10 Popular Guitar Riffs Invented Accidentally
7. Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
The story of how Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" came together has to be one of the craziest music-related stories of all time.
It all started in 1971 in the sleepy Swiss town of Montreux. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing a gig at the Montreux Casino only to find themselves in the middle of a fire just 90 minutes in. It was later revealed that a "fan" had fired a flare gun at the wooden roof which then instantly caught fire and put an end to the gig.
Deep Purple was also in town and had rented a truck from the Rolling Stones so they could record some new material. The fire was so big that the band had to evacuate their hotel rooms, forcing them to watch in horror as the fire got so big that the smoke had reached across to the nearby lake. Hence the title. The band quickly composed a riff to go with the song and the rest, as they say, is history.
Just think, if it wasn't for "some stupid with a flare gun" as the famed lyrics go, the now-famous riff would have never happened at all.