The Sun Came Out
Columbia / EMI August 2009
Johnny takes writing and vocal credits on “Too Blue,” “Run in the Dust,” and a writing credit on “Learn to Crawl.”
WITH HAVEN
ALBUM
(as producer)
Between The Senses
Radiate February 2002
All For A Reason
Radiate March 2004
WITH OASIS
ALBUM
Heathen Chemistry
July 2002
Johnny appeared on ‘(Probably) All In The Mind’ and ‘Born On A Different Cloud.’
WITH DENISE JOHNSON
SINGLE
Rays Of The Rising Sun / (versions)
Magnet, June 1995
WITH JANE BIRKIN
ALBUM
Fictions
Album – EMI March 2006
Johnny arranged and plays harmonica and guitar on several tracks, including Neil Hannon’s ‘Home’ and ‘Image Fantome,’ a reading of Debussy’s ‘Pavane Pour Une Infente Defunte.’
WITH MODEST MOUSE
ALBUM
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Album unreleased at time of going to press. Johnny involved in songwriting and playing.
JOHNNY MARR & THE HEALERS
SINGLE
The Last Ride / Need It / Long Gone
Pacific October 2001
ALBUM
Boomslang
The Last Ride / Caught Up / Down On The Corner / Need It / You Are The Magic / In Betweens / Another Day / Headland / Long Gone / Something To Shout About / Bangin’
On iMusic Feb 2003
WITH CHARLATANS
ALBUM
Live It Like You Love It: The Best Of The Charlatans live
Album – MCA October 2002
Johnny appeared on stage with The Charlatans and appears on ‘Weirdo’ and ‘Sproston Green’
WITH LISA GERMANO
ALBUMS
Lullaby For Liquid Pig
Album – Reincarnate May 2003
In The Maybe World
Young God July 2006
WITH CROWDED HOUSE
ALBUM
Time on Earth
ATO June 2007
Johnny appears on ‘Don’t Stop Now’ and ‘Even a Child’, co-writing the latter.
SINGLE
Don’t Stop Now / Stare Me Out (various alternative releases and b-sides)
Capitol June 2007
Johnny appears on the A-side
WITH GIRLS ALOUD
ALBUM
Out of Control
Fascination November 2008
Johnny appears on ‘Rolling Back the Rivers In Time,’ playing guitar and harmonica.
WITH JOHN FRUSCIANTE
ALBUM
The Empyrean
Record Collection January 2009
Johnny plays on the tracks ‘Enough of Me’ and ‘Central.’
SOUNDTRACKS
ALBUMS
Inception
Reprise July 2010
Johnny appears throughout, notably on the track ‘Here’
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Columbia / Madison Gate Records April 2014
Johnny appears throughout, notably on the track ‘Here’
WITH MODEST MOUSE
ALBUM
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
March Into The Sea / Dashboard / Fire It Up / Florida / Parting Of The Sensory / Missed The Boat / We’ve Got Everything / Fly Trapped In A Jar / Education / Little Motel / Steam Engenius / Spitting Venom / People As Places As People / Invisible
Epic March 2007
EP
No-one’s First And You’re Next
Satellite Skin / Guilty Cocker Spaniels / Autumn Beds / The Whale Song / Perpetual Motion Machine / History Sticks To Your Feet / King Rat / I’ve Got It All (Most)
Epic August 2009
Dashboard /King Rat
Epic January 2007
Missed the boat
Epic March 2007
WITH THE CRIBS
ALBUM
Ignore The Ignorant
We Were Aborted / Cheat On Me / We Share The Same Skies / City Of Bugs / Hari Kari / Last Year’s Snow / Emasculate Me / Ignore The Ignorant / Save Your Secrets / Nothing / Victim Of Mass Production / Stick To Yr Guns / Is Anybody There (bonus on iTunes)
Wichita (UK), Warner (USA) and others elsewhere September 2009
SINGLE
Cheat on Me / various b-sides on various releases
Wichita (UK), Warner (USA) and others elsewhere August 2009
We Share The Same Skies / City of Bugs
Wichita (UK), Warner (USA) and others elsewhere November 2009
WITH NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS
ALBUM
Chasing Yesterday
Sour Mash February 2015
Johnny appears on ‘Ballad of the Mighty I’
SINGLE
Ballad of the Mighty I
Sour Mash January 2015
SOLO RELEASES
ALBUM
The Messenger
The Right Thing Right / I Want The Heartbeat / European Me / Upstarts / Lockdown / The Messenger / Generate! Generate! / Say Demesne / Sun And Moon / The Crack Up / New Town Velocity / Word Starts Attack
Warner February 2013
Playland
Back In The Box / Easy Money / Dynamo / Candidate / 25 Hours / The Trap / Playland / Speak Out Reach Out / Boys Get Straight / This Tension / Little King
Warner October 2014
SINGLE
Life Is Sweet
Echo Records (download) 2010
Theme tune from The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
Upstarts / Psychic Beginner
Warner February 2013
New Town Velocity / The It-Switch
New Voodoo / Warner November 2013
Easy Money / Use Me Up
New Voodoo / Warner June 2014
Dynamo / Struck
Warner February 2015
I Feel You
New Voodoo / Warner April 2015
Depeche Mode cover, released in support of Record Store Day
Candidate / Exit Connection
New Voodoo / Warner June 2015
BIBLIOGRAPHY
