Johnny Marr on The Smiths boxset and Warners

This month's issue of The Word in the UK has Johnny Marr on the cover who in turn has some choice stuff to say about Warners handling of the Smiths back catalogue.

Morrissey is currently without a record deal and was recently "in talks" with Warners..... here Johnny reveals that he and Morrissey have been in contact with regard to the upcoming box set which apparently *is* happening now.



http://www.morrissey-solo.com/article.pl?sid=07/08/08/1614237&mode=nocomment

JOHNNY MARR INTERVIEW EXCERPT:

As a substitute lap of honour for The Smiths, there was talk of a box set of rare and unreleased Smiths music. Is that possible, given that The Smiths released pretty much everything the recorded.
I was approached by the record company [Warners] a few years ago with the box set idea, and I was somewhat sceptical until I was sent some live concerts and monitor mixes. Then it started to sound like a really good prospect. There are some curios, instrumentals, a few odd films shot by people on these enormous old video cameras on the balcony at gigs in Wolverhampton in the 80s they are really impressive, they'd make great DVDs. There's the Troy Tate album [the first version of The Smiths debut album which was scrapped and never released] which is a really interesting sound and a great picture of the band at a time when most people aren't aware of us. That early, embryonic period where we had our very first live set, songs like *These Things Take Time, You've Got Everything Now, Wonderful Woman* just the band's live show recorded very, very well. It's a fascinating thing and it¹s not quite the band that people know. It's a very odd band. I can¹t put my finger on what it is, and I was in it. But unfortunately the record company *now* seem to regard The Smiths as something they've inherited in the attic, almost an inconvenience. I despair of what's going on with the Smiths catalogue.

How do you mean?
They're putting the albums out shoddily, mid-price releases with cheap sleeves, bad reproductions of the artwork. I¹ve wanted to remaster the albums properly for years, but there is no-one at the record company whose job it is to look after The Smiths. I find it incredible and frustrating, and most fans of music would find it a ridiculous state of affairs.

Warners have the catalogue in perpetuity. What happened was, when Rough Trade was going through bad times in the early 90s Morrissey and I mortgaged our houses so that, for literally about five minutes, we owned the catalogue ourselves. We then immediately sold it on to Warner Brothers with the promise that it would be looked after as a major historic British group would be. That¹s far from the way The Smiths is being handled right now. It really is being devalued. You can see there¹s no love there. With The Beatles, the Stones, possibly The Doors or Fleetwood Mac there seems to be someone behind it who really loves the music. We seem to be getting thrown out there in the bargain bins in a really cheapo fashion.

Are you pursuing it? Has Morrissey any interest in pursuing it?
Not right now because Modest Mouse is my main concern, and I don¹t think I can do it on my own. I wrote to Morrissey about it, he hasn¹t replied so far but we'll see. I'm just pissed off because the music doesn't sound as good as it could. I'll settle for that, and re-releases with decent sleeves on. It's beautiful music and it's being treated like ****. But apart from that, I can't and won't *run the band on my own.

[LATER, AT GLASTONBURY]

There have been some developments since we last spoke, Johnny says. Morrissey has replied to Johnny's letter and the two are addressing the Smiths catalogue issue with Warners together for the first time in some years. It seems likely that the box set will come out some time in the next eighteen months. There's a crack of light *maybe The Smiths will finally get the treatment they deserve as the best British rock band of the last thirty years.

 

wow, thats something. thanks for posting this.

 

I wonder where Johnny gets the sense that there is someone behind the Beatles' catalog who really loves the music?

It would be nice to see a Smiths box set and the official release of the Troy Tate sessions, but I'm not holding my breath. It's the same deal as the Beatles - if and when it ever happens, great, but until then, there's always the original Parlophone and Rough Trade vinyl, which will likely never be supplanted as the definitive source for the music.

 

Thanks for the info. Hopefully this will actually happen one day.

 

Perhaps Steve would do the first album and Queen is Dead.

But the masters might be digital anyways. So who noz.

 

Johnny Marr:

I assume he's talking about UK releases. Am I right that in the states all the proper albums (plus Louder) in print look and sound on CD just as they did in the late 80s? The 90s saw The Best Vol.1 & 2 and The Singles and this decade we got The Very Best of. Given how most remasters turn out, I've never thought The Smiths catalog called for an upgrade. A box with unreleased material would surely be welcomed as would a live DVD.

What's going on in the UK? Are these cheap comps or proper albums that he's describing? Is he complaining that The Smiths deserve full-list royalties or more attention with regards to the compilations? This is a band that has a small number of proper albums, all excellent, but as many or more compilations, so I share his frustration if they are cranking out more of these for the discount bins.

