LAST EDITED ON Jun-11-19 AT 00:18 AM (EDT)
 
I noted in the annotations for this one that the kids from Dìqiú must need a glossary to understand what the hell "Smoke on the Water" is about. Since the fancy took me to post it, and a link to the Santana version so you can get a feel for what I was on about with the bit about Azusa venturing into solo lead territory, I figured I would do the same.

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We all came down to Montreux¹
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile²
Oh we didn't have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers³
Were at the best place around⁴
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground⁵

Smoke on the water
Fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
And Funky Claude⁶ was running in and out
Yeah, pulling kids off the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
Swiss time⁷ was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race

Smoke on the water
Fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

We ended up at the Grand Hotel⁸
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 this⁹
I know, I know we'll never forget

Smoke on the water
Fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

- Santana
"Smoke on the Water" (feat. Jacoby Shaddix)
Guitar Heaven (2010)

Originally recorded by Deep Purple for Machine Head (1972)

1 A small city in Vaud Canton in Switzerland (pop. of the combined metro area, around 90,000). It is, as the next line notes, on the shore of Lake Geneva. Deep Purple and a number of other bands were there in December 1971 for the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival, which had started branching out to include rock and such-like acts in the '60s.

2 The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, which is, as its name suggests, a mobile recording studio. Basically, a large box truck with a studio control room in it, the idea being that the microphones and suchlike can be set up basically wherever the cables will reach, and the recording engineer works from the truck. Quicker and easier than having to tear down, transport, and set up all the mixing and recording equipment every time. The Stones originally built it for their own use, then went into renting it out to other bands as a sideline. Nowadays it belongs to the National Music Centre in Calgary.

3 The Mothers of Invention, composer and generally avant-garde musical personality Frank Zappa's band.

4 The Montreux Casino, where the Jazz Festival was held until December 4, 1971, when, during a performance by the Mothers of Invention...

5 ... someone in the crowd fired an incendiary device (some accounts say it was a flare, others a bottle rocket or Roman candle) into the ceiling of the theater during the Mothers' performance, and the casino was completely destroyed.

(As an aside, December 1971 was a tough month for Zappa generally. Not only did the Montreux Casino burn down during the Mothers' gig, taking with it around $50,000 worth of the band's gear, but also a week later, a pissed-off fan pushed him into the orchestra pit of a theater in London during a gig there, nearly killing him.)

6 Claude Nobs (1936-2013), the founder and longtime manager of the Montreux Jazz Festival. He was also a volunteer fireman, fortunately for some of the concertgoers when the casino burned down during his festival.

7 Deep Purple's members had limited Swiss work visas, plus they couldn't afford to rent the Mobile Studio indefinitely. It's also a joke about "Swiss Time", a promotional slogan used on coverage of a lot of sporting events timed with Swiss-made instruments back in the day.

8 I'm unsure which Grand Hotel this refers to; there are at least two hotels in Montreux today that have "Grand" in their name. I think it's the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic, today part of the Marriott Autograph Collection. Whichever, the hotel was still under construction when Deep Purple rented it to use as a makeshift studio and finish their album.

9 What they got out of it was 1972's Machine Head, their most successful album.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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