There have been many books written about The Smiths. Some of them are rotten, some are excellent. The two most important references are:
Songs That Saved Your Life by Simon Goddard
Reynolds & Hearn, London (London 2002)
The Smiths: A Visual Documentary by Johnny Rogan
Omnibus Press, London (1993)
Goddard’s book approaches the story of The Smiths through their recording sessions, and follows each song or track from its inception to its release and beyond, thereby telling the story of The Smiths themselves – one of the best rock music books in print. Rogan’s Visual Documentary is a day-by-day, year-by-year account of the band. Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance (Omnibus Press 1992), also by Rogan, was the first serious look at the history of The Smiths.
Also referred to in the text are:
Manchester England by Dave Haslam
Fourth Estate, London (2000)
Haslam’s is a superbly readable history of the music business – largely its musical history – in Manchester, from the Victorian era to the present day. Not just a great book about Manchester, but a fine read in itself.
In Session Tonight by Ken Garner
BBC Books, London (1993)
Even more since his death, John Peel’s legacy is immeasurable. For anyone who listened to Peel over the years, this is a wonderfully readable account of the various sessions recorded not just for Peel but for other Radio One shows such as Kid Jensen and Janice Long.
The Right To Imagination And Madness by Martin Roach
Independent Music Press, London (1994)
A superb collection of interviews with some of indie and left-field rock
’s most inspiring voices… not least the largest single interview in book form with Johnny Marr.
Morrissey: The Scandal And The Passion by David Brett
Robson, London (2002)
Not loved by many - the book took too great an interest in Morrissey’s sexuality for most readers - but there are some interesting interviews included, whether one agrees with the authors’ premises or not.
David Nolan’s Granada TV documentary These Things Take Time (2002) was an interesting take on The Smiths, using specially commissioned cartoon versions of the band instead of the real McCoy to illustrate Vic Reeves’ commentary. It also included a number of valuable interviews with members of the Smiths’ entourage.
WEB SITES
If ever a band was born to have its bones bared on the web it was The Smiths. There are too many Smiths-orientated websites to even begin listing them all, good or bad, but a trawl through any search engine will throw up the best. The majority of the bands and artists here have official sites and active Facebook and Twitter pages. www.thethe.com updates resources on Matt Johnson regularly, www.petshopboys.co.uk likewise for Tennant and Lowe, while www.kirstymaccoll.com and www.billybragg.co.uk are invaluable for these artists. David Byrne and Paul Carrack can be found at www.davidbyrne.com and www.paulcarrack.net respectively.
Johnny himself is of course at www.johnnymarr.com and is active on Twitter at @Johnny_Marr. Another excellent resource is the unofficial site www.johnnymarrplaysguitar.com. Official sites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts can all be found for The Cribs, Modest Mouse, Neil Finn and most of the other artists referenced.
APPENDIX
An Interview between Johnny Marr and Martin Roach for the latter’s book, The Right To Imagination And Madness, published by Independent Music Press in 1994.
“I was writing this book about my favourite twenty songwriters and contacted Johnny’s managment office. At the time, I had only two books to my name and was publishing this work on my own label. I didn’t worked for any magazines and, in many ways, offered Marr little or no benefit in return for the interview. Further, he hadn’t spoken to the press for several years. I was amazed and delighted when I got a phonecall to get myself to Manchester on a certain day and turn up at a central hotel. I waited anxiously and, bang on time, a blacked out BMW rolled up and Johnny Marr stepped out.
He walked straight up to me and introduced himself, not as ‘Johnny’ but as ‘Johnny Marr’. We sat in the bar area and drank tea, while he spoke for four hours about his songs and the music that had affected him. He wouldn’t let me pay for anything and offered to check any information he’d given me if I had any queries. He was a gentleman and a scholar of music. Oh, and he looked compeltely rock and roll, exactly as you would want Johnny Marr to look: shades, cool clothes and a rock star’s barnet. I have never had the chance to thank him directly for his leap of faith in me – a totally unknown writer asking him about his songwriting – so, hearty respect and cheers, Johnny.
MR: How has your upbringing shaped your musical development?
JM: I think it shaped it massively, as I think it does with everybody really. I came from a particularly musical family. I grew up on the outskirts of the city, near the Ardnick Apollo, not the Harlem Apollo [laughs] and loads of my relatives lived on the same street. Four families lived next door to each other, all Irish immigrants, all very young families and so there were parties every night. Being an Irish situation there were always accordions and harmonicas and other instruments around. My first memory of guitar playing was this uncle who had big sideburns and Chelsea boots, he was well cool, he had a guitar and did a little bit of playing, I thought he was really hip. Because it was a big family there were always christenings and weddings and there was always what seemed like this same band playing at these functions. In between their sets I would go and have a look at the guitars. I remember this red Stratocaster, I can recall the smell of the case and everything. My parents had Beatles records but they were more into the Irish stuff, kind of country music, which spilled over into The Everly Brothers who were really popular in my household. No matter how much you believe otherwise, I think your upbringing indelibly affects your development, it gives you your musical personality and in some cases your entire musical vocabulary. Even when I started to rebel against that, when I was ten or eleven and I got into glam rock, it was still there. Even now, I hate country music, so the influence remains. Unwittingly or not, my family did shape my musical ideas and were very encouraging to my aspirations to play.
Was that domestic musical environment better than being at musical school?
From what I have seen definitely, yes. It seems there are two ways you can go and neither include musical school. You can either come from the genetic thing like I did, or you can come from a completely non-musical situation. Take Bernard Sumner for example, he got into music from a completely different, almost political need, when he left school. He had no musical family at all. I don’t know anyone who’s had success from music school, that way always smacks for me of It Bites, too cerebral, too calculated, not very much soul. If you want it bad enough and connect with music on a spiritual level, tuition is completely irrelevant. Music is a purely spiritual connection.
So when did you first make that spiritual connection rather than listen to other bands?
From about ten.
That seems quite early.
Yes, very early. I had always had guitars for as long as I could remember. I thought once that maybe my parents were pushing me into it, but I soon realised that I was obsessed. I loved the feel and shape of them, so I always had toy guitars around. Then when I got to ten or eleven I heard Marc Bolan for the first time, like a lot of people, through Top of the Pops. The first record I ever bought was ‘Jeepster’ but it wasn’t until ‘Metal Guru’ got to No.1 that I really made that connection for the first time. It was a feeling that I’ll never forget, a new sensation. I got on my bike and rode and rode, singing this song, it was a spiritual elevation, one of the best moments of my life. The next day me and my mate went out and stole loads of glitter, put it all over our faces and started emulating our favourite bands. From then on my formative years were totally and utterly dedicated to music. I was into football like everyone else, but while most kids my age were into conkers and bikes, I was at home miming to ‘Metal Guru’ and ‘Telegram Sam’.
So do you think you missed out at all in your childhood?
No, not at all, because I still think what I was doing was more interesting than what other kids were doing.
So was it always going to be music that you used as your expression?
Yes, it was. Undoubtedly. I’m very one-dimensional in that respect, music is everything. When I left school I had jobs and all that, but they were only a means to playing loads of records and tapes and getting paid for it. That was a natural apprenticeship for being in a band because Billy Duffy from The Cult worked around there. He was my closest ally and a few years older than me, so he was kind of like my role model. Eventually he gave up everything to be involved in music and I kind of followed that.
How much did you follow him musically?
Very little, very little. I moved from the city to the south of Manchester, which was vaguely middle class, and looked like Beverly Hills compared to the staunch, working class, tough city. My new place was only a little housing estate, and now it is really dilapidated, but at the time it felt like nirvana. I met guys who were only 13 or 14 but took themselves so seriously as musicians, they were already legends in their own minds. Billy Duffy was one of those people. In those circles, it was okay to regard yourself a a serious musician, even though they were so young. Without that I would still have been a musician but I don’t know whether I would have had the confidence to have done what I did. I used to walk around all the time with a guitar case, and there was actually a guitar in it, but there’s not much I could do with it outside the shops! But it was just to let everybody know that my whole identity was as a gu
itar player. I was very cocky. But in terms of writing I realised certain limitations, after being in a few of my mates’ bands. I knew that as a guitar player there are only so many times you can play someone else’s songs. Someone had to start writing.
So when did you start writing your own material then?
Johnny Marr Page 29
