The sonic guitar stylings of one Johnny Marr are not exactly easy to define. Most of his best-known work comes from a brief five-year period as the guitarist in the post-punk UK band The Smiths. Marr therefore by virtue of association with that movement, his upbringing in Manchester and generational aspirations to become a professional football player, naturally lead to the question: who is Johnny Marr?
The simple explanation is, there is no simple explanation. The 61-year-old Marr, who played in several bands before beginning his tenure within The Smiths in 1982, has gone onto share his unique talents in collaborations as diverse as The Pretenders, the The, Electronic (with New Order’s Bernard Sumner) and thousands of hours in session work.
He is not singularly defined by a style. Upon closer inspection, his work has been the cumulative result of decades spent in experimentation, off-the-wall guitar tunings, and pop music deep dives that have driven his reputation into a revered status among those who like to categorize him as a ‘musician’s musician.’
The Mancunian-Irishman grew up with diverse influences, naming Nile Rogers, Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, and The Stooges’ James Williamson among his favorites but surprisingly, he never took guitar lessons. Throughout the late ‘70s into the early ‘80s, Marr was circuiting the clubs in the Manchester area, alongside future Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, forming a funk band around 1981 and meeting future collaborator Matt Johnson of the The who tried desperately to recruit him for a group.
But by early 1982, Marr and Rourke had dissolved the band, intending to find a singer to compliment Marr’s jangly riffs and Rourke’s looping basslines. A mutual friend introduced Marr to Steven Morrissey, who was the lead vocalist of the short-lived punk band The Nosebleeds. Marr and Rourke met with Morrissey in May of that year.
But in took until May 1983 to bring forth the sound and the band known as The Smiths. Co-written by Marr and Morrissey, the single “Hand in Glove,” was recorded in February at Strawberry Studios in Manchester. In April, Marr and Rourke took the song on a cassette to Geoff Travis’ indie record label Rough Trade in London with Marr telling Travis, “[L]isten to this, it’s not just another tape.” And by the May issuing, the picture sleeve of a nude male from behind certainly didn’t hurt.
The band’s next single “This Charming Man” was released in October, furthering the stylings of Marr’s precise and economical playing, which was also being mirrored in the US, courtesy of R.E.M.’s guitarist Peter Buck.
When The Smiths’ big splash came in 1984, it was a veritable tidal wave of sinewy moves from Morrissey, double-entendre lyrics, and the now recognizable Marr delivery. Yet the most recognizable song from this period and that many consider their signature song is the very un-Smiths-like “How Soon Is Now?” Against echo-y swamp dirge and psychedelic vibrations that emanate from Marr’s continuous drone and the minimalistic lyrics, it has become, in its 40-year existence, the go-to answer for the question: Who were The Smiths?
But even as their popularity – and Morrissey’s over-the-top stage prancing – became a Top of the Pops fixture, rebellion and strife were already at hand. The grind of recording and touring, fueled by artificial stimulants and copious amounts of alcohol was causing friction among the band as a whole.
The impetus to make a final split – even after the recording of what would be their final release Strangeways, Here We Come – came when Marr believed Morrissey had planted a story in the UK music paper New Musical Express expressing anger that the guitarist was offering his services outside of The Smiths. Marr wasn’t having any of it and left in July 1987, severing ties complicated by lack of a managerial figure and business problems.
For his most immediate post-Smiths contribution, Marr briefly joined The Pretenders as an official recording and touring member. But his more extensive work came by way of two simultaneous projects. Coming back to his Manchester roots, Marr began a partnership with the The, moving into a full-time position and making his debut on their 1989 LP Mind Bomb. His trademark reverb arpeggios and harmonica playing came to the forefront with the album’s single “The Beat(en) Generation.”
In tandem with the The, Marr joined forces with New Order frontperson Bernard Sumner to form Electronic. By late 1988, Sumner had wanted to forge a dance/synth-pop direction and was not finding his bandmates sympathetic or willing participants. Marr stepped in as a collaborator and contributed his most fluid, natural-sounding guitar playing as Sumner and the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe gave the 1989 debut “Getting Away With It” a chart slot in the Top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
The session chameleon Marr however, was slipping in and out of numerous recording studios, working his magic with Beck (“Midnight Vultures”), Oasis (Heathen Chemistry), Robyn Hitchcock (Propellor Time), and Drake (“Can I”). He eventually journeyed into film, contributing to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and No Time to Die.
Marr once again moved into full-fledged band mode with Modest Mouse in 2007 on their nautical-themed We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, he kept himself busy with supergroups like The Healers, 7 Worlds Collide and The Cribs and has, more than once, jumped back into The Pretenders, most recently in 2023 at the Glastonbury Festival.
However, it’s his houseful of guitars that has kept him at the forefront of peer musicianship. While his trademark visual shown by way in numerous music videos has been the ‘John Lennon Rickenbacker,’ his most prominent work features Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster models, using numerous pedal effects and amplifiers to get that specific ‘Marr’ sound. He published a book in 2023, Marr’s Guitars, that showcased in photographs his extensive collection – and love for – an instrument that has given him notice, but as always emphasizing, “If people can finally recognize you on radio without being told who it is, that’s what you aim for.”
-Amy Hughes
Photo: Johnny Marr, 2019 (Jwslubbock via Wikimedia Commons)
Nice work!