The group set up the Rolling Stones Mobile and began recording in another hall, and the first backing track they laid down was the Smoke On The Water riff, before police closed down the session after neighbours complained about the volume. As the smoke drifted across the lake nearby, the sight inspired Roger Glover to jot down the song title Smoke On The Water. The group escaped with everyone else, and watched the hall burn down. The band's roadies saved Deep Purple's gear, parked outside the hall where they were going to start recording their new album the next day. Smoke On The Water was written and recorded during sessions for Deep Purple's seminal rock album Machine Head in Montreux, Switzerland in December 1971.ĭeep Purple were watching a Frank Zappa matinee concert in the Montreux Casino concert hall when a flare gun was discharged into the ceiling and started a fire which quickly engulfed and destroyed the venue. Ian wrote the tune around that.More people search this site looking for information on Smoke On The Water than any other single aspect of Deep Purple's history this special page on the Deep Purple Appreciation Society website will cover all aspects of this amazingly popular rock anthem. We had a riff, I played the riff and I said ‘Well, maybe he should go to (he shows on guitar the chords) and that was it. One of the ones he explained was “Smoke On The Water”, saying: “‘Smoke On The Water’ was at fourths.
The musician recalled the songs and artists that were the inspirations for many Deep Purple riffs in an old TV interview posted by Ritchie Blackmore Youtube Channel. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven, and that “I owe him a lot of money”. Ranked number 426 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time the song is one of Deep Purple’s biggest hits released on their 1972 album “Machine Head”.īlackmore later said that the main power chord riff is an interpretation of inversion of Symphony No. He spent 12 minths in jail and later became a US Senator.” The song The crew caught him, beat him and sodomized him and held him for police. “He said he pushed me because he wanted me to play Peaches en Regalia and his girlfriend was in love with me and his dog told him to do it. One leg healed an inch shorter than the other. I had a gash in my chin, a hole in the back of my head, a broken rib, and a fractured leg. “Yes the band thought I was dead…My head was over on my shoulder, and my neck was bent like it was broken. The same week as the fire in Montreux, Some guy pushed you off the stage as well. Those sons of bitches owe me some money.” You seem to have had a lot of trouble with the fans back then. Was that you running out screaming and pushing old ladies and little children to the ground to escape? It was a bad scene but at least Deep Purple got a hit song out of the deal. When that dummy with a flare gun burned the place to the ground. What Frank Zappa said about Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” So the last time I saw you was 1971 in Montreux, Switzerland. In an interview with Madhouse magazine back in 1988, Frank Zappa talked about the Deep Purple hit song and recalled that day at the Montreux Casino.