“The coolest man on the planet”, according to Johnny Marr
Despite the fact that he never shies away from an interview, continues to talk and play and sing, and published a well-received autobiography, Set the Boy Free, next to his old bandmate Morrissey, Johnny Marr could be described as ‘the quiet Smith’.
And, just like another quieter member of a decade-defining band for whom he had an incredible amount of admiration, he’s not a bad guitarist, all told.
Predictably, Morrissey has expressed plenty of ‘controversial’ opinions about The Beatles throughout the years, at various times suggesting that they were “like a group of old women” or else that they were “insincere pop stars”. Though he later admitted that, to his years, the Fab Four had produced four songs he thought were “magnificent”, he later asked and then answered himself regarding the mop-top mob: “Was I ever influenced by The Beatles? No”.
Johnny Marr has expressed more nuanced, reasoned, informed and mature opinions on basically every single subject that Morrissey has ever spoken about, and, so of course, it would be no different in the case of The Beatles, and, specifically, George Harrison.
Though Morrissey claims not to have been influenced by the most influential band of all time, Marr has said that “George Harrison was always a touchstone for me”.
“He was the most intriguing of The Beatles,” he added. “From the early days and on through all the madness, he seemed to carry himself with dignity and presence. I think he’s a great example of the you-are-what-you-play dictum. As a guitar player, there’s a discipline and diligence to his approach that shows a deep mind at work”. If it’s a deep mind at work that Marr is interested in, then it’s no wonder that he is consistently rejecting any idea of a Smiths reunion.
Marr elaborated that he took the example he’d seen set by George Harrison into his own work, especially in his younger days, adding that what he thought of him and the idea of being a keeping your head down kind of guy, “very quietly and diligently working out what he was going to do on those records” really infleunced him in the initial days of the Smiths.
“He wasn’t just winging it,” he said. “And this idea of there being a guitar break, rather than just pentatonic flying solos, was very important. He had the best sense of aesthetics. When we were making Smiths records and I wanted to do a guitar break, I’d disguise the fact by saying ‘Well, I’m just going to do a George Harrison’. It was almost like my get-out clause. It immediately said, ‘Don’t panic, it’s going to be a cool piece of music!’”
And it wasn’t just Harrison’s playing that Marr admired (ad-marr-ed?), either, but his sense of style, as well. So much so that he even tried to emulate Harrison’s look in his own album artwork, where on the cover of the first Smiths album, he’s pulling his best impression, noting that while he always thought Harrison was “the coolest”, after Revolver, “He seemed like the coolest man on the planet”.
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