Smoke On The Water, the true story behind Deep Purple’s hit
What not everybody knows is the real episode behind it. It happened in Montreux (Switzerland) in 1971 when, around the end of a concert by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, a spectator fired a rocket that ignited the whole casino (it had to shut down and reopened only in 1975). The title Smoke on the Water, credited to bassist Roger Glover, refers to the smoke spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino, while the members of Deep Purple watched the fire from their hotel. The event (and the track that recalls it) is still commemorated by a sculpture that shows the title and the initial riff in the form of a music sheet, located right below the casino, on the lakeside.
https://auralcrave.com/en/2018/02/15/smoke-on-the-water-the-story-vera-behind-the-hit-of-deep-purple/