Today’s feature is a story song, set to one of the most distinct riffs in rock and roll. Sometimes it is best to let the music and the musicians do the talking, so I will do my best to fulfill that promise after sharing a handful of the most intriguing anecdotes related to ‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple.
Before continuing there is some value in adding to this introduction that the fact Ted Tocks Covers is deep into its fifth year and has not yet featured this song, is a combination of an oversight and an effort to avoid the accusation of being cliché. Truth be told, ‘Smoke on the Water’ is full value for its authenticity. It is a rock anthem that takes everyone who listens back to the venue on the Lake Geneva shoreline in Montreux, Switzerland.
It was during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention show, on this day in 1971, that it all happened. This was intended to be the last concert before the facility was scheduled to undergo winter renovations. As the story indicates, Zappa was playing a song called ‘King Kong’. During a synthesizer solo by Don Preston, some idiot shot a flare gun up into the ceiling of the wooden structure. Fortunately, there were no major injuries, but the Montreux Casino did burn to the ground.
As fate would have it, members of Deep Purple were in town preparing to produce a new album. Since the theatre was set to be vacated, the band had made arrangements to record what would become ‘Machine Head’ the following day. Roger Glover sat and watched in amazement as their plans disintegrated before his very eyes.
It was probably the biggest fire I’d ever seen up to that point and probably ever seen in my life. It was a huge building. I remember there was very little panic getting out, because it didn’t seem like much of a fire at first. But, when it caught, it went up like a fireworks display.”
Roger Glover
All of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s equipment were destroyed in the blaze except for one item.
The only thing that was saved from our equipment was a cowbell.”
Frank Zappa
Here is Frank’s recollection.
To set a little bit of background, the Montreux Casino was built in 188, and in its ninety-year history it played host to some of the biggest names in music history. In 1967, music promoter Claude Nobs made the Casino the venue for the Montreux Jazz Festival. Nobs is immortalized in ‘Smoke on the Water’ for being the funky and brave gentleman with the wherewithal to run back into the casino and lead numerous concert attendees to safety after they retreated into the casino to escape the blaze.
Funky Claude was running in and out
Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Gillan, and Ian Paiste
Pulling kids out the ground”
Listen to this recording that captures the exact moment that Frank Zappa lets the audience know that the venue was in peril. You can hear Howard Kaylan yell ‘Fire by Artur Brown’. This recording appears on the bootleg album known as ‘Swiss Cheese/Fire’.
As a side note related to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, this was a particularly ill-fated tour, as less than a week later Zappa was touring in England. During a performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London, a fan pushed Zappa off the stage, seriously injuring the eclectic performer. Kaylan and his long-time musical partner Mark Volman, who had formerly been known as The Turtles, but at the time, were working with the Mothers under the name ‘The Phlorescent Leech’, took this as their cue to leave the band. They had seen enough.
Again, the ‘Smoke on the Water’ story has literally unfolded over the years thanks to this authentic recording, and the fact Roger Glover took the time to write down what he had witnessed. Glover claims that the title came to him in a dream he had a few days later.
For the record, the ‘stupid with a flare gun’ is alleged to be ‘Zdeněk Špička, who was a Czechoslovak refugee. This was never absolutely proven because he fled Switzerland a short time after the incident.
So, what does a band do when their plans are dashed? Deep Purple had their trucks loaded with equipment. They had booked the Rolling Stones mobile recording unit, and they were all set to record. They were literally all amped up with no place to go. With the assistance of Claude Nobs, the group headed to a place called the Pavillion, but apparently the neighbours weren’t big heavy metal fans, and as a result of noise complaints they were asked to take their act somewhere else. This is how they ended up at the ‘empty cold and bare’ Grand Hotel de Territet shortly before Christmas. They managed to convert the hallways and stairwells into a makeshift studio with a degree of innovation that saw them place mattresses against the walls of their ‘studio’ space to absorb the sound.
It was here that Deep Purple recorded ‘Machine Head’ in its entirety, with the exception of one song…‘Smoke on the Water’. The song had its origin during the brief Pavillion sessions, with the lyrics written by Ian Gillan, inspired by Glover’s title concept and notes.
“We did the whole thing in about four takes because we had to. The police were banging on the door. We knew it was the police, but we had such a good sound in this hall. We were waking up all the neighbours for about five miles in Montreux, because it was echoing through the mountains. I was just getting the last part of the riff down, we’d just finished it, when the police burst in and said ‘you’ve got to stop’. We had the track down.”
