One promising venue (found by Nobs) was a local theatre called The Pavilion, but soon after the band had loaded in and started working/recording, the nearby neighbours took offence at the noise, and the band was only able to lay down backing tracks for one song (based on Blackmore's riff and temporarily named "Title No. Left with an expensive mobile recording unit and no place to record, the band was forced to scout the town for another place to set up. The "Funky Claude" running in and out is referring to Claude Nobs, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival who helped some of the audience escape the fire.Ĭlaude Nobs (2006), the "Funky Claude" mentioned in the song But, when it caught, it went up like a fireworks display". I remember there was very little panic getting out, because it didn't seem like much of a fire at first. "It was probably the biggest fire I'd ever seen up to that point and probably ever seen in my life" said Glover, "It was a huge building. The "smoke on the water" that became the title of the song (credited to bass guitarist Roger Glover, who related how the title occurred to him when he suddenly woke from a dream a few days later) referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched the fire from their hotel. Although there were no major injuries, the resulting fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Mothers' equipment. At the beginning of Don Preston's synthesizer solo on "King Kong", the place suddenly caught fire when somebody in the audience fired a flare gun toward the rattan covered ceiling, as mentioned in the "some stupid with a flare gun" line. This was to be the theatre's final concert before the casino complex closed down for its annual winter renovations, which would allow Deep Purple to record there. On the eve of the recording session, a Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention concert was held in the casino's theatre. The lyrics of the song tell a true story: on 4 December 1971 Deep Purple were in Montreux, Switzerland, where they had set up camp to record an album using a mobile recording studio (rented from the Rolling Stones and known as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio-referred to as the "Rolling truck Stones thing" and "a mobile" in the song lyrics) at the entertainment complex that was part of the Montreux Casino (referred to as "the gambling house" in the song lyric). There are two solos in the song the first was performed on guitar by Ritchie Blackmore, and the second was performed on an organ by Jon Lord until the song fades out. In the August show in 1972 in Tokyo, Japan, Blackmore played the intro as follows:
![smoke on the water wiki smoke on the water wiki](https://texashillcountry.com/wp-content/uploads/smokeonthewater-660x390.jpg)
Blackmore usually plays the main riff using a finger pluck or occasionally a plectrum upstroke (to accentuate the tonic). Jon Lord doubles the guitar part on a Hammond C3 organ played through a distorted Marshall amp, creating a tone very similar to that of the guitar. The riff, played on a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar by Blackmore, is later joined by hi-hat and distorted organ, then the rest of the drums, then electric bass parts before the start of Ian Gillan's vocal. It is a four-note blues scale melody in G minor, harmonised in parallel fourths. "Smoke on the Water" is known for and recognizable by its central theme, developed by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Composition File:Smoke on the Water riff.jpg