31 - Smoke On The Water (Deep Purple)

Covering the iconic SOLO, and of course the riff & unusual chords.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, I want to talk about Smoke on the Water by D Purple. It's such an iconic riff, everybody knows it. But I want to dive into it and show you the cool things about it and like the peculiar things about it. And I also want to start with like a little story about the song. Like for those that don't know, I'm gonna read this quick summary on Google about Smoke on the Water. Check this out. For those that don't know, Smoke in the Water by D-Purple is a 1972 rock song that acts as a literal biographical account of a real-life fire that destroyed the Montreux Casino in Switzerland on December 4th, 1971. Summary of the the events detailed in the song. So the setting, D-Purple, was in Montreux to record their album Machine Head using the Rolling Stones mobile studio. The incident. And during the show, an audience member, some stupid with a flare gun, which is the lyric in the song, fired a flare into the wicker-covered ceiling and setting the venue on fire. Everyone escaped, but the casino burned down, and the smoke from the fire spread across Lake Geneva, creating the scene that inspired the title Smoke in the Water. Funky Claude, the lyrics mentioned Funky Claude, referring to Claude Knobbs, the Mantra Jazz Festival organizer who helped rescue audience members from the fire. After losing their recording location, the band ended up recording the album at the nearby Grand Hotel and using mattresses for soundproofing. Wild, man. It's all based on a true story. And uh Richie Blackmore is a lead guitarist of uh Deep Purple, and he's so awesome. We're gonna go over the solo. I'll give a little tutorial on that. But the main riff that we all know, right? So it goes. I first learned it, and I'm sure a lot of other guitarists did by playing it like this. Right, on the low E string. But it's actually played on the D and G string, and I believe he plucks it. Like, you know, I have like the volume knob turned down a bit, and we just got like And one thing I love about the riff is like how long it is, right? And it tells a little pentatonic, like a blues pentatonic story. We got like the root to the third to the fourth, and then the same thing. It always starts with and then we got the that's the blues note. It's the tritone, so it's like O3, like root, minor third, tritone to the fourth, and then that repeats, and then it's like the end of the little story. I love that. And it's played in fourths, okay? So it's just like parallel fourths all the way through. And when you pluck it like that, it just gives it like a different sound. Like this is what it sounds like picked. Sounds different. I like okay now um the bass riff when it goes right. I love that. Like that the quarter notes that the bass is doing in the intro is like really key to like amplifying it and like bringing some movement. When the verse enters, it goes. That's just like root fifth octave, and then it goes a quick now. That is the seven chord. So we got G and then we go to F. Nice touch of color there. And the lyrics, we all came out to mantra on the Lake Geneva shoreline. On the n on the Lake Geneva shoreline to make records with a mobile. We didn't have much time, but Frank Zappa and the mother were at the best place around. So I'm stupid with a flag on burn the place to the ground. Okay, so we've been doing the one chord and the seven chord this whole time, and now we go to the four chord, but in a minor key, it's supposed to be C minor, okay? Supposed to be supposed to be a minor four chord, but they do major. Like two chords that do not belong in G minor, which is the key that we're in, at all. It goes, I mean it goes to the major four chord. It's like common to do that. It's not out of this world to do that, but it's just like a really nice bright kind of major touch. Singing the major third, further accentuating C major, right? The four major four chord now. That's really nice. So this is crazy. He's doing the flat two. Like it should be, he should be playing A in the key of G minor, right? But he's playing A flat. It's like a Phrygian move, a flat two. Phrygian is a mode, a minor mode, that's common in like flamenco music. And then back to like the G minor. Those are just G minor notes. Root to the third, and then root to the seventh. And then back to the heavy truck riff. The riff is like a mini story, I love it, just trudges along. Second verse. They burned down again house. It died with an awful sound. A funky god was running in and out Pulling kids off the ground. Ow. But it all was out We had to find another place. I love this. But Swiss time was running out! It seemed that we would lose the race. Back to the course. Back to the riff. And real quick, the vocal melody is like just straight blues, straight pentatonic blues, right? Just the bluesy notes, right? It's like a guitar solo. But twist. I love it. And what a burst of color with just on the wall. I love that. And then back to earth. Awesome. Okay, now the solo. Richie Blackmore solo, man, like it's such it's so nice. Like when you really listen to it, I love the vibrato. So neck pickup, and he does uh just like the fifth to the seventh to the root. Like even that first note, or sorry, that third note. Like his vibrato there is so awesome, and then oh man. Like that touch right there. He starts from the top and he bends down. Love that. That's a 13th fret, 12th fret on the G back to the 11th fret on the B, and then I'll play it really slowly. Okay. Like what nice style right there. Like, really nice movement. And then this crazy lick right here is like it's so fast and it's really, really interesting movement. Like, I don't know any lick like it. Very, very unique. So very slow it's down the minor scalp. And then a descension on the whammy bar. So it goes. That part is like so it sounds so like sneaky. Just playing around with the G minor notes. And then he's just in the G minor pentatonic box here. Like so groovy, so stylish, right? Like he did that same pattern here. Right? Now he's here he was doing C minor pentatonic, and now here he's doing G minor pentatonic. And let me just pause because I want to talk about the backing of the solo. So the solo goes like It's just two chords, G minor, and then we go to quick C, but it's like it's enough to give it like a nice lift. He holds the four there. Holds it's so high, I know. And it goes to the seventh chord for the first time in the solo. And that's when it goes back to the rip, but it goes to G minor. Because the riff is outlining G minor essentially. But that's what's going on. There's just two chords mainly, like a quick C there, and then finally, and it goes. That seventh chord is so important. So let's continue on with the solo. I just wanted to show what's going on behind it. So then I just love the flubbery sound of the neck pickup, right? Oh, that's like the strat neck pickup sound. And then right at that moment is when it goes It's so colorful, it's so lifted, it's like on like a pedestal right there. Because that four chord is holding there at that moment. You see, like it's so smart to have it like in a solo to have like a core, like an interesting chord change, or maybe it holds longer than usual. It makes the solo feel so much more interesting. But I love that. That's so nice. And now here's the four quarter here. Like so much character in those bands, right? I love that. And then back down here to the G minor box. That's like a classic blues lick right there. It's like a lot of like calm response going on here, and then it goes. Like when you bend from the minor seventh to the root, you get and playing that over, it just like so stylish and groovy. It's it's so smooth, it's awesome. And then it goes, We ended up at the grand hotel. Oh yeah, the way he sings that he goes, We ended up at the grand hotel. It was empty cold. It was empty cold and bare But with the rolling truck stones thing just outside making our mu making our music there with a few red lights, a few old beds, we make a place to sweat no matter what we get out of this. Ha, I know, I know we'll never forget.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Fire in the sky on the water iconic And then near the end you hear like a like something like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

You just hear that bend, but it's like it's almost like the stored like a radio sound. It's so nice. Like the outro of this song is really cool. It's just such a groovy, like heavy song. Like, like I said, it sounds like a heavy truck. It's the Rolling Stones, it's the Rolling Truck Stones thing. Thanks for tuning into this episode. I know it's such like a common song, but I think it there's a lot of like substance to it still. The Deep People really is such a killer band, and they're amazing live, too. But if you write your own songs and you'd like my feedback on them, just check out learn.damberkuda.com slash feedback. I love breaking down people's songs. I'll do a private video for you. There's two options for breakdowns on that link. And uh see you guys in the next episode.