Smoke on the Water (1973) 4/15/20

On December 4th 1971, the group Deep Purple was in Montreaux, Switzerland, preparing to record an album at the Montreaux Casino, starting the next day.

That night, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention were in concert at the casino's theatre: the last concert before the complex closed for the winter season—which would allow Deep Purple free reign to record there.

During the concert, some idiot fired a flare gun at the ceiling—and the entire casino complex burned to the ground. There were no major injuries, but the Mothers' equipment was destroyed, and so were Deep Purple's plans.

Determined to stay in Montreaux, they rented another theatre in town and were able to record part of one song before noise complaints got them kicked out and they were forced to rent and refurbish an abandoned hotel to finish the album—entitled “Machine Head.”

The one song they were able to partially record at the theatre before they were evicted is today's “Great Song of the '70s!”

Deep Purple guitarist Roger Glover had been greatly affected by the fire and had vivid dreams about the smoke from the fire as it spread out across Lake Geneva. In other words, the “Smoke on the Water.” His bandmates thought that was a great title, and wrote lyrics about the fire around it.

In 1973, the finished song was a Top 20 hit in 6 countries, including Canada, where it went to #2, and the US, where it reached #4 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Oddly enough, it did not chart in Switzerland. However, the city of Montreaux erected a statue commemorating the song, and the rebuilt casino features the notes from the famous opening guitar riff etched on its ballustrade.

And speaking of that riff, Total Guitar Magazine named it the 4th best riff of all time, and Q Magazine has it at #12.

To top things off, Rolling Stone has “Smoke on the Water” at #434 on their “Top 500 Songs of All Time” list.

From 1973: