Smiths

Today, very little remains of the chemistry between Johnny Marr and Morrissey that made the story of the Smiths so unrepeatable. In recent years the two have traded accusations and rebuttals, clashed over control of the band's name, and found themselves on opposite sides even over the possibility of a sensational reunion. And yet, when Marr looks back on those days, the present-day resentment seems to give way to the wonder of that time. Because writing songs with Morrissey, the guitarist now says, was something "incredible", even "magical".

In a recent interview with Channel 4 News' Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the English guitarist recalled the creative rapport and special alchemy he shared with Morrissey back then, reconstructing the working method that allowed the two of them to build one of the most influential catalogues in British rock.
Marr explained that from the very start he had a very precise idea of what the Smiths should sound like: he wanted a guitar band, but one able to escape the stereotypes of rock at the time. A decisive element was the use of acoustic guitars, often recorded at unusually high volume and layered across multiple tracks. That's the case, for instance, with "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and "Half A Person". "I was excited that we were a guitar band", he said, stressing that the sonic choice was anything but accidental.
Among his formative influences, Marr cited Eddie Cochran, in particular "C'mon Everybody", and the Everly Brothers. The aim was to bring the acoustic guitar back to the forefront, avoiding the discreet, almost ornamental role it had often been given in productions of previous years. "I wanted it to sound loud and clear", he explained.

That pursuit had begun even before the Smiths officially came into being. Marr was already experimenting with overdubs using a small cassette recorder, which he later used to put together the earliest sketches of the band's songs. Later, after saving up enough money to buy a Portastudio, he began preparing more elaborate demos, adding a rudimentary drum machine and three or four guitar tracks. Even the writing process with Morrissey initially had an almost domestic quality. Marr would record his ideas onto cassette and hand them over to the singer, who lived about ten minutes away. Sometimes he'd simply hop on his motorbike and post the tape through his letterbox. From those foundations would come Morrissey's lyrics and vocal melodies. His most vivid memory, though, concerns the making of "The Queen Is Dead", the Smiths' third album, released in 1986. By that stage the two of them could work sitting close to one another, with a tape recorder between them. "It was incredible. It was magical", Marr recalls. "I literally had the guitar in my hands and the tape recorder between my knees". Whenever an idea came to him, he'd hit "record" and start playing: the feeling, he says, was that they'd both hold their breath until the take was over.

Marr also loved writing songs in batches of three, then watching them gradually transform through the contributions of the other Smiths. First came Morrissey's words and voice, then Andy Rourke's bass and Mike Joyce's drums. It was precisely the anticipation of discovering what the others would add that made the process so exciting: "I couldn't wait to see the words. I couldn't wait to hear the voice, the bassline, what Andy and Mike would do. God, it was pure magic!"

In the interview Marr also recalled just how deliberate the decision was to build the Smiths as a guitar-driven band in the Manchester of the early 1980s, a scene dominated by Tony Wilson's Factory Records and by acts such as Joy Division and New Order. Although Wilson later voiced regret over not having signed them, Marr maintains that going with rival label Rough Trade was the natural choice. "When the band formed, I was working in a clothes shop frequented by other Manchester musicians, most of whom recorded for Factory Records", Marr said. "Through the shop I knew everyone at the label, so signing to Factory seemed like the obvious move. And that became the official story. Tony Wilson always used to say: 'I wish I'd signed the Smiths'. But I would never have signed to Factory. Personally, I'd never have allowed it, because it would have been too predictable, and besides, it wasn't that kind of music. The Factory bands were my friends, but they weren't guitar bands in the strict sense. They experimented with funk and keyboards… they were doing something different, almost like bands without guitars. So it was a very deliberate choice to be a guitar-based band, and that was exactly my role".

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28/09/2026