Miserable Lie

"It came out exactly as it was. I just had some bananas idea that I gave to Morrissey while he was there. I think as a guitar composition it was kind of caught between two stools, but I was trying to do something original. It was an odd, quirky little thing. Used to confuse the hell out of people at our early gigs."

- Johnny Marr

Here are the scans from the debut album piano book, with guitar chord boxes:








Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro file here.

Here are the scans from the debut album piano songbook with guitar chord boxes:







Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:

Pretty Girls Make Graves

I love the rhythm guitar on this song. It has a vague dub feel to it. Another case where Johnny's rhythm part is as awe-inspiring as the riffs that go over it.

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro tab file here:

Here are the scans from the debut album piano songbook with guitar chord boxes:






stereovaritone does a really cool version on what looks to be an Epiphone Casino:




Here's a great cover of the live version by gellmann1:

I Don't Owe You Anything

"John Porter suggested getting that bloke Paul Carrack in on keyboards to see what would happen, and I thought it really brought it alive."

- Andy Rourke


"I was going to say, for me, the idea of an organ being in The Smiths really didn't turn me on. It softened it out a lot, made it more radio friendly, but the way that we worked together, for anybody else to actually come in and play on it, it's got to be fucking good. That was the gang mentality that we had, wasn't it? (Andy nods) Anybody that was coming in from the record company or whatever, we were like, What? What d'you want? It felt like they were coming in to intrude on our little party. I didn't think that any of these people felt about the music as strongly as the band did. Maybe it's a kind of possessive thing. The way that we were working, it was ours."

- Mike Joyce

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




Here are the scans from the debut album piano book, with guitar chord boxes:








marrzipan does a beautiful version of this song, and it's very accurate. It's impressive how he hits all those arpeggiated riffs while singing. Anyway, as he did with Suffer Little Children, he has been cool enough to share his own transcription with us!

I have uploaded marrzipan's transcription as well as a Guitar Pro tab file here.

You've Got Everything Now

"I was in a shop on tour recently and they were playing Hatful... -'You've Got Everything Now' and 'Accept Yourself' I heard for the first time in years. And I was surprised by the complexity of the music on those songs. Because they really were our early songs. Chords I'd been playing from being 16. You can hear our girl group influence, yeah. I was super obsessive about The Shangri Las and The Marvelettes..."

- Johnny Marr

I have posted a Guitar Pro tab file here.

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:





Here are the scans from the debut album piano book:









Daniel Earwicker contributed his usual awesome multi-instrumental version:



Here, he did another close up instructional style video of the left and right hands. It would be great to have more videos like this:




chiasson65 does a great bass cover here:

Still Ill

"Looking back on the first album now I can say that I'm not as madly keen on it as I was. I think that a lot of the fire was missing on it and most of our supporters realise that as well. Although having said that, 'Still Ill' and 'Suffer Little Children' and 'Hand That Rocks' are all still great songs."

"'Still Ill' came to me on the train back from London to Manchester around the time of Hand In Glove's release."

- Johnny Marr

I have posted a Guitar Pro tab file here(right click to save as).

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




I have also uploaded the version from the debut album piano songbook with guitar chords, for whatever that's worth... very little, I suspect:







lunachangue does a very good cover on his hollowbody:




sonofdrcross does another really accurate version:

Daniel Earwicker does a great version on Rick 330 and bass:

hughred follows everyone up with yet another really cool version:

cdwheel does a great version here:




nicknoh69 does another really accurate version here:




IngialV does an awesome cover of Andy Rourkes bass. This has got to be one of my favorite smiths bass parts. Kind of a menacing counterpoint to Marr's part.

chiasson65 does another great version of the bass part:




Here's a rollicking take on the Hatful version by 325C58 on guitars and bass, and Daniel Earwicker adds drums:




keithbtv does a nice acoustic version here:




johnnymare does a great full length version here:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

Hand In Glove

"When we did 'Hand In Glove,' that was brilliant because it was a fantastic piece of vinyl. But there was never a time when I put my feet up and said, 'Ah, I'm happy.'"

"That song came about when I was round my parents' house one Sunday evening. I started playing this riff on a crappy guitar I kept there. Angie - who's now my wife - was with me and she kept saying, 'That's really good!' I was panicking because I had nothing to record it on, so we decided to drive to Morrissey's, because he had a tape recorder. I sat in the back of the car playing the riff over and over so I wouldn't forget it. On the way, as is her want, Angie kept saying, 'Make it sound more like Iggy'. I was just hoping Morrissey would be in. Well, I knew he would be, he was always in. When we got there he was a bit taken aback, it hadn't been arranged and it was a Sunday night-unheard of! He let me in and I played the riff and he said, 'That's very good'. About five days later we were rehearsing and Morrissey wanted to play the song. When we heard the vocals to that we were all like,wow... From then on it was always going to be the first single."

- Johnny Marr

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro tab file here.


Here is the complete score from the "Louder Than Bombs:Off The Record" book:
















Here are the tabs from the Singles book:










Here are the scans from the Smiths Best Complete Score:












Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:





Here's the scans from the debut album piano song book with guitar chords:





Here's AX100G's version, which is the only one I could find at this time. He does a great job though:



Here's a cool acoustic version from thirdynumberone:




He also did a great version on electric:




Here's juttkeys on his tele:




tnyhung does a great version on a Les Paul:




Another awesome version by johnnymare:




Here's a great version by Jonasmacca:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul: