Rusholme Ruffians

"Rusholme Ruffians came about because my parents used to play 'Marie's The Name' by Elvis Presley and I liked the chord change."

"That was blatantly done. Morrissey said to me, 'Let's do a song about the fair,' and for some reason my association with the fair was to pull out that Elvis riff. We tried, but we couldn't get away from it."

- Johnny Marr

Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder piano songbook with guitar chords, for completists. Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans:







thirdynumberone has knocked out a cool acoustic version:




Here's another acoustic version, from WilliamFs11. This is the live version, incorperating "Marie's The Name":

What She Said

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro file here.

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder piano songbook with guitar chords. Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans:







johnnymare does an awesome full-length version on his tele:

Barbarism Begins At Home

"I came up with the riff the day that Troy Tate came up to Manchester to meet with us. It was almost because our first proper producer was about to arrive that I thought we needed a new song, maybe, and it was a sunny afternoon. We played it in the daytime, which was unusual because there were these machinists working downstairs on the floor below, and we wouldn't want to be working stuff out at high volume. There was no drums there, it was just me and Andy jamming like we used to when we were 14 or 15. I know a lot of fuss has been made and Andy is, quite rightly, proud of that bassline, but, personally, harmonically I don't think it comes anywhere near Andy's other stuff. 'Nowhere Fast', 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore', 'The Headmaster Ritual', all tower above it. It was one of those things where it was a good idea at the time, but later, as we played it, I didn't think it really represented the band. The overall thing, all of it, was a little bit corny."

"Barbarism Begins At Home is a bit naff. I don't like the tune - there's no emotion in it."

"With 'Barbarism Begins At Home,' a lot's been made of the funky aspect of the bassline, but that track harks back to what I was doing with Andy before The Smiths. I guess it came out of this love of retro kind of James Brown records, and things like Rip Rig & Panic and The Pop Group. That period of anemic, underfed white funk. It's me and Andy being townies in Manchester, liking a bit of the American No-Wave thing. James Chance, I guess."

-Johnny Marr

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro file here(right click to save).


Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder songbook:




Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans.


Here's another great version by Daniel Earwicker:




Here's juttkeys:




Here's buckleyboyben:




Here's IFoughtTheLaw369 with two full-length versions on guitar and bass:






Here's sonofdrcross on bass:




Here's a full-length version from nicknoh69:




Awesome acoustic version by WilliamFs11:




Here's lunachangue with his Ric 330:




Here's barjabulon:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

I Want The One I Can't Have

"The Housemartins! 'Happy Hour' was a complete rip-off of 'I Want The One I Can't Have', and they've nicked others too..." 

 - Johnny Marr

Another one of my favorites from Meat Is Murder, this song is one of the reasons why the album is such a guitar masterpiece. The seamless combination of fast rhythm guitar and serpentine riffs is a huge inspiration to me. I have posted a Guitar Pro tab file for this song here. Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary: Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder piano songbook with guitar chord boxes. Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans.

My friend Peter Weldon does an incredible multi-guitar version here:

   

  

 And here's Oscar80lt on an acoustic in standard tuning:

   

 cdwheel does an awesome, full length version to his own backing track:

   

 Here's another great version by johnnymare, playing with a backing track:

 

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:

Well I Wonder

"'Well I Wonder' I really like as well. It's one of those things that a modern group could try and emulate but never get the spirit of. It's so simple."

"I remember the start of the record because I moved back to Manchester very deliberately- to get the atmosphere right for the instrumental tracks I was writing. And that worked out immediately because 'Well I Wonder' came out of that, with the rain and everything. When we did it I knew it would be popular because it had that real sense of yearning in it."

"I think [the outro] is an A minor shape capo'd, I'd have to listen to it."


-Johnny Marr

Well I Wonder is another one of my favorites. The ending guitar coda is one of my all time favorite Marr guitar runs. It comes at the perfect time, after setting up a great musical tension.

I have found a Guitar Pro tab for this song which I have uploaded here. The ending riffs aren't exactly right, but the rest of it is very good in my opinion.

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.


This version by ResidentSmith78 is very good:




Rodtomcab does a nice cover as well, integrating the bassline at times:




Oscar80It does a cover here with vocals. He doesn't get the end guitar part exactly right, but he's the only one who's attempted it. It still sounds cool, and it's in the right direction.




dhowellbassist has a great multi-tracked version here:




I don't usually post full-band renditions, but this one by rider1967 is truly great. The Smiths never played this song live! Que lástima.




Here's an amazing version by davidguitarist91. He does a great job on the coda:




frankshankley does a cool rendition of the intro/outro chords on bass:

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore

"My favourite song on that LP now is 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore'. I think Morrissey is incredible on that, the end is brilliant."

"On Smiths songs such as "How Soon Is Now?" and "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", I turned the 2" tape over and learned to play the parts backward."

"I played the part, turned the tape over and learned it backwards, played the backward part with the tape the right way round then turned the volume up and down. The intro is a Martin D-28 acoustic with Lexicon Reverb on."

"'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' was always one of my favorites. It just fell through the roof. It was one of those lovely times when the feeling just falls down on you from the ceiling somewhere and it almost plays itself. It gives an almost esoteric feeling."

"When you go out live you want to give people at least a general impression of the whole thing, but if you're on your own, you end up compromising a lot of the chord inversions and inflections that were there in the overdubs. You generally end up being reduced to playing that big-sounding first position chord. With my one-man band approach I managed that fairly successfully for a while, but other times it didn't really work. From a guitar point of view 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' could have been absolutely incredible live, but in the end it was only good."

-Johnny Marr

A Guitar Pro tab file has been uploaded here.


Here are the tabs from the Singles book:












Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:





Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder piano songbook with guitar chord boxes. Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans.










Current definitive version from karloslim:



He also does a slower tutorial version:




jl92509 plays the bass part along with karloslim's version above:




Another cool version from juttkeys::




Here's theglimpse with a really neat version... he plays the bass part with his feet on a synth. Pay attention to the outro where he uses a looping pedal of some kind, to amazing effect:




Here's a version by 00000999998888 on acoustic:




dhowellbassist does a nice multi-tracked version, with the backwards guitar parts at the end:




Daniel Earwicker does another amazing multi tracked version here:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:




Here's WilliamFs11 on acoustic: