Na današnji da 3. prosinca 1971. Deep Purple su došli u Švicarski Montreux snimiti live album “Machine Head” u Casinu na Ženevskom jezeru, u vrijeme dok su se Deep Purple pripremali za snimanje albuma, Frank Zappa je nastupao sa svojim bandom The Mothers Of Invention u istom Casinu.
Koncert je prekinut jer se neki fan igrao sa signalnim pištoljem, pa je izbila vatra. Ozljeđenih nije bilo, ali je zato Casino izgorio do temelja. Frank Zappa je bio poznat po zafrkancijama na koncertima, pa kada je mirno rekao: “Ljudi izbila je vatra, polako napustite dvoranu”, nitko mu nije vjerovao. Zatim je povikao: “Budale požar!” i pobjegao sa bine, tek tada su mu povjerovali.
Taj događaj je inspirirao Deep Purple, točnije Blackmorea da smisli riff, a Gillan se dao na pisanje teksta koji počinje sa: “We all went down to Montreux”, za “Smoke On the Water“, možda i najbolju i najpoznatiju pjesmu jednog od najboljih hard rock bandova svih vremena.
Album “Machine Head” na kraju je snimljen u Grand Hotelu u Montreuxu, a izašao je u ožujku 1972. godine sa hitom “Smoke On The Water”.
Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water
(Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice)
We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make 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, fire in the sky
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, fire in the sky
We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty cold and bare
But with the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We made a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky
