(Credits: Far Out / Apple Music / Soundcloud)
Tue 23 December 2025 15:30, UK
Despite being the two figureheads of one of Britain’s greatest bands, Morrissey and Johnny Marr were essentially oil and water. Luckily for them, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce represented some source of starchy liquid that bound them together, to make musical greatness á la pasta sauce from a nonna’s kitchen.
But recent years have shown how the two creative pillars occupied either end of the band’s respective spectrum, and since the split, that gap has only seemed to widen. Hopeful talks among fans of a prospective Smiths reunion are soon squashed by the pair, who confirm that it will never happen on personal, creative and legal grounds. Which given, the age of relentless reunions, is perhaps the one great shame of modern music.
Because when The Smiths were firing on all cylinders in the mid-1980s, they were one of the greatest outfits to ever do it. Johnny Marr’s guitar playing, combined with the obscure pessimism of Morrissey’s songwriting and vocals, took alternative music into a new, refreshed space. This was much needed for the decade, which was ultimately in sonic limbo after waving goodbye to the vibrant punk scenes of the late 1970s.
While The Smiths’ sound could be quite rightly seen as a departure from that, it was ultimately punk that inspired the band. While it’s hard to picture Marr and Morrissey agreeing on much these days, the fact is, they shared a love for one iconic punk rock album that helped form the foundations of their working relationship.
When a young Marr was crafting what would become his signature guitar sound, his friend Billy Duffy, who would later be a member of The Cult, remarked on its likeness to The Stooges. Uninitiated to the band at that point, Duffy lent him a copy of Raw Power, and the result changed everything.
“What first struck me about Raw Power was a beautiful darkness to it, a sophistication almost,” Marr said. “It delivered exactly what was on the cover: otherworldly druggy rock’n’roll, sex, violence, but strangely beautiful somehow. From then on, I just climbed into a world with that record”.
Marr continued, “I spent an entire winter playing guitar along with the album in my bedroom, in the dark, orange streetlights coming through the windows, when I was sixteen. Its influence came out on the Smiths album, The Queen Is Dead”.
It would be one of the sonic olive branches Marr would later extend to his unlikely collaborator, Morrissey, who was a self-proclaimed Stooges fan. Unsurprisingly, Morrissey studied the irreverent behaviour of the band’s unpredictable leader, Iggy Pop, whom he said was “similar [to John Lydon] in the sense that his initial appearance and contribution were so fantastic and so extraordinary that once again anything that follows is forgiven.”
Clearly, Iggy’s behaviour influenced Morrissey to become ruthlessly uncompromising. However, the major difference between the pair is, as Iggy has matured and mellowed in the later years of his career, Morrissey has sadly doubled down on his behaviour and in doing so, lost nearly all of his charm.
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