After all, as far as I'm concerned, Johhny Marr's guitar was *the* reason to listen to the Smiths. Otherwise it's just Morrisey being the most miserable human being in the entire world.
I've found myself listening to a lot of Smiths again and really kind of digging how underappreciated Rourke and Joyce's rhythm section was. But yeah, Johnny Marr is a phenomenally good guitar player.
Morrissey at his best is a helluva crooner and pointed lyricist. At his worst, sure, a moper. But at his best....
So I'm not gonna knock The Smiths as a unit.
Marr, if you hadn't heard, has been with Modest Mouse since their last album, and MM's musicianship has picked up considerably as a result. Some people still prefer their earlier stuff--and I certainly like it--but they're more musical with Marr onboard. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is worth picking up if you don't have it yet.
And hey, Radiohead doing The Smiths is still fucking awesome no matter how you slice'n'dice it. :-)
M&M were a great songwriting team (I'd rate them with Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards and Plant/Page in the rock pantheon), although Smiths songwriting credits are unfortunately a bit of a sham (there's some controversy over whether Rourke and Joyce actually deserved composer credits that they never got because of their band deal or if they were only denied a fair share of other moneys).
Composer credits are really a sticky thing all around, because they tend to have less to do with who wrote what than with who gets paid the composer royalty (e.g. Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall, pt. 2" is credited solely to Roger Waters, but he basically wrote a bassline and a lyric; the song went to the charts at least partly because of a guitar solo jammed out by David Gilmour; so the credit reflects that Waters gets paid for it, but may not reflect who created the song as it's known). This is why some bands (e.g. R.E.M.) have followed the smart-but-misleading policy of crediting tracks to the band or to all memebers: a particular R.E.M. track may really be almost entirely Stipe/Mills (for instance), but crediting it to all four (or three) members avoids fights over royalties down the road.
More importantly, "How Soon Is Now?" is made of 125% Pure Awesome. And that's an awesome guitar line on that track.
Anonymous said…
THAT was excellent. One of my favorites covering one of my favorites.
Comments
After all, as far as I'm concerned, Johhny Marr's guitar was *the* reason to listen to the Smiths. Otherwise it's just Morrisey being the most miserable human being in the entire world.
Morrissey at his best is a helluva crooner and pointed lyricist. At his worst, sure, a moper. But at his best....
So I'm not gonna knock The Smiths as a unit.
Marr, if you hadn't heard, has been with Modest Mouse since their last album, and MM's musicianship has picked up considerably as a result. Some people still prefer their earlier stuff--and I certainly like it--but they're more musical with Marr onboard. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is worth picking up if you don't have it yet.
And hey, Radiohead doing The Smiths is still fucking awesome no matter how you slice'n'dice it. :-)
How Soon Is Now, which may be my all time fav, was written by both Morrisey and Marr.
Not saying Morrisey can't sing, just saying that without Marr I never found that much to like.
Composer credits are really a sticky thing all around, because they tend to have less to do with who wrote what than with who gets paid the composer royalty (e.g. Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall, pt. 2" is credited solely to Roger Waters, but he basically wrote a bassline and a lyric; the song went to the charts at least partly because of a guitar solo jammed out by David Gilmour; so the credit reflects that Waters gets paid for it, but may not reflect who created the song as it's known). This is why some bands (e.g. R.E.M.) have followed the smart-but-misleading policy of crediting tracks to the band or to all memebers: a particular R.E.M. track may really be almost entirely Stipe/Mills (for instance), but crediting it to all four (or three) members avoids fights over royalties down the road.
More importantly, "How Soon Is Now?" is made of 125% Pure Awesome. And that's an awesome guitar line on that track.