Smiths On Guitar: backinnyc

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Stretch Out And Wait

"'Stretch Out' I think, is in open G tuning: D,G,D,G,B,G."

- Johnny Marr

From the quote above, Marr says he 'thinks' the song is in open G, but the general consensus is that it's actually in open E. For instance, Headmaster Ritual is definitely in open E, and Johnny would sometimes play Stretch Out And Wait immediately afterwards, on the same guitar.

I do have a Guitar Pro tab file that I have uploaded here(right click to save as). This is a really accurate transcription to my ears, in the correct tuning(!). marrzipan also transcribed his version and I have included it in this same zip file. These versions are both in open E, but they are both different.

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

Here's marrzipan's version. This is one of the very few versions of the song on youtube that are played in open E, as marr played it. So cool!

Here's a very nice acoustic version by 3rd Monty Effects:

Here's a cool cover by theglimpse, who also plays the song in open E:

Here's dhowellbassist on a ric 360:

barjabulon covers a short snippet here, very well:

And here is the Smiths playing live on June 29, 1985. Here we can see that Marr has his telecaster tuned up to open E:

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:

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

"'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want', I did in a period of about four to five days when I was living in a flat in Earls Court. That was done when we needed a follow-up to 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'."

"I think the mandolin was suggested by the producer John Porter, I had the tune and he thought the mandolin would be good. The music was written because I was thinking about my childhood in Ardwick Green."

"There's a sad song by Del Shannon called 'The Answer To Everything' that my parents used to play, and it struck a chord in me because it sounded so familiar. That song was the inspiration for 'Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want'. I tried to capture the essence of that tune; its spookiness and sense of yearning."

-Johnny Marr

Another beautiful song. I have uploaded a Guitar Pro tab file here. It has 9 tracks, including 4 guitar tracks and 2 mandolin tracks for the outro. Thanks again goes to Nanuke for his help with this tab file.

Here is a short snippet of Johnny playing the song:

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

Here are the scans from the Smiths Best Complete Score:

Dan, a reader, sent word of this great video below. Johnny plays it with Neil Finn and you can get a great view of his hands:

There are a lot of great solo covers of this song on youtube with vocals, but to stay focused I've posted the most helpful non-vocal versions:

Here is kfb76 with no capo:

ResidentSmith78 plays a nice version with the capo at the 2nd fret. He does a nice job with some of the little movements between chords.

KintrickPinch does another capoed version:

Here's backinnyc playing along with his own backing track. He also plays the mandolin solo on his Rick 12-string which sounds really good:

Pandaprops does another great version on an acoustic 12 string:

325C58 does an awesome multi-instrumental version here. Look out for a cool surprise when he does the outro solo:

Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

Wonderful Woman

"I loved that song. I really, really loved it. Thats a good example of John Porter bringing out the essence of the band and a certain kind of sadness and putting it on the record. I always saw 'Wonderful Woman' as this thick, melancholic, dense atmosphere. It needed to drip with atmosphere and John had the patience to pour over it and do that. It all started to come together at about half four in the morning. I was thrashed through sheer tiredness because we'd been working three days non-stop. Those schedules that Rough Trade put John Porter under were unbelieveable by anyone's standards. But I was dying on me knees and John was going, 'Let's put a vibrato on that bit, let's do a high string thing here.' We were restringing guitars at five in the morning, just for one little bit, but he helped me through it."

"I always liked that song. I did it with John Porter during the night and I was pretty spaced out, it was magic though. I think I was 'muffled and strange' so that's why it sounds the way it does. "

- Johnny Marr

I have a Guitar Pro tab file and have uploaded it here(right click to save as). It seems fairly accurate to my ears, which is fantastic, because this is an amazing song that is often overlooked. The bass part is included in the tab.

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:

Daniel Earwicker does a haunting instrumental version on his Rickenbacker:

Here is captaincarwash, with a great sounding multi-track version:

dhowellbassist does a great version on his Ric 360:

And here are The Smiths, playing the song live, on July 6th, 1983:

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

"I remember being in a Pizzaland in Altrincham, giving the waitress my order - yeah, yeah, cheese and tomato, all that - and she said, You know the strings on 'There Is A Light' - is that an emulator or is it played? (Laughs) I was like, Whaaat? Are you fuckin' joking or what? What a fucking question!"

-Mike Joyce

"I think if we'd had a string quartet at the time we would have used it. But the fact that there was a keyboard there at the time... We just made it sound as real as possible."

"I was a bit fucked up, but I also had the worst roadie in the world. Throughout the set, me and Johnny used two tunings: one in F sharp and one in E, 'cos of Morrissey's range. Out of four or five gigs, this guy got it right once. I'd say, Right — There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. Pass me the one in F sharp. He'd pass me the E bass, and I'd be a tone out."

-Andy Rourke

"If we needed some songs fast, then Morrissey would come round to my place and I'd sit there with an acoustic guitar and a cassette recorder. 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' was done that way."

"Morrissey was sat on a coffee table, perched on the edge. I was sat with my guitar on a chair directly in front of him. He had A Sony Walkman recording, waiting to hear what I was gonna pull out. So I said, 'Well, I've got this one' and I started playing these chords. He just looked at me as I was playing. It was as if he daren't speak, in case the spell was broke."

"We recorded 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' in 10 minutes. I went on to add some flute overdub and strings and a couple of extra guitars, but really, the essence and the spirit of it was captured straight away, and that normally means that something's gone really, really right. I have a version of that take with just the three instruments and the voice on it – it absolutely holds up as a beautiful moment in time. The Smiths were all in love with the sound that we were making. We loved it as much as everyone else, but we were lucky enough to be the ones playing it."

"I didn't realise that 'There Is A Light' was going to be an anthem but when we first played it I thought it was the best song I'd ever heard. There's a little in-joke in there just to illustrate how intellectual I was getting. At the time everyone was into the Velvet Underground and they stole the intro to 'There She Goes' - da da da-da, da da-da-da, Dah Dah! - from the Rolling Stones version of 'Hitchhike,' the Marvin Gaye song. I just wanted to put that in to see whether the press would say, Oh it's the Velvet Underground! Cos I knew that I was smarter than that. I was listening to what The Velvet Underground was listening to."

-Johnny Marr

I have found an extended version of the Johnny Marr BBC video that I posted earlier. Here, he plays more of "There is a light" all the way up to the end of a verse, and the sound isn't faded out like it was in the first video. I have to say, this clip gives me chills. It's just so cool to see him up close playing a Smiths song.

This video has a different camera angle, which might be helpful.

Here is Johnny playing it at 7 Worlds Collide, you can also get some good angles of his playing. Thanks go to lordez185 for shooting this video:

Guitar Pro tabs for this song are here(right-click to save). There are 2 different versions of the tab that I've included... one has 7 tracks, one has 3. There is also a tab of Johnny's arpeggio from the BBC segment above, submitted by Mathieu.

Here are the tabs from the Singles book: