Viva Hate

[Captain WOW/Prince T.V.A]

I was wondering if anyone else has heard this myth: (or if they know of anything that would debunk it)

Johnny Marr wrote at least seventy percent of the music on Viva Hate (prior to the break up, when it was still going to be the follow up to Strangeways ) , which was then fiddled with a bit by Stephen Street.

 

[Bertrand]

> I was wondering if anyone else has heard this myth: (or if they
> know of anything that would debunk it)

> Johnny Marr wrote at least seventy percent of the music on Viva
> Hate (prior to the break up, when it was still going to be the
> follow up to Strangeways ) , which was then fiddled with a bit
> by Stephen Street.

I don't think this is true, for two reasons. If Johnny had written the songs for Viva Hate, I'm sure he would have been sure to have taken the writing credit. Royalties are royalties, and both Moz and Johnny have always made it clear that they always had an eye on the bottom line.

Second, the Smiths were pretty much broken up before Strangeways was released. I've never gotten the impression that Moz and Marr, despite being so prolific, kept that big a backlog of songs ready.