New Marr interview in today's NME

[fastpulseboy]

pffffffff
this guy should never talk anymore and just play his guitar in a nice band.....

 

[Kewpie]

I say it's mostly because of the vocal melody.

She's a Croatian teenager who migrated in Italy.
Be gentle to her.

 

[charlie tango]

She's a Croatian teenager who migrated in Italy.
Be gentle to her.

Eh..?

 

[CeciDeMorrissey]

Now that I get to understand more words from the interview... I really sense quite a bitterness from Johnny towards Morrissey... That's really sad... I guess a lot of years have passed by and he should turn the page and keep going... Now he's back to success with Modest Mouse, that should make him happy and he should talk more about that... Not always bitterly about Morrissey or The Smiths.

 

[Dave]

Re: Full interview here

Ooohh Uncleskinny!!! I really really thank you so much!!

It was really a treat to read that interview and I value so much your typing effort.


I'm curious about this one:

Q: Never trust anyone...
A: Whose sideburns are a different colour from the rest of their hair. I don't need to explain that one.


What he was talking about??

Paulie from The Sopranos??

Or.... Or....

oh! My thanks also.

In Guitar Player a few years back Johnny talks about spending time in the desert in Arizona. I don't have the article or remember it exactly but he either states or hints strongly about using psychedelics.

 

[Society]

How can he have the cheek to say its "healthy to know" something then recommend drugs?! the arsehole. DONT TAKE DRUGS KIDS. Morrissey doesnt take them and is more successful then jonny marsbar features. enough said. Plus marrs stuck in the 90s with liam gallager and and all those glow sticks!

Morrissey has TAKEN drugs before, he's admitted to using ecstasy in at least one interview I've read. And most likely, if you've done ecstasy, you've tried other things as well. The thing to remember is it's "TRY" not "TAKE" or "USE". Trying certain drugs once or twice can actually help people a lot. "Tell the truth it really helped you..."

 

[The Seeker of Good Songs]

Re: Full interview here

Q: You don't know the meaning of the Dark Side until you've...
A: Been in The Smiths. There you go, I got it out of the way straight off. The last year of The Smiths, I was stuck with a load of ideas and nowhere to play them. So I disbanded the group. Was I worried I wouldn't have anywhere for those ideas? Absolutely. But if the worst case scenario is better than the situation you're in at the time, you've got to go.

"The last year of The Smiths, I was stuck with a load of ideas and nowhere to play them. So I disbanded the group."

I don't understand this.

If Marr had these ideas and Morrissey rejected them, then Morrissey should not/would not have been so surprised at the break up of the group. If Marr consistently came to Morrissey with new styles of music and Moz didn't like them, and this was a trend then Moz would have known the group was in jeopardy. But as I recall Moz was and the other two were surprised/shocked at the break up.

If Marr had these ideas and never approached Morrissey with them, then he has other problems.

Or was Marr's idea of "ideas" being that he didn't want to do cover songs?

And what happened to all these ideas?

 

[Danny]

Re: Full interview here

"The last year of The Smiths, I was stuck with a load of ideas and nowhere to play them. So I disbanded the group."

I don't understand this.

If Marr had these ideas and Morrissey rejected them, then Morrissey should not/would not have been so surprised at the break up of the group. If Marr consistently came to Morrissey with new styles of music and Moz didn't like them, and this was a trend then Moz would have known the group was in jeopardy. But as I recall Moz was and the other two were surprised/shocked at the break up.

If Marr had these ideas and never approached Morrissey with them, then he has other problems.

Or was Marr's idea of "ideas" being that he didn't want to do cover songs?

And what happened to all these ideas?

There were no ideas. It's complete rewriting of history. They had to do cover versions because Johnny had no music left. Everyone who was in that last session agrees on that (except Johnny).

And why did he not put all these fabulous ideas into practice instead of going off to work as a session musician with Bryan Ferry and Chrissy Hynde? He could have put together a band straight away.

Then later on he hooks up with Sumner and goes all Pet Shop Boys and tries to pretend that's what he'd always intended. You can tell he was just a rudderless ship at that time just following the lead of whoever he hooked up with. And nothing has changed.

 

[Worm]

Re: Full interview here

There were no ideas. It's complete rewriting of history. They had to do cover versions because Johnny had no music left. Everyone who was in that last session agrees on that (except Johnny).

And why did he not put all these fabulous ideas into practice instead of going off to work as a session musician with Bryan Ferry and Chrissy Hynde? He could have put together a band straight away.

