Talk About Our Generation: Review of Johnny Marr's "The Messenger"

Johnny Marr

Earlier this year, I watched Johnny Marr perform a couple of songs on Jimmy Fallon.  He performed "Generate! Generate!" from his new solo album, and then he did a exquisite rendition of The Smith's "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" that made me realize something that I had never considered.  But I will get to that in a moment.

How do I describe what The Smiths meant to me?  I had a friend, Melisa back when I was 16.  There are two people from my youth in the '80s who introduced me to more music than anyone else, and Melisa was one of them.  She always knew who the up and coming musicians were.  She always dressed in black, and my mother used to call her "The Black Widow".  At the end of 1985, she lent me a couple of records on vinyl.  One was The Stranglers.  The other was the eponymous album by The Smiths.  No one else even knew who The Smiths were.  Within a year and a half, "The Queen Is Dead" exploded onto the alternative scene (a term we didn't even know back then.)  "The Queen Is Dead" became our banner - jangle pop guitars delivered by Johnny Marr, and vocals dripping with semi-sarcastic lyrics by the suave Morrissey.  There is no way to describe what this music meant to me as an angst-ridden youth.  It perfectly reflected how I felt and how I viewed life.  And then almost as quickly as they came into my life, they were gone.  They broke up.

MTV's 120 Minutes was filled with Morrissey's solo efforts.  But honestly, none of it ever spoke to me.  I know that there are people that hang on Moz's every word, every drip of sweat from his now-bloated face.  But I have always found his solo stuff pretentious and stuffy.  Morrissey has become an icon, not an artist.

I never heard much about what Johnny Marr was doing until he linked up with one of my favorite bands, Modest Mouse, in 2006.  Now, this was a band that I already liked.  But the album he recorded with them, "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank", was explosive.  It's hard to explain how much better Marr made Modest Mouse than they were before.  I was sad when he left.

So back to Marr's performance on Jimmy Fallon.  His version of "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" was even better than the original, if that is possible.  How do you make the perfect song even better than it was before?  It was then that I realized something - that the true creative genius was Johnny Marr  Yes, Morrissey added a lot.  But it is any wonder that the band collapsed after Marr left in 1987?  He was the spark that made everything work.

And this point is proven again in Johnny Marr's solo album, "The Messenger".

Anyone expecting another Smiths album - leave that notion at the proverbial door.  Sure, there are a few elements, a few moments where it reminds me of The Smiths.  But that is where it ends.  This album gyrates furiously.  It is definitely a guitar-driven rock album, and Marr shows that age and time have not slowed him down at all.  These songs will seize you, stare you in the face, and not let go until you are convinced of their relevance.

The album starts great with "The Right Thing Right" with a pounding beat and heavy bass groove.  The guitar scratches out a danceable cadence.  My wife even points out that Marr has a great voice.  He makes the transition from saw man to front man with ease.  He was born for this.  "I Want the Heartbeat" and "Sun & Moon" go right into a full-frontal attack that would make Deep Purple proud.  My favorite songs are the catchy "European Me", "Generate! Generate!", and the subdued "Say Demesne".  "New Town Velocity" is also one of my preferred songs, maybe because it has a The Church vibe.

I am well pleased with Johnny Marr's solo effort.  He has proven his point.  He is a guitar god.  He is a song-writing genius.  He has everything that made The Smiths great.  Even still, patch your shit up with Morrissey and bring back one last tour with Moz and the gang.  Thanks.