BOOK REVIEW: JOHNNY MARR -MARRS GUITARS

“Guitars have been the obsession of my life . . . they’ve been a mission and sometimes a lifeline.”—Johnny Marr

Whether with The Smiths, The Pretenders, The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, Hanz Zimmer or as a celebrated studio musician, he has always been Johnny Marr. With undoubtable swagger and distinctive sound, Mars’s innovative chord shapes and pioneering use of chorus, delay and tremolo created a soundtrack of the British 80s. His new book brings us up-close with the guitars that shaped his sound, and tours the legendary six-stringers that brought Marr out of Manchester and around the world.

‘The guitar just made me do that’

It was a ‘77 Gretsch Super Axe that Marr found the sound of The Smiths with in ‘82. Recording the band’s first single ‘Hand in Glove’ and playing with the instrument on-stage at The Smith’s early shows. Then came the Rickie in around ‘83 (Rickenbacker 330), which Marr states he bought because ‘[he] thought it would make [him] play in a certain way’. On Jan. 2nd 1984, Seymour Stein, fulling a promise to the new members of Sire Records, bought Marr a 60s Gibson 335 sporting a red body and gold hardware; a guitar easily mistaken for an Italian speedster if not made monochrome on the book cover. From that point Marr’s collection has grown, signed most by his recent work with Fender on his signature model Jaguar, adorned in a mod-like slick-white. The book makes concrete Marr’s act of revisiting his instruments, which seems to have had a profound impact upon the Salford lad – realising that ‘it’s a privileged position to be in’ and admitting that the various guitars unlocking new sounds worked to ‘define me really’ in his recent sit-down with The Pedal Show.

‘The sound of that riff is this guitar’

Pat Graham has to be admired for his work on the book too. His enquiring lens illuminates the craftsmanship and characteristics of each instrument, and gives life to what some people may only see as a body of wood. Graham’s detail-oriented approach to photography, focusing on the minutia, exposes the journey the guitars have been on with Marr as well as the journey the guitarist has been on with the guitar.

‘That’s what the guitar did really’

Together, Graham and Marr speak to the deep-rooted bond forged between musician and instrument in ‘Marr’s Guitars’. As much as the book invites us into the studio to gaze at his guitar collection, it brings us to the heart of Marr’s outlook on the relationship he has with his instruments. Some choose to describe each of the collection as one extension of Marr’s musical soul, others a synchronicity between artist and tool. Whatever it is, Marr is nodding at the singularity of artistic expression and the universally human emotion of attachment to it.

Johnny Marr is on tour this December, head to Johnny Marr – Official Johnny Marr Website fro all dates and tickets.

Joseph Wray