Rock music is full of fancy stories, stories that are really "wild", incidents that have grown up for generations and generations of listeners and / or musicians. Stories that further magnify the myth behind songs that we have heard a million times and have identified with different periods in our lives.
If we are in the same room with a man, even much older, it is very difficult not to recognize the so characteristic melody of a song that has nurtured three generations (maybe more) of rockers.
When the Roger Glover of legends Deep Purple watched the entire Montro casino complex in Switzerland, from the lake opposite, sketched out the words "Smoke on The Water". He may or may not have imagined that at that moment he had captured, at least the title, of a huge hit that would be played in homes, bars and concerts, until the sun set from the East.
The city of Montreux in Switzerland is known for its vineyards, music festivals and the casino of the same name, which had to be built from the beginning in 1975. The story behind this building is described in "Smoke on the Water».
Deep Purple were tired of the cold studio recording process and wanted something more vibrant, something that would lead them to an upgraded inspiration and recording process.
So they decided to take the famous Rolling Stones studio bus, which he had had on his back for some years. In 1971, also a crazy rocker, Frank Zappa had taken the bus to Montreux and used it for the filming of "200 Motels". While there he decided to give a concert at the casino.
Fast forwards in December 1971 and the Rolling Stones rent to Deep Purple the studio for the recordings of their 6th album "Machine Head".
Deep Purple traveled to Switzerland to record "Machine Head" having already delayed the release of "Fireball". The plan was to complete the recordings by the end of 1971 and release in early 1972.
The band was found in Switzerland and had been catalyzed from the beginning at the Montro Casino Hotel. The owner was a big fan of the band. On the first day of his stay there he was at a concert given by Frank Zappa and his band, the Mothers of Invention.
The Purple they wanted to stay close to the mobile studio and record after midnight.
After about an hour and a half of concert, a fan in the audience fired a light at the roof of the venue which quickly caught fire. "Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Were at the best place around, But some stupid with a flare gun, Burned the place to the ground", wrote Ian Gillan in the lyrics. Zappa calmly asked the audience to evacuate the area. Something that happened without anyone being injured.
Frank Zappa, however, lost all his equipment. The fire at the premises burned for hours destroying the gambling house ("They burned down the gambling house. It died with an awful sound").
The burnt remains of the casino-hotel smoked for hours after Zappa's concert. The smoke had covered the city lake.
The bassist of Deep Purple, Roger Glover, when he saw the smoke covering the lake immediately wrote down the phrase "Smoke on the Water". When singer Ian Gillan saw him he thought that should not be the title of the song as it could refer to drugs.
The time Purple had to record was relentless: "We had to find another place. But Swiss time was running out. "It seemed that we would lose the race," Gillan sang.
After various adventures the band was forced to move to the summer hotel "Grand Hotel", where they spent the night and after making some modifications to the space, began the arrangements of the instruments, which were completed in the first afternoon.
The owner of Montro casinoClaude Nobbs recalls: "Deep Purple watched the fire from the window of their hotel room and regretted what had happened. They were scheduled to give a concert at the casino and record their new album there.
Eventually, I found them a closed hotel near my house and we set up a temporary studio.
One night, they came to my house for dinner and said, "Claude, we have a surprise for you, but we will not put it on the record. It is a song called Smoke on the Water”. I heard it and I told them that they will be crazy if they leave it off the record and that it will be a huge success ". And how right Nobes was.
The recording period of "Machine Head" was so intense that the then Deep Purple guitarist remembers:
"We had their recording machine Rolling Stones out in the snow, but to get there (our voices) we had to take a cable out of our room through two doors, the hall, inside the bathroom, through another hotel room and from there over a bed and out on the terrace.
The cable then ran through the balcony for about thirty meters and returned through a window to another room. He passed through the bathroom and through the corridor, up to a staircase, the foyer of the reception, the front door, the yard, over a staircase to reach the machine.
The construction allowed us to be more spontaneous, because as soon as we finished one playback, even if it was not perfect, we said "Okay, it's good enough" because we could not bear to do this whole process ".
Legend has it that the lyrics of the song were written by Gillan on a paper towel. The band did not believe at all in the diamond in their hands. It is indicative that the song "Never Before" was released as the first single of the album.
Almost a year after the release of "Machine Head", their company decided to release the song as a single. His success was very big, reaching No. 4 on the American charts, where he was awarded a gold record.
The Montreux has honored the song with a monument on the shores of Lake Geneva, which includes the band's name, song title and notes.