Vulture article: Johnny Marr on the Best of the Smiths, His Solo Career, and Fever Dreams Pts 1–4 (February 2, 2022)

Johnny Marr on the Best of the Smiths and His Solo Career

“Sure, there was drama, but what you hear was a result of stone-cold love.”

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Excerpt:

Something about making The Queen Is Dead you’ve never shared publicly

The Smiths have been pretty much done to death really by everyone who was involved, and plenty of people who weren’t. It’s a shame that so much was said without the benefit of maturity and hindsight and that there were so many agendas going around for so many years. But I guess it’s all part of the band’s kind of complicated story [annotation].

The truth was that there was loads of love in it. So maybe that’s the story that everybody is missing. Maybe that’s a surprise that everybody who is still interested needs to be reminded of: One of the reasons why they liked the sound of it and why it sounds the way it does is because there’s so much love in it. And there was love in the making of it. There was love in the writing of it. And sure, there was drama, but what you hear was a result of stone-cold love.

 

[CrazyFaceGenes]

I did laugh at REDACTED
That was quite a nice little read, i didn't know he "hated" Gmajor and that led to This charming man.

 

[The Wild Turkey]

Johnny's just got one trick.
Say somethin' negative about Moz and
play the nice guy victim.

 

[CrazyFaceGenes]

Johnny's just got one trick.
Say somethin' negative about Moz and
play the nice guy victim.

He only really mentions him once outside of the Lyrics side of things, and it's to say he made the right call about the first album.

Smiths album you wish you could rerecord with today’s technology

The first album! We had the first attempt at it; it didn’t come out because of some politics between [redacted]Moz. and the producerAccording to Marr’s 2016 autobiography, Rough Trade head Geoff Travis assigned Troy Tate, the Teardrop Explodes guitarist and fellow labelmate, to produce the record. Moz didn’t like the results, and the band decided to rerecord the album with Bryan Ferry collaborator John Porter. “I could hear myself that the mixes sounded underproduced and were not the finished article that we needed as our introduction to the world,” wrote Marr. “Why it was deemed necessary to scrap the album entirely rather than just mix it again I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to make too much of it or spend too much time thinking about it. It was a document of how the band really were at that point though, and it was the last time I saw Troy.”, which was a shame, because that was how the band sounded. But, you know, I think heMoz. was right in the end. I haven’t listened to it for a long time. And then we rerecorded it with John Porter. But by that time, it had just been overthought and overdone.

 

[Vegan Cro Spirit .444]

He only really mentions him once outside of the Lyrics side of things, and it's to say he made the right call about the first album.

Smiths album you wish you could rerecord with today’s technology

The first album! We had the first attempt at it; it didn’t come out because of some politics between [redacted]Moz. and the producerAccording to Marr’s 2016 autobiography, Rough Trade head Geoff Travis assigned Troy Tate, the Teardrop Explodes guitarist and fellow labelmate, to produce the record. Moz didn’t like the results, and the band decided to rerecord the album with Bryan Ferry collaborator John Porter. “I could hear myself that the mixes sounded underproduced and were not the finished article that we needed as our introduction to the world,” wrote Marr. “Why it was deemed necessary to scrap the album entirely rather than just mix it again I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to make too much of it or spend too much time thinking about it. It was a document of how the band really were at that point though, and it was the last time I saw Troy.”, which was a shame, because that was how the band sounded. But, you know, I think heMoz. was right in the end. I haven’t listened to it for a long time. And then we rerecorded it with John Porter. But by that time, it had just been overthought and overdone.

insufferable. it had been overthought and overdone but would like to produce it.
he never stops. hes like the Dr Phil of the Smiths. why doesnt he psycho babble Isaac from the Mouse?
or Bryan Ferry? or the dumb Bernard? go over there dis their records and re produce them.
you are going to fix the smiths after all the suco records you ve made?

 

[Dingoatemybabby]

Johnny's just got one trick.
Say somethin' negative about Moz and
play the nice guy victim.

Where's the negative mention?

 

[CrazyFaceGenes]

insufferable. it had been overthought and overdone but would like to produce it.
he never stops. hes like the Dr Phil of the Smiths. why doesnt he psycho babble Isaac from the Mouse?
or Bryan Ferry? or the dumb Bernard? go over there dis their records and re produce them.
you are going to fix the smiths after all the suco records you ve made?

You're completely right, he should just re-record the vocals with a new, fresher sounding singer, redo the music with Rourke and call it The Smiths album Mk II.

 

[NealCassidy]

Jonnie Marmite

 

[Sister I'm a Poet]

I did laugh at REDACTED
That was quite a nice little read, i didn't know he "hated" Gmajor and that led to This charming man.

Yes "redacted" was hilarious!

 

[Anonymous]

I wonder how 'He Who Shall Not be Named' will react? Probably calling his solicitor now, to demand even allusions to him being in the Smiths are removed.

 

[CrazyFaceGenes]

Yes "redacted" was hilarious!

It should be done to all his interviews going forward, bleep him out if he's on tv and says the name.

 

[ACTON]

All that and no mention that his album has been delayed from Feb 25th until March 11th. At least according to Amazon. Gives me longer to decide if I wanna cancel the preorder.

 

[ACTON]

I wonder how 'He Who Shall Not be Named' will react? Probably calling his solicitor now, to demand even allusions to him being in the Smiths are removed.

Marr's autobiography should have been called 'The boy who lived' instead of Set The Boy Free.

 

[Amy]

Yeeeeesssss!!!!!!
Oh, this could have been awful, he could have gone low, but no.

"Maybe that's a surprise that everybody needs to be reminded of (...) There was drama but what you hear is a result of stone cold love".

I think Mr Redacted will like that.
I think Mr Redacted will like that a LOT.
Good man Johnny

 

[The Wild Turkey]

He only really mentions him once outside of the Lyrics side of things, and it's to say he made the right call about the first album.

Smiths album you wish you could rerecord with today’s technology

The first album! We had the first attempt at it; it didn’t come out because of some politics between [redacted]Moz. and the producerAccording to Marr’s 2016 autobiography, Rough Trade head Geoff Travis assigned Troy Tate, the Teardrop Explodes guitarist and fellow labelmate, to produce the record. Moz didn’t like the results, and the band decided to rerecord the album with Bryan Ferry collaborator John Porter. “I could hear myself that the mixes sounded underproduced and were not the finished article that we needed as our introduction to the world,” wrote Marr. “Why it was deemed necessary to scrap the album entirely rather than just mix it again I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to make too much of it or spend too much time thinking about it. It was a document of how the band really were at that point though, and it was the last time I saw Troy.”, which was a shame, because that was how the band sounded. But, you know, I think heMoz. was right in the end. I haven’t listened to it for a long time. And then we rerecorded it with John Porter. But by that time, it had just been overthought and overdone.

Where's the negative mention?

"...it didn’t come out because of some politics between (redacted)
and the producer, which was a shame, because that was how the
band sounded. But, you know, I think he was right in the end."

It's Johnny's little trick of sayin' somethin' negative about Moz
and then actin' like he's not really sayin' somethin' negative.

 

[Dingoatemybabby]

"...it didn’t come out because of some politics between (redacted)
and the producer, which was a shame, because that was how the
band sounded. But, you know, I think he was right in the end."

It's Johnny's little trick of sayin' somethin' negative about Moz
and then actin' like he's not really sayin' somethin' negative.

Man, are you guys sensitive! Are you saying that Johnny is not entitled to an opinion on Morrissey or that everything he says about Moz should be complimentary? Morrissey certainly doesn't abide by those rules!

 

[Vegan. Cro. Spirit .777]

so now LePepe, Mr Saturday Night, knows nothing about Troy Tate
it was moz who booted him if it was up to him , troy and him would still be
schnoggling

there is devious, truculent and unreliable and the theres
he cant stop hes like Super Dave
not normal something is way off with LePepe

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Yeeeeesssss!!!!!!

"Maybe people need to be reminded (...) There was drama but there was stone cold love".

I thinkMr Redacted will like that.
I think Mr Redacted will like that a lot.
Good man Johnny

I’m guessing this interview was done before Morrissey’s letter(?)

"...it didn’t come out because of some politics between (redacted)
and the producer, which was a shame, because that was how the
band sounded. But, you know, I think he was right in the end."

It's Johnny's little trick of sayin' somethin' negative about Moz
and then actin' like he's not really sayin' somethin' negative.

It could be seen that way.


‘which was a shame, because that was how the band sounded. But, you know, I think he was right in the end."

Of course Morrissey was right. Porter’s mixes are far superior, though, not as good as they should have been, as Marr in a way says. But we all know that, while still loving it.

 

[Johnny who?]

He just can't help himself
He is just a low class piece of trash

 

[Anonymous]

Man, are you guys sensitive! Are you saying that Johnny is not entitled to an opinion on Morrissey or that everything he says about Moz should be complimentary? Morrissey certainly doesn't abide by those rules!

He's saying it's a familiar pattern, if you look at Marr's interviews over the years. And he's right. It's always in there, the little veiled dig. Because he knows that's the little nugget of gold in the interview, that's the only reason anybody wants to interview, it's certainly not because they're genuinely interested in his godawful songs or his umpteenth attempt to convince people that The The are worth listening to.