Landmarks of Songs: Morrissey/Marr

Morrissey/Marr-

Morrissey/Marr was the songwriting partnership between Morrissey and Johnny Marr that is credited as writing almost all of the songs recorded by the Smiths between 1983 and 1987. Typically in the partnership, Morrissey, the singer, would write lyrics and vocal melodies while Marr, the guitarist, would come up with chords and lead guitar lines and they would figure out song structures between them. Unlike many other musical partnerships, they operated in a complete 50/50 split, with neither party trying to change the other’s work, as Johnny Marr recently said: “I never had any suggestions about the words, and Morrissey never needed to tell me what to play. Right from the very start”. When The Smiths formed, Johnny Marr had a clear idea of the musical direction he wanted to take the band in, as both he and Morrissey felt disillusioned with popular guitar music at the time, with over the top instrumental solos and the extravagant stage antics of mainstream hair metal bands. When interviewed by the BBC for a documentary Marr described how the Smiths’ unique musical sound was created :“It is a very useful device […] to get rid of and find out what you’re left with, and do something within those narrow constraints.” It was these constraints which made Morrissey/Marr songs very different to any other songs at the time because everyone else was interested in excess, while they wanted to write more real and stripped back songs. Marr’s inspiration came from guitarists like George Harrison, Neil Young, James Williamson and the music of The Jam. Morrissey’s inspiration came predominantly from female pop singers like Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield and Lulu as well as poets like Oscar Wilde and Patti Smith and English bands like The Specials and The Sex Pistols.

During their five year partnership, Morrissey and Marr didn't have one strict method of songwriting, preferring to allow their songs to come from a more natural space than being forced out, and therefore employed different approaches to writing songs. The most common of these methods was for Johnny Marr to record musical demos, and give them to Morrissey to write a vocal part to: “I would come up with some chord changes and a riff on top and give it to Morrissey on a cassette, and he’d have his side of it worked out.” Examples of this include Hand in Glove (1983) which Johnny Marr mailed to Morrissey as a demo tape and Morrissey wrote the vocal part for, and Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now/Girl Afraid (1984) which were written as a pair by Marr, who then later showed Morrissey to write the lyrics and melody to. Marr’s guitar parts were very unique, as he tried to combine both rhythmic and melodic playing together as he was the only guitarist in the band. The end result of this was his inclusion of a lot of arpeggiated chords and harmony guitar riffs to try and fill out the sound as much as possible, as well as his experimentation with multi tracking and overdubs. Johnny Marr on writing and recording for The Smiths: “I’d make sure we got the vocal on it, and then I would start putting the “guitarchestra” on it, layering lots and lots of guitars” . Quintessential examples of Marr’s unique approach to writing guitar parts are This Charming Man (1983) and Girl Afraid. “I was trying to write as melodically as I could, but not use big rock chugging chord changes”

Another such process was writing music and lyrics together at the same time. For example, the pair wrote There is a Light That Never Goes Out, I Know it's Over and Frankly Mr Shankly (1986) in a single session together, composing completely new musical and vocal parts together at the same time. They again used a similar process when writing the songs Half a Person (1987), which they wrote together in just minutes, writing as they played it through.

Although Morrissey has rejected the concept of disciplined writing processes and sessions, one common method he used for finding inspiration was walking the streets. In a 1985 interview he said he would walk for long periods of time and went on to describe it as “perfect fuel” and how he would “go home and write furiously”. This was particularly common in his early songwriting attempts, and is reflected in the lyrics of songs like Still Ill, Miserable Lie (1984) and Cemetery Gates (1986) which reference certain parts of Manchester he would regularly see while walking. Morrissey also finds inspiration from political and social issues which motivate him to write songs. He likes to touch upon these issues in his lyrics, with notable examples including animal rights on Meat is Murder (1985), education on The Headmaster Ritual (1985) and the music industry on Paint a Vulgar Picture (1987). By doing this Morrissey helped bring extra weight and meaning to what were otherwise fairly ordinary pop songs, and challenged the mainstream, which is what Morrissey and Marr set out to do and drove many of their songs.

Throughout their career, Morrissey/Marr hardly ever included any kind of instrumental solos. “Long solos were out, distortion was out” Is what Johnny Marr said in an interview about The Smiths. This is apparent through most of the pair’s work, with distortion being very rare to find in Morrissey/Marr songs except a few notable exceptions including London, Sweet and Tender Hooligan (1987), Panic (1986) and How Soon is Now? (1984). This was all part of Marr’s desire for his songs to becoming stereotypical rock songs, and as a reaction against popular guitar culture at the time. For this same reason, solos were purposely left out of almost all songs composed by the duo, one of the only appearances of a guitar solo in their entire catalogue is a very short solo on Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before (1987) which is extremely unlike Marr’s approach to songwriting. Barbarism Begins at Home (1985) also has a very uncharacteristic ending, in the form of a very long instrumental funk jam.

While most Morrissey/Marr songs were written with the intention of having some pop appeal in mind, several of their songs have very unusual structure. For example, That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (1985) has an ABCBC structure where the first section is never repeated, and How Soon Is Now? which has an ABABACACABAABA structure, and has only three different lyrical passages throughout the whole song. I Know It's Over (1986) also has an unusual ABAABCAACDE, meaning it has five different sections to the song, some of which are varied and contain completely different melodies and lyrics when repeated, making the song feel ever changing and giving it no discernible verses and choruses. All of this makes I Know It's Over a unique piece of songwriting.

In terms of endings, Morrissey/Marr songs almost always have either a fade out/ringing chord end or a sudden stop. Eight out of ten songs on The Queen is Dead have fade out endings, and all of their studio albums end with a fade out. Morrissey and Marr appear to have favoured sharp endings in their earlier work, with early songs including Still Ill and What Difference Does it Make? (1984) having tight, dead endings.

Around 1985 Morrissey and Marr began to incorporate sound effects into their work which they experimented with until the end of their career. The Meat is Murder album saw them experiment with sound effects on several tracks including the sounds of a fairground, creaking noises, rain, animals and the sounds of screaming and slaughter.

An overview of Morrissey/Marr’s approach to songwriting:

• Songs usually started with Marr’s musical ideas

• Morrissey avoids disciplined writing sessions

• Most songs end with a fade out. More tight endings in their early work

• No solos or distortion, with rare exception

• Favoured ‘Kitchen Sink’ style of lyric writing

• Arpeggiated chords

• Main topics: love, isolation, political/social issues, manchester, music industry

• No backing vocals

• Driven by challenging the mainstream

• Not bound by conventional structure

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