Bob Dylan: The Great Music Experience, Nara, Japan 22 May 1994 (video) (read more)For the first time ever, Dylan was backed by a full orchestra, the New Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The final day was widely televised and Dylan was in magnificent form. I remember being near tears as The Voice returned in all its full, expressive, raging glory. I watched the footage again and again, transfixed at what seemed the best ever rendition of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and a magical and magisterial “Ring Them Bells”, with Dylan filmed beneath a huge statue of Buddha. |
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| Steven Patrick Morrissey (born 22 May 1959), known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career, making the top ten of the UK Singles Chart on ten occasions. Widely regarded as an important innovator in indie music, Morrissey has been described by music magazine NME as “one of the most influential artists ever,” and The Independent has stated “most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status he has reached in his lifetime.” Pitchfork Media has called him “one of the most singular figures in Western popular culture from the last twenty years.” |  |
| Pneumonia (released May 22, 2001) is the third and last studio album by the alternative country band Whiskeytown, released in 2001.The album is noted for its troubled history which saw the band lose its record deal in the midst of the merger between Polygram and Universal, and the already volatile band fell apart as a result. The album sat on the shelf for nearly two years and it was said that over 100 songs were recorded during the 3 years. It was bootlegged heavily and gained a reputation as a great “lost” record from fans, before getting released by Lost Highway Records as something of an appetizer for Ryan Adams’ 2001 album Gold. |  |
| Today: Bruce Springsteen played Milton Keynes in 1993 – 22 May (videos) (read more) |  |
| Bob Dylan: If You See Her, Say Hello , Los Angeles, California 22 May 1998 (Video) (read more) |  |
Spotify Playlist – May 22 |
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Tag Archives: The Smiths
Today: Johnny Marr is 50 Happy Birthday
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Today: Johnny Marr is 49
“I wanted to sound like an entire record when I played. Yeah, it’s all kinda of ringy and melodic, and…. There’s a lot of emotion in there, I think. So I …I play that way cause that’s how I feel.”
– Johnny Marr
“I’ve been in the studio with him, and there’s nothing he cannot do on guitar, the man’s a fuckin’ wizard.”
– Noel Gallagher
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher; 31 October 1963) is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse. In 2008, he joined The Cribs after touring with them on 2008’s NME Awards Tour, a group in which he would remain until 2011.
Marr’s jangly Rickenbacker guitar-playing in The Smiths proved to be popular among other musicians and has influenced many guitarists that followed particularly in the Britpop era.
Marr was voted the fourth best guitarist of the last 30 years in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2010.
(wikipedia)
He is also an often used session guitarist (Pretenders, Bryan Ferry, Dinosaur Jr. and more)
Here he tries to explain his very distinct playing style:
“Rolling Stone Magazine voted him at 51 when making a list of the 100 best guitarists of all time:
“The Smiths’ guitarist was a guitar genius for the post-punk era: not a showboating soloist, but a technician who could sound like a whole band. As a kid studying Motown records, Johnny Marr would try to replicate not just guitar riffs but piano and strings too, all with his right hand. His voluptuous arpeggios – often played on a chiming Rickenbacker with incredible flow and detailing – were every bit as essential to the Smiths’ signature sound as Morrissey’s baritone. And he was a tireless explorer: For 1983’s “This Charming Man,” Marr dropped knives onto a ’54 Telecaster, a revelatory incident that Radiohead may have been alluding to in their Smiths-inspired “Knives Out.” “He was a brilliant rhythm player, rarely played solos, so full of sounds,” said Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien – part of an entire generation of British guitarists who took their cues from Marr…” Read more
He should have been much higher on the list of course, but great praise anyway.
The Smiths, Big Mouth Strikes Again:
Happy birthday, Johnny Marr!
Album of the day, The Queen is dead by The Smiths:
Other 31 october: