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Here’s a song, tells the story…
During a May 2, 2026, 2. Budesliga football match between Dynamo Dresden and 1. FC Kaiserslautern fans started a chant that suspiciously sounds like The Riff. The game is posted to youtube, but we’re told that it is not available in many countries, so here’s an audio snippet:
Back on the British Isles, comedian Bill Bailey, whose career highlight must have been playing cowbells with Deep Purple, features in 2022 BBC Radio comedy Hennikay. Specifically, in episode S01E02 Grown-Up Stuff, his character Guy Starling discusses with a child playing Smoke from about 50 seconds in. The show is available for ‘Listen Now‘ online in the UK, but apparently not overseas.
Digging further down the line, US sitcom Two and a Half Men that aired in 2003-2015, featured that damn thing in several episodes throughout the years, with the “half man” kid playing the riff obsessively, sometimes with hilarious results:
And a true story to wrap it up: a bunch of Canadians are driving down to the States to see a show. At the border conversation goes something like this:
— What is the purpose of your visit to the United States today?
— To see a concert.
— Oh, yeah? And who’s playing?
— Blackmore’s Night.
— What night?
— Y’know, Ritchie Blackmore, it’s his new band.
— Ritchie who?
— He was the guitar player in Deep Purple.
— In deep what?
— Deep Purple. Smoke on the water?
— Smoke on the what?
— [hums the riff]
— Ah, those guys! Have a nice trip!
Thanks to David Black and Nigel Young for the trainspotting mailbag contributions.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
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