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The first time I heard In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was on Mardi Gras day in 1970. A guy visiting from California brought the record to our fraternity rental in the French Quarter. We thought it was cool. In 1970 we thought anything from out of town was cool. The song had been out more than a year, but most of us hadn’t heard it. Information was not as ubiquitous then as it is now; its flow was not as fast. We had one only rock station in New Orleans. Television ignored things like Woodstock until there was trouble. The internet didn’t exist.

The last time I heard In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was yesterday, on TV, in a commercial. I think it is for Fidelity Investments. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing the soundtrack of my youth in commercials. I have nothing against commercials; I make them for a living. But I HATE hearing Led Zeppelin in Cadillac commercials.

I love the internet. As I began to write this post, it occurred to me I didn’t know how to spell In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Google corrected my misspelling and found 425,000 links to information relating to the song, all in less than two seconds. The only thing more Star Trekian would be retrieving the information by voice command instead of keyboard. “Computer, spell In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”

One of the 425,000 links provided several pieces of information I did not know: 1) the album sold 8 million copies in its first year, outgrowing the “Gold Album” standard of one million and thus receiving the first-ever “Platinum Album” designation; 2) it stayed on the charts for nearly three years, with 81 weeks of that in the Top Ten; and 3) to date, it has sold more than 30 million copies. Oh, and the group has a website … http://www.ironbutterfly.com

Iron Butterfly is still around, by the way. Ron Bushy, the drummer that did that incredible solo, seems to be the only original member. According to one web site he was born in Washington DC on December 23, 1945, making him 7 days older than boomer #1. Other current members have played with other bands from the era. They still tour. Boomers who won’t retire … right on!