Best Cover Versions of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water
Deep Purple's iconic song Smoke on the Water came out in 1972. It has been covered many times.I hesitated whether to include the live covers but eventually decided to do so because for example the live cover of Dream Theater is better than some studio covers by other bands. Smoke on the Water is a great song to play live after all.
The best thing I can say is: find it on youtube and enjoy. You don't see very often rock and metal legends of this caliber playing together. This version was a 1989 charity re-record to raise funds after the Armenian earthquake.
Guitars - David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore, Alex Lifeson
Vox - Ian Gillan, Bruce Dickinson, Paul Rogers, Bryan Adams
Keyboards - Keith Emerson, Geoff Downes
Bass - Chris Squire
Drums - Roger Taylor
Metalium are a metal band and this cover is, of course, metal-ized. I like their new drum arrangement (modern metal drumming). Clean vocals are remarkable.
Overall, they did a great job - they made some changes but without butchering the original.
This has to be one of the fastest renditions of that song, if not the fastest. It's with thrashy / power metal-ish drum beats and some harsh vox. Sounds quite funny but not bad.
Throne of Chaos (aka TOC) are a metal band from Finland - they play Melodic Death Metal, Power/Progressive Metal.
Smoke On the Water cover was on their 2003 album.
I included this version mainly for Dio's participation. It's rare to see and hear vocal legends like Dio and Ian Gillan singing together, moreover with the London Symphony Orchestra. They nailed it.
It was recorded live in 1999
In 2006 Dream Theater played live the entire Deep Purple live album "Made In Japan". Dream Theater played it in Japan, of course. And recorded it.
A very good live cover (Back to Budokan version).
Mr. Big is a band with Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert.
Some people don't like it but I kinda enjoy it - I don't mind harsh vox and more brutality to the sound
This is a standard cover - no changes and experiments but it's very good
Despite Carlos Santana's participation, I have mixed opinions about this version but I can't say it's bad.
An extreme and perhaps controversial cover