10 Perfect Rock Songs That Are Ridiculously Long
9. In A Gadda Da Vida - Iron Butterfly
In the wake of the '60s revolution, the rock landscape was about to enter a prime time for riff based rock and roll. Along with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton gaining traction in Cream, we also had Jimmy Page taking his first steps into legendary territory with Led Zeppelin. If we're talking about hard rock though, In a Gadda Da Vida is the riff to end all others in its way.
While most of this song is carried by an organ, you're not really experiencing Iron Butterfly's signature hit until you've heard the extended cut from the album, which goes on for a full 17 minutes. After the initial song that everyone knows, there are an endless amount of solos that follow, trading off between a 2 minute drum solo before bringing the organ back in to an even more hazy atmosphere.
Outside of the solos though, this song is actually fairly heavy for its time, capturing the kind of death and destruction side of Flower Power rather than the peace and love that everyone was preaching at Woodstock. This might be one of the more dated tracks to appear on a list like this, but that doesn't make it bad in the slightest. Just think about it: you have a hazy song, a whole lot of crunch, and a long jam session to cap everything off at the end. For most people, this entire song may as well just be the '60s distilled into 17 minutes.