Meat Is Murder

"That was a riff I'd been playing around with for a few days before. Really nasty, in open D. I didn't know the lyrics but I knew the song was gonna be called 'Meat Is Murder' so it all just came together in the take."

"I think 'Meat Is Murder' is in open G tuning,or open D,it might have a capo on the second fret."

- Johnny Marr

Until reading the above quote, I had no idea that this song was played in an open tuning. I haven't investigated any live performances to see if he played it in standard tuning as well, but I know he tuned his les paul up to E when playing Headmaster Ritual.

I haven't ever seen a tab for the song in open D, and I haven't seen anyone on youtube play it this way. Maybe someone will pick it out[edit: buckleyboyben has done it, video below]?

However, I do have a good Guitar Pro tab of this, and I have uploaded it here.

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder songbook:







Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans.


pljnr did a near perfect cover here:




Oscar80It did a really great job with this cover, in standard tuning:




buckleyboyben has done a cover of the live version, in open D with a capo on the second fret: