SMOKE ON THE WATER

"'Smoke on the Water'" is a famous and influential rock song by British rock band Deep Purple. It was first released on the 1972 album ''Machine Head''. The single release is a 3:47 edit of the album version.

Contents

Composition

History

Impact

Quote

Alternative versions

Legacy

References

External links

Composition

This song is known for and recognizable by its central theme, a crunching four-note "blues scale" melody harmonised in parallel fourths that is one of the most famous riffs in hard rock history. The riff, played on a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar by Ritchie Blackmore, is immediately joined by hi-hat and drums and electric bass parts before the start of Ian Gillan's vocal. Jon Lord doubles the guitar part on a Hammond B3 organ played through a distorted Marshall amp creating a very similar tone to the guitar. Blackmore uses two fingers to pluck so the pairs of notes can be played exactly simultaneously to match the organ's timing more closely. Despite the heaviness of the main riff, constant movement and interplay within the supporting parts keeps the feel of the song from becoming leaden. The use of the riff only as an interlude between the vocal sections (which feature quite different parts) prevents it from becoming overly repetitive and creates excitement when it re-enters. The song's powerful structure takes a contrasting verse-chorus form, with the driving verse sections building musical tension while the soaring chorus releases it.

History

The lyrics of the song tell a true story: on December 4, 1971, Deep Purple had set up camp in Montreux, Switzerland to record an album using a mobile recording studio (rented from the Rolling Stones and known as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio - referred to as the "Rolling truck Stones thing" in the song lyric) at the entertainment complex that was part of the Montreux Casino (referred to as "the gambling house" in the song lyric). On the eve of the recording session a Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention concert was held in the casino's theatre. During the gig a fire broke out: "In the middle of Don Preston's synthesizer solo on "King Kong", the place suddenly caught fire. Somebody in the audience had fired a flare gun into the ceiling, at which point the rattan covering started to burn."^[1][2], as mentioned in the "some stupid with a flare gun" line. There is an undocumented version of the story that claims the blaze was a result of faulty wiring, but whatever the cause, the resulting fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Mothers' equipment. The "smoke on the water" that became the title of the song (credited to bass player Roger Glover, who related how the title occurred to him when he suddenly woke from a dream a few days later) referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched the fire from their hotel across the lake. The "Funky Claude" running in and out is referring to Claude Nobs, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival who helped some of the audience escape the fire.

Left with an expensive mobile recording unit and no place to record, the band was forced to scout the town for another place to set up. One promising venue (found by Nobs) was a local theatre called The Pavilion, but soon after the band had loaded in and started working/recording, the nearby neighbours took offence at the noise, and the band was only able to lay down backing tracks for one song (based on Ritchie's riff and temporarily named ''Title nº1''), before the local police shut them down.
Finally, after about a week of searching, the band rented out the nearly-empty Montreux Grand Hotel and converted its hallways and stairwells into a makeshift recording studio, where they laid down most of the tracks for what would become their most commercially successful album, ''Machine Head''.
Ironically, the only song from ''Machine Head'' not recorded in the Grand Hotel was "Smoke on the water" itself, which had been recorded during the aborted Pavilion session; only the lyrics were composed later, and the vocals were laid down in the Grand Hotel.
When Steve Morse joined the band, it became Deep Purple tradition to have him play a solo preceding the song in concert. This solo would consist of a medley of solos, licks, and riffs from many various classic rock songs. Rather than blend them into one another, Morse separates most of the licks by playing some one-handed tapping in between them.

Impact

"Smoke on the Water" was included on ''Machine Head'', which was released in early 1972, but was not released as a single until nearly a year later (the band has said that they did not expect the song to be a hit); the single would reach #4 on the Billboard pop single chart in the U.S. in the summer of 1973, and propel the album to the top 10. Live performance of the tune, featuring extended interplay between Blackmore's guitar and Jon Lord's Hammond organ would become a centerpiece of Deep Purple's live shows, and a version of the song from the live album ''Made in Japan'' became a minor hit on its own later in 1973.
The principal song-writers understandably included the song within their subsequent solo endeavours after Deep Purple split up. Ian Gillan in particular performed a jazz-influenced version in early solo concerts. The band Gillan adopted a feedback-soaked approach, courtesy of Gillan guitarist Bernie Torme.The song was also featured live by Ritchie Blackmore's post-Deep Purple band Rainbow during their tours 1981-83, and again after Rainbow were resurrected briefly in the mid 1990's.
During Ian Gillan's stint with Black Sabbath in 1983, they performed "Smoke on the Water" as a regular repertoire number on encores during their only tour together. It remains one of the few cover songs that Black Sabbath have ever played live.

