New book - Marr's Guitars (Release: October 17, 2023)



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Johnny Marr: A Life Told Through Guitars

Ahead of the 40th anniversary of “This Charming Man,” the Manchester singer, songwriter and guitar legend talks about his friendship with the late Andy Rourke, turning Smiths songs up to an emotional 11 and his lifelong obsession with the instrument that changed his life.

 
Beautiful book. My signed copy arrived in the States today. Sadly, Waterstone's didn't add any padding to the mailer so one corner of the spine and one of the front cover are slightly crimped.

At only a quick glance, the photography is really nice. Definitely a book all the JM cognoscenti will want to own.
 
After watching the Pedal show video today i would love Marr to do a show using some of his guitar collection, some of the guitars are just magical and need the love of an audience.
 
so how many references to Morrissey in Marr's Guitars? or his audience is too woke for that?
None, which is in line with Morrissey's wishes never to be mentioned by Marr again. There's quite a few photos from the Smiths days, but apart from a nice photo of Johnny and Andy recording 'Death at One's Elbow', the rest of the band are absent from any shots, which is fair enough, as the book isn't really about them.

Anyway, I was slightly sitting on the fence about whether to get this, but as the Amazon price was a bit discounted I took the plunge, and read it today. I didn't realize quite how huge it was going to be - it's a gorgeous coffee-table style book , so a nice art object. Obviously the subject matter is fairly narrow, and after a while it does become slightly repetitive when it comes to multiple variations of what appear to be the same models of guitar, but if you're going to do it, might as well be exhaustive about it. An interview with Johnny is spread throughout the volume, though it doesn't really cover any ground most fans won't have heard before. The index which lists which songs were written/recorded on which guitar shows the level of detail.

All in all, not essential, but a nice object for any Smiths/Johnny fans. Short of winning the lottery, none of us are going to own this many guitars, so this book is the next best thing.
 
Saw him in Brooklyn last night. Always fun to hear and see him play but I wish he could lug some of the guitars over; the Jag is nice but it would make the event that much better. He said British Airways costs too much for checking bags or the like.......
 
Saw him in Brooklyn last night. Always fun to hear and see him play but I wish he could lug some of the guitars over; the Jag is nice but it would make the event that much better. He said British Airways costs too much for checking bags or the like.......

That’s great, Johnny is a great conversationalist. Those guitars are museum pieces, would never trust them with airlines. British Airways lost their equipment for a festival gig this summer, lesson learned I think.
 
That’s great, Johnny is a great conversationalist. Those guitars are museum pieces, would never trust them with airlines. British Airways lost their equipment for a festival gig this summer, lesson learned I think.
Good recall!....I do remember that now.
 
I just got this book and it is a thing of beauty, total quality! It's huge and almost 300 pages. I didn't see one mention of Morrissey in those pages. I think that Morrissey did Johnny a favor by making his wishes not to be mentioned known through a public open letter, otherwise Johnny would look bad for omitting him completely. What a pity that situation is!
 
‘They came with Smiths songs in them’

—Johnny Marr

Too bad he can’t find anymore guitars with great songs in them.
 
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