Marr vs. Morrissey or lack of management? Understanding the break-up of The Smiths
There are some bands that will forever be immortalised in the pantheon of all-time greats, and it would be quite a stretch to argue that The Smiths are not deserving of their inclusion in the ultra-exclusive club. The indie rock icons, comprised of Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, are often heralded as one of the most significant outfits to ever come out of England.
The Smiths signed with Rough Trade in 1983, who oversaw the release of all their studio albums, 1983’s self-titled LP, 1985’s sophomore effort Meat Is Murder, its follow-up The Queen Is Dead in 1986, and their final full-length studio release Strangeways, Here We Come, released a year later in 1987.
The Smiths’ musical output is littered with gold and was defined by Marr’s excellent guitar playing with a focus on arpeggiated chord progressions, the tight-as-hell rhythm section of Rourke and Joyce, and the quintessentially British lyrics of Morrisey that explored what it was like to be a working-class Brit in the 1980s. However, in 1987, The Smiths’ extraordinary career was to come to an abrupt end, even before their fourth and final studio album Strangeways, Here We Come, was released. Even amidst all the success of the previous four or five years, tensions arose in the band, particularly between the strong characters of Marr and Morrissey.
There have been several alleged reasons why one of the most influential British bands of all time wanted to call it a day. The first suggestion of the breakup occurred in June of 1987, when Marr decided to take a break from the group, citing that he was exhausted from the relentless schedule of writing, recording and touring. The break was not well received by the other members of the band, and just a month later, Marr called it quits for good. An article in the NME suggested that the band had split because Morrissey was annoyed at Marr working with other musicians. However, Marr contacted the magazine to explain that it was not personal tensions with Morrissey that had caused his departure, but the fact that he wanted to explore different musical avenues.
Morrissey had often been adamant about covering pop songs of the 1960s, which were among his favourites, including hits by Twinkle and Cilla Black. Marr reflected in 1992, saying: “That was the last straw, really. I didn’t form a group to perform Cilla Black songs”. Despite that, Morrissey insisted that The Smiths split because the band lacked a managerial figure, which caused financial and business problems to arise. In 2016, Marr told The Guardian that he felt that having had time to reflect on the past, he ultimately agreed with Morrissey’s view. The Smiths had sacked a series of managers throughout their career, and the pressure to perform in that role was left to Marr, who was still just 23 years old when the band split.
“It’s what split the band up. To this day, I haven’t met anyone who thinks a major rock group should be managed by the 23-year-old guitar player,” Marr said. “We were deemed unmanageable. When we fired managers, I always had to deal with it. I wasn’t prepared to do it, and so it became untenable. There was no way forward.”
A few years later, in 2018, Marr again addressed the former views that it was an air of miscommunication between the band members and remained defiant that he would not have allowed something so trivial to cause a rift so great it would impact the future of a project he had poured his heart and soul into. He told Rolling Stone: “The band wouldn’t break up just because of miscommunication. I wouldn’t have left my own band that I formed and put my life into just because of a misunderstanding, you know? It was untenable. And I felt like I was left with no choice, and that’s fine. That’s absolutely alright, and yes, it was very sad, but it was meant to be.”
Even so, there has always remained the idea that both Morrissey and Marr were such strong characters, which is what made The Smiths such a great band to begin with, even though they had different ideas about the kind of band they ought to be. Marr added: “The differences in personalities are what often make for interesting chemistry, and, inevitably, [with] the differences in personality come [the] point when those things are gonna stop forward motion, I guess. I suppose as well; me and Morrissey just saw our futures differently.”
All good things must come to an end, and, sadly, that indeed happened for one of the great bands to ever come out of England. Still, The Smiths’ short career meant that it was forever immortalised, with new fans of the band discovering their music even today. However, the split did not really signify the end of The Smiths, for a well-documented legal battle came in the aftermath, but that’s an entirely different story altogether.
