The Smiths Band • Page 5

Yeah all in all I'm perfectly content with the material we have. 70+ songs of gold, great lyrics and musicianship and production. What more could you ask for?

We all know our love for Morrissey and his lyrics, but what's everyone's favorite Johnny Marr guitar part/arrangement? For me it's Headmasters Ritual.

 

That's a lot harder for me to pick I think, ha. I love his guitar in Cemetery Gates, that's the first one that comes to mind.

 

Agreed, I just think it's rare you have such a clear and unanimous choice.

For me, it's a deeply personal thing that reminds me of a person & place in time. But I also think it's absolutely brilliant as it's own song.

Also, Marr actually didn't like Cemetary Gates originally as he thought it was too plain instrumentally, until he heard Morrissey singing over it.

 

Its fucking wild how Johnny Marr doesnt remember how he created the opening of How Soon Is Now. To quote Noel Gallagher "You can’t play what he plays….Even he’s not as good as he is!". That beginning is pretty stunning, as is the end of Please Please Please. Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me also has a pretty fantastic musical section in the beginning and the middle. Fuck, Johnny could arrange and orchestrate like no other.

 

the guitar work in Some Girls literally cannot be fucked with


jangle pop with an extra side of jangle

 

Marr is GOAT for the genre, but honestly not enough daps are given to Boz Boorer or Alain Whyte. those guys are MONEY.

 

*ahem* it really is.


*runs for the hills*

 

My favorite guitar lick bar none.

 

my favorite guitar lick bar chord

 

I hate myself for laughing.

 

I Am Hated For Laughing

 

All 72 songs this band has recorded are wonderful and I cherish them all like children.

Is it weird that I love this band and it may well be my favorite band ever, but I cant stand Morrissey as a person.

 

no Morrissey's an asshole, sometimes he's a charming asshole but still

 

yeah theres just something about him thats both endearing yet wildly frustrating. Like, fuck im a vegan and i roll my eyes at his infuriatingly vocal vegetarian lifestyle. he fucking cancelled an entire show because 1 guy was selling meat in the concessions area. Not to mention is pretty toxic racist views, although hes cooled on that in recent years.

but god damn the man can write lyrics and sing them perfectly.

 

Oh nice some Smiths talk. Only band ive ever deliberately referenced in my lyrics.

Some great pioneers when it comes to guitar and bass work. "Barbarism begins at home" is my jam on the bass.

 

I think any guitarist would be proud to have "London", or "Headmasters Ritual", or "Hand In Glove", or "How Soon Is Now" in their resume. Just one of those would be an astounding achievement. Johnny Marr wrote all of those and more, every Smiths song has a great guitar part and thats fucking wild when you think of it. Marr never had a specific sound that could be pinpointed, he did so much with just a guitar and some effects.

Mike and Andy make a superb, sturdy rhythm section and i dont care what Morrissey says, they were both essential to The Smiths sound. Much like the guitar, pretty much every Smiths track has a great bass line. In fact people have stolen those bass lines, like The Killers took the Barbarism bass line for Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine. The drums knew when to be loud and cracking and when to be reserved. Mike subverted the typical "MTV drum sound" that was common then.

Then the man of the hour is Morrissey, who is pound for pound one of the best rock lyricists ever. Also a great, unique voice with such a personality to it. His melodies were sometimes odd but they worked perfectly. He just added so much charm to the music. Despite being a massive ass, he still deserves praise for his contribution to the music world.

The Smiths laid the foundation for indie rock and one could argue emo as well. Massively influential and powerful and important, with possibly the most perfect discography in rock music. 70 some odd songs of pure gold. Its amazing that they accomplished so much in such a short time. Just an astoundingly incredible band with such an interesting history.

SO yeah ill stop ranting.

 

love the riff of last night i dreamt somebody loved me

 

I think my favorite overall guitar riff is Headmasters Ritual, Stop Me would be a close second.

 

I love the atmospheric shit at the end of "That Joke Isnt Funny Anymore", not at all Marr's most difficult but thats one that always gets stuck in my head.

He does that a lot, but also when hes playing the guitar straight without effects, you can tell its a Rickenbacker so hard. Its a twangy sound, but like a sparkly trebley twang rather than an upper midrange Fender twang, nothing else sounds like that. So i tend to associate that sound with Marr. Guy Picciotto from Fugazi also uses a Ric but through a gritty sounding Marshall amp and you can hear some similarities.

 

I basically describe indie rock as "somewhere between Smiths style pop and Sonic Youth style punk/post punk." So yeah id agree with CoffeeEyes that they helped lay the foundation for indie rock, and maybe paired with The Cure, for emo.

 

When it comes to the meat thing I honestly admire how passionate he is about it and I feel like its fair enough for him to cancel a show if he's previously stated that he doesn't want to be anywhere near meat being cooked and sold. I think most people wouldnt play somewhere if something that against their morals was happening despite previously saying they didn't want it to.

 

yeah i mean i had admiration for it as a vegan myself but it stops at kicking everyone else who paid money out of my concert just because one guy is selling a food i dont agree with. If its that big a deal, kick the guy out but dont treat your fans like that.

 

I mean he did ask for the venue to be meat free for the night and they wouldn't allow it so he cancelled the show. It's not like he was already playing and then kicked everyone out. I think he walked off stage at Coachella once because he could smell it being cooked and he said it was making him sick but I'm pretty sure he came back and finished his set then. I'm sure if it was one guy selling food mid gig he would happily kick him out rather than end the show.

 

Fair enough I guess, but I still think it's ridiculous to do that to fans. Just because you're a vegetarian doesn't mean the entire venue has to acquiesce to those demands. But he's still a brilliant songwriter so it doesn't bother me all that much.

 

I don't really think it's that crazy. People cancel or don't play shows at certain places for all sorts of different reasons to do with things the artists don't agree with. Morrissey doesn't want to support meat at all and by playing a venue where people can purchase meat he would be. I think he should have every right to request that the venue he's playing not sell meat on the night of his show. I don't think I'd want to play a venue that was doing something I was strongly against while I was there. I'm not trying to say you're wrong for how you feel about it, I just think it's an interesting thing to discuss. How do you feel when people don't play certain shows or cities for other reasons like when people were cancelling shows in North Carolina after the bathroom law or when Soupy didn't play Warped because they had Front Porch Step playing?