Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water” charted

Smoke on the Water Deep Purple

Writer(s): Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice (see lyrics here) First Charted: May 26, 1973 Peak: 4 US, 3 CB, 11 GR, 2 HR, 1 CL, 21 UK, 2 CN, 54 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 221.23 video, 520.78 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Ritchie Blackmore’s opening guitar riff may be “the most famous in rock history.” TB Total Guitar magazine ranked it the fourth greatest guitar riff ever. WK Keyboardist Jon Lord said the song’s working title was “‘Durh Durh Durh’ – a transliteration of the riff.” RS500 It has become “the classic air guitar song,” TC “painstakingly imitated by budding guitar players of many future generations, and also patiently taught to the younger set by Jack Black in the movie School of Rock.” UCR Jeff Tweedy of Wilco said, “This riff is absolutely the first thing I ever played on guitar, back when I was seven or eight years old.” JT He said “this riff is so dunderheaded and massive it blots out the sun” JT but “I cannot deny its importance to me, and countless others, as a budding musician.” JT “By the time I was a full-blown teenager, this bong-bruised, coughed-up lung of a song had evolved…to signify a distinct type of danger to a sensitive boy like myself.” JT The song came about in 1971 during Deep Purple’s visit to Montreux, Switzerland – home of the famed Montreux Jazz Festival. Ian Paice, the band’s drummer, said, “We were fed up with traditional recording studios…We had played the Casino earlier that year, and the space was ideal” MM for recording their sixth album, Machine Head. The band went to see Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at the Casino and a concert-goer shot off a flare gun during the show. The place caught fire and destroyed the venue. Lead singer Ian Gillan said the band went to a restaurant nearby and watched the Casino burn. MM Bassist Roger Glover came up with the title “Smoke on the Water” to describe what he called “probably the biggest fire I’d ever seen…in my life.” WK The lyrics, written by Gilland and Glover in about twenty minutes, MM offered up a scene-by-scene account of the debacle. UCR With their recording studio gone, Paice explained that they adjusted to new digs at Le Pavillion, a grand theater nearby that was closed for the winter. The band had already rented the Rolling Stones mobile studio and parked it outside, set up their gear inside, MM and converted hallways and stairwells into a makeshift studio. WK The band were were rushed to finish and wrote much of the material on the spot. However, “Smoke on the Water” serves as “evidence that perhaps sponaeity was a very good thing.” UCR The Machine Head album was released in March 1972 and supported by the release of the singles “Highway Star” and “Never Before.” Glover thought the latter would be the album’s big hit; DT in fact, none of the band anticipated “Smoke on the Water” being a hit. TB It wasn’t until more than a year later it was released as a single and went top 5 in the U.S. and Canada. WK With Gillan’s “banshee range” TC and Lord’s “pretensions towards classical music” TC they became a foundational band in the shaping of heavy metal. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Deep Purple TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 650-1. MM Marc Myers (12/6/2022). Anatomy of 55 More Songs. Grove Press: New York, NY. Pages 151-6. RS500 Rolling Stone (2004). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“ DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 164. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Pages 144-5. JT Jeff Tweedy (11/7/2023). World Within a Song. Dutton/Penguin Random House. Pages 1-3. UCR UltimateClassicRock.com (6/20/2013). “Top 100 Classic Rock Songs” WK Wikipedia Last updated 4/29/2024.

Jesus Christ Superstar opened on Broadway

Jesus Christ Superstar Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice

The Studio Album: Released: November 21, 1970 Peak: 13 US, -- UK, 13 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: show tunes

The Cast Album: Released: January 8, 1972 Peak: 31 US, -- UK, -- CN, 110 AU (1992 Australian cast album) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US

