Johnny Marr Speaks of Paul and George
In a new interview, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr talks about a daylong session playing with Paul McCartney and how much George Harrison influenced his own playing style.
Marr tells the Autojubilator that while nothing ever came of it professionally, he and Paul had great fun playing intensely for 8 to 9 hrs. Says Marr: “I got him to play ‘Things We Said Today’, and I think we played some Wings stuff. ‘C-Moon’, I remember. That was fun. He and I were singing harmonies on ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ – that was a pretty good moment, too. I was only 23, maybe 24.”
Marr says of George: “George Harrison has always been one of my favorite guitar players, and his approach to the song and creating little parts and moments in records is more something that I can relate to, and along the lines of how I see myself, sure. Out of respect to the guitar greats who came out of the blues rock boom in the 60s, you have to hold your hands up and show that respect. But unfortunately for them, the legacy they started somewhat mutated throughout the 1970s, when I was growing up, into other stuff that wasn’t really about my age group. But George Harrison’s more musical, composed kind of approach, rather than being particularly bluesy, was more my thing really.”
