Did "Deep Purpl'e" "Smoke on the Water" Reflect an Actual Event?

Cafe Society
21

You’re confusing three separate incidents. The collaged version of “King Kong” on YCDTOSA Vol. 3 includes excerpts from the London Rainbow show one week after the Montreux show mentioned in “Smoke on the Water,” which ended with Zappa being severely injured after being pushed off the stage by a deranged audience member. (That actual incident was not captured on tape.) The track with the pop of a gun comes shortly before “King Kong” on the CD: “Cocaine Decisions” from the 1982 show in Palermo at which the audience rioted, and a tear gas gun is audible on the recording. The bootleg Swiss Cheese/Fire includes the complete show from Montreux, and reveals that Howard Kaylan’s first instinct upon spotting the flames is to make a joke about “Fire” singer Arthur Brown. The incident can be heard here:

22

I bow to your superior FZ knowledge. His father really was Mr. Greenjeans though, wasn’t he? :wink:

23

I wasn’t aware for a long time that “Funky Claude” Nobs was the guy who introduced the band at the start of my favorite live album- Jethro Tull’s*** Bursting Out***.

24

You are right-its an obvious waste of time to pose a question here!

25

I had the single (an actual vinyl 78 record) for “Smoke on the Water”, I couldn’t tell you any other song by Deep Purple or what the B side song was on that single. I played it all the time and I had no idea what they were singing about since I couldn’t understand most of the lyrics. Back then we couldn’t just go online and do that fancy-schmancy googley thing to look stuff up! Kids these days have no idea how easy they have it.

wanders off muttering something about “the lawn”

26

Well, in all fairness, you may as well have asked “Was the Edmund Fitzgerald a real ship?”

27

Don’t leave us hanging! :eek:

28

Barney, the Dinosaur. That’s who.

29

And Tinky Winky.

30

Rule 34 … let’s not go there.

31

No, it wasn’t.

It was a real iron boat.

32

It should be noted that Smoke on the Water has one of the best bass lines ever.

33

As the big ships go, she was bigger than most.

Figure THAT one out.

34

Ever occur to you that the board isn’t *just *about getting information? Sometimes it’s to open an enjoyable discussion - such as this one.

35

Artistic license.

On the Great Lakes, referring to a respectable iron boat as a ship can be fighting words. :eek:

36

A note to DP/Machine Head fans: do yourself a favor and check out the remix Roger Glover did for the 25th Anniversary re-issue.

37

Hands up - how many people cannot play a guitar at all, but can play the first few bars of “Smoke on the Water” ?

38

Or here, for that matter?

39

Yes, it was a question that could be answered by checking wiki, but it did prompt an interesting discussion of Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, and Great Lakes iron boats. So it gets a pass from me.

40

Sure but Ralph didn’t start a thread to discuss the song. He opened a thread to ask an easily-answered question. The discussion was in spite of that.