Johnny Marr on his autobiography, admits he hasn't read Morrissey's - MOJO

Johnny Marr On His Memoir: “I’ve Got An Amazing Memory!” - MOJO
The former Smith updates MOJO about progress on his autobiography. Top Of The Pops, drugs and falling off roofs all figure.

Excerpt:

The former Smith speaks about his new live album Adrenalin Baby and the book, due out next summer, in our new issue, (December 15 / #265) which is on sale now in the UK.

...Of course Marr’s is not the first memoir concerning The Smiths, though it seems unlikely there will be too many similarities between the guitarist’s literary endeavours and those published by the band’s singer.

“I honestly haven’t read Morrissey’s book,” Marr admits. “I really don’t feel like I need to. I’ve heard about what it’s like and that’s fine.”

Also:

Johnny Marr vows to keep memoir fun - new! magazine

Excerpt:

Morrissey's tome received huge critical praise for its candid narrative, but some critics took aim at the singer for using the book to launch scathing attacks on his old enemies in the music industry and even his former bandmates.

Marr is a quarter of the way through penning his life story and he is making a determined effort to avoid criticising those he has worked with, insisting he will not be giving fans any "crass sensationalism".

He tells Mojo magazine, "I honestly haven't read Morrissey's book. I really don't feel like I need to. I've heard about what it's like and that's fine. Not all of what I've been though, like anyone's life, can be dressed up to be something cheery when it wasn't. That's all right too.

"I'd like to say there's a lot of reappraisal, 'cos that would imply a certain kind of wisdom, but in the case of what happened with The Smiths, there's not really that much reappraisal. But crass sensationalism isn't really my thing, nor am I particularly interested in being nasty."
 
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i find the healers album and the electronic album to be much better than most if not all the moz releases.
do i need remind the readership that moz vocals are, to be very generous, an acquired taste?
remove all small devout mozz cult from the mix, and i propose the overwhelming majority of musical connoisseurs would rank johnny the better vocalist.


few would have gone ahead and put together a band with a vocalist like moz. another reason johnny deserves big props.
 
i find the healers album and the electronic album to be much better than most if not all the moz releases.
do i need remind the readership that moz vocals are, to be very generous, an acquired taste?
remove all small devout mozz cult from the mix, and i propose the overwhelming majority of musical connoisseurs would rank johnny the better vocalist.


few would have gone ahead and put together a band with a vocalist like moz. another reason johnny deserves big props.

okey doke
 
People keep forgetting Morrissey wrote the vocal melodies.

I certainly didn't. But try singing This Charming Man, Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, How Soon Is Now, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, etc, etc., a capella. Wouldn't you agree that the effect is somewhat diminished?

I suspect the unspoken intention of your statement is that Morrissey contributed more overall. But even if you suggest that their musical contributions were equivalent, Johnny handled the bulk of the business & touring arrangements and other managerial responsibilities in lieu of one consistent manager, which offsets the unquestionably unilateral decisions that Morrissey made about artwork. They both pulled their weight in equal measure.

Some people also forget that Smiths managers were always found lacking, which created the need for Johnny to fill in the gaps. Perish the thought that the cumulative stress of wearing that additional hat didn't contribute to the disenchantment that he felt circa May 1987. So both also pulled their weight in making the continuation of the Smiths untenable.
 
i find the healers album and the electronic album to be much better than most if not all the moz releases.
do i need remind the readership that moz vocals are, to be very generous, an acquired taste?
remove all small devout mozz cult from the mix, and i propose the overwhelming majority of musical connoisseurs would rank johnny the better vocalist.


few would have gone ahead and put together a band with a vocalist like moz. another reason johnny deserves big props.

i agree about Moz vocals being an acquired taste. I've heard a lot of people saying the reason they can't get intoThe Smiths is because Morrissey's voice. I also have heard a few comparing moz voice to Kermit the frog
 
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i agree about Moz vocals being an acquired taste. I've heard a lot of people saying the reason they can't get intoThe Smiths is because Morrissey¿s voice. I also have heard a few comparing moz voice to Kermit the forg

That Kermit the frog comparison to moz is so darn cute. Yes he does sound a bit like Kermit but it never detracts from his beautiful voice. I much more prefered morrisseys voice when he was in the Smiths than now. He is just precious really. Our little rambling weirdo.
 
Yes - after Morrissey originally refused to write a lyric for it. He provided the title alone and was given 50% of the publishing royalty for a three-word, non-vocal contribution. (See also: "Oscillate Wildly" for a two-word, non-vocal contribution.) Whatever hurt feelings he may have had about a piece of Smiths music being repurposed didn't stop him from placing "The Draize Train" on Rank that same year - another instrumental, but this time with Marr solely credited as the composer, ensuring he got a bigger royalty than Morrissey.



I wouldn't go to the extreme that you did in minimizing Morrissey's contributions, but any rewriting of history to claim "Morrissey is/was The Smiths" is - to use a phrase used elsewhere in the thread - willfully obtuse. The mathematical percentages game is reductive for a musical group but, really, the intent of the original, eternally-disputed agreement (40/40/10/10) seems about right, in my opinion. Morrissey provided the lyrics, the artwork, the visual aesthetic; Marr provided the music & arrangements, the logistics, and kept the other two members in line. If Morrissey had manned the tiller alone, you'd have been left with some great lyrics and visually arresting artwork - and nothing to use them for.

Morrissey should be given credit for the prescience of ceasing to look for a replacement after the Ivor Perry session was a bloodless failure. He realized that the Smiths without Johnny Marr would always be regarded with inverted commas around the name.

:thumb: agree, but we should mention THAT voice(=phrasing,melody,timing,emotion,magic) which IS music and a contribution to the whole.
 
i think what you are trying to say is that moz was responsible for all the huma stuff. probably, if marr had chosen someone else for his smiths project, it would have been greater and more accessible, not so huma. without johnny, moz would have tanked like jobriath.
had he met boz back in 87-88, he may have kept the smiths alive.

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ah that makes more sense to me then, that bernard didnt write the words and that it was johnnys and neils stab which i could easily believe. bernard doesnt seem to care about morrissey one way or the other so it seemed odd that he would try to take this stab at him. much more sense now if true.

also where does it ever state that marr did all of the arrangements because it doesnt say so on the album credits and marr is quoted that the musical direction of the albums was fifty fifty with him and morrissey. if this is true and marr didnt have any input on the lyrics then i wouldnt put it at 40/40. i still think is pretty underrated as a riff maker though. im not really qualified to comment to much on percussion aside from saying i like this or that

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i think that if you add up sales of all the projects johnny has played a substantial part it, total sales would easily surpass the moz albums, of which maybe 2-3 have sold in any quantity.

'huma' = original. And without it/him ...might of been just another yob fronted band.
 
sorry but moz did not arrange anything. he couldnt arrange himself out of a paper bag. he can barely sing in tune.
it was all johnnys doing
i would add as such:

johnny 75 percent
moz 15 percent- the huma vibe
others 5 percent apiece.


you're so right.
























please.:straightface:
 
'huma' = original. And without it/him ...might of been just another yob fronted band.

I don't think that Johnny would have the respect from everywhere today if Moz had written "Wake me up before you go go" over his tunes and had sung in a Sumner voice. Maybe he would have been more successful but I doubt he would have been more respected. We can play this "Who was better?" or "Who contributed more?" game forever but it get's tiresome. This game already started while the Smiths existed and, at least Moz noticed it very clearly and mentioned it in interviews at the time. I think it distressed him. So, I find it especially unhelpful that "fans" constantly contribute to this tiresome discussion.
 
i agree about Moz vocals being an acquired taste. I've heard a lot of people saying the reason they can't get intoThe Smiths is because Morrissey's voice. I also have heard a few comparing moz voice to Kermit the frog

yes..& once one 'acquires' the taste... then the hunger sets in... unstoppable!...insatiable!! :)




and NO frogs legs jokes please.
 
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I don't think that Johnny would have the respect from everywhere today if Moz had written "Wake me up before you go go" over his tunes and had sung in a Sumner voice. Maybe he would have been more successful but I doubt he would have been more respected. We can play this "Who was better?" or "Who contributed more?" game forever but it get's tiresome. This game already started while the Smiths existed and, at least Moz noticed it very clearly and mentioned it in interviews at the time. I think it distressed him. So, I find it especially unhelpful that "fans" constantly contribute to this tiresome discussion.

:thumb:
 
It's so annoying that everything Johnny ever said is taken for face value yet he contradicts himself in almost every sentence. So, Johnny tell us about the tours? J: Well, Moz planned all the tours. Oh, okay. Johnny how did it feel being on stage night after night? J: Well, Moz loved being on stage. I prefered the studio. Oh, okay. Then tell us about the marketing, the sleeves, the posters. J: Well, Moz did all of those things. Oh, okay. Johnny, how different is it now after the Smiths to do all the interviews yourself? J: Well, I realized that I didn't give Moz enough credit for doing all these interviews and he did so much more than I do now. I underestimated the process and how hard it is. I don't know how he did it. Oh, okay. Everyone complains that Moz constantly moans about everything. Really? Regarding the Smiths Johnny did nothing else but piss and moan.

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moz cant sing something like wake me up before you go go even if he wanted. its too simple and straightforward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck43JCFAUR8
 
moz cant sing something like wake me up before you go go even if he wanted. its too simple and straightforward.
.

In terms of lyrical content and musical complexity, 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' pisses all over 'Kiss Me a Lot'.
 
.

In terms of lyrical content and musical complexity, 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' pisses all over 'Kiss Me a Lot'.

You could argue the same point about musical complexity by comparing Messiaen to Chopin. But presumably you wouldn't because it would make you sound like an idiot.
 
So, I find it especially unhelpful that "fans" constantly contribute to this tiresome discussion.

I guess we're even, as I find it unhelpful when Anons credit Morrissey - who, it has been well-noted, plays ZERO musical instruments - with "65%" of the credit for the Smiths or make absurd statements minimizing what Johnny did because they feel some strange compulsion to defend Morrissey's "honor." So if Morrissey's vocal melody was THE bedrock and not an adjustment of the musical foundation and Johnny "didn't really do much/only provided chords, riffs/<insert reductive revision>" - then who the hell is responsible for the music? Rourke and Joyce?

And, yes, I realize that I could be conflating multiple Anons in one response - but your facelessness bleeds together after a while. If you aren't going to take time to create a Morrissey-solo handle to contribute, I'll reciprocate by not keeping track of IP address differences.
 
I guess we're even, as I find it unhelpful when Anons credit Morrissey - who, it has been well-noted, plays ZERO musical instruments - with "65%" of the credit for the Smiths or make absurd statements minimizing what Johnny did because they feel some strange compulsion to defend Morrissey's "honor." So if Morrissey's vocal melody was THE bedrock and not an adjustment of the musical foundation and Johnny "didn't really do much/only provided chords, riffs/<insert reductive revision>" - then who the hell is responsible for the music? Rourke and Joyce?

And, yes, I realize that I could be conflating multiple Anons in one response - but your facelessness bleeds together after a while. If you aren't going to take time to create a Morrissey-solo handle to contribute, I'll reciprocate by not keeping track of IP address differences.

just to be difficult he is credited wito piano on death of a disco dancer but i get what your saying and im only being humorous. arraingments count as song writing im sorry. you cant turn in a chord progression and claim it a song. if franly mister shankly didnt have the coda at the end would it still be as good. if someone else came up with the idea to have the coda there wouldnt that count as song writing. if someone said hey lets put a solo here that wasnt johnny and that solo is loved and is said to make the song for people isnt that songwriting. without moz there would be no cemetery gates as marr didnt appreciate the riff though moz did and the song is beloved. even taking out the vocal melodies and lyrics the songs, the music, wouldnt exist as we know it now without moz and i think would be poorer. ti me thats soing writing and writing music. editing instrumentals and having a say in how theyre edited is a part of song writing as its how the songs end up in the forms we love. he had influence on the instrumentals while marr didnt to my knowledge have influence on vocal melodies or lyrics
 

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