One of the few men alive who can get away with saying Rifftastic

Headmaster Ritual is literally a perfect song

He wishes he wrote All Day and All of the Night, but he literally *Wrote This Charming Man* ?????

He is an Original. Nobody sounds like Johnny Fuckin Marr

I can literally sit for hours and watch Johnny noodle away.

6:20 Thats when starts playing "the headmaster ritual" riff ;)

'The Headmaster Ritual' always slays me. It's probably my favorite Smiths song, with some of the greatest guitar work ever written and played. It proves that heartfelt rhythm playing can be more effective than wild soloing. All young guitarists need to listen to Marr's work.

3:51 God that’s such a good riff. Gave me goosebumps...

Johnny Marr in the Smiths is one of the most underrated guitar players of the last 30yrs. The smiths wrote so many good songs. Morrisey, Johnny Marr & Andy Rouke all complimented each other so well. Marr plays like nobody else. The riffs he comes up with are so musical & complicated, i have no idea how he came up with that stuff. When he plays them it looks effortless, but try to play it & you realize its damn hard. The Smith's, imo, deserved more credit than they got.

Only Johnny Marr could have inspired me to pick up a guitar after 20 years. Just hearing that fender twang and his choice of chords makes me want to play again

When I listen to today's indie, rock bands all I hear is Johnny Marr on the guitar playing!! He was so far ahead of his time. Its really remarkable

Best guitarist of all time!!!!!

I love his version of "all day and all of the night", the tone he gets at 1:14 is just quintessential early 1960's rock n'roll

the nicest person I've ever met in the the music industry, and my fave guitarist, to shake the hand of this guy that has played most of my favourite songs was insane, I love you Johnny Fucking Marr x

"I personally prefer this, well frankly because Fender is paying me"

Best quote-- 5:30 -- "...it never gets too Harley-Davidson....I'd take a scooter over that any day, really..."

honestly. when I just started to learn guitar, I thought johnny marr was really not that great, but now that I play more and improve more, more I see the genius of his playing.

1:15 Johnny Marr wishes that he had written the riff from "All Day and All of the Night" by The Kinks but in my opinion, the riff from his song "The Messenger" is just as fantastic.

I could watch these videos of Johnny all day....and probably will.

The way those open notes ring out in that lick from The Headmaster Ritual are just mind blowing

Every freaking time I hear the opening riff to "What Difference Does It Make? ," I am just thankful that I was alive during the time when the Smiths made music. Killer music. Damn, as many times as I have heard that riff, I just caught myself smiling yet again when he was playing the first 20 notes...

Describing your music as a Lambretta over a Harley Davidson is one of the most genius descriptions I think I've ever heard. He's like "There's nowt wrong with a Harley it just ain't for me". God bless you Johnny Marr.

Every time I watch Johnny play it makes me wanna go plug in and rip

3:51 one of the best guitar riffs ever written.

if it wasn't for Johnny Marr, I wouldnt had picked up the guitar.

I was genuinely enjoying Johnnys personal stories and then he played a few riffs that took me back to my optimistic youth! Such a charming man❤️

I started off a Harley guy, got into more expressive players like you and synthesizers as well. Thanks for the quality and integrity over the years, you are one of a kind and you have been for a long time. To have an individual voice in art is as rare as it gets, and as good as it gets in my opinion.

Play the chords to Beatles songs alone in your bedroom and they sound flat unless you sing a melody against them. Play the chords to "Headmaster's Ritual" (or practically anything else Johnny Marr wrote) and they explode into life all by themselves.

JHONNY YOU ARE A PART OF MY LIFE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR MUSIC

I learned so much....what a teacher and a gentleman

I could listen to him talk and play all day

His playing never fails to impress. Doesn't need to shred yet his style is instantly recognisable.

I want to give this man a massive hug! Johnny Marr is a MOD!

Legendary guitar tunes, Johnny is the Maestro of melodic guitar players...LOVE U JM!!

Absolute legend!

Genius, you are already a legend.

Pure Artistry: Inspired countless bands with his distinctive sound...I hear it all over the musical spectrum

still the cooolest guitarist ever. Hearing those Smiths riffs bring a tear to the eye

My favorite line in Headmaster Ritual: He does the mili-try two step down the nape of my neck. *Brilliant*

he loves his guitar so much he sleeps with it and i say that lovingly. he is a beautiful musician

I haven't a clue what the man is saying about Attitude and Harley Davidsons, but that doesn't distract from the fact that Johnny Marr is one of the greatest guitarists that has ever walked the face of the earth. Those riffs are unforgettable, singular, and inspired countless other artists.