Then later on he hooks up with Sumner and goes all Pet Shop Boys and tries to pretend that's what he'd always intended. You can tell he was just a rudderless ship at that time just following the lead of whoever he hooked up with. And nothing has changed.

Wait a sec.

It's not fair to say "Johnny had no music left". He was exhausted for whatever reason and didn't want to be at the Streatham sessions in the first place. Johnny and Morrissey have both said that "Strangeways" was The Smiths at their creative peak. If Johnny could have had a vacation, I'm sure the ideas would have returned in full force. As we know from the box set chatter, The Smiths did not have a silo piled full of songs waiting to be recorded. Whatever they wrote, they recorded and released. The fact that Johnny didn't have a batch of songs for Morrissey at Streatham is meaningless.

Was he re-writing history? Okay, somewhat. As I said this interview doesn't put him in the best light. But in the NME in 1988, one writer mentioned that word circulating around The Smiths' camp was that "Johnny wanted to be Sly and The Family Stone and Morrissey wanted to be Herman's Hermits". The notion that Marr wanted to get into "forbidden" forms of music and couldn't use them in The Smiths is at least 19 years old now. Although it's hard to say what Johnny's "ideas" were at the time, this version of events could be backed-up by Morrissey's refusal to write words for "The Draize Train", one of the funkier tracks Marr had written.

Regarding Marr's alleged "sterile period", Q Magazine said that Marr was approached by Bernard Sumner in 1988, so that would mean he started his solo career roughly half a year after Morrissey. Marr and Sumner remained under the radar for about one year developing the project and then released "Getting Away With It" in December 1989. He also recorded some highly praised material for The The during that period. Well behind Morrissey's schedule, yes, but then again we've always heard that Marr was burned out and needed a break, so that's consistent. Besides, this dry spell is no big deal. It hit both of them. The only difference is that Marr had his immediately after The Smiths broke up, whereas Morrissey's occurred between 1989 and 1991.

 

[the judge]

She's a Croatian teenager who migrated in Italy.
Be gentle to her.

I didn't think he was rude, thank you anyway.

 

[Worm]

Re: Full interview here

"The last year of The Smiths, I was stuck with a load of ideas and nowhere to play them. So I disbanded the group."

I don't understand this.

If Marr had these ideas and Morrissey rejected them, then Morrissey should not/would not have been so surprised at the break up of the group. If Marr consistently came to Morrissey with new styles of music and Moz didn't like them, and this was a trend then Moz would have known the group was in jeopardy. But as I recall Moz was and the other two were surprised/shocked at the break up.

If Marr had these ideas and never approached Morrissey with them, then he has other problems.

Or was Marr's idea of "ideas" being that he didn't want to do cover songs?

And what happened to all these ideas?

To understand this you'd have to first understand the mind of a musician/producer. As fans we think Marr's "ideas" should have translated into songs or albums. Maybe not. Knowing a few musicians myself, and having read as much about Marr as I could get my hands on, my guess is that by "ideas" he means styles of music that he wanted to explore. His friendship with Bernard Sumner is significant-- they'd been friends since 1984 and Sumner probably turned him on to a lot of dance music (1988 in particular was a crucial year in the making of "Technique", as New Order fans will tell you, so I imagine Sumner was sending Marr loads of tapes from Ibiza).

More generally, creative people don't just hit a button and churn out new material. Marr was coming to grips with some of the newer sounds coming out of places like Manchester and Detroit. It may have taken him awhile. (Based on Electronic's output, I'd say his grip was unfortunately tenuous at times.) He was trying to go from five years of rock guitar to cutting edge dance music. Gifted as he is, that must have required some time.

Compared with Morrissey, yes, I think Morrissey has clearly worked harder, risked more, and shown more ambition. But Marr is a studio rat, and they're often funny types. While Morrissey was enjoying the elation of selling out Madison Square Garden in 1991, Johnny Marr might have been just as happy sitting in a studio messing around with some new synths he'd just bought. He has different standards of success, and that should be considered too. With the incredible string of triumphs he enjoyed with The Smiths, he probably thought it would be better to lay low for a few years and have fun, pursue his private passions while remaining in the public view. In Healers interviews he said he was "ready to be in a band again", or something like that, so during the ten years or so after The Smiths ("The Dark Side") I think his mindset was probably different from Morrissey's, and ours.

 

[Danny]

Re: Full interview here

Wait a sec.

