Thanks to those persistent forest fires in Canada, we’ve been hearing a lot about smoke lately. Last Wednesday, New York City was engulfed in smoke that had traveled from the north, giving it a spooky orange glow and leading authorities to warn residents about going outside. And OSHA urged employers to protect outdoor workers from poor air quality.
So it seems only appropriate that we present one of the all-time classic rock riffs for EHSDA Song of the Week: Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” Released on the band’s 1972 album Machine Head, the song chronicles the fire that occurred in Montreux, Switzerland, at the casino complex where they were about to record the album. During the final concert by Frank Zappa before the complex closed for the winter (allowing Deep Purple to record there), a fan fired a flare gun into the ceiling and the theatre caught on fire. There were no major injuries, but the entire complex was destroyed. The title of the song came from watching the fire’s smoke spread over Lake Geneva as the band members watched from their hotel.
Even though the incident forced the band to record elsewhere, the resulting song became Deep Purple’s biggest song, charting at #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and ranking on many lists of top rock songs and guitar riffs. And pretty much any kid who learned how to play guitar for decades afterward played that famous riff at some point.