Smoke on the Water.
the thing that amazes me is that the lyrics to the song are accurate but somewhat unremarkable. It's just the riff that is just so damn catchy that has been played by so many guitar players.
We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make a records with a mobile
We didn't have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water
A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky Claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But Swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water
A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty…
It was interesting that when I first heard the song I had never heard Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and that sent me down a mysterious path. Funky Claude was Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The whole song ends up as an anti climax in an empty hotel.
one other phenomenon related to this song was not so much that it first appeared on the album Machine Head by Deep Purple but the more popular version appeared on their double live album Made in Japan, which spawned the craze of people putting Made in Japan stickers on their guitar cases, taken from whatever Japanese consumer product packaging from around that time.
once again, probably the most famous riff in guitar history, but what an average story....
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