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. English rock band Deep Purples classic 'Smoke on the Water' was fully inspired by a casino fire that decimated the building - and almost cost concertgoers their lives. Poor Claude and there’s no casino anymore!” They were supposed to do a live gig and record the new album there. Smoke On The Water (Deep Purple) lesson with Daniele Tornaghi, originally played by Ritchie Blackmore.Level: AdvancedTAB available at. How did the Deep Purple song evolve out of the ashes?ĭeep Purple were watching the whole fire from their hotel window, and they said, “Oh my God, look what happened. And the people were watching the fire thinking, “Oh, you know, Frank Zappa is just doing an incredible ending to his show.” The people went out through that exit, and within about five minutes, the 2,000 kids were out. Then a lot of people could go out through there. The thick medieval groove Ritchie Blackmore summoned for Deep Purples massive 1973 hit, Smoke on the Water, has become synonymous with the word riff. Frank Zappa took his guitar – a Gibson, a very strong one – and he smashed the big window down with his guitar.
It was actually not that difficult because we had big bow windows in the concert hall overlooking the swimming pool. There’s even a lyric about it in “Smoke On The Water.” You helped get people out of the burning building.