Johnny Marr on songwriting and The Smiths - The Guardian

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The secrets of songwriters - The Guardian
The day the Kinks overtook the Beatles, why the Clash wrote 'Rock the Casbah', when Johnny Marr first drove to Morrissey's house … Daniel Rachel has interviewed many of the nation's best songwriters. Here are some highlights

Excerpt from Johnny Marr segment:

Did you ever write together?
Once, which was "Half a Person": that was incredibly uncanny. The morning we were supposed to do the B-side he said, "What are we going to do?" I picked up the guitar and said, "Maybe it should go like this?' and he hummed the melody whilst I found some chords. It was done in like four minutes. We did it that one time because the tape was rolling in the next room and we hadn't come up with something. It was just a necessity. We'd decided, very unexpectedly for us, impulsively, to do an A-side which was going to be "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby". We wrote and recorded that in 24 hours. That tied us up. I put it down and the band learned it, he took the cassette away and the next morning all the words were written. We were pretty prolific.

 

[DAVIE]

Half A Person is my favourite Smiths song too and it's a million times better than You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby! You see Johnny Marr, you don't have to spend loads of time writing these solo singles of yours. I'd rather a 4 minute jam sounding like Johnny Marr than your solo album which doesn't sound anything like Johnny Marr. More Morrissey and Marr collaborations please

 

[Uncleskinny]

All of that article, Marr included, is really good reading.

P.

 

[celibate]

All of that article, Marr included, is really good reading.

P.

indeed I like Johnny's Smithories, they seem more visionable than Morrissey's.

 

[liliana_young]

indeed I like Johnny's Smithories, they seem more visionable than Morrissey's.

I agree. Every Johnny interview I've read/seen about the Smiths is so straightforward...it's refreshing, really.
That's due, I'm guessing, to the fact that JM doesn't feel the need to keep up a persona when he's talking about the songs.

 

[Anonymous]

More Morrissey and Marr collaborations please

Imagine how easy that would be, how wonderful that would sound... after twenty five years of intermittent acrimony.

 

[Reggie-Kray]

Some of them talk a load of washy bollocks in that article. I like the way Johnny goes into detail about his songs, and in TV interviews he actually demonstrates how he did it. Far more interesting than some talking about the social or political situation when the song was written which has nothing to do with the construction of a melody against the harmony of the chords. Most musicians lift ideas, chords and so on from the least likely sources. They speed them up, slow them down, play them in a different key and that sort of thing. Perhaps that's why they are cagey about how they come up with certain ideas, either out of their own vanity or to avoid boosting the ego of somebody they don't particularly like. If Dave Stewart had lifted an idea from Spanda Ballet he probably wouldn't mention that.

 

[Sushi]

I agree. Every Johnny interview I've read/seen about the Smiths is so straightforward...it's refreshing, really.
That's due, I'm guessing, to the fact that JM doesn't feel the need to keep up a persona when he's talking about the songs.

Good insight. Johnny has always just seemed like a guy with his head on straight.

 

[BrummieBoy]

Good insight. Johnny has always just seemed like a guy with his head on straight.

Oh, honey! I don't think he had his head on straight about the royalty split with the drum'n'bass. Neither did the Judge. Let's not talk about that anymore. Johnny Marr is, like, totally Mod-tastic! And vegan! Saw him play in Brum and it was packed to the rafters. His version of London was stonking! Bostin!

regards.BB.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, honey! I don't think he had his head on straight about the royalty split with the drum'n'bass. Neither did the Judge. Let's not talk about that anymore. Johnny Marr is, like, totally Mod-tastic! And vegan! Saw him play in Brum and it was packed to the rafters. His version of London was stonking! Bostin!

regards.BB.

Actually, in the absence of any split defined on paper the judge simply defaulted to the 1890 Partnership Act - miscommunication again being the achilles heel of the band.

 

[HandThatRocksTheCradle]

Some of them talk a load of washy bollocks in that article. I like the way Johnny goes into detail about his songs, and in TV interviews he actually demonstrates how he did it. Far more interesting than some talking about the social or political situation when the song was written which has nothing to do with the construction of a melody against the harmony of the chords. Most musicians lift ideas, chords and so on from the least likely sources. They speed them up, slow them down, play them in a different key and that sort of thing. Perhaps that's why they are cagey about how they come up with certain ideas, either out of their own vanity or to avoid boosting the ego of somebody they don't particularly like. If Dave Stewart had lifted an idea from Spanda Ballet he probably wouldn't mention that.

...or having to pay royalties... (still miffed that that piss-ant Robin Thicke would stoop so low as to sue Marvin Gaye's family when he clearly lifted "Got To Give It Up" for his song "Blurred Lines")

 

[Anonymous]

I agree. Every Johnny interview I've read/seen about the Smiths is so straightforward...it's refreshing, really.
That's due, I'm guessing, to the fact that JM doesn't feel the need to keep up a persona when he's talking about the songs.

Morrissey is poetic and gentle, Johnny is not, very rough.

 

[Uncleskinny]

Morrissey is poetic and gentle, Johnny is not, very rough.

What an insight.

P.

 

[Peterb]

Morrissey is poetic and gentle, Johnny is not, very rough.

Yes, a very gentle and poetic UKIP supporter and opponent of foreign aid.