Roger Glover
This is how it all unfolded.
We all came out to Montreux
Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Gillan, and Ian Pa
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn’t have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky Claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But Swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty, cold and bare
But with the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We made a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know, I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water”
It is here that the composition of ‘Smoke on the Water’ becomes the story.
The classic guitar riff written by Ritchie was presented as a four-note blues scale based on Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 5’. Blackmore in his infinite creativity considered the Beethoven piece in an inverted state. Here is his explanation.
We all know the result. The creative ingenuity continued with the brilliance of Jon Lord on the Hammond C3 organ. Lord, humbly gives all the credit to Blackmore.
The amazing thing with that song, and Ritchie’s riff in particular is that somebody hadn’t done it before, because it’s so gloriously simple and wonderfully satisfying.”
Jon Lord
When Deep Purple released ‘Machine Head’ in March of 1972 they didn’t think ‘Smoke on the Water’ would be a hit. As a group they felt the song was too long to catch on with a radio audience. It ended up batting cleanup on the smash hit record, following ‘Never Before’, ‘Lazy’ and ‘Highway Star’. Here is ‘Never Before’.
Here is a Ted Tocks Cover featuring ‘Lazy’.
Here is a Ted Tocks Covers featuring ‘Highway Star’.
It was not until an executive at Warner Brothers in the United States suggested that an abbreviated version of ‘Smoke on the Water’ be released as a single that it surged to #4 on the U.S. singles charts. Remarkably this release occurred after Deep Purple had broken up. Ian Gillan opted to leave the band in 1973 after the rigors of the ‘Machine Head’ tour. On a more positive note, ‘Machine Head’ went to #1 in eight countries worldwide.
It is here that it should be noted that Deep Purple never forgot their unsung hero. The album was dedicated to Claude Nobs for all he did to make the recording possible.
Since its release, it is estimated that ‘Smoke on the Water’ has been performed by the various incarnations of Deep Purple over 3000 times through the years.
According to a great website www.deep-purple.net ‘Smoke on the Water’ was unveiled during a special BBC Radio show arranged for the band to share tracks from the soon to be released ‘Machine Head’. Here you go…
Then enjoy this live version of ‘Smoke on the Water’ from a stop on Deep Purple’s United States tour in 1972/3.
Looking back, it seems incomprehensible that Deep Purple broke up just over a year after the release of ‘Machine Head’. Demands on the band took their toll. The had been together for just over three years, but in that time, they had recorded six albums and toured relentlessly. One major issue saw Ritchie Blackmore contract hepatitis while on a U.S. tour in January of 1972, before ‘Machine Head’ was even released. They briefly considered Al Kooper as a replacement. The pressure was so intense that in early April, Deep Purple played one show in Quebec City with Randy California of Spirit on guitar. Shortly thereafter Deep Purple postponed the tour until Blackmore recovered.
Once Blackmore’s health improved, the tour resumed in late May, and they stormed through North America and then headed to Japan to record the acclaimed live album ‘Made in Japan’. As the 1972 calendar progressed Deep Purple soldiered on, and when 1973 came around the record company and band management demanded a follow up studio album that was appropriately titled ‘Who Do We Think We Are’. By the time this was released, tensions were at a peak. Ian Gillan quit after a second tour of Japan in less than a year. To add to the turmoil Ritchie Blackmore also demanded that Roger Glover be fired due to creative differences.
Jon Lord summarized everything in this passage, stating it was;
…the biggest shame in rock and roll; God knows what we would have done over the next three or four years. We were writing so well.”
Jon Lord
It certainly was a sad ending to an unbelievable run of success.
There are countless versions of Deep Purple performing ‘Smoke on the Water’ through the years, but this version from 1999 caught my attention. It presents Deep Purple with the London Symphony Orchestra. The layers of musicianship are intense, and as a special treat Ian Gillan shares the vocals with Ronnie James Dio. This version features Steve Morse on guitar.
Back in 1989, a collection of renowned artists from Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Queen, Black Sabbath, Yes, Iron Maiden, Free and Rush gathered to create ‘Rock Aid Armenia’ as an effort to raise funds for people affected by the earthquake in Armenia. The gathering was organized by John Dee. The guitar attack included Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, Brian May, Tony Iommi, and Alex Lifeson. The legendary Chris Squire played bass. Geoff Downes and Keith Emerson shared keyboard duties while Roger Taylor played drums. The vocals were shared by Ian Gillan, Bruce Dickinson, Paul Rodgers and Bryan Adams.
Upon its worldwide release ‘Rock Aid Armenia’ raised funds to rebuild a children’s music school in Gyumri which was at the epicentre of the earthquake zone. Presently, the school educates over 200 students a year.
Just one more example of how music brings people together and speaking to the theme of this post; out of the ashes of tragedy comes a wonderful story.
Over the past fifty years, the story behind ‘Smoke on the Water’ has been shared by well over 200 recording acts, as well as bar bands and garage bands numbering well into the millions. This doesn’t even speak to how many musical genres have aimed to interpret the song. Due to its story style and classical roots, it lends itself effectively to such a versatile presentation. Listen on to understand my point.
The first cover goes all the way back to 1972 and a Polish band called Test. This recording goes back fifty years, but according to www.deep-purple.net it was not released until twenty years later when they added it to a CD as a bonus track.
Let’s head over to Peru and a recording by Pax in 1973.
Also from 1973, here is a recording by Springbok. This band had a run of tribute albums back in the ‘70s that aimed to cover top hits of the era.
And now for something completely different, here is a beloved Canadian act called Nash the Slash doing a variation of ‘Smoke on the Water’ called ‘Dopes on the Water’. It is presented as a commentary on the music business.
“We all came to Montreux
Nash the Slash
‘Cause the Swiss banks were there too
How to cut a hit record
We didn’t have a clue
All the roadies and their mothers
Were at the best place in town
Then someone with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Dopes on the water
We all know the name
Dopes on the water
And money is the game
Needless to say, Nash the Slash was a little bit jaded. Despite his unique style and edgy stage persona, he failed to make it on a commercial level. Whenever he played a major bar venue in the Toronto area in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, the place was packed and the audience was riveted.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the fact Pat Boone covered ‘Smoke on the Water’ in 1997 on his album ‘In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy’, is the fact he managed to get Ritchie Blackmore to play on this recording.
In this video, Blackmore explains how the iconic guitar riff was initially written before the band suggested it be modified slightly.
While members of Deep Purple played a game of musical chairs, the year 1983 saw Ian Gillan join Black Sabbath. During Gillan’s stint with Sabbath they performed ‘Smoke on the Water’, as an encore during this, their only tour together. It remains one of the few cover songs that Black Sabbath have ever played live. It should be noted that this tour was rife with discontent and poor planning, and elements of it inspired the famous Stonehenge scene in ‘This is Spinal Tap’ (see ‘Iron Man’).
When Carlos Santana is inspired to cover your work, there is yet another trophy for your mantel. Carlos was not attempting to upstage Deep Purple; he was proclaiming his admiration.
We’re not comparing or competing with those artists – we’re complementing them. But when you hear this, you’re gonna go ‘Damn!’ because it sounds so powerful, with vitality and vibrancy.”
Carlos Santana
This features vocalist Jacoby Shaddix. Pretty cool take.
Ted Tocks Covers is often intrigued when he sees Flaming Lips interpreting a song of this calibre. This features Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers. This cover wins the award for the most original presentation. It works. There is a Devo feel here and the story comes through in a futuristic way, complete with a monk chant.
Let’s close with an incredible swing version from 2022 by yet another Ted Tocks Covers favourite, Robyn Adele Anderson. This is fantastic.
Earlier in today’s post Roger Glover shared aspects of ‘Smoke on the Water’s origin with a degree of incredulity at the fact that over the years people continue to ask him what ‘Smoke on the Water’ is all about. In essence, the song is the story and the story is the song.
It is all set on a musical canvas that depicts a flaming inferno on the Lake Geneva shoreline, and all the events that ensued.
But imagine this…
In a classic tale of misheard lyrics, an urban legend related to ‘Smoke on the Water’ relates the story of requests from the audience asking the band to play ‘Slow Motion Walter, The Fire Engine Guy’.
I mean, seriously people…
…What rock would someone have to have crawled out from under?
Meanwhile, if you are ever in Montreux, take a moment and check out the plaque that memorializes Deep Purple and the story that inspired this classic rock staple. It’s right beside the statue that immortalizes the great Freddie Mercury who listed Montreux as his favourite place to record.
But that’s another story.
Ted Tocks Covers 
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