Lead guitarist for the Smiths, member of new wave supergroup Electronic, solo artist, and erstwhile Modest Mouse member… These are but a few of Johnny Marr’s extensive credits. For plenty of folks, crafting a wholly original and now iconic guitar tone as Marr did for The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now” would be enough to warrant some serious coasting. But Johnny Marr isn’t plenty of folks.
The living-legend Mancunian is currently in reflection mode, having recently announced Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr which offers two new songs — “Somewhere” and “The Answer” (due Nov. 3 via New Voodoo/BMG). On the same day, he’ll release the “coffee table book” Marr’s Guitars. It promises to be “a guitar book for people who wouldn’t normally buy a guitar book: Lots of vintage photos of Johnny playing his guitars through the years, along with the stories of the songs that each guitar was responsible for.” Plus, he celebrates a milestone birthday on Halloween.
He’s bringing his reflective spirit and vast reserves of curiosity to Morning Becomes Eclectic for a toothsome, nearly hour-long conversation. Freak out alert: Casual references abound to lending Radiohead, and Bernard Sumner guitars (allegedly including the one that Sumner used to write underrated New Order gem “Regret”). There is also talk about the earliest days of The Haçienda. Listen and read on for these and so many more stories, including the ones behind four songs that define Marr’s life — from T. Rex to Pet Shop Boys.
The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.
T. Rex – “Jeepster”
This was the first record that I bought with my own money, and the thing about it was, I hadn't heard it when I bought it. It was a real fluke. I went into this store that sold record players and radiograms. … And they used to have a box of records that have gone out of the chart so they were very cheap. [They were] 10 pence, like 10 pennies.
The thing about “Jeepster” is that the label of it is a photograph of Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn and both of them are really beautiful guys. I'd never seen before or since on a 45, just the photograph of the artist on it. So I thought, “Okay, I'm gonna get more bang for my buck.” It was like, “This is a really glamorous item” … Marc Bolan in particular looked really amazing. He has this super white makeup on and his long hair. I was a little spooked out and also drawn to it. So I walked home with his 45 and then I played it.
My parents were always record freaks — still are. So [there were] always records on in the house. But putting this record on, my very own record, as a little boy… it's a very raw sound that you can hear even now, it's kind of like a DIY record… It sounds lo-fi. To me, hearing it in what must have been ‘72, was quite startling. It drew me in straight away, and then he [Marc Bolan] became my hero.
The Only Ones – “Another Girl, Another Planet”
I used to follow The Only Ones around. I mean, like, actually follow them around. I was a superfan. I slept in Liverpool train stations… I’d go see them, miss the train home back to Manchester so I'd be sleeping there, often with Andy Rourke — the bass player in The Smiths. I’d drag him out to all these different cities, I was gonna go see them everywhere.
But the thing was, I was already a fan before “Another Girl, Another Planet” came out and it's now become a classic. It's kind of like my generation’s “There She Goes.” So it was good to be [The Only Ones’] number one fan when this record came out.
The Velvet Underground – “Foggy Notion”
Being a teenager in Manchester, and being a bit of a music obsessive, a lot of my generation were really influenced by the Velvet Underground. [Most] Mancunians were super into The Velvets … So by ‘85 The Smiths had already been going for a few years and we'd done a number one album, Meat Is Murder, and I was getting ready to start writing the next record which would have been The Queen Is Dead.
And [around that same time] my then favorite band, The Velvets, had this collection of these demos and mixes and stuff that hadn't been out before. So it was like… imagine finding the tablets of stone. And it sounded better than anything around at the time. So I got super inspired off of this album which was called VU.
“Foggy Notion,” and it has my favorite kind of singing. It's funny because I think that [whenever] people think about Lou Reed, they think about the way Lou Reed sings. Well, there’s two different Lou Reeds — there’s the young Lou Reed who’s singing on this and then there's the old Lou Reed. But it’s two completely different ways of singing. With [this young Lou Reed version] … you have to be American to sing this way … And you have to be Lou Reed.
Pet Shop Boys – “Love Comes Quickly”
The other songs I've been playing have been very guitar-based, but there's another side to the music I love which has to do with technology, more symphonic [sounding], and with higher production values.
Whenever I hear “Love Comes Quickly” because [Pet Shop Boys] are my pals, whenever they play it [live] I’m like, “Dang, that's a good one.”