Deep Purple’s Mark II line-up released many great songs, but none have echoed down the years like Smoke On The Water. Released in 1972, it’s one of the greatest rock songs of all time for at least two reasons. Firstly, it has that riff, one of the most memorable sequences of four notes ever arranged. Secondly, it deserves a prize from the Campaign For Plain English thanks to its helpfully literal lyrics, which detail the most iconic gig-gone-wrong in history.
The band – Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Roger Glover (bass), Jon Lord (organ) and Ian Paice (drums) – had visited Montreux, near Lake Geneva in Switzerland (‘We all came down to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline’) in order to record a new album in a mobile studio without delay (‘To make records on a mobile, we didn’t have much time’). See? Add to this the immortal chorus line about a fire near the lake (‘Smo-o-oke on the water!’) and there really isn’t much room for misinterpretation.
