Rock and roll stars are not expected to be the most law-abiding persons in the world. If Keith Richards’ admirers discovered that he spent most of his free time sitting in his hotel room watching TV rather than living up to his rockstar reputation, they were likely to feel disappointed. Deep Purple may have emerged during an era that glorified a hedonistic lifestyle. But they were arrested for doing exactly what they were meant to do.
It is not as if the band couldn’t engage in bad behavior when they wanted to. Ritchie Blackmore was well-known for defying the rules wherever possible. He even hid during the California Jam Festival to ensure the band could perform after sunset. Controlling the set may seem like a bad idea. But no one can stop a band from recording something in the studio.
As the trio began work on what would become Machine Head. They encountered a huge stumbling block when the venue they were scheduled to record in burned down during a Frank Zappa concert. While they may have avoided a bullet by not putting their equipment into the venue as intended. The hunt was on for a new studio in the middle of Switzerland.
After discovering an abandoned hotel that looked like something out of The Shining. Deep Purple opted to use The Rolling Stones mobile studio to record the majority of the album. Among the tunes, they had already been working on, such as ‘Highway Star‘. Ian Gillan had the beginnings of a song about their unusual circumstances with ‘Smoke on the Water’.
Even though the song has become one of the world’s most memorable guitar earworms. The band aimed to perfect their mobile product by the end of the week. Working late into the night in a typical studio is not the same as working in a little suburban town in the Swiss Alps.
According to bassist Roger Glover, the entire band was in the middle of recording when cops attempted to break in. He told Classic Albums, “Just as we were performing the take of what would eventually be ‘Smoke on the Water’, the police were there. And our roadies were holding the door shut because, supposedly, we were keeping the entire town of Montreux running.
However, the entire world would suffer from hearing the song continuously for the next few years. I mean, if you think hearing the music every time you walk into a guitar shop gets boring fairly quickly, just imagine how it felt while the band went through take after take. They probably performed it quite badly while they tried to get themselves together for the final record.
Listening to the music made it difficult to know if the band had cops outside the studio. Compared to the hard rock edge of the rest of the record, the song has a laid-back groove. It’s almost tough to ignore once those initial notes blare out of the speakers.
Blackmore will declare his praise for the cops, stating that the final take of the song wouldn’t have been possible without their help. Deep Purple may have been able to make various strides every time they recorded a record. However, if they had carried on for a few more takes, odds are they would have left this album in handcuffs rather than with an all-time classic.
