Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

"I find a blue note whenever I can. I try to find the poignancy in any kind of lick. Not to get too poetic here, but I find a distinct lack of poignancy in most guitar playing I hear. It's as if people feel that by virtue of being a guitar player, they have to have this swashbuckling, gung-ho approach to music, an overblown, vulgar approach. I'd prefer a few notes played in the right place on one string. For example, I liked the melody at the end of "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before," but it just felt a little too accomplished. I wanted it to sound like a punk player who couldn't play, so I fingered it on one string, right up and down the neck. I could have played it with harmonics or my teeth, or something clever, but the poignancy would have gone out of the melody."

"The stuff that wasn't acoustic was mainly led by my 355 12-string; in fact, a lot of the songs - I Started Something..., Paint A Vulgar Picture and Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before - were written on that guitar. It gave a really big sound. I wanted to make sure my main guitar parts really counted and stayed on the record. Often, before, I had changed the main foundation at a later date, but that didn't happen with Strangeways."

"I'm trying to be open to any ideas, so long as they're fairly melodic and they relate to what the singer is singing. I'll try any trick. With the Smiths, I'd take this really loud Telecaster of mine, lay it on top of a Fender Twin Reverb with the vibrato on, and tune it to an open chord. Then I'd drop a knife with a metal handle on it, hitting random strings. I used that on 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before' for the big 'doings' at the start."

-Johnny Marr

I have posted a Guitar Pro file here. It has the bass part as well as one guitar track.

I have posted a multi-track breakdown here. This has 4 tracks of guitar, a bass track, and various drum, vocal and keyboard tracks. This is an amazing resource, be sure to check it out!

Here are the tabs from the Singles book:

Here are the scans from the Smiths Best Complete Score:

Here are the scans from the Strangeways PVG book(thanks to MorrisseyScans for these tabs):

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:






Daniel Earwicker has recorded a typically amazing multi-instrumental version... bravo:




Here's another great full length version by johnnymare on his Tele:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:




Here's nicnoh69: