During a recent interview with Louder Sound, guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen has shared his thoughts about Deep Purple’s classic song Smoke on the Water.
Here’s the statement:
“I called this Rauch Auf Dem Wasser throughout the sessions. What can I say? It’s just something I wanted to do. I’ve been doing it live for a long time.
“The first album I ever had was Deep Purple’s Fireball, when I was just eight years old. By the time I was ten I could play Made In Japan inside-out, upside-fucking-down. Every single note.
“And this resulted in me becoming a fan of Selling England By The Pound by Genesis, and then Emerson Lake and Palmer, then classical – Vivaldi, Bach – and eventually Paganini. I said, ‘Enough of the Pentatonic blues stuff. I’m going in this direction!'”
On Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, he said:
“Another song I’d always loved but had never played or sung. I didn’t even know what key it was in. I studied several versions of the song, including live versions.
“It’s really interesting, because it’s a song that is written in harmonic minor mode, which is my thing, so I just got to go crazy on it.”
Click here for the entire interview.
