There is indeed a story behind this, undoubtedly Deep Purple's most well known song.
In Montreux, Switzerland, a sculpture commemorating the incident and the song it bred stands proudly, and inside of the casino that currently thrives in Montreux, the four notes instantly recognizable as the lead-in to “Smoke on the Water” are displayed on a balcony. Casino de Montreux: Smoke on the water, fire in the sky - See 568 traveler reviews, 161 candid photos, and great deals for Montreux, Switzerland, at TripAdvisor.
The lyrics actually tell the story of the recording of Machine Head . Deep Purple were originally all set to record the album at the Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. They were just awaiting a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert to be held before the recording could begin. But the Casino burnt down during the concert, after some stupid had fired a flare gun into the Casino's ceiling. (Purple were in the audience. The actual Zappa concert has turned up on one of the Beat the Boots discs, I think.)
They ended up at the Grand Hotel, closed for the winter season, where the recording eventually commenced during December 1971. They recorded the album with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, also mentioned in the lyrics.
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Who's 'Funky Claude' ?
Funky Claude in the lyrics is Claude Nobs, who helped them out. He's still involved in the Montreux Jazz Festival, and seems to be a very important man in the music business in the Swiss town.
As stated in the lyrics, he helped saving some kids during the fire at the Casino. He was also the man who found the Grand Hotel for them. There's a picture on him on the gatefold sleeve on the original LP release of the album.
'Break a leg , Frank!'
Actually, these were troubled times for Frank Zappa, who first lost all of his gear in the fire in Montreux. A couple of days later, when he played in London, a fan tore him off stage, and Zappa broke his leg as he fell into the orchestra pit.
This, again, led to Ian Gillan dropping the comment 'Break a leg, Frank!' near the ending of Smoke on the Water at a March 1972 concert recorded for the BBC, available on the excellent EMI 2CD set Deep Purple in Concert.
The song itself was created more or less spontaneously; Roger Glover had the picture of the smoke spreading over the Lake Geneva in his head, and the line Smoke on the Water eventually stuck. He suggested to Ian Gillan that they should use it as a song title, but Ian shrugged it off, saying people would believe it was a drug song. Then Ritchie suddenly came up with the later hierostratically famous (and notorious!) riff, and things fell into place.
Here's the story about the lyrics and the title, in Roger Glover's own words: Sun and moon slot machine free download.
'The only deviation to the story that IG has sometimes claimed isthat it was written on a napkin as the fire burned. Actually itcame to me in a sort of dream 1 or 2 mornings after the fire: Iwas alone in my bed (in the Eurotel, not the Eden Au Lac as IGinsists although it's a better sounding name for the story) inthat mystical time between deep sleep and awakening, when I heardmy own voice say those words out loud. I woke up then and asked myself if I actually did say them out loud, and I came to the conclusion that I did. I pondered upon it and realised that itwas a potential song title.
'This is how I characterized it later to IG but we both came to the conclusion that it soundedlike a drug song and it was promptly filed away under 'drug songs- not to be used.' (what clean living boys we were!)
'Only later did it suggest itself as the vehicle by which we could tell thestory of the fire. Even now, I've no idea where it came frombut it's difficult not to start believing in some divineprovidence when one considers the subsequent history of the song.
'All I know is that I have always listened to my random thoughtsever since.'
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Roger Glover, Tue, 20 Aug 1996 21:35:12 -0400
Deep Purple themselves didn't seem to notice that the song had any potential, they hardly played it live early in 1972, and Never Before was chosen as the first single from the album. (An edited version of Lazy was chosen in the US.) It wasn't until 1973, when a single consisting of two edits of Smoke on the Water, studio version one side and Made in Japan version on the b-side, was released in the USA, that the song became the rock anthem that it later has become, and helped Deep Purple sail up as on of the world's biggest selling artists.
The events behind Smoke on the Water are also detailed in Ian Gillan's autobiography; 'Child in Time : The Life of the Singer of Deep Purple'.
Last updated on August 21, 1996
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The lakeside Swiss town of Montreux was in the news this week as the host of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers.
But for rockers of a certain age, Montreux will always be best known for its rich musical history — including the roaring casino fire that inspired the English rock band Deep Purple's classic 'Smoke on the Water.'
The story goes that on Dec. 4, 1971, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing a gig at the Montreux casino. The band was nearly 90 minutes into the show, cranking through 'King Kong,' when someone in the crowd fired a flare gun at the wooden roof, which instantly caught fire.
Frank Zappa and the Mothers were at the best place around,
But some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground.
As the blaze spread, Montreux Jazz Festival organizer Claude Nobs joined firefighters to race in and out of the venue, dragging concert-goers to safety.
They burned down the gambling house,
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It died with an awful sound.
Funky Claude was running in and out, yeah,
Pulling kids out the ground.
Deep Purple was in Montreux with a sound truck rented from the Rolling Stones to lay down some tracks. They were forced out of their rooms by the fire, but memories of the smoke billowing out across Lac Leman, or Lake Geneva, gave them a song title.
Before long, Ritchie Blackmore's classic guitar riff was being copied, it seemed, by every cover band and guitar-playing teenager.
'Smoke on the Water' reached number 4 on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1973, and in 2004 was included in Rolling Stone magazine's 'The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.'
Montreux Casino
For more on the famous fire, you can hear Zappa's recollections here.
And if you're in Montreux, after a coffee or a cocktail at Funky Claude's Bar, you can find a memorial to Deep Purple and their classic song near the rebuilt casino.
Smoke On The Water Lyrics
Smoke On The Water Chords
It's not far from the stature of Freddie Mercury. Queen, after all, recorded seven albums in Montreux, and visitors can still get a tour of the studio.