Smoke on the Water

"Smoke on the Water"
Song
B-side	"Made in Japan version"

"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.

Composition

The 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. To clear up some confusion about how the intro is played, Ritchie Blackmore has been seen on videotape playing the intro three different ways. The most common, and perhaps "best" sounding, is tabbed below.

File:Smoke on the water.svg

E||-----------------------|----------------------|
B||-----------------------|----------------------|
G||--0----3----5-------0--|----3----6--5---------|
D||--0----3----5-------0--|----3----6--5---------|
A||-----------------------|----------------------|
E||-----------------------|----------------------|

  |-----------------------|---------------------||
  |-----------------------|---------------------||
  |--0----3----5-------3--|----0----------------||
  |--0----3----5-------3--|----0----------------||
  |-----------------------|---------------------||
  |-----------------------|---------------------||

History

Claude Nobs (2006), the "Funky Claude" mentioned in the song

The lyrics of the song tell a true story: on December 4, 1971, Deep Purple had set up camp at 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 concert featuring Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention was held in the casino's theatre; during the concert a fire broke out (said to be caused by a Swiss fan shooting a flare gun in the ceiling, as mentioned in the "some stupid with a flare gun" line) that eventually 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 to 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 neighbors took offense 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 #1), 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.

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-influnced 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.

The song is commonly the first song learned by many 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 recognisable riff is not difficult and consequently is constantly played by learners. In fact, the song is so popular, that one famous guitar store in Denmark Street, London, used to sport a sign on the wall reading "If auditioning a guitar, please refrain from playing 'Smoke on the Water,' as this is causing our staff mental torture." In the book The Log by Craig Charles, one of the items in the list of things never to do before reaching the age of thirty is learning the riff from 'Smoke on the Water'.

Quote;

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

Trivia

• On Sunday 18th February 2007, Harrods in Kensington, hoped to recruit 2,000 guitarists to play 'Smoke On The Water' in a bid to break the world record for the most guitarists simultaneously playing one song, and beat the current record of 1,322 set in Vancouver, Canada, in 1994. This event was later cancelled via a notice on the Harrods web site
• "Smoke on the Water" is one of the playable songs for the PlayStation 2 game Guitar Hero. It is also a playable song in the PlayStation 2 game SingStar Rocks and in the Japan-only Nintendo DS rhythm game Daigasso! Band Brothers.
• Robb Nen, a former baseball player for the San Francisco Giants and Florida Marlins, used the song as his entrance music
• The video game Primal Rage has a song on Sauron's level that sounds suspiciously like "Smoke on the Water".
• "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 Top 40 Metal Songs
  • #1 in Digital Dreamdoor's 100 Greatest Rock Guitar Riffs
  • #12 in Q magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks (March 2005)
• In School of Rock, Dewey Finn (Jack Black) teaches "Smoke on the Water" to Zach Mooneyham.
• The song was performed at G3: Live in Tokyo by guitarists John Petrucci, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.
• Was featured on an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer recites it after smoking medicinal marijuana. Also featured in the first episode of season 18, where Otto tells the children in the bus that "real songs are about deals with the devil, far off lands and where you find smoke in relation to water."
• Was featured in the opening of Elf Sim Date 2.
• The intro of "Smoke on the Water" was played at Ray and Debra's second wedding in an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond
• 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 opening chords are used as the entrance music to Leicester Tigers rugby union club at home games.
• The song 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.
• 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 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.
• The song is featured in the episode "I Can Pee Outside In The Dark" of the comedy series Two and a Half Men.
• The intro to the song is used in The Perfect Score when Kyle's brother is playing the guitar with the dryer also.
• 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).
• Featured on the commercial for the new 2008 Dodge Avenger.