That single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on at No.85, and won the support not just of rock radio, but pop programmers too. “Listen to some pretty tasty drum work at the end,” he noted. “The heavy bass line gives an air of gloom in keeping with the illustrative lyrics,” wrote Richard Green of the song in the NME, before singling out Ian Paice for praise. Then Purple’s American label, Warner Brothers, took the decision to release a single, not from that record, but featuring edited live and studio versions of “Smoke On The Water.” By the time of that next studio album, the song was also a highlight of the band’s famous live album Made In Japan. That became the acrimonious Who Do We Think We Are, released in March 1973. It reached No.35, but “Smoke” and other tracks from the record that became Purple landmarks, such as “Highway Star” and “Space Truckin’,” were too long for mainstream, daytime radio.Īs tensions grew within the band, contractual requirements demanded the recording of another album. Its selection was no doubt informed by the fact that it was the shortest track on the LP, at under four minutes. They needed one more song, so they put together Smoke On The Water using Gillan’s lyric and the riff guitarist Ritchie Blackmore came up with.In the UK, “Never Before” was released as the only single from Machine Head, simultaneously with the album. The band was relocated to the Grand Hotel in Montreux, where they recorded the album using the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio. This image gave bass player Roger Glover the idea for a song title: “Smoke On The Water,” and Ian Gillan wrote the lyric about their saga recording the Machine Head album. The band was going to start recording their Machine Head album there right after a Frank Zappa concert, but someone fired a flare gun at the ceiling during Zappa’s show, which set the place on fire.ĭeep Purple watched the blaze from a nearby restaurant, and when the fire died down, a layer of smoke had covered Lake Geneva, which the casino overlooked. This song took inspiration from a fire in the Casino at Montreux, Switzerland in 1971. BONUS CLIPS BELOW – Deep Purple perform Smoke on the Water live in Sydney and the story behind the song
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |