We all came out to Montreux, for a bike ride...

The Melting Pot.  America is the world’s melting pot with nearly 400 years of immigration.  People of German ancestry make up the largest portion of America followed by Mexican and African peoples.  The remaining bulk of Americans are immigrants from Ireland, England, Poland and Scandinavia.  Interestingly enough, one of the smallest groups of inhabitants are Native Americans.  In Europe a similar ancestry mix occurs in Switzerland.  The Swiss have people with not only a non-Swiss nativity but also a different language.  Most of Switzerland speaks German but in the west, French dominates and in the south it is Italian.  In other parts the Romansh language is spoken—an eclectic mix of Latin and Italian. The predominately French Western Switzerland is known as the Romandie region.  The region has been the focus of the cycling world this week with the annual Tour de Romandie.

The Tour wraps up today with a Time Trial in Geneva.  Most of the route follows the Lake Geneva shoreline.  Lake Geneva is the largest body of water in Switzerland and is one of the largest lakes in Europe so there is plenty of shoreline.  It makes for a great bike ride providing stunning views of a snow-capped Mont Blanc in France.  Lake Geneva and its shoreline was introduced to the rest of the world in 1967 with the first Montreux Jazz Festival.  In that first year Ella Fitzgerald was one of the headliners.  Over the years the festival welcomed other acts and genres with Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Santana playing inside the first Montreux Casino.  A second Montreux Casino was opened in 1975.

In 1971 the original casino, built in 1881, burned to the ground.  The last live act to take the stage was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.  To get the best history of the Montreux Casino fire head back to your parent’s house, climb the attic stairs and search through the old milk crate of records.  Remember records?  We also called them albums.  In that stack of warped vinyl should be the classic album Machine Head by English band Deep Purple.   The first song of side two was “Smoke on the Water” and it captures the story of the night the Montreux Casino burned down.

The fire began with “Frank Zappa and the Mothers” and “Some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground.”   While the Mother’s were playing, a fan in the audience fired a flare gun at the stage that then caught the ceiling on fire.  “They burned down the gambling house, it died with an awful sound.”  Deep Purple was in Montreux recording an album using a mobile recording studio borrowed from the Rolling Stones or as they say in the song “The Rolling truck Stones thing.”  The band relocated after the fire.  “We ended up at the Grand Hotel, it was empty cold as hell.”   Ian Gillan, the band’s raspy voiced lead singer remembered the scene as being “Smoke on the water, fire in the sky.”  Machine Head was released in 1972 and became a top ten album in the UK and the States for 20 straight weeks.  To date the album has reached over three million in worldwide sales.

Today the Montreux Jazz festival takes place over two weeks each July.  The area still makes important contributions to music.  The Mountain Recording Studio was the creation of the late Freddie Mercury, a Montreux resident, and is a popular venue for musician and bands looking to record.  A statue of Mercury stands in downtown Montreux overlooking the lake.  A number of bicycle-only paths can be found along the Lake Geneva Shoreline.  Enjoy!

For a video of "Smoke on the Water" visit www.stickybottleteam.net.  Scroll down to the VIDEO block.  Thanks.