Nobs died in 2013, after a skiing accident, aged 76. By modern standards, this was virtually a live album. It was such a palaver getting out of the hotel and into the mobile studio that they often didn’t bother listening to the playback. The sound he created was clean and sparse, never overly ornate or fussy. Sound engineer Martin Birch did a brilliant job. This no-nonsense attitude was reflected in the production. Today, it’s not only the most celebrated song on the album, but the most celebrated song they’ve ever played. And so belatedly, “Smoke on the Water” ended up on the LP, almost by accident. Then they remembered the demo they’d recorded at The Pavillon, just before the Swiss police threw them out. They’d recorded six classic tracks, including “Lazy”, “Highway Star”, “Pictures of Home” and “Space Truckin’”, but it still came up a bit short for a full LP.
By common consent it was (and still is) Deep Purple’s finest album. In stark contrast to Fireball, which was recorded off and on over nine months, Machine Head was finished within a few weeks.
They set up their equipment in a vacant corridor, and “with a few red lights and a few old beds they made a place to sweat”. As the song says, “it was empty, cold and bare”. Clearly, The Pavillon wouldn’t do so Nobs got them into the Grand Hotel, a huge fin de siècle pile that was closed for the winter – a bit like a Swiss version of The Shining.
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