Johnny shares some riffs
Smithsonguitar has put up two short clips of Johnny Marr playing his Martin D35 on ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’ and ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ shown on the BBC4 documentary ‘When Rock goes Acoustic’. Sadly, Johnny playing ‘Unhappy Birthday’ wasn’t aired. Maybe the BBC is saving it for a future show. One can only hope.
It was written on an acoustic in a transit van driving down the motorway. And I had this acoustic and I just started going…. And it may because it was the noise of sitting in the back of a van with no seats, just on a mattress, that I needed to hear myself. So I just started to play something just kinda loud and hyperactive. But the whole band, the bass and the drums, all go along with that rhythm. And the song is kinda of propelled by that.
A riff like…that to me, it’s always going to sound better on acoustic. And it’s a rock…post punk, or whatever, what name you want to put to it but it’s not folk music.
at 4:23 pm
Great clips. Thanks for posting.