafter, lol, as a listener, i quite like it. you hear strong, if not obvious, influences
of doors and love. not so surprising since they were practically neighbours to the composer of IB.
a couple of songs were quite beatle-ish :track 8 reminds me of got to get your into my life, good day sunshine ; track 3 with a bit of daytripper. ingle, the main composer is not of the calibre of a keith emerson; pat moraz or even vangelis; least of all a rick wakeman,
but giving him credit, he is melodic and definitely not as self-indulgent. he comes from the doors and jefferson airplane school, which is not bad for that era. a nice album considering the price of this cd. goodness you couldn't get any worse;
if you have to spend the money on something that is from today's
top charts, i would suggest you better spend your hard-earned money on this cd instead. not something for rap or drum machine zombies though. sorry! this guys learned to play their instruments, not great like return to forever, mahavishnu orchestra or weather report, but much better than 99% of today's "musicians";
a good album for someone trying to learn to play a musical instrument, for sure. buy it!