Come on, be honest now. As a guitarist, there’s an odds-on chance that at some point, you’ve found your fingers wrapping themselves around Ritchie Blackmore’s iconic Smoke On The Water riff. And who could blame you? The fifth track on Deep Purple’s majestic 1972 album Machine Head holds at its heart one of the most recognisable and oft-played riffs in rock ’n’ roll history. Solid, simple and catchy as hell.
But if it hadn’t been for the fateful night of 4 December 1971, Smoke On The Water may never have reached the wider ears of the world. That month, Deep Purple had relocated to Montreux, Switzerland, to lay down their sixth album. This would be the third to feature the stellar ‘Mark II’ line-up of vocalist Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and keys player Jon Lord. The band thought that London’s traditional studios were too dry-sounding, and instead hot-footed it to the Alps, with the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio in tow.
Purple planned to profit from “the big ambient sound” of the Montreux Casino’s concert hall, run by their promoter pal Claude Nobs.
The day after the guys arrived, they trooped over to the casino to catch Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention play the final show of the season. Disaster struck but, in tragedy, the band found inspiration.
We all moved away from the scene to the Eden Palace au Lac Hotel, where we stood in the bar and watched the place going up in flames
“I was in the hall during the performance, particularly enthralled with the contributions of Flo and Eddie [ex-Turtles members and Mothers Of Invention backing vocalists], who were sounding just wonderful, when I heard two pops over my shoulder as a flare gun was fired high into the wall on stage left,” Ian Gillan told Total Guitar magazine in 2012. “There was a lot of fizzing and sparks as the fire took hold in the wooden service trunking. Frank stopped the show and got everyone to leave.
"Claude Nobs went down to the basement and pulled out some kids that had run in there to escape. We all moved away from the scene to the Eden Palace au Lac Hotel, where we stood in the bar and watched the place going up in flames. The downdraft from the mountains caused the smoke to blow across Lake Geneva, like a film set or dry ice on a stage show. At this point, Roger wrote the words ‘smoke on the water’ on a napkin.”
The truck was too far away and it was bloody cold so no-one was keen to listen to anything until we felt it was right
Claude Nobs soon found Purple a new recording venue at the Pavilion theatre but, after widespread complaints about the noise, the group were forced out by local police and duly set up studio shop at the Grand Hotel.
“We had to make it up as we went along,” explained Gillan. “I remember equipment being set up all over the place to get some separation without us turning down. It was surreal when I think back but normal at the time. You did what you had to do. The truck was too far away and it was bloody cold so no-one was keen to listen to anything until we felt it was right.”
The backing track to Smoke On The Water was one of the few things actually laid down at the Pavilion before Purple were kicked out and, unbelievably, the music was simply part of an elongated live band jam used to balance the recording equipment.
We didn’t work on the arrangement – it was a jam
“It was just another riff, like Into The Fire,” remembered the singer with Total Guitar. “We didn’t make a big deal out of it and it wasn’t being considered as a track for the album. It was a jam at the first soundcheck. We didn’t work on the arrangement – it was a jam. Smoke only made it onto the album as a filler track because we were short of time. On vinyl, 38 minutes was the optimum time if you wanted good quality – 19 minutes per side – and we were about seven minutes short with one day to go. So we dug out the jam and put vocals to it.”
It ended up being a biographical account of the making of the album Machine Head
Ritchie Blackmore played his Strat on the jam that would become Smoke On The Water and was plugged into – as far as Gillan recalls – “a Vox AC30 and/or a Marshall”. When the band decided that they were going to include Smoke on the LP, they quickly had to pen some lyrics and record a few quick overdubs, including Gillan’s lead vocal and Blackmore’s solo.
“I can’t remember the solo being recorded but it’s very good – full of character and technique, normal for Ritchie,” explained Gillan. “[Writing the lyrics] was easy! Being the last track, there was plenty to write about. It ended up being a biographical account of the making of the album Machine Head. ‘We all came out to Montreux…’ and so on!”
The Machine Head album, released in March 1972, would further enhance Deep Purple’s reputation as one of the greatest – and heaviest – British bands on the planet, hitting No 1 in the UK and an unprecedented No 7 in the USA. Smoke On The Water was eventually released as a single in 1973, scoring Deep Purple their second (and last) Top 5 hit in the States.
Smoke would, of course, go on to become one of the most covered songs of all time, but does Gillan have a favourite version? “I have two,” he revealed. “The Firemen Of Edo, and Yvonne The Tigress. I have the cassette tape at home and witnessed a performance of Smoke in a samba style by this South American stripper. It’s also the only time I’ve heard an audience in a strip club chanting, ‘Get ’em on! Get ’em on!’”
