Johnny Marr’s guitars have just fetched more than £3.6 million at auction — but the Smiths guitarist has never been particularly interested in treating the electric guitar as a vehicle for theatrics.
The auction, held at Christie’s on September 16, saw nearly 100 guitars from Marr’s collection go under the hammer, raising more than three times their estimated value for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the Autistic Society.
Among the highlights were the 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355 Marr played on “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” which sold for £204,800, and the 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo he used on the Smiths’ self-titled debut before loaning it to Noel Gallagher for Definitely Maybe. The Rickenbacker fetched £358,400 and later appeared on the cover of Oasis’ “Supersonic” single.
“The auction has been a great experience and has exceeded all my expectations,” Marr said afterward. “I’d like to thank everyone who made bids and special thanks to Christie’s for making it so memorable.”
For Marr, though, the value of a guitar has never been measured simply by how much noise — or how many notes — a player can get out of it. As guitarist with the Smiths and throughout his solo career, he largely shunned guitar solos, prioritized songs over showmanship and frequently criticized the cult of virtuosity that dominated rock guitar culture in the 1980s.
That philosophy helped make Marr one of the most influential players of his generation. While the Smiths scored 17 hit singles in the 1980s, Marr built the band’s sound around intricate layers of overdubbed guitars, unusual chord voicings and a vast palette of tones. His style drew from the rock ’n’ roll primitivism of the ’60s, the grooves of the ’70s and the bright, chiming textures of the ’80s, creating a sound that inspired countless guitarists.
“I’ve always believed that any instrumentalist is basically just an accompanist to the singer and the words,” Marr told Guitar Player in 1990. “That’s born out of being a fan of records before I was a fan of guitar players. I’m interested in melody, lyrics, and the overall song. I don’t like to waste notes, not even one.”
That same year, Marr was particularly blunt about the guitarists who seemed to represent the opposite philosophy.
“Who was it that said, ‘The reason why all those guitar players play so many notes is because they can’t find the right one?’” he asked Guitar Player in a cover interview. “I like to put the right note in the right place, and my influences have always been those kinds of players. Keith Richards comes to mind, and I really like Nils Lofgren’s soloing, because he’s so melodic. I love John Lennon’s rhythm playing, and George Harrison was an incredible guitarist.”
Marr’s admiration for melody and economy put him at odds with much of the era’s guitar culture.
“There’s a lot of guitar culture that I don’t like at all,” he said. “I find the traditional idea of the guitar hero to be really irrelevant to the 1990s. I don’t think that young people are that impressed with some guy brandishing spandex trousers and a hideously shaped guitar, playing that kind of masturbatory, egotistical noise.
“Being a soloist who wants to just display virtuosity is a dated philosophy, and I don’t think there’s any room for it in pop music. It’s the last stand of late-’60s/early-’70s rockism, and it should have gone a long time ago.”
Despite his criticism of shred culture, Marr made clear he respected players with genuine technical ability.
“I have a healthy respect for guitarists like Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen, disciplined players who really know what they’re doing — if you’re going to be a virtuoso, you can’t be hit-and-miss. But I think people like Yngwie Malmsteen should be forgotten as soon as possible, I really do.”
Marr then offered one of the interview’s most provocative observations.
“It’s got very little to do with music, and the ‘I’m the fastest gun in town’ idea is almost like homosexual panic. Nothing against gays, but when players perpetrate this incredibly sexist image of being so macho, I find it suspicious.
“Plus, I can’t do all that stuff, so that’s why I say it’s stupid,” he added with a laugh.
