Smoke on the Water

created by iain

(idea) by five_PM (2.8 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Fri Sep 27 2002 at 6:17:17

Smoke On The Water is a song with a story behind it. And the story goes something like this...

It was during the recording of their Machine Head album, all set to go ahead at the Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. The band were awaiting a concert by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention to complete before they could begin recording.

However, during the concert, somebody fired a flare in the ceiling of the Casino, and the place burnt down. (Some versions of the story claim that it was in fact due to an electrical fault, but the Deep Purple lyric is "Some stupid with a flare gun burnt the place to the ground.")

And so, as the lyric says, they ended up at the Grand Hotel for the recording. Rumour goes that Roger Glover wrote the first version of the song straight off the top of his head onto a napkin. However he claims that the song came to him in a dream a couple of mornings after the fire.

Roger Glover: (Credit to www.thehighwaystar.com, official Deep Purple website) "We both came to the conclusion that it sounded like a drug song and it was promptly filed away under "drug songs - not to be used." (what clean living boys we were!)"

In the song's early days, the band didn't see it as having much potential and rarely played it live. Little did they know it would later become their most recognised and played song, worldwide.

printable version
chaos

Deep Purple	Isms And Phobias In "The Lion King"	fretless bass guitar	When you see smoke under the Golden Gate Bridge
bass guitar	Machine Head	Blow an O ring	Boy suspended for pointing chicken finger like gun
EMP gun design	Blade Runner	Frank Zappa	coffee drinkers
Black Velvet	Smoke	Operation Mindfuck	Stairway to Heaven
Captive Bolt gun	glider gun	Faster guitar playing	CNAME trick
Dave Barry	"waah wah wah, wah wah wah waah"	Deep Purple Live in London	Red Foley

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