Search - Iron Butterfly :: Ball

Excellent

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 10/01/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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 fact, they were Atlantic's flagship band. 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.



"

Old Guy.

OLD GUY. | 01/18/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"You know...albums like this one are a problem...I really wanted to like it more than I did when it came out...I actually heard "In the Crowds" played on the jukebox at college...the bass player was really good...drums and guitar also...the singer was a bit of unusual...I bought it though and for time warping I'm glad it's still around."

Massive hiss

David Chetkin | CA | 03/11/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those who experiment with any new digital audio resotration software, you should be able to figure out the reason they can not improve upon this recording.

It will virtually eliminate the frequencies of a bad recording in the first place.

It will pretty much wipe out the high's and the lows will be mud.

Many albums from this era were recorded poorly.

How many of you purchased the digital remasterd Disraeli Gears? Same thing. A wall of hiss, especially noticeable on Strange Brew. My vinyl sounds better.

There is nothing you can do. I purchased a German import CD of Ball many years ago and it was the same.

They could not improve on it.

Enjoy it as it is. I bet many of you still listen to vinyl with cracks and scratches like myself.

Belda Beast is timeless. Superb effort from the Iron.

Way underrated when compared to their big hit Inna Gadda.

Great song writing and top notch melodies."