When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anymore

When did Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as 'It's Not Your Birthday...'


  • Total voters
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Maurice E

Junior Member
With apologies for the slightly bizarre shorthand - it wouldn't allow me any more characters!

This is a poll so please be patient if viewing thread before poll options appear!
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

Worm, Johnny needs you. ;)
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

Worm, Johnny needs you. ;)

Heh. ;)

It's not an apples to apples comparison. Johnny Marr has not tried to live up to or surpass his legacy with The Smiths. The only way you can compare the two would be if Johnny Marr went out and joined a band with a once-in-a-generation frontman to make guitar-based indie rock. As it is-- in his collaborations with Billy Bragg, Bernard Sumner, Matt Johnson, and now Modest Mouse-- he's done pretty well for himself. You can knock him for not having Morrissey's ambition but that's about the only fair comparison, in my opinion.

Do I think Years of Refusal is a hundredfold superior to anything Marr has done in the last, oh, ten years? Of course.
 
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Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

More appropriately, when did Mozzer last write lyrics as incisive, witty, poetic and downright brilliant as The Queen is Dead or I Know It's Over?

It's a two-way thing. ;)
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

this thread sucks. much like it's not your birthday anymore. ZIIIIING.
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

More appropriately, when did Mozzer last write lyrics as incisive, witty, poetic and downright brilliant as The Queen is Dead or I Know It's Over?

It's a two-way thing. ;)

err, not really more appropriate.
it#s (darn these foreign keyboards with their illogically located apostrophes!) pretty much accepted that Morrissey#s lyrics are not what they once were.
however, people constantly bang on about the fact that he misses Marr#s compositional/guitar playing skills, but I just wonder when Marr wrote last something as incredibly euphoric as this song.
it#s an honest (i.e. not rhetorical) question as I#ve not followed much of his non Smiths stuff, other than the odd Electronic single...
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

When did random thoughts become legitimate subjects for polls?

Should I have had 2 bananas or one this morning with my cereal?

Vote now!
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

err, not really more appropriate.
it#s (darn these foreign keyboards with their illogically located apostrophes!) pretty much accepted that Morrissey#s lyrics are not what they once were.
however, people constantly bang on about the fact that he misses Marr#s compositional/guitar playing skills, but I just wonder when Marr wrote last something as incredibly euphoric as this song.
it#s an honest (i.e. not rhetorical) question as I#ve not followed much of his non Smiths stuff, other than the odd Electronic single...

I don't know if "euphoric" is the word but the last song I heard that he co-wrote that really blew me away was "Make It Happen" on "Twisted Tenderness". That was 1999, so ten years.

I haven't heard "Boomslang" and he has what I assume to be a secondary role in Modest Mouse, so I don't count them. Those are the only two albums he's put out since 1999 (according to Wikipedia). So, again: lack of ambition.

As I already said someplace else, Years of Refusal is the first Morrissey album in forever that I didn't think for a single moment about Johnny. He's just a name in the past now. Not quite on the level of Mark Nevin, mind, but similarly irrelevant. But I don't hold his lack of euphoric songs against him. He had more in a single lifetime than twenty other guitarists put together.
 
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Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

I don't know if "euphoric" is the word but the last song I heard that he co-wrote that really blew me away was "Make It Happen" on "Twisted Tenderness". That was 1999, so ten years.

Thanks, will check out the song.
Really loved the music to #For You#. If that and #Make it Happen# are on the Electronic composition, I#ll have to grab a copy...
 
Btw

err, not really more appropriate.
it's (darn these foreign keyboards with their illogically located apostrophes!) pretty much accepted that Morrissey's lyrics are not what they once were.
however, people constantly bang on about the fact that he misses Marr's compositional/guitar playing skills, but I just wonder when Marr wrote last something as incredibly euphoric as this song.
it's an honest (i.e. not rhetorical) question as I've not followed much of his non Smiths stuff, other than the odd Electronic single...


Are you visiting Czech Republic by any chance? :p
 
Re: Btw

Nope, I#m in Austria!


You're just next door! :eek:

(I struggle with French keyboards, not now, but when I'm in France. So I feel your pain about apostrophes not being at the right place. ;))
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

When did random thoughts become legitimate subjects for polls?

Should I have had 2 bananas or one this morning with my cereal?

Vote now!
Someone understands me :):D Whats next ? The way he wipes his ass?
With one or 2 bananas lol :)
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

A break beat at the start with a atmos synth is not original? Bands need and use electronica in there music to give it more depth and soul!
The break beat is sampled as its been used in loads of lounge tracks/drum and bass! thats a old stock break beat used for the intro! Its been filtered pitched up and down for years.

Like dido did the same thing with here with me used a sample of early jungle/drum and bass break beat with the band stuff layed to hype and give it a natural feel!

I work in the underground/dj/music scene and heard all this before but its is a good track but thats keyboards and drum machines(originaly) for u,they give a deepth and soundtrack feel!

He should start using more electronica it adds depths to his vocal tones but who iam i to say? i dont moan i just say things! there is a diffrence :)
so untill its original Johnny should not be judged!
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

As it is-- in his collaborations with Billy Bragg, Bernard Sumner, Matt Johnson, and now Modest Mouse-- he's done pretty well for himself.

Are you kidding? Look, I am one of the few who actually likes some of the stuff he's done with all of those artists (plus some of his other work), but I still think he's wasted his talent since he left The Smiths. It's actually quite sad.
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

Are you kidding? Look, I am one of the few who actually likes some of the stuff he's done with all of those artists (plus some of his other work), but I still think he's wasted his talent since he left The Smiths. It's actually quite sad.

Like I said, "wasted talent" is a relative judgment. I think he's pretty much done exactly what he, Johnny Marr, has wanted to do. Only The Healers is probably a serious disappointment to him. I think you have to take his ambitions, or lack thereof, into consideration when deciding whether or not he's been a "failure".
 
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Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

I haven't heard "Boomslang"

There's 3 or 4 decent songs on that album. Even though it's nothing to write home about, I quite like "Caught Up" in particular. I'm kinda surprised that a big Marr fan like you has never bothered to check out that album. Not that you should rush out, as it's pretty forgettable...but it's not actually BAD, either.


As I already said someplace else, Years of Refusal is the first Morrissey album in forever that I didn't think for a single moment about Johnny.

I thought Moz got past the "You need Johnny back" thing when "Your Arsenal" came out.
 
Re: When did Johnny Marr last write a piece of music as euphoric as INY Birthday Anym

There's 3 or 4 decent songs on that album. Even though it's nothing to write home about, I quite like "Caught Up" in particular. I'm kinda surprised that a big Marr fan like you has never bothered to check out that album. Not that you should rush out, as it's pretty forgettable...but it's not actually BAD, either.

I heard a few songs online. I didn't like Marr's voice. I guess, if I'm honest, I didn't want to buy it and hate it so I just avoided it. Maybe I'll give it a chance one day.

I thought Moz got past the "You need Johnny back" thing when "Your Arsenal" came out.

Not for me. It's not that I didn't love that album-- it is my No. 2 behind "Viva Hate"-- it's just that, at the time, I kept comparing his musicians to The Smiths. I couldn't help it. (IIRC The Smiths' "Best" albums came out around that time, furthering comparisons.)

In some sense I do wish, like you, that Johnny had done more after The Smiths. If I had never read an interview with him after 1987, I might be disappointed. But I have, and I dunno. He seems pretty healthy and-- um-- well-adjusted. I think he's just making music for himself and his friends, which I find hard to knock him for.
 
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