Guitarist Johnny Marr still cherishes the memories he has of The Smiths’ glory days in the ’80s, when he wrote the music and singer Morrissey wrote the lyrics to a host of classic songs.
In an interview with Channel 4 News, Marr talks to presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy about the guitars featured in this week’s auction at Christie’s.
Marr also sheds light on the creative process that he and Morrissey enjoyed before The Smiths split in 1987.
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“I was very excited about about us being a guitar band,” Marr says, before explaining how he developed a signature sound via prominent use of acoustic guitars and then layering.
He recalls: “On a lot of Smiths records, say Big Mouth Strikes Again and Half A Person, the acoustics are really loud on them, and that’s deliberate.”
He cites two key influences from his childhood. Eddie Cochran – specifically his 1958 hit C’mon Everybody – and The Everly Brothers.
“That was very much a deliberate agenda,” Marr says, “bringing acoustics back on the radio, loud acoustics, because quite often the way acoustics are – say, on a Simon & Garfunkel record, even – they’re very polite and in the background. But I was like, ‘Turn the acoustics up.’ So the acoustics are quite loud on those songs.
“And before the band formed I’d got into layering. There’s a tape machine that actually we put in the auction. It’s a little cassette machine that all the early Smiths songs were done on. But before the band was even a thing, I was experimenting with layering these guitars.”
Marr recalls how the Manchester music scene was dominated in the ’80s by Factory Records, famous as the home to New Order, and before that, Joy Division. Factory’s owner Tony Wilson stated his regret that he had not signed The Smiths, who opted to go with rival independent label Rough Trade.
“I was working in a clothes shop when the band was formed,” Marr says, “and other Mancunian musicians used to come into the shop, and most of them were on Factory Records. So because of the shop, I knew everyone on Factory, and it was the obvious thing to do to sign to Factory. And that became a narrative. Tony Wilson was like, ‘I wish I’d signed The Smiths.’ But I was never going to sign Factory. Personally I would never let that happen because it was just too obvious, and it wasn’t that kind of music either.
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“So the Factory bands were my mates, but they weren’t guitar bands per se. They were doing other things with funk and keyboards… different, almost like non-guitar bands. So it was very deliberate that that we were going to be a guitar band, and that was my role in it.”
Marr also tells Guru-Murthy about how he and Morrissey wrote songs together.
He says of the early days of their writing: “We’d get together face to face, and I’d go, ‘I’ve got this.’ And then I’d record it on the tape machine and he’d take the cassette away. And then when I’d made a few hundred quid to buy what was called a Portastudio – which were brilliant and are quite collectible now – I would make these slightly more elaborate demos with a little drum machine and and about three or four guitars on top, and then I’d get on my motorbike and ride round because he lived around the corner 10 minutes [away], and I’d drop it through his letterbox.”
What Marr remembers most fondly is the creation of The Smiths’ third album, The Queen Is Dead, released in 1986.
He recalls how he and Morrissey would sit just a few feet apart with a Walkman cassette player between them.
“It was amazing,” he says. “It was magic. I’d literally have the guitar and I’d have the cassette machine between my knees and I’d go, ‘I’ve got this one.’ And I’d press record.
“I think when I pressed ‘record’ the two of us breathed in, and then when I finished we then breathed out. That’s what it felt like.”
Marr says of the creative process: “Any songwriter will tell you it’s the best feeling in the world.”
He says he liked to write songs in batches of three and loved to hear how each song would then be enhanced by the other members of the band – first Morrissey and then bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce.
“It was the greatest,” Marr says. “We’ve got three new Smith songs. I can’t wait to hear what the words are. I can’t wait to hear what the vocals are, what the bass is, what Andy does, and what Mike does.”
He ends with a smile: “Man, it was magic!”
