You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby

"One [1963 Stratocaster] I keep constantly high strung in Nashville tuning, which is the top two strings the same and bottom four like a 12-string set with the low strings taken off. It's a good tuning for coming up with new stuff 'cos you kind of feel like you're playing backwards. I used that on loads of Smiths stuff - You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby, Half A Person..."


- Johnny Marr

Macs899 sent me an awesome Guitar Pro tab that he transcribed from the comprehensive Louder Than Bombs: Off The Record book. I have uploaded it here. Right click to save as.



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






















Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:





cdwheel does a great version. The phasing sound is really close to the original:




Daniel Earwicker has done two versions, and they're both excellent:







Here's nicnoh69 on his Les Paul Custom:

Vicar In A Tutu

"'Johnny had this riff, where he and Morrissey had worked on it I don't know, but Morrissey's looking through the window and we're playing away there and Mozz is going [look of extreme satisfaction]. Yep, again, again, yep, this is it, this is the one. But that song's all over the place, all over the place."


- Mike Joyce

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




Here are the scans from the Queen Is Dead piano songbook with guitar chord boxes:







sonofdrcross does a great version:




Here's cdwheel with a friend on rhythm guitar:

Handsome Devil

"'Handsome Devil': It took a week or two to get my head round it. I knew I wanted to do it, but it took a while to get used to, with him singing those sort of lyrics."

-Andy Rourke


"At the time I wasn't too sure about Hatful Of Hollow being released - although the radio sessions were great, I was keen for them to remain just being that. In hindsight, I realised there were certain tracks - particularly Handsome Devil - that had something the produced version just didn't."

- Johnny Marr

I have uploaded a guitar pro file here.

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:






Daniel Earwicker does a cool multi-instrumental version here:




Here's another great cover by cdwheel:




Here's johhnymare on a tele:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

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:

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:

 

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:













Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:





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









Daniel Earwicker's first take on the song:




And his second:




djs1986, on guitar and bass:




Here's Radioheads version:




Here's eluedy with his version, my favorite of these.




Here is chiasson65, with an amazing bass cover:




Here's WilliamFs11 on acoustic, in open E. Stunning.




Here's an awesome version by markpaterson on a Epiphone Elite Riviera through a JC-120:




Here's adameater doing the chorus part on acoustic:




Here's PinkMoonchild08 on a tele, appropriately phased-out:




Here's nicknoh69 on a goldtop les paul. He really nails it:




dhowellbassist does another great cover here:




abyface does a great full-length version:




Here's daveyc25 on a Ric 330:




Here's barjabulon with a close-up view:




Here's ecb97tp on acoustic:




Here's stereovaritone on a red hollowbody:




Here's Jonasmacca on a tele: