Machine Head (album) - Recording

Recording

Frank Zappa's 4 December concert at the Casino was made infamous when a member of the audience fired a flare into the building's roof. Although there were no fatalities, the resultant fire ruined Deep Purple's plans. Nobs relocated the band to a nearby theatre called the Pavilion, where they recorded the basic tracks for a song provisionally titled "Title No. 1." Bass player Roger Glover said he woke up saying the title "Smoke on the Water" out loud, one morning. Later Gillan based on the title, wrote the lyrics describing the band's experience in Montreux, recording the Machine Head album. A photograph of the burning Montreux Casino would ultimately be included in the gatefold of Machine Head's album cover.

We had the Rolling Stones' mobile recording unit sitting outside in the snow, but to get there we had to run cable through two doors in the corridor into a room, through a bathroom and into another room, from which it went across a bed and out the veranda window, then ran along the balcony for about 100 feet and came back in through another bedroom window. It then went through that room's bathroom and into another corridor, then all the way down a marble staircase to the foyer reception area of the hotel, out the front door, across the courtyard and up the steps into the back of the mobile unit. I think that setup led to capturing some spontaneity, because once we got to the truck for a playback, even if we didn’t think it was a perfect take, we’d go, 'Yeah, that’s good enough.' Because we just couldn’t stand going back again.

“ ” Ritchie Blackmore

As a new location the Pavilion proved to be impractical, as local residents flooded the local police station's switchboard to complain about the noise the band made. Although the police were prevented from entering the building by the band's roadies, who held the venue's doors shut, the band were quickly evicted. They searched for other locations in which to record and settled on the Grand Hotel, on the edge of Montreux. With the mobile recording unit parked at the main entrance, they set up at the end of one of the building's corridors, off the main lobby. An assortment of equipment and sound-insulating mattresses meant that to get to the recording van the band were forced to walk through bedrooms and across balconies. This proved so arduous that they stopped listening to playbacks of their recordings, instead performing until they were satisfied with what they had.

A song entitled "When a Blind Man Cries" was recorded during these sessions, but not included on the album. Instead, it was used as the B-side on the "Never Before" single. The song appears as a bonus track on the album's 25th anniversary edition.

The supporting tour for Machine Head included a trip to Japan that would later become the double-live Made in Japan album.

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Famous quotes containing the word recording:

    “Self-expression is not enough; experiment is not enough; the recording of special moments or cases is not enough. All of the arts have broken faith or lost connection with their origin and function. They have ceased to be concerned with the legitimate and permanent material of art.”
    —Jane Heap (c. 1880–1964)

    “He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
    MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
    —Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)

    “Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)