The song is popular among beginner guitarists, but Blackmore himself has demonstrated that most who attempt to play it do so improperly. This power chord-driven variation on the main recognizable riff is not difficult and consequently is constantly played by learners. In fact, the song is so popular that, along with Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, many guitar stores do not allow it to be played when buyers are testing guitars.

Quote

'It’s lasted so long because it's very simple, very catchy....basically incorporating four notes. It’s got tons of personality!’'' (Ritchie Blackmore)

Alternative versions

★ The remixed CD re-issue of ''Machine Head'' features a version of the song with an alternate Blackmore guitar solo recorded at the time.

★ The version that appears on ''Deep Purple in Concert'' includes Ian Gillan uttering the phrase "Break a leg, Frank". This is a reference to injuries that Frank Zappa had sustained as a result of being attacked onstage by an audience member at a concert in London, six days after the Montreux fire. A broken leg was among those injuries. The phrase can, also, be heard on the Roger Glover Remix of the song included on the Anniversary Edition reissue of ''Machine Head''.

★ There is a remake of this song featuring Ian Gillan, Bruce Dickinson and Tony Iommi also playing as well as Deep Purple. This song can be found on YouTube.

Legacy

"Smoke on the Water" has received the following rankings:

★ #426 on Rolling Stone Magazine's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

★ #37 in VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs ^[3]

★ #12 in ''Q'' magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks (March 2005)

★ #1 in Digital Dreamdoor's 100 Greatest Rock Guitar Riffs
The song is honored in Montreux by a sculpture along the lake shore (right next to Freddie Mercury's statue) with the band's name, the song title, and the riff in musical notes.
In 1994, in Vancouver, Canada, 1,322 guitarists gathered to play the world-famous riff all at the same time for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. On Sunday June 3rd, 2007, Kansas City radio station, 99.7 KY beat the previous record with 1,683 guitarists. Stephen Colbert performed this song on one of his shows in response to missing the above performance when his flight was delayed over something to do with TB.
"Smoke on the Water" is one of the playable songs for the PlayStation 2 game ''Guitar Hero'' and is also a downloadable track in Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360. It is a playable song in the PlayStation 2 game ''SingStar Rocks!'' and in the Japan-only Nintendo DS rhythm game ''Daigasso! Band Brothers''. It will also be available on Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 as a mini-game.
The song has been covered by heavy metal band Soulfly, Power Metal band Metalium, Korean Thrash Metal band Crash, Brazilian Progressive Power Metal Angra, and many others, and was recorded by Rock Aid Armenia featuring Bryan Adams, Ritchie Blackmore, Bruce Dickinson, Keith Emerson, Ian Gillan, David Gilmour, John Paul Jones, Tony Iommi, Alex Lifeson, Jon Lord, Brian May, Paul Rodgers, Chris Squire and Roger Taylor. It was performed at by guitarists John Petrucci, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. On his album ''Children of the Night'', Canadian rocker Nash the Slash featured a parody entitled "Dopes on the Water", critical of rock musicians "selling out" ''(Dopes on the water / We all know the name / Dopes on the water / And money is the game)''. Barenaked Ladies quoted the misheard lyric "Slow motion Walter, the fire engine guy" in the song "Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" on their 2000 album ''Maroon''. The song is also sampled in "Everybody Jump 2007" by Anti-Funky who are an electronic group.
In ''School of Rock'', Dewey Finn (Jack Black) teaches "Smoke on the Water" to Zach Mooneyham (Joey Gaydos). In making of footage on the DVD, however, Black is shown being taught how to play the riff by Gaydos. Apple, Inc. incorporated the above scene from "School of Rock" in its commercial for Apple TV.
The music to the song was used in a commercial for the 2008 Dodge Avenger, when a Dodge scientist was testing gear shifts from three different Avenger's. Noticing the different sounds, the scientist decided to play the beginning sounds to "Smoke on the Water" with the gearshifts.

References

1. "The Real Frank Zappa Book" by Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso, pg. 112, ISBN 0-671-63870-X
2. "Bang Your Head" by David Konow, page 26, ISBN 0-609-80732-3
3. ''"VH1 40 Greatest Metal Songs"'', 1-4 May 2006, ''VH1'' Channel, reported by VH1.com; last accessed September 10, 2006.

External links

★ Smoke on the Water Guitar Tabs