It's not fair to say "Johnny had no music left". He was exhausted for whatever reason and didn't want to be at the Streatham sessions in the first place. Johnny and Morrissey have both said that "Strangeways" was The Smiths at their creative peak. If Johnny could have had a vacation, I'm sure the ideas would have returned in full force. As we know from the box set chatter, The Smiths did not have a silo piled full of songs waiting to be recorded. Whatever they wrote, they recorded and released. The fact that Johnny didn't have a batch of songs for Morrissey at Streatham is meaningless.

Was he re-writing history? Okay, somewhat. As I said this interview doesn't put him in the best light. But in the NME in 1988, one writer mentioned that word circulating around The Smiths' camp was that "Johnny wanted to be Sly and The Family Stone and Morrissey wanted to be Herman's Hermits". The notion that Marr wanted to get into "forbidden" forms of music and couldn't use them in The Smiths is at least 19 years old now. Although it's hard to say what Johnny's "ideas" were at the time, this version of events could be backed-up by Morrissey's refusal to write music for "The Draize Train", which was one of the funkier tracks Marr had written.

Regarding Marr's alleged "sterile period", Q Magazine said that Marr was approached by Bernard Sumner in 1988, so that would mean he started his solo career roughly half a year after Morrissey. Marr and Sumner remained under the radar for about one year developing the project and then released "Getting Away With It" in December 1989. He also recorded some highly praised material for The The during that period. Well behind Morrissey's schedule, yes, but then again we've always heard that Marr was burned out and needed a break, so that's consistent. Besides, this dry spell is no big deal. It hit both of them. The only difference is that Marr had his immediately after The Smiths broke up, whereas Morrissey's occurred between 1989 and 1991.

You're ignoring the fact that Marr said he was having wonderful ideas and couldn't put them into practice and Seekers good point that if that was so why was the break up such a shock to Morrissey. Did he just keep all these great ideas secret and not tell Morrissey?

If the opposite is true as you said (and this is my belief) that he was burned out, why won't he admit it? My suspicion is because he knows that version doesn't blame Morrissey enough for the break up. And he wants the blame to be on Morrissey.

I suppose it depends on whose version you believe, my opinion when I compare what he says to what others say about that time is that Johnny's story is full of holes and doesn't ring true. He contradicts himself with every public statement. That's why he should stop being a professional ex-Smith and shut up about it.

 

[dothewatusi]

Re: Full interview here

Wait a sec.

It's not fair to say "Johnny had no music left". He was exhausted for whatever reason and didn't want to be at the Streatham sessions in the first place. Johnny and Morrissey have both said that "Strangeways" was The Smiths at their creative peak. If Johnny could have had a vacation, I'm sure the ideas would have returned in full force. As we know from the box set chatter, The Smiths did not have a silo piled full of songs waiting to be recorded. Whatever they wrote, they recorded and released. The fact that Johnny didn't have a batch of songs for Morrissey at Streatham is meaningless.

Was he re-writing history? Okay, somewhat. As I said this interview doesn't put him in the best light. But in the NME in 1988, one writer mentioned that word circulating around The Smiths' camp was that "Johnny wanted to be Sly and The Family Stone and Morrissey wanted to be Herman's Hermits". The notion that Marr wanted to get into "forbidden" forms of music and couldn't use them in The Smiths is at least 19 years old now. Although it's hard to say what Johnny's "ideas" were at the time, this version of events could be backed-up by Morrissey's refusal to write music for "The Draize Train", which was one of the funkier tracks Marr had written.

Regarding Marr's alleged "sterile period", Q Magazine said that Marr was approached by Bernard Sumner in 1988, so that would mean he started his solo career roughly half a year after Morrissey. Marr and Sumner remained under the radar for about one year developing the project and then released "Getting Away With It" in December 1989. He also recorded some highly praised material for The The during that period. Well behind Morrissey's schedule, yes, but then again we've always heard that Marr was burned out and needed a break, so that's consistent. Besides, this dry spell is no big deal. It hit both of them. The only difference is that Marr had his immediately after The Smiths broke up, whereas Morrissey's occurred between 1989 and 1991.

And don't forget he was raising a family. That should count for something.

I hope he adds to his list of things he'll never to do - never wear a bowtie. You know that Morrissey will want him to wear one, if they ever get back together for a reunion concert. Run away, run away!

 

[Worm]

Re: Full interview here

You're ignoring the fact that Marr said he was having wonderful ideas and couldn't put them into practice and Seekers good point that if that was so why was the break up such a shock to Morrissey. Did he just keep all these great ideas secret and not tell Morrissey?

If the opposite is true as you said (and this is my belief) that he was burned out, why won't he admit it? My suspicion is because he knows that version doesn't blame Morrissey enough for the break up. And he wants the blame to be on Morrissey.

