Monday, June 29, 2015

Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

This afternoon, I was at the community pool with the nephews, before a downpour came. While there I listened to this song and started thinking about the gripping story as told in the song. I have my settings on random, I never know what is going to play next.

Smoke on the Water, Fire in the Sky, is a song memorializing a nasty real life event in Montreux Switzerland. Somebody may have died in the fire, the song doesn't make that clear.
The song is honoured in Montreux by a sculpture along the lake shore (right next to the statue of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury) with the band's name, the song title, and the riff in musical notes.
I thought, why is it that we would never think of banning a song memorializing whatever, something or other, as easily as we seem eager to ban a flag?

I know, maybe I'm beating a dead horse, with yet another apparent confederate flag post. But maybe somebody can elucidate my puzzled mind... Smoke on the water, fire in the sky.

Now I cant stop listening to it.


Link to video

Lyrics at the jump 

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 Stones truck 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

44 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There is a possibility my logic is flawed. That's probably the best bet.

Meade said...

"as easily as we seem eager to ban a flag?"

Has the confederate flag actually been banned or has it just been taken down, no longer used for marketing/merchandizing, etc? I think it's rare when a government in the U.S. has made it actually illegal to fly a flag or play a song.

Many songs have in fact been "banned" in the U.S. by media, not government.

Meade said...

Similar to having a blog comment taken down or deleted. You haven't been "banned" even though it might feel like and hurt your feelings. And it isn't government censorship even though you might feel like you had a right to free speech on someone else's blog.

bagoh20 said...

These hot potatoes like the n-word and a bunch of others are at least culturally banned, where you can suffer quite severe punishment for violating the ban. You can lose a job, a business, a reputation, an election, or even a child if you are not sufficiently apologetic, and even then it may be too little or too late to save you. I don't think a legal ban would be any worse. I think that these cultural bans are contrary to the American spirit, and show a weakened culture as it does a weakened blog that is incapable of having an open discussion with people of various cultural expressions and sensibilities. That may not be the fault of the one doing the banning but the result is the same: a stunted thing.

Personally, I can not be insulted by words or symbols, although cymbals can take me to a homicidal place.

bagoh20 said...

"I was at the community pool..."

Are you bragging about your immune system, or implying you like golden showers?

ricpic said...

Montreux is one of those places where I couldn't afford the restroom fee, nevermind staying overnight. If memory serves quite a few artists (those who escaped becoming cannon fodder) retreated to Montreux during WW I and if not the birthplace of Dada, Montreux was a safe womb in which it could gestate. Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Kurt Schwitters to name some.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

To digress very slightly, Wheel in the Sky is actually kind of a cool song, and nearly the only one Journey made that's worth listening to you.

For further proof, I offer you this.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Similar to having a blog comment taken down or deleted. You haven't been "banned" even though it might feel like and hurt your feelings.

Claiming that one was made to feel like a victim has become so fashionable these days, that even reactionaries have caught on.

It offers an easy response. Ask why political correctness previously required us to respect the Northern Virginia Battle Flag or privilege straight marriage.

It was, after all, for the sake of political correctness that we made these compromises. It was just old-school, "traditional" political correctness.

chickelit said...

Is that Ian Gillan? Did you know that he played Jesus in the Superstar musical?

When the Roger Glover's bass guitar kicks in--at least on the "Made In Japan" version--that was the true test of any teenaged-boy's woofers.

chickelit said...

"Wheel In The Sky" Isn't that Journey?

chickelit said...

Montreux during WW I and if not the birthplace of Dada, Montreux was a safe womb in which it could gestate.

I though Dada started in Zurich.

chickelit said...

The Kinks were banned from the US for four years, 1965-69, this was during the height of their British Invasion period. Lots of money lost.

ricpic said...

Hey, I was wrong, it wasn't Montreux, it was Zurich where all the artists got together and invented Dada. Switzerland, right? Close enough. Personally I find the best of Dada to be the least tortured with protest. Arp's so-called biomorphic shapes are deeply pleasing whatever the original intent. Also true of Yves Tanguy's strange atmospheric rocklike landscapes and eerie skies. Although there's a painting by Tanguy, Mama, Papa Is Wounded, that is, shall we say a naked shocker to this day. Hey Lem, be a sweetheart and put it up if you get a chance. Or if not that's okay too.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Sure thing, when a slot comes up in between talking posts.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Has the confederate flag actually been banned or has it just been taken down, no longer used for marketing/merchandizing, etc?

That's what so lethal? about the way this ban is going.

There is no official body calling for it. It's all happening as if by a driverless incorporeal force. Some call it fear. I call it fear too.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

NASCAR is instituting some kind of anti-confederate flag policy.

That's got to be a big chunk of their base... They have smart people running their numbers. If they are willing to take a risk like that, alienating people over a dead flag, you know something bigger than anything else is driving that.

Something unaccommodating.

chickelit said...

Listen to ricpic name drop Dada artists. I lived in Zurich for 2 years and you know way more than me.

Shouting Thomas said...

Ritmo, as usual you try so hard to be clever that you end up being stupid. Fascinating to observe another dumb kid imagining himself a brave truth teller for advocating censorship, suppression, shushing and denunciation. But, that's where we've arrived. The kids imagine themselves to be brave rebels for blubbering up the conventional government/academic/corporate garbage. And, that is all you ever do, Ritmo. You're a conformist drone.

I suggest you start reading R. Crumb. Your stupidity appears to be incurable, but what the hell...

Meade, the Nazi punk... what can you expect from him?

This punk is hunting down anonymous commenters on the web and revealing their names, spousal names and the names of their children. He wants them to know that he won't flinch from denouncing them at work or in their community.

