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Flint’s Classic Rock – 103.9 The Fox

Deep Purple – ‘Smoke On The Water’

  • Writers: Deep Purple
  • Producers: Deep Purple
  • Recorded: December 1971 at the Pavilion theater and the Grand Hotel in Montreux, Switzerland
  • Released: Spring 1972
  • Players:
    Ian Gillan — vocals
    Ritchie Blackmore — guitar
    Roger Glover — bass
    Jon Lord — organ
    Ian Paice — drums
  • Album: Machine Head (Warner Bros., 1972)
  • Also On:
    24 Carat Purple (Purple, 1975/EMI, 2001)
    Deepest Purple (Warner Bros., 1980)
    Anthology (Harvest, 1985/EMI, 1998)
    Shades 1968-1998 (Rhino, 1998)
    20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Deep Purple (Universal, 2002)
    Essential (EMI, 2003)
  • Deep Purple‘s most enduring hit, “Smoke On The Water” tells the saga of the recording of the group’s Machine Head album.
  • The “Mark II” version of the group (Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Roger Glover, and Ian Paice) was set to record the album, using the Rolling Stones‘ Mobile Studio, in December 1971 at the Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. They had been advised to record the album away from their native Britain to avoid tax issues.
  • The night before the band was to begin recording the album, Frank Zappa & the Mothers Of Invention performed at the Casino. During the show, an audience member fired a flare gun into the roof, setting the building on fire. It burned to the ground, and, while no one died, all of the Mothers’ equipment was destroyed and Purple was left without a place to record.
  • The image of watching the Casino burn from the hotel bar stuck with the band, according to Glover: “As I looked out the large plate glass windows of the hotel in the dying afternoon light, I could see a huge pall of black smoke from the doomed building stretching high up and out over the placid blue surface of Lake Geneva, an unforgettable sight.”
  • The group began working on “Smoke On The Water” a couple of days later in the Pavilion, an old theater in the center of Montreux used mostly for summertime concerts.
  • The song, whose working name was “Title #1,” was built from a guitar riff Blackmore came up with.
  • Deep Purple played so loud that it disturbed Montreux residents who lived near the Pavilion. Police came down to order the band to stop, but the band’s roadies held the doors shut until the band finished laying down the track.
  • Recording subsequently shifted to the Grand Hotel, where the band played in the hallways and assorted rooms while the Rolling Stones’ Mobile Studio sat parked outside.
  • The lyrics for “Smoke On The Water” were written after the switch to the Grand Hotel. Glover said, “We had decided to write about our own experience in making the album and justified the title by thinking of the pall of black smoke that hung over the lake that day as the fire destroyed the Casino. Every line in the lyric is true.”
  • In fact, there really was a “Funky Claude” on site, and he really did “pull kids out of the ground” as they were emerging from the Casino’s basement. His real name is Claude Nobs, and he’s an organizer of the annual Montreux Jazz Festival, as well as being an old friend of the band.
  • Despite its eventual success, Glover says the group thought of “Smoke On The Water” as “just another track.”
  • In fact, “Smoke On The Water” didn’t become a hit single until the summer of 1973, nearly a year and a half after Machine Head was released. It peaked at Number Four on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album peaked at Number Seven on the Billboard 200.
  • Blackmore says the song has endured “because it is very catchy, basically incorporating four notes. It’s got tons of personality.”
  • Lord has estimated that “Smoke On The Water” still brings Deep Purple’s members five- and sometimes six-figure royalties each year.

FAST FORWARD:

  • “Smoke On The Water” is one of the songs most frequently played by shoppers trying out guitars in music stores.
  • Gillan and Glover left Deep Purple in the summer of 1973 and were replaced by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes, respectively.
  • Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1975 and was replaced by former James Gang guitarist Tommy Bolin.
  • The Mark II lineup reunited from 1984 to 1989, and then again from 1992 to 1995.