Smiths On Guitar: adameater

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Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

"Some writing moments you do remember really specifically and that was one. We were coming down from Carlisle. I was sat on the tour bus, with my guitar, unplugged. I'd come up with this figure, I was absolutely ecstatic about it, but I couldn't work out how my fingers were playing it. So I was holding my breath in case I lost it."

"'Strangeways' has its moments, like 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Love Me'. Last time I met Morrissey he said it was his favourite Smiths song. He might be right."

- Johnny Marr

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro tab file for this song here(right click to save). Oddly enough, it has the long intro tabbed, and the entire bass part, but no guitar parts. Hopefully someone can amend the file and add them in.

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

Here are the tabs from the Singles book:

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:

thirdynumberone has updated his previous acoustic attempt with an awesome electric version, and he also does the full intro:

buckleyboyben does a great version of the same riff, on his guitar which is tuned to F#(no capo needed):

adameater does a cool little lesson on acoustic:

Girl Afraid

"I had just got back from New York and was obsessed with Little Richard. I just kept thinking, 'What'd sound like Little Richard on guitar?', which is how I came up with it."

"I started to think about piano melodies. For example, Girl Afraid, which is an extra track on the Heaven Knows single; I started off playing 'pidgin' piano in the studio one day and transferred it to guitar. When I wrote the song I was conscious that it should have a fast New Orleans piano part. It turned into a Kinks-style, real 60's erratic drum beat bop, which is fine but it started off as a piano part!"

- Johnny Marr

Girl Afraid is one of my favorite Smiths songs. The intro is just jaw-dropping in it's virtuosity, and I love the way it just ramps up from an awesome intro, to a menacing verse riff, to the amazing harmonized chorus chords/riffs. It's like packing 3-4 songs worth of great riffs into a single 2 minute song.

I have uploaded 2 Guitar Pro tab files here.

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

Here are the chords from the Complete Chord Songbook:

Here's Daniel Earwickers first attempt, on a Rick 12 string:

Here's his second, which he does in more of an "instructional" style. Really cool! We could definately use some more videos like this:

ResidentSmith78 does a good attempt here. It's rough in a few places, but one thing to note is that he starts the riff at the 3rd fret, which is what Johnny does.

Here is a really awesome version by markpaterson, on a strat through a JC-120:

Here's a full length(!) cover by isisluna23:

adameater does a slowed down, step by step lesson here:

His full version is here:

moz77 does a slowed down version here:

barjabulon does a great job here, and the camera angle is perfect:

Here's his slowed-down tutorial of the intro:

Masterful version by johnnymare:

And here is viniciuskiko, with a cool version of Rourke's bass part:

Suffer Little Children

"I think we probably did it on our first two gigs. I think we were writing better stuff - that's the answer. It was always considered an album track. Maybe we had a doubt about it at the time."

"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."

-Johnny Marr

Suffer Little Children was played live only once that we know of, on October 4th, 1982. It has a haunting quality to the guitar line, which is fairly simple and repetitive compared to some other Marr compositions. I think that it's a good song for beginners to tackle because it sounds just as good slow as it does fast, and you can ramp up the speed when you get the hang of it.

First off, here are the scans from the debut album piano song book:

marrzipan is one of the many cool, generous guitarists who make this site possible, and he has a great version of this on youtube. He was kind enough to share the tabs he made from his cover. I have posted them here, with his notes(click to enlarge):

He also passed along a Guitar Pro tab that I have uploaded here. It has a tab of the second and third guitar parts as well!

Here's his version to follow along with:

For comparison, here is Daniel Earwicker's take on the song. He uses a pull-off where Marzipan fretted notes on the second chord of the verse. It's different in other ways as well, but both are really great versions.

adameater also does a nice acoustic version. It sounds a little different from both of these; I think he might be incorporating some of the second guitar, which is cool.

Here's uncleskinny on acoustic:

Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

Here's a great multi-track version by captaincarwash:

This Charming Man

"Of all our singles I think I like 'This Charming Man' best, just because the rhythms are so infectious. Smiths music really moves me."

- Andy Rourke

"A couple of days before I wrote 'This Charming Man' I'd heard 'Walk Out To Winter' (by Aztec Camera) on Radio 1, and I felt a little jealous. My competitive urges kicked in. I felt that we needed something up-beat and in a major key for Rough Trade to get behind. That's why I wrote it in the key of G, which to this day I rarely do. I knew that 'This Charming Man' would be our next single. I did the whole thing in one go into this TEAC 3-track tape recorder that I used to write on. I came up with the basic chords and immediately overdubbed the top line and intro riff."

