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Lot Essay
JOHNNY MARR’S 1971 MARTIN D-28 – HIS MAIN WRITING AND RECORDING ACOUSTIC WITH THE SMITHS 1984-1986
It was only when Johnny Marr sat down to consider which songs he had recorded on this 1971 Martin D-28 for the purposes of this auction that he realised quite how many significant Smiths songs the cherished acoustic had left its mark on, making it almost certainly the one guitar that he played on more Smiths songs than any other. Marr records that this Martin D-28 can be heard on:
The Headmaster Ritual
Rusholme Ruffians
I Want The One I Can't Have
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
What She Said
Meat Is Murder
I Know It's Over
Frankly, Mr Shankly
Never Had No One Ever
Cemetry Gates
Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Vicar In A Tutu
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Half A Person
Sheila Take A Bow
Half A Person
Panic
Ask
Oscillate Wildly
Stretch Out And Wait
You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby
Money Changes Everything
Like many musicians, Marr first learnt to play guitar on an acoustic – a decent enough model that his parents bought for the guitar-obsessed young Marr at eight years old. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, Marr had no interest in abandoning the acoustic as soon as he could upgrade to an electric, believing that a serious guitarist should be able to deliver on both the acoustic and electric guitar. Interviewed for Fender in 2016, he observed: The people I looked up to that played seriously – people like Rory Gallagher and Bert Jansch and even Neil Young or Jimmy Page – those guys were great rock guitar players but they always could deliver on an acoustic. Growing up immersed in the sounds of 60s rock ‘n’ roll, the young Marr found himself most drawn to the acoustic recordings of Eddie Cochran and The Everly Brothers. I was hooked on what Don Everly did on ‘Wake Up Little Susie’ and those early Everlys records, he told Guitar World’s Henry Yates in 2025, And the acoustic overdubs on ‘C’mon Everybody’ by Eddie Cochran, before going on to cite the later acoustic influence of the Stooges, Nils Lofgren and even The Who. By studying those records closely, writes Marr in his 2016 autobiography, he picked up incidental things about arrangements and production, and noticed that different instruments would come in and out for effect or that a vocal line would be doubled with a guitar or organ to make it stronger. Marr recollects that instead of focusing solely on what the guitars were doing I would try to play what I was hearing on the whole record, giving me an accidental ‘one-man band’ approach. It was this effort to reproduce every part of the record that would develop into Marr’s trademark layering technique, which would see him regularly doubling acoustics and electrics on the same track. Marr carried this dedication to the acoustic guitar through into The Smiths, resolving to integrate prominent and layered acoustic depth into the band’s sound. I was determined that this aspect of the band was going to get noticed, he told Yates. I was so proud for us to be an all-out guitar band, that I didn’t want to be polite about those things. The songs I’ve mentioned – the Everlys, Eddie Cochran, etc. – were in the rear-view mirror in the culture of the early ’80s. But not in mine. So it was my agenda to push that.
There was never any question that Martin would be his brand of choice. I always just took it for granted that I was going to play dreadnoughts if I was lucky enough to be able to, Marr told Guitar.com in 2025. Because growing up liking Neil Young, and the sound of Stephen Stills’ guitar playing, and Joni Mitchell, those three… I was all in on dreadnoughts. It was the influence of these 70s players that led him straight to the Martin D-28. I was always into D-28s – from before I could get one, really. A lot of my heroes were playing them and I thought they were dead cool, he told Yates, adding I don’t go for lots of pearl and fancy designs. I like things that feel a little more pragmatic and straightforward. So the D-28 appealed to me on that level [too]. With recording sessions for The Smiths’ second album on the horizon, Marr had initially arranged to hire this 1971 Martin D-28 from musical equipment hire specialist Phil Harris in late summer 1984, however the hire soon became a purchase when he fell in love with the guitar. Marr told us: I couldn't actually afford to buy this guitar when I first acquired it, so I rented it, but after renting it for one day for a session, I told the rental company that they had to sell it to me because there was just something magic about this guitar. It immediately went on everything I was working on at the time, like ‘Well I Wonder’ on The Smiths’ second album, and then pretty much everything from then on.
MEAT IS MURDER
The Martin D-28 immediately supplanted the Gibson J-160E (lot 12) as Marr’s main six-string acoustic and would see heavy use during the recording of The Smiths’ second studio album Meat Is Murder at Amazon Studios in Liverpool and Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey from October-November 1984. Marr told us: As soon as I put an acoustic on a track, it sounds like a Smiths song, so the D-28 went on everything. Whilst Marr had been inspired to write and demo ‘Well I Wonder’ on the J-160E at his Earl’s Court apartment earlier that summer, he would ultimately enlist the Martin D-28 in the studio to record the song. Similarly, while a shelved seven-minute version of the acoustic-led ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ had been recorded on the J-160E at London’s Jam Studios that July and simplified for a John Peel session in August, the definitive album version was laid down on the D-28.
Marr cites album opener ‘The Headmaster Ritual’, which was heavily overdubbed, as a prime example of his trademark layering technique. I wrote 'The Headmaster Ritual' on acoustic, Marr told Guitar Player in 1990. It's in an open-D tuning with a capo at the 2nd fret. I fancied the idea of a strange Joni Mitchell tuning, and the actual progression is like what she would have done had she been an MC5 fan or a punk rocker. After the main body of the guitar was laid down on the Giffin Tele (lot 10), Marr overdubbed several guitars including two tracks of D-28 and a Les Paul top line melody. It was a personal triumph for Marr, as he told Record Collector in 1992: 'The Headmaster Ritual' was a favourite of mine for a long time just because I'm really pleased with the guitars on it and the strange tuning. The Martin would also supply the acoustic rhythm on ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’, ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore’, ‘What She Said’, and the album’s title track ‘Meat Is Murder’. Released on 11 February 1985, Meat Is Murder became the band's only studio album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.
THE QUEEN IS DEAD
When the band returned to the studio, the 1971 Martin D-28 was used extensively to write and record The Smiths’ third studio album The Queen Is Dead, widely hailed as their masterpiece. I knew that the next album had to be the best I could possibly do, wrote Marr. The stakes had got higher, and greatness was a possibility for the band if we were prepared to go for it. I stood and thought about it, and then I said to myself, “You’re going to have to dig deep, whatever it takes.” Largely recorded across RAK Studios in London and Jacobs Studios in Surrey between September-November 1985, Marr recalls that the D-28 was featured fairly prominently on every single song on the album other than the title track.
Marr famously wrote the music for ‘I Know It’s Over’, ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’ and the anthemic ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ back-to-back on this Martin D-28 in under twelve minutes during one extraordinarily productive evening in late summer 1985: Morrissey came over to my house one night, Marr remembers. We decamped to a room on our own and I picked up my Martin acoustic. I was ready to play him the songs I’d been working on, and as usual we sat just a couple of feet away from each other, with me on a chair and him on the edge of the coffee table. There was the customary sense of anticipation as I hit the ‘record’ button on the cassette machine on my knees and started strumming a tune. It was a waltzy ballad that was tentative in the verse and then kicked into a dramatic chorus, building in intensity as it went along. There was a lot of promise in the tune, and we knew it would be good for the new album. I’d been playing the next one for just a few days: it had a breezy minor chord pattern that went to an uplifting chorus, and I’d inserted a rhythmic skip from The Velvet Underground for some mischief, as they’d copied it from the Stones. At first I thought the song might be a B-side because it came to me so easily, but as I played it there was something certain about it, an indefinable quality that comes out of nowhere. We were getting the feeling that we had something good. Then I threw down a third tune, just because we were on a roll. It was in total contrast to the others and sounded like Sandie Shaw or an eccentric vaudevillian romp. I drove Morrissey back to his place with the cassette of the three songs that would become ‘I Know It’s Over’, ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘Frankly, Mr Shankly’. We didn’t waste any time waiting to record new songs, and the first sessions for The Queen Is Dead album were booked for Studio Three at RAK studios in St John’s Wood.
Marr would use this same D-28 to record ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ during those preliminary album recording sessions at RAK in early September 1985. One morning we came together to record the new one we’d just written, ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’, writes Marr. I decided to record it using the Martin acoustic I’d written it on, so as to capture the breezy quality, and I ran through the chords with Andy and Mike, who were hearing it for the first time, while [engineer] Stephen Street made some adjustments to the sound. The music came together quickly, which is usually the sign of a good song. It was always an important moment for me when we were putting down something new, but with ‘There Is a Light’ it was obvious that we might have some magic, and it felt like the music was playing itself. All my expectations were surpassed though when Morrissey got behind the microphone and we played the song as a band for the first time. Every line was perfect as the words and the music carried us along on our own new anthem. We were high with it, and after just a few takes we had one of our best ever songs, and something that felt at the time like pop music and beyond. The band completed the recording that November at Jacobs Studios in Farnham, Surrey, where Morrissey re-recorded his vocals and Marr added a flute melody. I went on to add some flute overdub and strings and a couple of extra guitars, but really, the essence and the spirit of it was captured straight away, Marr told NME in 2007. I have a version of that take with just the three instruments and the voice on it – it absolutely holds up as a beautiful moment in time. The Smiths were all in love with the sound that we were making. We loved it as much as everyone else, but we were lucky to be the ones playing it.
Marr used the D-28 to record the propulsive acoustic rhythm on the Stones-esque ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, which would be released as the second single from the album in May 1986. I was trying to write my ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, he told Guitar Player in 1990. I wanted something that was a rush all the way through, without a distinct middle eight as such. The main [acoustic] riff is based on an Am shape, with a capo at the 4th fret. I buried this one little guitar part in just the right place, so it sounds like overtones of the main part, but it's really there. Referencing his mission to feature acoustics with attitude on The Smiths’ records, Marr singled out the prominent acoustic at the start of ‘Bigmouth…’, emphasising to Yates that at the time… no-one else was doing that, even after I’d been doing it for a few years.
One of the last songs to be recorded for the album, ‘Cemetry Gates’ was only developed into a song when Morrissey by chance heard Marr playing around with the Kinks-inspired tune while tuning up in his kitchen. I did this in my kitchen with Morrissey, Marr told NME in 2006. When I played it, I wasn’t sure about it – but that’s one example of how a partnership works. Because Morrissey loved it, and it came so effortlessly and easy. Marr laid down the track’s bouncy acoustic with this D-28. It’s all the best elements of The Smiths, reflected engineer Stephen Street in 2006. It’s delicate, but it’s still got power. The song would be released as the B-side to the single ‘Ask’ in October 1986.
Despite a seven-month delay due to a legal dispute with Rough Trade, The Queen Is Dead was finally released on 16 June 1986 to universal acclaim, spending 22 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number two. NME named it the Greatest Album of All Time in 2003, while Rolling Stone have since ranked the album 113th on its 2020-updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Although not selected for single release at the time, ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ became the second Smiths’ song to top BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel's Festive Fifty poll. Widely considered to be one of the band’s finest, Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield named it the number one Smiths’ song and their most beloved standard. Speaking to Select in 1993, Marr commented on the song's enduring popularity: I didn't realise that 'There Is a Light’ was going to be an anthem but when we first played it I thought it was the best song I'd ever heard.
NON-ALBUM SINGLES AND B-SIDES
Other notable recordings include the fluttering double tracked D-28 on 1985 B-side 'Stretch Out And Wait' and the acoustic rhythm on ‘Half A Person’, which Sheffield calls a fragile shiver of a song and ranks as the second best in the Smiths’ catalogue. Originally written in October 1986 as the intended B-side to 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby', ‘Half A Person’ was eventually released as the B-side to ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’ in January 1987. Interviewed by Daniel Rachel for his 2013 book Isle of Noises, Marr offered a glimpse into the writing process: The morning we were supposed to do the B-side [Morrissey] said, “What are we going to do?” I picked up the guitar and said, “Maybe it should go like this?’ and he hummed the melody whilst I found some chords. It was done in like four minutes. We did it that one time because the tape was rolling in the next room and we hadn’t come up with something. It was just a necessity… I put it down and the band learned it, he took the cassette away and the next morning all the words were written. We were pretty prolific. Marr recalls that he used the Martin D-28 to record acoustic elements on the following non-album singles and B-sides: 1986 singles ‘Panic’ and 'Ask’; aborted 1986 single ‘You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby’; 1987 single 'Sheila Take A Bow'; and instrumental B-sides 'Oscillate Wildly', ‘Money Changes Everything’ and ‘The Draize Train’.
Marr relied on the D-28 as his primary six-string acoustic until around 1993, when he began to get into Martin D-35s with Electronic and the Pet Shop Boys. I also used a D-41 on Strangeways, Here We Come, so I would flip between that and the D-28, he told Yates.
The guitar has remained a trusty studio favourite, heard on more recent solo recordings such as ‘European Me’ on Marr’s 2013 solo debut The Messenger. In Marr’s Guitars, Marr highlights that a dedication to acoustic guitar has remained a key thread running through his career, telling author Martin Kelly: Reviews of my solo records sometimes say they can hear bits of Electronic, The Smiths, The The or whoever, and that's fine. It's a compliment and makes sense. I haven't dropped the acoustic techniques I was using in The Smiths. If you listen to something like ‘European Me’ or ‘New Town Velocity’ off The Messenger album, you hear all that. When reflecting on his long history with Martin in 2024, Marr made clear that his vintage Martins remain working instruments: They are elite instruments and they are very beautiful things – like all guitar players, we can almost fetishise these things – but they are the tools of my trade really… The one thing that it's not about is being a collector, it's about being a guitar player.
It was only when Johnny Marr sat down to consider which songs he had recorded on this 1971 Martin D-28 for the purposes of this auction that he realised quite how many significant Smiths songs the cherished acoustic had left its mark on, making it almost certainly the one guitar that he played on more Smiths songs than any other. Marr records that this Martin D-28 can be heard on:
The Headmaster Ritual
Rusholme Ruffians
I Want The One I Can't Have
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
What She Said
Meat Is Murder
I Know It's Over
Frankly, Mr Shankly
Never Had No One Ever
Cemetry Gates
Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Vicar In A Tutu
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Half A Person
Sheila Take A Bow
Half A Person
Panic
Ask
Oscillate Wildly
Stretch Out And Wait
You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby
Money Changes Everything
Like many musicians, Marr first learnt to play guitar on an acoustic – a decent enough model that his parents bought for the guitar-obsessed young Marr at eight years old. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, Marr had no interest in abandoning the acoustic as soon as he could upgrade to an electric, believing that a serious guitarist should be able to deliver on both the acoustic and electric guitar. Interviewed for Fender in 2016, he observed: The people I looked up to that played seriously – people like Rory Gallagher and Bert Jansch and even Neil Young or Jimmy Page – those guys were great rock guitar players but they always could deliver on an acoustic. Growing up immersed in the sounds of 60s rock ‘n’ roll, the young Marr found himself most drawn to the acoustic recordings of Eddie Cochran and The Everly Brothers. I was hooked on what Don Everly did on ‘Wake Up Little Susie’ and those early Everlys records, he told Guitar World’s Henry Yates in 2025, And the acoustic overdubs on ‘C’mon Everybody’ by Eddie Cochran, before going on to cite the later acoustic influence of the Stooges, Nils Lofgren and even The Who. By studying those records closely, writes Marr in his 2016 autobiography, he picked up incidental things about arrangements and production, and noticed that different instruments would come in and out for effect or that a vocal line would be doubled with a guitar or organ to make it stronger. Marr recollects that instead of focusing solely on what the guitars were doing I would try to play what I was hearing on the whole record, giving me an accidental ‘one-man band’ approach. It was this effort to reproduce every part of the record that would develop into Marr’s trademark layering technique, which would see him regularly doubling acoustics and electrics on the same track. Marr carried this dedication to the acoustic guitar through into The Smiths, resolving to integrate prominent and layered acoustic depth into the band’s sound. I was determined that this aspect of the band was going to get noticed, he told Yates. I was so proud for us to be an all-out guitar band, that I didn’t want to be polite about those things. The songs I’ve mentioned – the Everlys, Eddie Cochran, etc. – were in the rear-view mirror in the culture of the early ’80s. But not in mine. So it was my agenda to push that.
There was never any question that Martin would be his brand of choice. I always just took it for granted that I was going to play dreadnoughts if I was lucky enough to be able to, Marr told Guitar.com in 2025. Because growing up liking Neil Young, and the sound of Stephen Stills’ guitar playing, and Joni Mitchell, those three… I was all in on dreadnoughts. It was the influence of these 70s players that led him straight to the Martin D-28. I was always into D-28s – from before I could get one, really. A lot of my heroes were playing them and I thought they were dead cool, he told Yates, adding I don’t go for lots of pearl and fancy designs. I like things that feel a little more pragmatic and straightforward. So the D-28 appealed to me on that level [too]. With recording sessions for The Smiths’ second album on the horizon, Marr had initially arranged to hire this 1971 Martin D-28 from musical equipment hire specialist Phil Harris in late summer 1984, however the hire soon became a purchase when he fell in love with the guitar. Marr told us: I couldn't actually afford to buy this guitar when I first acquired it, so I rented it, but after renting it for one day for a session, I told the rental company that they had to sell it to me because there was just something magic about this guitar. It immediately went on everything I was working on at the time, like ‘Well I Wonder’ on The Smiths’ second album, and then pretty much everything from then on.
MEAT IS MURDER
The Martin D-28 immediately supplanted the Gibson J-160E (lot 12) as Marr’s main six-string acoustic and would see heavy use during the recording of The Smiths’ second studio album Meat Is Murder at Amazon Studios in Liverpool and Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey from October-November 1984. Marr told us: As soon as I put an acoustic on a track, it sounds like a Smiths song, so the D-28 went on everything. Whilst Marr had been inspired to write and demo ‘Well I Wonder’ on the J-160E at his Earl’s Court apartment earlier that summer, he would ultimately enlist the Martin D-28 in the studio to record the song. Similarly, while a shelved seven-minute version of the acoustic-led ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ had been recorded on the J-160E at London’s Jam Studios that July and simplified for a John Peel session in August, the definitive album version was laid down on the D-28.
Marr cites album opener ‘The Headmaster Ritual’, which was heavily overdubbed, as a prime example of his trademark layering technique. I wrote 'The Headmaster Ritual' on acoustic, Marr told Guitar Player in 1990. It's in an open-D tuning with a capo at the 2nd fret. I fancied the idea of a strange Joni Mitchell tuning, and the actual progression is like what she would have done had she been an MC5 fan or a punk rocker. After the main body of the guitar was laid down on the Giffin Tele (lot 10), Marr overdubbed several guitars including two tracks of D-28 and a Les Paul top line melody. It was a personal triumph for Marr, as he told Record Collector in 1992: 'The Headmaster Ritual' was a favourite of mine for a long time just because I'm really pleased with the guitars on it and the strange tuning. The Martin would also supply the acoustic rhythm on ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’, ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore’, ‘What She Said’, and the album’s title track ‘Meat Is Murder’. Released on 11 February 1985, Meat Is Murder became the band's only studio album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.
THE QUEEN IS DEAD
When the band returned to the studio, the 1971 Martin D-28 was used extensively to write and record The Smiths’ third studio album The Queen Is Dead, widely hailed as their masterpiece. I knew that the next album had to be the best I could possibly do, wrote Marr. The stakes had got higher, and greatness was a possibility for the band if we were prepared to go for it. I stood and thought about it, and then I said to myself, “You’re going to have to dig deep, whatever it takes.” Largely recorded across RAK Studios in London and Jacobs Studios in Surrey between September-November 1985, Marr recalls that the D-28 was featured fairly prominently on every single song on the album other than the title track.
Marr famously wrote the music for ‘I Know It’s Over’, ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’ and the anthemic ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ back-to-back on this Martin D-28 in under twelve minutes during one extraordinarily productive evening in late summer 1985: Morrissey came over to my house one night, Marr remembers. We decamped to a room on our own and I picked up my Martin acoustic. I was ready to play him the songs I’d been working on, and as usual we sat just a couple of feet away from each other, with me on a chair and him on the edge of the coffee table. There was the customary sense of anticipation as I hit the ‘record’ button on the cassette machine on my knees and started strumming a tune. It was a waltzy ballad that was tentative in the verse and then kicked into a dramatic chorus, building in intensity as it went along. There was a lot of promise in the tune, and we knew it would be good for the new album. I’d been playing the next one for just a few days: it had a breezy minor chord pattern that went to an uplifting chorus, and I’d inserted a rhythmic skip from The Velvet Underground for some mischief, as they’d copied it from the Stones. At first I thought the song might be a B-side because it came to me so easily, but as I played it there was something certain about it, an indefinable quality that comes out of nowhere. We were getting the feeling that we had something good. Then I threw down a third tune, just because we were on a roll. It was in total contrast to the others and sounded like Sandie Shaw or an eccentric vaudevillian romp. I drove Morrissey back to his place with the cassette of the three songs that would become ‘I Know It’s Over’, ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘Frankly, Mr Shankly’. We didn’t waste any time waiting to record new songs, and the first sessions for The Queen Is Dead album were booked for Studio Three at RAK studios in St John’s Wood.
Marr would use this same D-28 to record ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ during those preliminary album recording sessions at RAK in early September 1985. One morning we came together to record the new one we’d just written, ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’, writes Marr. I decided to record it using the Martin acoustic I’d written it on, so as to capture the breezy quality, and I ran through the chords with Andy and Mike, who were hearing it for the first time, while [engineer] Stephen Street made some adjustments to the sound. The music came together quickly, which is usually the sign of a good song. It was always an important moment for me when we were putting down something new, but with ‘There Is a Light’ it was obvious that we might have some magic, and it felt like the music was playing itself. All my expectations were surpassed though when Morrissey got behind the microphone and we played the song as a band for the first time. Every line was perfect as the words and the music carried us along on our own new anthem. We were high with it, and after just a few takes we had one of our best ever songs, and something that felt at the time like pop music and beyond. The band completed the recording that November at Jacobs Studios in Farnham, Surrey, where Morrissey re-recorded his vocals and Marr added a flute melody. I went on to add some flute overdub and strings and a couple of extra guitars, but really, the essence and the spirit of it was captured straight away, Marr told NME in 2007. I have a version of that take with just the three instruments and the voice on it – it absolutely holds up as a beautiful moment in time. The Smiths were all in love with the sound that we were making. We loved it as much as everyone else, but we were lucky to be the ones playing it.
Marr used the D-28 to record the propulsive acoustic rhythm on the Stones-esque ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, which would be released as the second single from the album in May 1986. I was trying to write my ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, he told Guitar Player in 1990. I wanted something that was a rush all the way through, without a distinct middle eight as such. The main [acoustic] riff is based on an Am shape, with a capo at the 4th fret. I buried this one little guitar part in just the right place, so it sounds like overtones of the main part, but it's really there. Referencing his mission to feature acoustics with attitude on The Smiths’ records, Marr singled out the prominent acoustic at the start of ‘Bigmouth…’, emphasising to Yates that at the time… no-one else was doing that, even after I’d been doing it for a few years.
One of the last songs to be recorded for the album, ‘Cemetry Gates’ was only developed into a song when Morrissey by chance heard Marr playing around with the Kinks-inspired tune while tuning up in his kitchen. I did this in my kitchen with Morrissey, Marr told NME in 2006. When I played it, I wasn’t sure about it – but that’s one example of how a partnership works. Because Morrissey loved it, and it came so effortlessly and easy. Marr laid down the track’s bouncy acoustic with this D-28. It’s all the best elements of The Smiths, reflected engineer Stephen Street in 2006. It’s delicate, but it’s still got power. The song would be released as the B-side to the single ‘Ask’ in October 1986.
Despite a seven-month delay due to a legal dispute with Rough Trade, The Queen Is Dead was finally released on 16 June 1986 to universal acclaim, spending 22 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number two. NME named it the Greatest Album of All Time in 2003, while Rolling Stone have since ranked the album 113th on its 2020-updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Although not selected for single release at the time, ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ became the second Smiths’ song to top BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel's Festive Fifty poll. Widely considered to be one of the band’s finest, Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield named it the number one Smiths’ song and their most beloved standard. Speaking to Select in 1993, Marr commented on the song's enduring popularity: I didn't realise that 'There Is a Light’ was going to be an anthem but when we first played it I thought it was the best song I'd ever heard.
NON-ALBUM SINGLES AND B-SIDES
Other notable recordings include the fluttering double tracked D-28 on 1985 B-side 'Stretch Out And Wait' and the acoustic rhythm on ‘Half A Person’, which Sheffield calls a fragile shiver of a song and ranks as the second best in the Smiths’ catalogue. Originally written in October 1986 as the intended B-side to 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby', ‘Half A Person’ was eventually released as the B-side to ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’ in January 1987. Interviewed by Daniel Rachel for his 2013 book Isle of Noises, Marr offered a glimpse into the writing process: The morning we were supposed to do the B-side [Morrissey] said, “What are we going to do?” I picked up the guitar and said, “Maybe it should go like this?’ and he hummed the melody whilst I found some chords. It was done in like four minutes. We did it that one time because the tape was rolling in the next room and we hadn’t come up with something. It was just a necessity… I put it down and the band learned it, he took the cassette away and the next morning all the words were written. We were pretty prolific. Marr recalls that he used the Martin D-28 to record acoustic elements on the following non-album singles and B-sides: 1986 singles ‘Panic’ and 'Ask’; aborted 1986 single ‘You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby’; 1987 single 'Sheila Take A Bow'; and instrumental B-sides 'Oscillate Wildly', ‘Money Changes Everything’ and ‘The Draize Train’.
Marr relied on the D-28 as his primary six-string acoustic until around 1993, when he began to get into Martin D-35s with Electronic and the Pet Shop Boys. I also used a D-41 on Strangeways, Here We Come, so I would flip between that and the D-28, he told Yates.
The guitar has remained a trusty studio favourite, heard on more recent solo recordings such as ‘European Me’ on Marr’s 2013 solo debut The Messenger. In Marr’s Guitars, Marr highlights that a dedication to acoustic guitar has remained a key thread running through his career, telling author Martin Kelly: Reviews of my solo records sometimes say they can hear bits of Electronic, The Smiths, The The or whoever, and that's fine. It's a compliment and makes sense. I haven't dropped the acoustic techniques I was using in The Smiths. If you listen to something like ‘European Me’ or ‘New Town Velocity’ off The Messenger album, you hear all that. When reflecting on his long history with Martin in 2024, Marr made clear that his vintage Martins remain working instruments: They are elite instruments and they are very beautiful things – like all guitar players, we can almost fetishise these things – but they are the tools of my trade really… The one thing that it's not about is being a collector, it's about being a guitar player.