Goldmine Magazine: "Johnny On The Spot" interview - Winter 2024 edition (January 25, 2025)

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Via:

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Regards,
FWD.
 
Ah guitar this guitar that. What about Meat is Murder and cowhide shoes don’t go together? What about Morrissey? gibberish.
 
Safe, guitary, nothing to frighten the horses.
 
“In 1982, at just 19, Marr formed The Smiths, an iconic Manchester England staple, that effortlessly blended genres….” This is from the article writer, not from Johnny, but … seriously? This is going to be the full origin story now? Nothing and no one missing in this little retelling?

However, not helped at all by this, also still in the 3rd paragraph, very weird comment from Johnny directly, “When I was putting those early Smiths songs together, I was very conscious of whoever the singer was going to be”.

When he said this in this interview, did he mean that he was very conscious of how the voice of a singer and lyricist would layer on top of and intertwine with his compositions? I do think this is what he intended to say. But it’s extremely weird phrasing on his part, if so. And if it’s what he intended to say, it’s not what he said.

Given he is making this comment in 2024, about what he supposedly thought in his mind while he was in the Smiths and at the very beginning of their journey together, this is a weird quote and a weird way (to me) for him to say what I am giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming he is saying in my reading of his sentence.
 
The way he keeps repeating, ‘When I formed the Smiths’, and ‘when I wrote this’, is just so cringe.

I mean, really. We get it, Marr — you and Morrissey had a falling out. You hate the bloke. Whatever — you don’t have to work with him in the future.

…but to try and revise the past, by trying to minimize Morrissey’s role in the band and his impact, is just ludicrous. Morrissey is the face and voice of the Smiths, who also wrote a ton of the songs. You can’t discuss the origin of the band and the creation of the songs without including him. It just sounds stupid.

We all know who was in the Smiths (and, let’s be honest — the Smiths is the only thing the general public knows you from, Marr). There’s no need to try and tiptoe around it and rewrite the history.
 
The way he keeps repeating, ‘When I formed the Smiths’, and ‘when I wrote this’, is just so cringe.

I mean, really. We get it, Marr — you and Morrissey had a falling out. You hate the bloke. Whatever — you don’t have to work with him in the future.

…but to try and revise the past, by trying to minimize Morrissey’s role in the band and his impact, is just ludicrous. Morrissey is the face and voice of the Smiths, who also wrote a ton of the songs. You can’t discuss the origin of the band and the creation of the songs without including him. It just sounds stupid.

We all know who was in the Smiths (and, let’s be honest — the Smiths is the only thing the general public knows you from, Marr). There’s no need to try and tiptoe around it and rewrite the history.

In a post on his Morrissey Central website, the controversial singer-songwriter wrote: “This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?”
 
In a post on his Morrissey Central website, the controversial singer-songwriter wrote: “This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?”
Yeah, I remember that. It was in response to Marr constantly calling Morrissey out and critiquing him in practically every interview he gave. It wasn’t like Marr was just simply reminiscing on the past and Morrissey was angry his name was brought up.

I stand by what I said. I find it dumb to give an interview about the forming of the Smiths in which Marr just repeats, “I, I, I”, seeing as that’s not the truth. It’s quite literally not how it happened. He and Morrissey formed the band, he and Morrissey wrote and recorded the songs.

Even when Lennon and McCartney were at odds, they didn’t just pretend like the other didn’t exist whilst speaking on the origins of their band.
 
The way he keeps repeating, ‘When I formed the Smiths’, and ‘when I wrote this’, is just so cringe.

I mean, really. We get it, Marr — you and Morrissey had a falling out. You hate the bloke. Whatever — you don’t have to work with him in the future.

…but to try and revise the past, by trying to minimize Morrissey’s role in the band and his impact, is just ludicrous. Morrissey is the face and voice of the Smiths, who also wrote a ton of the songs. You can’t discuss the origin of the band and the creation of the songs without including him. It just sounds stupid.

We all know who was in the Smiths (and, let’s be honest — the Smiths is the only thing the general public knows you from, Marr). There’s no need to try and tiptoe around it and rewrite the history.
The thing is, as soon as he mentions Morrissey's name, that's what the press will print and they'll inevitably link it to the feud and stoke things and it will get worse. Or Morrissey will post another missive saying "hey, don't try to speak for me" etc. I think he is just trying to play safe, talk guitars and writing processes and avoid more bullshit - but he can't win because even that will set some people off.

This interview is pretty boring, and I find myself being glad about that because at least it doesn't create more "drama". Bleak days.
 
In a post on his Morrissey Central website, the controversial singer-songwriter wrote: “This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?”

Yeah, exactly, this is all down to Morrissey’s public hissy fit letter. He gave Marr full permission to erase him from the Smiths by never mentioning him again. Another self-sabotage. People can rant all they want but Marr is following Morrissey’s instructions to the letter.
 
As others have noted already, this is Marr very pointedly doing what Morrissey asked him to do: stop mentioning his name in interviews. The result, though, is hilariously daft, like an extended practical joke.
 
The way he keeps repeating, ‘When I formed the Smiths’, and ‘when I wrote this’, is just so cringe.
Err...he did form The Smiths though. Morrissey didn't put the band together and go and find Marr, it was the other way round.
 
You hate the bloke.
I don’t think he does. They haven’t worked together for nearly 40 years. They’re just not friends anymore. It happens. It doesn’t mean they hate each other. I’m not in contact with people I worked with three jobs ago; doesn’t mean I hate them.
 
Question - why no mention of Call the Comet, Fever Dreams, etc etc..?

Simon Goddard reviewing Set the Boy Free and Autobiography: "Both men make defiant virtue of their post-Smiths successes, but it is Marr who reveals himself as infinitely needier of his old group’s oxygen to keep him in public view."
 
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Simon Goddard reviewing Set the Boy Free and Autobiography: "Both men make defiant virtue of their post-Smiths successes, but it is Marr who reveals himself as infinitely needier of his old group’s oxygen to keep him in public view."

Simon Goddard - very bitter he was not the ghost writer for Johnny’s excellent autobiography
 

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