Lyrics to
Smoke On The Water

This version of Smoke On The Water was released by Deep Purple in 1972.

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We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn’t have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky Claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But Swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

We ended up at the Grand Hotel
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 make a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

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Deep Purple has released many songs over the years besides Smoke On The Water. Deep Purple released songs from 1968 to 2005 spanning across albums like The Book Of Taliesyn, Shades Of Deep Purple, Deep Purple, Deep Purple In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are, Burn, Stormbringer, Come Taste The Band, Perfect Strangers, The House Of Blue Light, Slaves And Masters, The Battle Rages On..., Purpendicular, Abandon, Bananas, and Rapture Of The Deep. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Deep Purple.

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About Lyrics and Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple

The lyrics for Smoke On The Water are defined as the words making up the song released by Deep Purple in 1972. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Smoke On The Water have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Deep Purple and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Smoke On The Water" means the words set to the music of Smoke On The Water, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Deep Purple. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Smoke On The Water and the lyrics to Smoke On The Water are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Deep Purple who came here looking just for the lyrics to Smoke On The Water, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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