"I wrote This Charming Man for a John Peel session. I just leapt out of bed and wrote it. It was the culmination of trying to find a way of playing that was non-rock but still expressed my personality. I felt we needed something more upbeat in a different key and was miffed that Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame was getting on the radio and we weren't. That's why it's got that sunny disposition; my usual default setting was Manchester in the rain. When we were recording it, Rough Trade's Geoff Travis came in and said: 'That's got to be the single.'"

"I remember writing it, it was in preparation for a John Peel single. I wrote it the same night as 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' and 'Still Ill'."

"'This Charming Man' was the first record where I used those highlife-sounding runs in 3rds. I'm tuned up to F# and I finger it in G, so it comes out in A. There are about 15 tracks of guitar. People thought the main guitar part was a Rickenbacker, but it's really a '54 Tele. There are three tracks of acoustic, a backwards guitar with a really long reverb, and the effect of dropping knives on the guitar -- that comes in at the end of the chorus."

"I don't want to be playing 'This Charming Man' when I'm... 22."

- Johnny Marr

Here is a great video of Johnny looping the rhythm part and overdubbing the lead:

Notice he starts the riff on the second and third strings, around the twelfth fret(14th if you have his usual 2nd fret capo on).

I have uploaded several Guitar Pro tab files here. Each file has several different guitar tracks, some with bass tracks as well. I have uploaded a multitrack for the song here. This has the isolated guitar and bass parts, and it's a great tool for learning the song.

Here are the scans from the Singles tab book:

I have uploaded another tab and it's accompanying backing tracks. Those are here(right click to save as). Here's the tab:

UPDATE 10/12/08: I have also uploaded these scans from the debut album song book, for completists only.

lunachangue gives us a pretty spot on version:

The cover sonofdrcross does is equally good:

He also does a great version on bass:

325C58 tackles the hatful version, with bass and rythym guitar as well:

Daniel Earwicker plays just a few bars on his 12 string Ric:

martinyyz has another good version. Really clear recording of the fretboard, too:

Here's nicknoh69 on his les paul:

Here's WilliamFs11 on acoustic:

Here's isisluna23 on a Les Paul:

Here's chiasson65 with another great bass cover:

abyface does an awesome job:

adameater does the Hatful version on acoustic:

Another take by martinyyz:

Here's a cool version by johnnymare:

Here's Pandaprops on guitar:

and bass:

Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

Here's a great multitrack version by captaincarwash:

The Headmaster Ritual

The nuts and bolts of The Headmaster Ritual came together during the first album, and I just carried on playing around with it. It started off as a very sublime sort of Joni Mitchell-esque chord figure; I played it to Morrissey but we never took it further. Then, as my life got more and more intense, so did the song. The bridge and the chorus part were originally for another song, but I put them together with the first part. That was unusual for me; normally I just hammer away at an idea until I've got a song. It's in open D turning, with a capo at the second fret. Again, it was heavily overdubbed. It was a very exciting period for me - realising I could hijack 16 tracks all for myself.

I wrote 'The Headmaster Ritual' on acoustic. It's in an open-D tuning with a capo at the 2nd fret. I fancied the idea of a strange Joni Mitchell tuning, and the actual progression is like what she would have done had she been an MC5 fan or a punk rocker. I knew pretty much what every guitar track would be before we started. There are two tracks of Martin D-28, and the main riff is two tracks of Rickenbacker. I wasn't thinking specifically of the Beatles' 'Day Tripper' -- even though it sounds like it -- but I did think of it as a George Harrison part. The Rickenbacker belonged to Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music; I'm told that it was originally owned by Roger McGuinn. All the guitars are in open tuning, except for one of the chorus guitars, which is done on an Epiphone in Nashville tuning, capoed at the 2nd fret.

I've got an Epiphone Coronet with one pickup, and I string it with the high strings from a 12-string set. It's a really zingy, trebly guitar. I used that on a lot of things that people think are 12-string, like the end of 'The Headmaster Ritual'.

For my part, 'The Headmaster Ritual' came together over the longest period of time I've ever spent on a song. I first played the riff to Morrissey when we were working on the demos for our first album with Troy Tate. I nailed the rest of it when we moved to Earls Court.

'The Headmaster Ritual is one of my favorite guitar tracks.I wrote it over a period of two years, always looking for the next section I needed. I saw the Radiohead version, yeah. I showed Ed O'Brien the chords, but maybe he was looking out the window!

- Johnny Marr

First of all, here is a fairly recent video of Johnny playing the song on his old '85 Les Paul Standard:

I've located a Guitar Pro file for this that is pretty accurate, and I have uploaded it here.

Here are the scans from the Smiths Best Complete Score: