In 1984, Johnny Marr bought a cherry-red Gibson Les Paul standard guitar at the A1 repair shop in Manchester, England, his childhood hometown. He bought the record at the age of 21, ostensibly to record Meat Is Murder, the second album of the influential British band Smiths, which he had formed two years earlier.
However, as a musician with over 130 guitars (he admits not knowing the exact number of guitars after 132), this Gibson Les Paul guitar has been used on more recordings than any other, including his post-Smith gigs with rock luminaries ranging from Pseudo-Counterfeiters and Brian Ferry to Talking Heads, the, Electronic and Modest Mouse.
Mal's cherry-red Gibson's story is just one of the many stories he shares in his book Mal's Guitar, a beautifully crafted coffee-table book that charts the 60-year-old musician's career recording music through almost every electric guitar and acoustic instrument he's owned for over 40 years.
In this 288-page book, each guitar is accompanied by a personal reminiscence of Mal, detailing his encounters with great musicians – Chris Hyde, David Byrne, Brian Eno and others – and what tracks and performances those guitars were played in.
But the constant reviews also reveal how Mal's unique sound and musical aesthetic is amplified by his guitar. He has long been regarded by his peers as one of the top craftsmen of his generation, and his unique restrained sound and tasteful chord style set him apart from the British synthesizer bands of the 80s.
From the Martin D-28 acoustic guitar used to create pleasing arrangements and layered guitars, forming the basis for recordings with Morrissey and Smith, to the Fender Stratocaster and Rickenbacker 370/12, which were used to create full-bodied, moving chords in recordings with a range of renowned artists. In 2010, he teamed up with composer and music producer Hans Zimmer to score Christopher Nolan's film Inception, and Marr picked up a Gibson EDS-1275 dual-collar electric guitar.
"For me, from when I was a boy to today, every guitar I have has told a different aspect of my musical life," Marr told me in a recent interview with Zoom in the UK. Just a few days ago, he performed with a 30-piece orchestra at the Aviva studio in Manchester, where he combined strings, brass and woodwinds, reimagining Smith's songs and other compositions he has written over 40 years.
"When you can take a Smith song, like 'Last Night I Dreamed Someone Loved Me,' he said with boyish enthusiasm, it's probably my favorite of all the Smith songs we've recorded." "Playing this song in a 30-piece orchestra, you just sit back and can't help but be amazed to realize that this song, with all its drama and energy, stems from my guitar riff on Gibson Les Paul Custom," he said. ”
While the book will delight avid music fans and guitar lovers alike, Mal said, his goal is to create a biographical portrait that can be read by everyday music and art lovers.
"My initial thought was that the book was going to be about all my guitars," he says, including illustrated photographs taken by Pat Graham that presented each guitar as a complete portrait, complemented by microlenses that highlighted the specific details that make each guitar unique. "But in the process, I found that it was also a story of my life, and we were able to tell it with beautiful images of the instrument, and I think it would appeal to anyone who cares about music. ”
The publication of the book coincided with the release of Mental Power, a collection of Mal's solo works over the past 10 years.
Here are some excerpts from Marr's Guitars, published by Dey Street Books.
Gibson Les, Paul Standard Black 1980
It was the first professional guitar I owned. I've always wanted a Les Paul since I was a kid because Mark Bolan played one, and he was my first hero. I like the look of the black one, I removed the sheath from it. I bought this Les Paul guitar from A1 Repair Shop, which is a household name in Manchester. I bought clothes on King's Road in London and sold them to my fellow workers in Manchester and made the money. At the time, I was in a band called Freak Party. The amazing thing about this guitar is that a year after this photo was taken, in 1982, I traded it for a different guitar that I hadn't seen in over 40 years until a guitar technical friend of mine found it in a store in Southport. He suspected it was mine, recognized it, and I bought it back.
The Rickenbacker was the first guitar I came into contact with. I decided to buy one because, in addition to liking the way it looks, I thought it might make me write and play in some way. Unlike Gibson Les paul or Fender Stratocasters, Rickenbacker isn't known for its traditional rock style, and I think it's more suited to my style of playing melodies, with more emphasis on chord variations and hooks. It also speeds up my playing at times because a lot of the songs I write on it are fast-paced and sound very lively. The best example of this is in "What's the difference?" "For You" by Smith and "For You" by Electronic Band. I still come back to this guitar and I've used it in a lot of things throughout my career. The cover of Oasis' single "Supersonic" also has a photo of the song.
Gibson ES-355 Cherry 1960
In a way, this is my most famous guitar. On January 2, 1984, Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records, bought the record for me. I'm a huge Searle fan and I was excited when I found out Seymour was interested in signing with Smith. Before our ICA performance in London, he took the band out for dinner. That night, he told me that in the '60s he bought a guitar for Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. I told Seymour that if he bought me a guitar, we would sign Searle, even though we were meant to sign it. On New Year's Eve 1983, the band traveled to New York for their first American show at Danceteria. A few days later, I walked into Sire's office, signed a record contract, and took Seymour across the snow to We Buy Guitars on 48th Street. Seymour kept his promise and bought me a guitar. I ran back to the Iroquois where the band was staying, took the guitar out of the box, and the first track I played was Smith's next single, "God Knows I'm in Pain Now." This song has just been finished between my fingers. Next up was "Girl Afraid," which would later become a b-side song. Some instruments come with their own songs, and this guitar comes with quite a few songs. The song coincided with the band's move to another stage of success, and I was impressed when people saw me using it on Top of Pop. Noel Gallagher and Bernard Butler continued to use the red Gibson 355 in their own bands, Oasis and Suede. This guitar is also famous for a photograph taken after a performance at the University of East Anglia in Norwich in 1984.