 

It seems to be a bit of a "public bitch".

The albums are essentially the same as the US. They have amended tracklists - How Soon Is added to Meat, This Charming Man added to the debut, Golden Lights (!) added to World Won't. They also have amended artwork (Hatful has been cropped to lose the light blue border of the original album, Meat has one image rather than 4, World Won't has also been cropped). To be fair I think the original RT issue CDs had the same booklets.....

The band don't get consulted about the compilations - the last one had glaring typos on it and generally awful artwork.

It did sound great though and is generally praised. Morrissey complained about the mastering (Inglot / Hersch) although he didn't have any problems when the same team mastered a Morrissey "best of".

I think it's more about politics than how the cds actually sound at times.

That said, the catalogue could sound better, be tidier and make a lot of rare stuff easily available. That's without a box set and the Troy Tate stuff (which would be really nice).

 

I agree with Johnny Marr. 'Reissue, repackage' in this instance is a necessity.

 

God if anyone here with influence in the industry is reading please reach out to Mr Marr and Mr Morrissey and have Steve or Barry be in charge of the remastering.

 

Well, unless the box set and future remasters turn out to be really special the japanese mini-vinyls with their superb sound and packaging are the last Smiths that I bought .

 

You are all forgetting the cardinal rule... don't let the musicians themselves ANYWHERE NEAR the remasters!!!! They almost always get into thier own "loudness wars".

How soon we forget....

 

I am certain those masters are analogue....

 

I can't wait to see how this box set and remasters are "implemented". Will there be bonus tracks with each album? I'm guessing not. I fully expect the box set to have most all their music with the obligatory 1 or 2 never relased songs added to coax completists like me to spend $50 for one or two unreleased songs.

 

I suspect that Johnny would employ the same taste and restraint in the mastering process that he employed in his guitar playing. He did produce a lot of the records that sound so great on the original Rough Trade vinyl and CDs, after all.

 

Please, Steve, please, please, please... Lord knows it would be the first time...

 

He wrote the music and played the guitar on the Smiths records - that's not the same as producing. Mostly the records were produced by others although he gets the odd production credit here and there.

Anyway, production abilities aside, the chances are that there are people who'd be better at mastering than Johnny - just as he'd be a better guitarist than they are.

 

I'm not to shure about the mastering bit. With the lack of pride most og todays mastering engineers put into their work I guess about anyone could do a better job. On the guitar bit we certainly agree.

 

As I recall, he got more than just the odd production credit.

 

Troy Tate, John Porter & Stephen Street may disagree with you.....

 

I'll have to go home and look at the records and dig out my copy of The Songs That Saved Your Life. From what I recall off the top of my head, Marr produced Meat Is Murder and The Queen Is Dead with Street engineering.

 

See also this quote from Morrissey from 1985: ""The whole idea with 'Meat Is Murder' was to control it totally, and without a producer things were better. We saw things clearer."

http://passionsjustlikemine.com/disc/smiths-d14mim-r.htm

 

Wow - just checked and the LPs are as follows:

The Smiths - Produced by John Porter
Meat Is Murder - Produced by The Smiths (eng. Stephen Street)
The Queen Is Dead - Produced by Morrissey & Marr (eng. Stephen Street)
Strangeways, Here We Come - Produced by Morrissey, Marr & Stephen Street

It seems your memory is better than mine - although in my defence I haven't looked at those credits for about 20 years!

I was thinking of the back of the CD booklet for Louder Tham Bombs as I wrote about him having only one or two credits - and I thought the albums were just produced by Porter or Street!

I've only found one song produced soley by Johnny though - "Shoplifters Of The World Unite". Rather a thin, out-of-phase sound on that one - and the quietest guitar solo ever! I guess he works better in a team as far as producing goes.....

 

???

Meat is Murder -- Produced by The Smiths
Queen is Dead -- Produced by Morrissey and Marr
Strangeways -- Produced by Marr, Morrissey, Stephen Street

That's a bit more than an 'odd production credit here and there'.

 

Back in the 80s, I spent a lot of time listening to and obsessing over the Smiths.

That's not surprising, given that he was the anti-guitar solo guitar hero of his era. I recall the "Shoplifters" solo as rather shocking at the time - just the fact that he even took something resembling a conventional guitar solo was surprising. I don't recall a thin, out-of-phase sound on that one - the rhythm guitar sound is fairly heavy on that track.

But I think that Marr really did produce the second and third albums. His production credit was not just a vanity credit. Morrissey's, on the other hand? Maybe so.

 

Me too!

I feel thouroughly ashamed of myself.

I won't even tell you how I feel about my shoes.......