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Iron Butterfly Bassist Lee Dorman Dead at 70

First joined the band on hit album 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'

December 22, 2012 11:32 AM ET
Bassist, Lee Dorman, Iron Butterfly, performs, Fillmore East, February 1st, 1969, New York, rip, obituary
Bassist Lee Dorman of "Iron Butterfly" performs onstage at the Fillmore East on February 1st, 1969 in New York City.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Lee Dorman, bassist for Iron Butterfly, died on Friday at the age of 70, the Associated Press reports. According to a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, Dorman was found dead in a vehicle on Friday morning and may have been on his way to a doctor's appointment.

Dorman was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1942. He joined the Southern California-based Iron Butterfly for its second and best-known album, In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, which was released in 1968. The 17-minute title track helped the album sell more than 30 million copies, and a three-minute version of the song became a Top 40 hit.

2012 In Memoriam: Musicians We Lost

During Iron Butterfly's temporary break-up in the 1970s, Dorman and guitarist Larry Reinhardt formed the metal-jazz fusion band Captain Beyond, with Rod Evans from Deep Purple. The group released three albums and had a radio hit with the 1973 song "Sufficiently Breathless."  

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