I suppose it depends on whose version you believe, my opinion when I compare what he says to what others say about that time is that Johnny's story is full of holes and doesn't ring true. He contradicts himself with every public statement. That's why he should stop being a professional ex-Smith and shut up about it.

Well, the following is just armchair pscyhology, so maybe you're right and I'm wrong. But here goes.

Yes, Johnny would have had to keep those ideas a secret from Morrissey. Absolutely. It is completely conceivable to me that it was a secret. I don't get the impression that theirs was a healthy relationship even when times were good. It was intense and highly insular. Almost everyone says that. Some have called it like a love affair (a few nutters have said it was a love affair). I'm sure that Marr's "electronic" inclinations came up from time to time, in milder forms, and Morrissey shot them down.

When it happened it probably wasn't a big fight or something. It was probably Marr saying "Hey, listen to this Chic album, it's fantastic" and Morrissey muttering "Be serious, Johnny" and turning away to read the newspaper. Morrissey, 1986: "I mean I could despise a person if I came across a particular record in their possession however kind that person had been to me in the past. One rancid LP and I'd be lashing out at their shins!" How receptive do you think Morrissey would have been to Marr's "ideas" after publicly lambasting all dance music? I'll bet Johnny's attitude was "Why bother"?

Morrissey's shock over The Smiths' demise doesn't undermine Marr's account, in my opinion. Morrissey had tunnel vision. He saw what he wanted to see. If their relationship was as intense as we are told it was, that's hardly unusual. Remember Rogan's description of Streatham (or was it Godard's)? He says something about Morrissey hearing Marr strumming a half-finished song and saying, "There, there, play that bit! That's a song!" Marr was totally perplexed: "What song, Morrissey?". That last session was a disaster. Maybe they thought a break-up wasn't in the air, but things certainly weren't peachy.

Perhaps Marr wants to use every occasion to blame Morrissey. Maybe. I'm beginning to come around to your belief that Marr isn't nearly as innocent as he makes himself out to be. Even if that's true, though, it is a hallmark of Morrissey's behavior to be "shocked" when people turn against him. You tell me one time where Morrissey has ever said "You know, maybe I was to blame for X deserting me". It's always a deep personal betrayal and the other guy's always to blame. If Marr has proven unreliable in giving accurate depictions of his history with people, you have to admit Morrissey is no better. His soulmate and creative partner walking away from him abruptly, for no good reason-- a classic Morrissey narrative.

"That's why he should stop being a professional ex-Smith and shut up about it." Agreed.

 

[Danny]

I'm pretty sure Morrissey has acknowledged quite a few times that life was difficult for both him and Marr in the Smiths and he understood the pressure got too much.

The terrible thing about all this is that it's been 20 years and things should be getting better. Yet Marr seems to get worse with each interview. He should be at his most happy at the moment yet he's wasting his time on childish cracks. I'm sorry but every interview he does these days I lose a bit more respect for him and this one is by far the worst. I can't help but feel he really resents Morrissey's success.

 

[Goyracer]

The man formed The Smiths at 18 and quit at 23, just keeping things in perspective.

 

[Worm]

The terrible thing about all this is that it's been 20 years and things should be getting better. Yet Marr seems to get worse with each interview. He should be at his most happy at the moment yet he's wasting his time on childish cracks. I'm sorry but every interview he does these days I lose a bit more respect for him and this one is by far the worst. I can't help but feel he really resents Morrissey's success.

No argument here. Ike from Modest Mouse must feel pathetic, like the revenge f*** a lover scores to get even with his ex.

The man formed The Smiths at 18 and quit at 23, just keeping things in perspective.

Yes. Worth noting-- it is amazing what he accomplished so young, and not at all surprising that he might have been overwhelmed. They both were.

 

[SomeTotallyRandomMozFan]

Re: Full interview here

THANK YOU

Cheers mate,

Jay

 

[Gin N Tonic Jil]

HE said "once." Even dear old Mogsy has been known to be "bang on one, nice one, top one, get sorted" in his time (Q interview 1992) Wonder if herubbed vaseline.... NO DON'T GO THERE!!!!

Morrissey is stuck in 1972 but none of us seem to mind!

I can assure you that our dear Mozzer, has been recently hitting some KUSH, you could smell it outside in his old Sweetzer pad.

 

[the judge]

A bit of Maths.

May(he won't talk about The Smiths anymore):June(he talks about The Smiths)=June(he'll never reform The Smiths):July(X)

=>
X=He reforms The Smiths (in July).