![]() Smoke On The Water stayed in their live set even after Ian Gillan left in 1973 and was sung by David Coverdale. Incredibly the single was not issued at all in Britain until after the group had split. Radio stations in America picked up on it and before long it was a huge hit in early 1973, and then issued across Europe and Japan as well. A massive album hit in Europe, their American label Warners had the idea to issue a single of Smoke On The Water – with a studio edit on one side and a live edit on the other. Smoke On The Water then appeared on a special live album, Made In Japan, in August 1972. Smoke On The Water was thought too long for a single and the group were sure another album track, Never Before, would be a hit. At first they only finished up as a surprise for Montreux music promoter Claude Nobs, but after they played it to him at a dinner party, he said they’d be crazy not to have it on the album.ĭeep Purple began promoting the new Machine Head album early in 1972, but Smoke On The Water was the last track to be added to their concert set for a BBC broadcast in March. ![]() Ian Gillan wrote the lyrics and this was one of the last tracks recorded for the album. Machine Head was almost finished when they realised they needed another song to balance the album, and remembered the Smoke backing track. The first backing track they laid down was for Smoke On The Water, before police closed down the session after neighbours complained about the volume.ĭeep Purple then moved to the empty Grand Hotel to the south of the town and recorded the rest of the album in one of the corridors with matresses to deaden the noise. ![]() The group set up the Rolling Stones Mobile and began recording in another hall nearby. As the smoke drifted across the lake nearby, the sight inspired Roger Glover to jot down the song title Smoke On The Water. ![]() They had planned to set up and record there the next day but their recording gear and mobile studio were saved and the group escaped with everyone else, and watched the hall burn down. Smoke On The Water was written and recorded during sessions for Deep Purple’s seminal rock album Machine Head (the third by the Mk 2 line-up of Gillan, Glover, Blackmore, Lord and Paice) in Montreux, Switzerland in December 1971.ĭeep Purple were watching a Frank Zappa concert in Montreux’s Casino concert hall when a flare gun was discharged into the ceiling and started a fire which eventually destroyed the venue. ![]() Smoke On The Water generate more interest and comment than just about any other aspect of Deep Purple’s history, so we have added brief history of the track for new readers. ![]()
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