Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher, 1964) is a British guitarist, keyboardist, harmonica player and singer, best known as the man behind the music of The Smiths (q.v.). He was born in Wythenshawe, England.
Career
Together with singer Steven Morrissey, Maher began writing songs in 1982, forming The Smiths by recruiting Mike Joyce on drums and Dale Hibbert on bass guitar. After two gigs, Hibbert was replaced by Maher's friend Andy Rourke. By then, Morrissey had dropped his first name and Maher had changed his name to Marr to avoid confusion with the Buzzcocks drummer.
Marr, in the Smiths, was known for a delicate, angelically sweet guitar style that could evoke musicality from just a few well-chosen notes. Contrasted with the common punk and rock guitar flashiness and speed of the time, Marr's playing was out of place in the usual pop mainstream; like Rachmaninoff performing at a fast-food restaurant. In fact, all of the Smiths, in their own way, represented tasteful departures from the typical music of the time, increasingly becoming less about music, and more about business.
Morrissey's lyrics, often morose and self-pitying, were perfectly matched with Marr's upbeat, lilting, and seemingly carefree music, to create, in the Smiths, an incarnation of musical irony; as if the spirits of Dr. Who, Oscar Wilde and Benny Hill were rolled into one.
After the demise of the Smiths (1987), Marr played guitars for The The and also teamed up with New Order singer/guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner to form Electronic. His first solo work Boomslang, with his band The Healers, appeared in 2003. For this album, Marr sang and wrote the lyrics as well.
Albums Discography
With The Smiths
- The Smiths (1984)
- Hatful of Hollow (compilation, 1984)
- Meat Is Murder (1985)
- The Queen Is Dead (1986)
- The World Won't Listen (compilation, 1987)
- Louder Than Bombs (compilation, 1987)
- Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)
- Rank (live, 1988)
- Best...I (compilation, 1992)
- ...Best II (compilation, 1992)
- Singles (compilation, 1995)
- The Very Best of The Smiths (compilation, 2003)
With The The
- Mind Bomb (1989)
- Dusk (1992)
With Electronic
- Electronic (1991)
- Raise the Pressure (1996)
- Twisted Tenderness (1999)
Johnny Marr and The Healers