Meade spends his days roving the web denouncing people as bigots. It would be interesting to count the number of people this piece of shit denounces per day. It's all the dumb, vicious bastard knows how to do.

There is a reason for this. His relationship with Althouse is entirely ideological. I've been around this shit for 40 years in SF, NYC and Woodstock. The drama of us versus them is all this punk has going to keep his meal ticket punched. Althouse, fag hag that she is, can't do better than this weasel, informer and denunciation artist. What hetero man with any dignity wants an old fag hag?

The drama of painting on blackface and pretending to be niggers is all these two pieces of shit have going. They are living on, what, $200,000 and this is what these stupid jerks do with their time... dramatize themselves in the us against them game. These two dumb fucks could be doing anything, and the blackface crusade is their choice.

So, go ahead and denounce me, Meade. Fucking lot of good it will do you. I'm retired, my house is paid for and I'm financially set for the rest of my life. My name is Stephen Thomas, Nazi fuck. Go ahead and broadcast it on the web. I'll send you my fucking address if you want it, you Nazi fuck.

Send me yours. I'm still holding on to the jar of free blackface for you. There is a lot of satisfying humor in going to Crack's site every day to read his denunciation of you and Althouse as virulent racists, which is indeed what you are.

Seig Heil, Nazi fuck!

chickelit said...

It's spelled Sieg Heil!

/spelling nazi

chickelit said...

This punk is hunting down anonymous commenters on the web and revealing their names, spousal names and the names of their children.

Is this true Meade? The reason I ask is because of how you treated Haz out of the blue the other day.

Shouting Thomas said...

Ha!

Shouting Thomas said...

You're expecting this Nazi fuck to tell the truth?

chickelit said...

Looking at the young kids in the Deep Purple audience, I can easily see myself.

Trooper York said...

Leisure Suit Larry will be sure to cover his tracks. By deleting his most rancid comments.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I was trying to understand the deep wisdom you were attempting to impart to my poor, knavish self, Kind Sir, but had trouble understanding what was said through the spittle flying between the monitor pixels.

Anyway, it's a red herring so red it's nearly blood crimson to lie about about anyone wanting to censor the KKK's flag. It can't be "banned" by government. Free speech demands that much. What's instead going to happen is that polite society and government are agreeing not to sponsor the waving and manufacture of hateful symbols. No big deal - except to Nazis. But we're Americans, and Lincoln supporters who know our history and have no need to pretend there's pride to be found in those who hate that heritage.

The flag is going into museums, where it belongs. People waving it are further and further marginalized, through no fault other than the persistence of their arrogant, exclusionary, racist hate and the fact that fewer and fewer people, both decent and simply civilized, want anything to do with that any more.

Your proud hatred is losing in the marketplace of ideas, the court of public opinion - no matter how much you want to piss and moan about it. Your country has moved on. Holding its progress hostages to demands of respect for stupid symbols just ensures that it will move on without you, and leave you behind.

Enjoy the view from the back of the parade.

chickelit said...

Enjoy the view from the back of the parade.

Oh, that parade

chickelit said...

@R&B: I asked (10:29) a question that is being avoided.

GTF out of the way.

Shouting Thomas said...

Hateful haters and progress.

As I said, Ritmo, you can always be counted on to burp up all the conventional cliches whilst imaging yourself a clever and insightful thinker of daring thoughts.

You just the usual cowardly ass kisser.

Shouting Thomas said...

Here, I'll give you a chance kid.

Try to say something... anything... that isn't just the dreary droning of the corporate Diversity consultant.

Give it a shot. Let's see what you can do.

Meade said...

Mercy.

Meade said...

chickelit said...
This punk is hunting down anonymous commenters on the web and revealing their names, spousal names and the names of their children.

"Is this true Meade?"

No. If by "the punk", you mean me, no, none of that is true.

Meade said...

Also, chickelit, please don't accuse me of "avoiding" your questions. I'm in a different time zone than you. I'm on a different schedule — usually up at 4 and asleep by 9. I very rarely suffer from insomnia but I have compassion for those who do. Nothing like sleep deprivation or disturbance to cause restiveness and to cause a person to be playing with less than a full deck.

If you have a question for me that you feel needs to be answered, I know you know that I know you have my email address.

Shouting Thomas said...

Well, you're lying, Meade, which is to be expected from a fucking Nazi like you.

Better find another blackface cause to promote, else you and your wife will actually have to face one another minus the sanctimonious crusades.

Where do I send that jar of blackface?

Meade said...

When do you sleep?

Shouting Thomas said...

When do you do anything besides suck on fag hag tit and roam the web to denounce people as bigots?

Have I told you today that you are a vile Nazi fuck?

Meade said...

Yes, you have. You tell me that every day it seems.

Meade said...

You said up above that your real name is Stephen Thomas. I'll assume that's true.

Is there some way I can help you, Stephen. You seem terribly troubled.

Shouting Thomas said...

Ah, the therapeutic approach!

That's predictable.

Yes, that's the contemporary fucking con artist gambit.

Meade said...

Okay, look — I need to go do some work but I'll check back sometime this afternoon. If I can help you with anything, Stephen, please don't hesitate to tell me what it is.

Shouting Thomas said...

Sell the con to somebody else, Nazi.

Meade said...

I'm not a therapist, I'm just a gardener. If I have hurt you in any way, please tell me exactly how that is so I can apologize.

Shouting Thomas said...

I'm immune to your cons, Nazi.

Keep working in on Althouse.

Shouting Thomas said...

Fascinates you that you've found somebody who won't buy into the con, huh, Nazi?

ndspinelli said...

Obviously a manic phase. He can't lash out against his meal ticket. So, he spews here, and elsewhere. You can always judge the home front by his venom elsewhere.