The Soundtrack: Released: June 30, 1973 Peak: 21 US, 23 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Overture Heaven on Their Minds What’s the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying Then We Are Decided s Everything’s Alright This Jesus Must Die Hosanna Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem Pilate’s Dream The Temple Everything’s Alright sr (The Kimberlys, 3/20/71, 99 US – medley of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “Everything’s Alright”; Yvonne Elliman, 9/25/71, 92 US) I Don’t Know How to Love Him (Helen Reddy, 2/20/71, 13 US; Yvonne Elliman, 4/24/71, 28 US) Damned for All Time/Blood Money The Last Supper Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say) The Arrest Peter’s Denial Pilate and Christ King Herod’s Song (Try It and See) Could We Start Again, Please? s Judas’ Death Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes) Superstar (Murray Head, 1/31/70, 14 US; Assembled Multitude, 2/6/71, 95 US) Crucifixion John Nineteen: Forty-One Songs followed by sr (studio release), c (cast album), or s (soundtrack) indicate that the song was unique to that version of the album.

Rating (all versions combined): 4.570 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Jesus Christ Superstar didn’t follow the usual route for successful musicals – a nice run on Broadway accompanied by a cast album and then a movie and soundtrack version a couple years later. It started out as a studio album which topped the U.S. charts before being staged in a theatrical context. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, 21, and lyricist Tim Rice, 25, conceived it as a stage work, but when they couldn’t get the funding, they opted “to use an album as the vehicle for introducing the piece.” BE The success of the studio album opened the door for a stage production. It debuted on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on October 12, 1971. It sarred Jeff Fenholt, Ben Vereen, and Bob Bingham. When Vereen fell ill, Carl Anderson stepped into the role of Judas. They later took turns playing the role. It was met with mixed reviews – even Webber himself criticized it – and closed after 18 months. WK In 1972, the show opened at the Palace Theatre in London with Paul Nicholson starring as Jesus and Stephen Tate as Judas. It ran for eight years, making it the longest-running musical in England at the time. WK “The action largely follows the canonical gospels’ accounts of the last weeks of Jesus’ life, beginning with Jesus and his followers arriving in Jerusalem and ending with the Crucifixion. Twentieth-century attitude and sensibilities as well as contemporary slang pervade the lyrics, and ironic allusions to modern life are scattered throughout the political depiction of the events. Stage and film productions accordingly feature many intentional anachronisms."WK “Audiences from across the age and cultural spectrum responded. Teenagers who didn’t know from Jesus, opera, or oratorios liked the beat, the hard rock sounds, and the singing and bought the album, as did parents who felt that the record offered a chance to understand some aspects of this youth culture around them, and especially its music – and so did some more forward-thinking clergy and theologians, who saw any opportunity to spread the word about Jesus where it wasn’t previously going as intrinsically good.” BE The story focuses on Judas and his “political and interpersonal struggles” WK with Jesus. Judas “is depicted as a conflicted, tragic figure” WK alarmed by Jesus’ lack of planning and “relatively recent claims of his divinity.” WK Such a point of view was “as daring as you could get” WR and “perhaps downright sacrilegious” BE but “it succeeds in all ways.” WR The fact that this was “full-blown rock music” BE was as remarkable as the subject matter. Similar ground had been covered with Hair but that was “really a pop/show-music pastiche, not rock.” WR Jesus Christ Superstar, however, was a “fairly radical rock/theater hybrid” BE making it the first to “successfully put rock music in a theatrical context.” WR The Who created the template with their 1969 album Tommy but it would be 1992 before it became a stage musical. It should also be noted that Jesus Christ Superstar is technically an operetta as it was completely sung without any spoken dialogue. Deep Purple’s lead singer Ian Gillan served as the singing voice of Jesus while Murray Head was Judas and Yvonne Elliman was Mary Magdalene. The latter two had pop hits with “Superstar” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” In 1973, it was made into a film directed by Norman Jewison. It “was shot in Israel and other Middle Eastern locations. Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson were both nominated for 1974 Golden Globe Awards for their portrayals of Jesus and Judas…Though it attracted criticism from some religious groups, the film was generally well received.” WK Combined, the original studio recording, cast album, and soundtrack have sold more than 7.5 million copies, with the cast album moving the mast majority.

Resources and Related Links: BE Bruce Eder, All Music Guide sr WR William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide (review of a cast recording reissue) WK wikipedia.org Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 10/12/2011; last updated 10/3/2023.