Hard to find someone as articulate about Guitar culture as this. Metaphor use is usually confined to color and size .... but “I’ll take a scooter over a Harley” is just a great way to put it in perspective.

one of the cleanest all rounders. understated. legend

Johnny versatility is unmatched .

Thank you for this leson

Thank you Johnny.

guitar beast and the most humble guy ever

Guys, please do a re union tour before i die. I'm 50 now, so time is running out. I bought all your albums in the 80s, so you owe me this . :) Thank you....

The perfect blend of Mod and Rocker.. Johnny, thanks!

Love this man.

A lot of what he said went over my head if I’m honest,but speaking as a layman all I can add is his sound just sounds so bloody good!

Love his sound. Trying to get there, Brilliant!

Goosebumps.

Britain isn't producing these kind of great artists anymore :-(

Go Johnny Go 🎸

I could watch 5 hours of this.

F me, man, I literally started crying shortly after he started in on "Headmaster Ritual", I didn't see it coming, f%&k! I'm not a kid anymore, have three kids who've already grown and moved out, I've lived through a lot, but there is something that Marr's playing does that nobody else ever comes close, he is way beyond "guitar player", that level of melancholically (?) beautiful melodizing is freaky, he makes it look so easy, but even when he's just screwing around he's still working from that Next Level, and it goes way beyond technical proficiency, he isn't just Singing Through The Guitar, he's singing through it with multiple voices at once, an entire mini-orchestra at his fingertips. I listen to tons of fingerstyle guitarists, soloists, Chord Masters, Jazz-Rock, Blues, you name it, but he literally plays like there are four of him inside the controlling just those two hands and frigging bleeding through the guitar strings, it's mesmerizing, heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. I haven't been able to sleep all night, I got on the "Johnny Marr Train", and before I knew it, I'd been up all night, his playing and arrangements still affect me like they did when I was a teenager. My teenage son, a decent player in his own right with shockingly good taste for a Millennial, discovered Marr and The Smiths on his own. He goes to an Expeditionary Model school, he plays guitar 5 days a week in school, has performed live in front of large crowds several times already, was a finalist in a recent eTown "Young Songwriter's Contest" that was recorded and broadcast, just played another instrument on a song his friend cut in their Studio a couple of days ago, he gets to play a lot more than I did at his age, my dad absolutely tried to discourage me from doing the same when I was his age, I didn't really start playing 6-8 hours a day until I was in College, and then at the expense of time with my thing wife and children, we're really privileged to live near this school, it's the main reason we've never moved out of State the past few years, with far too many people flooding into Colorado, killing what it used to be. My older kids couldn't handle the Melancholia of the '80s and '90s "Alternative Music" that I constantly listened to and played, and along with on my guitar, when they were younger, so my teenage son never heard me play those Smiths/Cure/Jane's Addiction/New Order/Alice In Chains mix tapes or CD's, those got banned from the house by my wife, not wanting our little ones to slit their wrists or something. But my teenage kid winds up finding all the music I loved in College and High School without me ever playing it for him; it's cool and odd at the same time: he always thinks he's discovered somebody I don't know, shocked to find my iPod Nano is already loaded with them, and I still have boxes of Mixtapes in the shed the same. He never bothers with my iPod or my phone, he's had access to his own tablets, laptop, and phone for years, and, because I've mainly been playing Celtic Fingerstyle and Bebop the past few years, he's wrongly assumed that's all that's in my Playlist. This past year my middle son gravitated towards Marr and Navarro, on his own, both whom have a similar vibe, as well as having a huge influence on my playing when I was younger, through to today, albeit in a different context (I recall seeing some Guitar writer liken Navarro to a "high gain Johnny Marr", quite agreed, though Marr takes the cake, IMHO). I love that my "boy" gets Johnny, it doesn't need to be explained to him, he can feel what he's saying, deeply, he hasn't yet developed the emotional self-restraint/numbness we tend to develop as we get older and have to survive some very tough times, and when he wants to tell me about how it affects him, he plays it instead of explaining it with words, rare in this day, I think, to have such concord with anyone young, especially my own son. There are so few musicians out there that days who can do this on guitar, IMHO, not like Marr, not with both the feeling and the structure he manages to pull off without devolving into eventually-detached deconstructions (which, though understandable, given how bored musicians can get with their Standards, sometimes loses something that made the original so magic). I've seen Morrissey live twice, but was let down by the crude, rockabilly-clone guitar sound of his current guitarist, and find a lot of it vapid and repetitive, he's just not the Foil to - and inspiration for - Morrissey that Marr was...how could he be? I don't believe they'll ever really get together again, Moz has minimized Johnny's contributions too often and too loudly, sadly, but if I had to lock just one of them, it's Marr, all day long. I'd take a Smiths reunion (maybe minus Joyce, he pissed on it), of course, but this is somehow both fresh and still bearing the magic of the original, quite a feat, in my book.

