Smiths On Guitar: djs1986

Showing posts with label djs1986. Show all posts

This Night Has Opened My Eyes

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro file here.

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

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Songbook:

There are also several great versions up on youtube.

Here's Peter Weldon with an amazing multi-guitar version:

Here's viniciuskiko:

Here's buckleyboyben:

Here's djs1986, on guitar and bass:

Here's JRLGuitar on electric and acoustic:

Here's modfather1965:

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:

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 Queen Is Dead piano book, with guitar chord boxes:

Here is a breadown lesson of the BBC chords and riff by 74949 on youtube:

Here's the evergreen Daniel Earwicker with another spot on cover:

djs1986 gives another multi-instrumental take, inspired by Daniel's version above:

Jahnli does a really nice version here, with a gentle vocal arrangement:

TboneWilson1978 uploaded a cool lesson here:

IrishBog does his take on Johnny's playing from the BBC video:

Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

chiasson65 contributes another spot-on bass cover:

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: