Nirvana's ' Smells Like Teen Spirit' came second and Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' third.ДЄccording to the London Times newspaper, Ritchie Blackmore was embarrassed to present this song to his fellow members of Deep Purple because it was such a Neanderthal tune for a guitarist of his caliber to come up with. In a 2008 survey of students from music schools across London, this topped a poll to find the best ever guitar riff. As they were recording this song, the police were knocking on the door of the studio to kick them out. They stayed past when they were supposed to get out. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)ДЄccording to an interview with Ian Gillian on VH1's Classic Albums: Machine Head, Gillian said that the band did not have much money when recording this album and were renting a recording studio. His wife gets her way and they take home a piece of furniture instead - the point being the large payload capacity of the truck. The song plays on a jukebox that a guy is eyeing in an antique store. This was used in commercials for Dodge trucks. It's hard to compete with outsourcing, however, and the record was beaten on Octowhen 1,730 guitarists gathered in Shillong, India to perform 'Knocking On Heaven's Door.' The event was organized by radio station KYYS. Guitarists from as far as Scotland came out for the event.

The entire song was played, though only the one lead guitar played the solo. On Jin Kansas City, Kansas, 1,721 guitarists gathered to play this song together and break the record for most guitarists playing at one time. The famous guitar riff is performed in the 2003 Jack Black film School Of Rock. On the album, he performed heavy metal songs with string instruments, pianos, etc., but in this case kept the famous guitar riff and even allowed the guitarist a solo. Pat Boone covered this on In a Metal Mood. Homer is heard crooning to this song in an a episode of The Simpsons in which he uses medicinal marijuana. They called the project 'Rock Aid Armenia,' with proceeds going to victims of the Armenian earthquake. In 1989, Former members Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan released a new version of this with Robert Plant, Brian May, and Bruce Dickinson. In the UK, this was not released as a single. In the middle of the song, it says 'Funky Claude was getting people out of the building,' and actually when I meet a lot of rock musicians, they still say, 'Oh here comes Funky Claude.'' They said, 'Oh if you believe so we'll put it on the album.' It's actually the very precise description of the fire in the casino, of Frank Zappa getting the kids out of the casino, and every detail in the song is true. It's going to be a huge thing.' Now there's no guitar player in the world who doesn't know. It's a tune called 'Smoke On The Water.'' So I listened to it. One day they were coming up for dinner at my house and they said, 'Claude we did a little surprise for you, but it's not going to be on the album. Finally I found a place in a little abandoned hotel next to my house and we made a temporary studio for them. Poor Claude and there's no casino anymore!' They were supposed to do a live gig and record the new album there. Nobs explained to how this song arose out of the ashes: 'Deep Purple were watching the whole fire from their hotel window, and they said, 'Oh my God, look what happened. He is the co-founder of the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival. 'Funky Claude,' as in the lyrics 'Funky Claude was running in and out pulling kids out the ground,' is Claude Nobs, a man who helped rescue some people in the fire and found another hotel for the band to stay. The B-side of the single was another version of the song, recorded live in Japan. It took off when they released it as a US single over a year after the album came out.

The band did not think this would be a hit and rarely played it live. The water that provides a base for the smoke in this song is Lake Geneva, which the casino overlooked. He thought it was a great title, but was reluctant to use it because it sounded like a drug song. Roger Glover came up with the image of smoke on the water. This prompted Ian Gillan to say 'Break a leg, Frank,' into the microphone after recording this for a BBC special in 1972. He then broke his leg a few days later when a fan pulled him into the crowd at a show in England. See a photo of the fire in Song Images.ДЇrank Zappa, who is mentioned in the lyrics, lost all his equipment in the fire. The band was relocated to another hotel and recorded the album in the Rolling Stones mobile studio. The band was going to record their Machine Head album there right after a Frank Zappa concert, but someone fired a flare gun at the ceiling during Zappa's show, which set the place on fire. ' Smoke on the Water' is a song by Deep Purple which is about a fire in the Casino at Montreux, Switzerland.

Smoke on the water guitar