wow i wish more people would play like this guy!

Headmaster Ritual sounds great here. Then again, it always does! :-)

I Want to give Johnny Marr a MASSIVE Hug ! xx WE ARE THE MODS! XX

Me all time favorite rock guitarist.

Simply amazing...

Awesome!

What a beautiful person x

God that amp sounds amazing

you can see that this was in the middle of him designing his jag I only noticed because I couldn't see the signature on the headstock and then I noticed that he hadn't done up the rhythm circuit into the hi-pass filter thing yet. He has the mustang bridge, the white on white colour scheme, he has the whammy bar staying in place thing and also the tele pickup switch, but the other things i mentioned aren't done yet. I think its just cool do see this stage in his guitar designing process

In a class of his own. Thxu

Amazing musician and good music...

LEGEND NEVER DIE .

The headmaster ritual!!!! Great song!!

Bloody brilliant genius

07:30 - nonchalantly, '....so it works for that...' as if he had not just made jaws drop.

Unique guitarist, still dazzling and unmatched.

Master of riffs

God bestowed Johnny Marr with wizardry. The licks from "This Charming Man", "Headmaster Ritual"? C'mon. Some girls are bigger than others apparently.

I love how Johnny plays: Its always exciting! while it isn't necessarily difficult to play, it's fiercely original without being to far gone from rock

I lovvvve Johnny Marr!!!!!!!!

The Dean of post-punk UK Guitar. Respect.

Al Pacino is good in this one. Such a great actor! Is this a new Spinal Tap-like movie or is this old??

From about 00:20 to 00:54 he's playing "Dogs of Lust" by The The. Such a good song!

absolute genious

Caught his show in Philly. He's a god.

Sick !!!!!

Mr Marr - you are a genius

wow. the greatest.

Thanks for your rory strat video. I really appreciate it. Love gallager. Saved me a mint

"It works for that". Master of the understatement....

his "What Difference Does it Make?" riff is pretty bad ass too!

6:06 Always lovely to see him play but the records don't have any of the drive he has on these settings, Headmaster Ritual for example sounds nothing like this, it's super clean with some phaser/flanger giving some texture.

Johnny is the Greatest Guitarist Ever!

I love Johnny Marr's solo work, particularly the songs from The Messenger!! There's a whole other vision he must have had to keep bottled up when he was in The Smiths. Much like Johan Sebastian Bach's well Tempered (not perfect) tuning, which was used in the end to build greater harmony by having strings tuned slightly off from each other, but closer to the notes of the other instruments, or strings, Marr chooses to have his amps produce a sound that is not completely clean, but not completely distorted, to make the whole sound harmonize, by means of overtones, and in the end to have each song pull the listener into a world that goes on endlessly.

Headmaster sounds phenomenal on Johnny’s Coronado red Les Paul!!!!! Oh, it works!

7:01 is pure beauty

I'm surprised I've never heard him say it, but he's going after the surf rock guitar tone!

Yes, that's a prayer of mine!

Wow, Tony Montana is a great guitarrist.

Bloody genius

Great!

As with any artist, it is so novel to hear how he uses each tool for a specific range and quality, to blend an overall project. This is actually fusion. He does so much on his own to build the body of his music, that arrangement and post production seems easier than many other artists. Also, in the comment 'Don't want to play distorted cause you can't come back from it.' Usually this is true. But Hendrix played with this a LOT; distortion and back to rhythm.

I see it's a bit like "Some Girls are Bigger than Others" when stripped down at 7:02.