"Johnny Marr felt like Yoko Ono" - excerpts from interview in Q Magazine (Dec. 2016)

Johnny Marr felt like Yoko Ono - The List
Johnny Marr thinks the only person to have had as much a "hard time" over a band splitting as he did is John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono.

Full interview in Q (Dec. 2016) - info / digital download

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Kinda agree with this. I find it a little weird that he thinks he formed the band alone and that it was his and not theirs. Like he was the band leader with the musical direction already in mind and that it wasn't a partnership with the music image and even the name formed between them. He didn't go up and say hey I've got this band the smiths I'm forming and were gonna play this type of music, do you want in. He went to his door and they Jammed so to speak to see what they could come up with together. In relation to your post it almost makes him seem like he still fighting a bit for that power

As nice a guy as Johnny seems to be, he still has an ego. It seems like he started feeling like a sideman to Morrissey. He had a right to leave. There's no Smiths without Johnny, but there's still Morrissey without Johnny. Even if the Smiths would have got a new singer, Morrissey would be bigger on his own. Johnny's a great guitarist, but the real revelation of the Smiths was Morrissey's lyrics and singing.
 
Frankly, I'm glad Marr dug his heels in and split 'his' band. Don't forget that Morrissey's initial reaction was simply to replace Johnny with another guitarist, and have the Smiths carry on regardless, as though nothing had changed. Within a year, or two at most, the finan,cial issues would still have blown up, Andy and Mike left, and The Smiths would be one of those 'one real member + a cast of revolving session musician' bands.

Can you imagine how devalued their name would be, if such second-rate work as 'Kill Uncle' and 'World Peace' had come out as 'The Smiths' records?

Morrissey hated it at the time, and so did the fans, but ultimately breaking the Smiths was the right move for both Morrissey and Marr. The fact that people on this thread are still berating Johnny for spreading his wings and trying different stuff, shows how the Yoko Ono thing is appropriate.

I think it would have been hard to replace him but at the same time he realized it and it must have also been hard for him to just say oh well it's over. Not unnatural for that to take a moment when you care so much about the band and it means so much to you. That said I was happy when suede kept going after Bernard left as I still got a lot of records in similar style that I love. No I don't think coming up is equal to there masterpieces but it's really good at the same time as well as some of the music they made after. Kill uncle I don know but viva hate Or bona drag I don't think would have been murdered by the public or history if it was labeled under the smiths and included Andy or Joyce. Didn't some of his solo records out do the smiths in the charts arguably making them more popular with the general public. It's impossible to say as well what would have changed in the financial arena. Maybe with marry gone he would have come to appreciate them more and would have had them come to a different situation
 
I think the anger towards Johnny was actually increased by his side projects, because for so long they just seemed to be of no real consequence. Like he’d done it all for nothing, left with nowhere to go. “Okay, so you broke up the Smiths to move in exciting new directions and try new things...but hang on, what’s this shit? Sessioning with the Pretenders? Oasis? f***ing Boomslang?”.
 
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I think the anger towards Johnny was actually increased by his side projects, because for so long they just seemed to be of no real consequence. Like he’d done it all for nothing, left without nowhere to go. “Okay, so you broke up the Smiths to move in exciting new directions and try new things...but hang on, what’s this shit? Sessioning with the Pretenders? Oasis? f***ing Boomslang?”.

Yeah I agree with that also. Even when he worked with greats like the talking heads it still didn't seem satisfying to expectations. He needed to prove himself a bit after he left the smiths to fans. People were waiting for it and his work after seemed scattered and not on his previous level or even at all similarly appealing. I'm not sure thats what he was looking to do and might have just been doing what made him happy which is fair enough but I do agree that it feed somewhat into people's, fans, dissatisfaction with ending something so great. Honestly though I think he got off light on the press side. I've never read anything really negative about Johnny marry by music journalists. Probably has something to do with there contentious relationship with morrissey as well though
 
Morrissey and Marr both needed each other to achieve what they have done.
Given their respective talents they may have done something but The Smiths launched them both into stardom.
As Morrissey himself points out in Autobiography Johnny was the sort to go knocking on people's doors and it's a point of fact that Johnny brought in the other band members.
As a Smiths fan since This Charming Man it galls me when I see people having a pop at Johnny - he was very much part of what made The Smiths so special.
In The Severed Alliance Joe Moss states that Johnny always said that he'd be the first to leave the band , which unfortunately turned out to be true.
If only a manager could have been put in place to look after the band all the way through their career they could have perhaps have existed like REM where side projects were worked on with no acrimony

Johnny very much took the brunt of
 
I prefer to remember Moz and Marr this way *sniff*



I want Morrissey to dance this way again, do you remember this dance
Morrissey?
 
As nice a guy as Johnny seems to be, he still has an ego. It seems like he started feeling like a sideman to Morrissey. He had a right to leave. There's no Smiths without Johnny, but there's still Morrissey without Johnny. Even if the Smiths would have got a new singer, Morrissey would be bigger on his own. Johnny's a great guitarist, but the real revelation of the Smiths was Morrissey's lyrics and singing.

Yeah but I think a successful pop musician kinda needs an ego and it's not a terrible thing under control. I think Amy more on the head. Morrissey continued to make excellent music that at the end of the day sounded not to unlike the smiths with variation and fulfilled initial satisfactions of remaining smiths fans while marr made a lot of music that was all over the place and kinda blurred his image and your ability to appreciate him somewhat by joining so many already established people. Sure it's great he joined modest mouse but as a previous fan it was hard to see any large change in them or to put any change directly down to him.
 
In The Severed Alliance Joe Moss states that Johnny always said that he'd be the first to leave the band , which unfortunately turned out to be true.

What Joe Moss meant with that statement is the fact that Johnny knew from the beginning of the Smiths existence that for him it would just be a temporary project. It was never meant to last forever because he wasn't the type for longtime projects but Morrissey genuinely believed that. Why didn't Johnny tell him the truth about that from the get go? When he blabbers on about how the Smiths didn't have to end he is totally dishonest. They would have ended anyway, because he decided it on day one at a time when hardly any problems were forseeable.
 
What Joe Moss meant with that statement is the fact that Johnny knew from the beginning of the Smiths existence that for him it would just be a temporary project. It was never meant to last forever because he wasn't the type for longtime projects but Morrissey genuinely believed that. Why didn't Johnny tell him the truth about that from the get go? When he blabbers on about how the Smiths didn't have to end he is totally dishonest. They would have ended anyway, because he decided it on day one at a time when hardly any problems were forseeable.

What a load of utter f***ing bollocks. How could you possibly channel Joe Moss enough to make this post?

Arsehole.
 
I think the anger towards Johnny was actually increased by his side projects, because for so long they just seemed to be of no real consequence. Like he’d done it all for nothing, left with nowhere to go. “Okay, so you broke up the Smiths to move in exciting new directions and try new things...but hang on, what’s this shit? Sessioning with the Pretenders? Oasis? f***ing Boomslang?”.

If anyone was still angry at Johnny by the time Boomslang and Heathen Chemistry came out, they're either Morrissey or they should go and see their GP about it. Or both.
 
If anyone was still angry at Johnny by the time Boomslang and Heathen Chemistry came out, they're either Morrissey or they should go and see their GP about it. Or both.

On an aside. Boomslang has got to be one of the worst names ever. What was guy thinking. Ill name my act boomslang sounds good right guys. Like naming your new wave band radical. That said there's still some good guitar work on there
 
He may not be the greatest singer but he can't half play the guitar - this is from when he supported New Order a couple of years back. Never seen a Morrissey band play Bigmouth this well!



And here is a clip of him and Bernard doing a dodgy version of Getting Away With It at the same gig, looking forward to reading about their relationship in the book.



totally agree. What I'm saying is that he's by nature born to play the :guitar: not to sing. Very few can do both well. He passes, and it's fine, so many great musicians just pass on vocals but their instrument playing(which is their true voice) is what wins the day. Hendrix comes to mind also. Now Morrissey was born to sing, but his piano playing ? ...well...... not so hot. :oops:

yes looking forward to reading the book. Hope he goes into the song writing collaborating a bit.
 
I just heard that Yoko is gonna be doing a cover of 'How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel ?'.


coincidence? :paranoid: :)
 
Brennan,

Steve and I are requesting $4,000 more to do HSIN with strobe lights and fog machine as it adds 3 minutes to the 65 minute set. I hope you are able to accommodate our request.

In addition, Steve has informed me that he is being paid an extra $25,000 to hint that there will be "two special guests", this needs to be added to my rider immediately. Finally, the AC needs to be on higher. I almost passed out at the Google gig. This is why I live in Oregon and not LA, because LA is too hot. Remember??? Can we pleeeeease have something different than spaghetti, Italian bread, Corona, and chocolate chip cookies for the post show meal. I am gaining weight. I'll be in LA tomorrow so c-ya at personal training. :)

John Maher
 
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I know it goes against all accepted general wisdom, and everyone wanted to see the Beatles keep going until they were all 95, but - actually, Yoko Ono is pretty cool. So, f*** 'em.
 
Yes amonymouse I would rather remember them dancing . The "How Soon Is Now " video is so cool because it has a little clip of them dancing on a foggy stage . When I first saw it, the image of Johnny and Moz slowly spinning around each other ... absolute beauty .
 
I just heard that Yoko is gonna be doing a cover of 'How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel ?'.


coincidence? :paranoid: :)

It does not seem Yoko Ono is worried about being herself. She seems quite consistent and comfortable wearing her own skin. She's a wholly beautiful person who loved and was loved.
 
Yoko's also had a bunch of success in album sales and with critics. Elvis Costello covered one of her song I think
 
totally agree. What I'm saying is that he's by nature born to play the :guitar: not to sing. Very few can do both well. He passes, and it's fine, so many great musicians just pass on vocals but their instrument playing(which is their true voice) is what wins the day. Hendrix comes to mind also. Now Morrissey was born to sing, but his piano playing ? ...well...... not so hot. :oops:

yes looking forward to reading the book. Hope he goes into the song writing collaborating a bit.[/QUOTE

Yes, we are all eager for this essay about creation of THE SONG:https://www.google.hr/search?client...ved=0ahUKEwjFp4u-lvvPAhXJiiwKHdtcBaEQvwUIGygA
Marr and Andrew Berry "Kiss Me I'm Cold" (1990)


(sic)
 
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