Riff Police… Pull Over! #3 Deep Purple Vs Fun Lovin’ Criminals!

Deep Purple are probably best remembered for their 1972 single “Smoke On Water” from their classic album “Machine Head”. The songs main riff is iconic and often appears alongside Black Sabbath‘s “Paranoid” and Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love”. So iconic in fact it has appeared in early lessons for every wannabe guitarist up and down the land. It also appeared in the infamous American sitcom Two And A Half Men starring Charlie Sheen as his son was learning it.

So when Brooklyn NY natives the Fun Lovin’ Criminals appeared on the scene in 1996 with “Bombin’ The L” from their self-titled debut album fans were like “Wait… what?!”. Truth is the band had recorded the album very sample heavy and their record label made them go back into the studio to strip back the samples and replace it with their own music. Plus Deep Purple were total anti the “Voodoo Magic” of sampling. That being said the first three chords are used and are still “Smoke On Water”. Busted.