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Lot Essay
One of the biggest influences on my guitar playing was Bert Jansch. I was introduced to his music in my teens, and he remained a touchstone for me and an ongoing source of inspiration, as he was for so many guitarists, such as Jimmy Page, Donovan and Neil Young - as well as many other guitarists who don't even realize they've been influenced by him. I got to know Bert around 2002. We became friends and started to play together onstage and in the studio. I always used my Martin D-35 when we worked together. It seemed appropriate as Bert was one of the reasons why I played a Martin acoustic in the first place.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
Johnny Marr purchased this 1971 Martin D-35 at Fat Rick’s Guitar Emporium in around 1993 and used it extensively throughout the 1990s and early 2000s with alternative dance supergroup Electronic, formed in 1988 with New Order’s Bernard Sumner, and his first solo band The Healers. Interviewed last year for Guitar World about his long history with Martin acoustics, Marr told Henry Yates: [The D-28] was my main six-string until the early ’90s, when I got into D-35s with Electronic and Pet Shop Boys. I guess I just fancied a change. The present D-35 can be heard throughout the latter two Electronic albums Raise The Pressure (1996) and Twisted Tenderness (1999), including the hit singles ‘Forbidden City’ (1996), ‘For You’ (1996), ‘Second Nature’ (1997), and ‘Vivid (1999). Marr and Sumner had taken a back-to-basics approach on their third and final album Twisted Tenderness in particular, writing much of the album on acoustic guitar. We wanted the making of the third album to be different, wrote Marr in the liner notes to the band’s 2006 “Best Of” compilation, so we decided to write very quickly and with guitars… There was a freedom and spirit in those songs that we managed to capture pretty well. Marr adds that Electronic were always in pursuit of the upbeat beautiful track. Elaborating in a 2006 interview with BBC Manchester, Marr explained: That pursuit of the beautiful track is what was going on 95 percent of the time without either of us discussing it… [but] more importantly, we were looking for a great intro riff or an outro that made you want to play the track again. Those were our concerns on a daily basis.
Marr notes that this D-35 can be heard to great effect on the Pet Shop Boys B-side ‘Decadence (Unplugged Mix)’, found on CD2 of their 1994 single Liberation. Interviewed by Jon Savage for the liner notes of the Pet Shop Boys B-sides compilation Alternative, Neil Tennant revealed: Chris [Lowe] had this idea of doing a song based on a sample of the first two bars of “I say a little prayer” by Aretha Franklin. We wrote it and then took the sample out… Johnny Marr plays guitar on it. The playing is fantastic; at the start it sounds just like a Smiths kind of thing. Lowe added: A classic Pet Shop Boys B-side arrangement: Johnny Marr, a string arrangement, several mixes, and cost a fortune.
After forming The Healers in 2000, Marr used this guitar to write and record the song ‘Down On The Corner’, which was released as the second single from the group’s 2003 studio album Boomslang. Marr also played the D-35 in the official music video for the song, filmed in one take by Eric Tu at the Viper Room on Sunset Strip in 2003. On the final North American leg of the Boomslang Tour from 27 April to 25 May 2003, Marr used the 1971 D-35 for promotional radio appearances in support of the album, which included being photographed with the guitar for a promo shoot at KBCO Radio in Boulder, Colorado, on 5 May 2003.
In between touring with The Healers, Marr played this D-35 when he contributed to the tracks ‘The River Bank’ and ‘Fool’s Mate’ on Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch’s 2000 album Crimson Moon, recorded at Jansch’s home studio in late 1999-early 2000. Marr first appeared on stage with the guitar when he and ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler accompanied Jansch in a performance of his album track ‘River Bank’ on BBC Two’s Later… with Jools Holland on 20 May 2000. The performance was later included in the BBC Four compilation programme Acoustic at the BBC, first broadcast on 2 September 2011. In honour of Jansch’s 60th birthday, Marr made a special guest appearance at his career retrospective concert at LSO St Luke's in East London on 24 October 2003, enlisting the D-35 to accompany Jansch on five songs including ‘The River Bank’ and ‘Fool’s Mate’. The concert was recorded for the 2003 season of BBC Four Sessions and broadcast on 21 November 2003. Marr made another guest appearance with Jansch for Patti Smith’s Meltdown Festival at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 24 June 2005, accompanying Jansch on the D-35 for the songs ‘Pretty Saro’ and ‘Pretty Polly’.
In conversation with Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr reflected: Studying [Bert’s] playing when I was a kid came in handy when we got to play together, whether it was in his front room, in my kitchen or onstage at the Royal Festival Hall - especially when he went completely off script and started improvising… We never talked about it, but we felt that playing together should be like a conversation. He was a man of few words, but we used to do all our communicating on the guitar. I'd go round to his place in Kilburn and have a cup of tea, get the biscuits out, and… then we'd get the two acoustics out and play for about two hours. While no recordings exist of their sessions together, Marr acknowledges that it was the best guitar playing he’s ever done.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
Johnny Marr purchased this 1971 Martin D-35 at Fat Rick’s Guitar Emporium in around 1993 and used it extensively throughout the 1990s and early 2000s with alternative dance supergroup Electronic, formed in 1988 with New Order’s Bernard Sumner, and his first solo band The Healers. Interviewed last year for Guitar World about his long history with Martin acoustics, Marr told Henry Yates: [The D-28] was my main six-string until the early ’90s, when I got into D-35s with Electronic and Pet Shop Boys. I guess I just fancied a change. The present D-35 can be heard throughout the latter two Electronic albums Raise The Pressure (1996) and Twisted Tenderness (1999), including the hit singles ‘Forbidden City’ (1996), ‘For You’ (1996), ‘Second Nature’ (1997), and ‘Vivid (1999). Marr and Sumner had taken a back-to-basics approach on their third and final album Twisted Tenderness in particular, writing much of the album on acoustic guitar. We wanted the making of the third album to be different, wrote Marr in the liner notes to the band’s 2006 “Best Of” compilation, so we decided to write very quickly and with guitars… There was a freedom and spirit in those songs that we managed to capture pretty well. Marr adds that Electronic were always in pursuit of the upbeat beautiful track. Elaborating in a 2006 interview with BBC Manchester, Marr explained: That pursuit of the beautiful track is what was going on 95 percent of the time without either of us discussing it… [but] more importantly, we were looking for a great intro riff or an outro that made you want to play the track again. Those were our concerns on a daily basis.
Marr notes that this D-35 can be heard to great effect on the Pet Shop Boys B-side ‘Decadence (Unplugged Mix)’, found on CD2 of their 1994 single Liberation. Interviewed by Jon Savage for the liner notes of the Pet Shop Boys B-sides compilation Alternative, Neil Tennant revealed: Chris [Lowe] had this idea of doing a song based on a sample of the first two bars of “I say a little prayer” by Aretha Franklin. We wrote it and then took the sample out… Johnny Marr plays guitar on it. The playing is fantastic; at the start it sounds just like a Smiths kind of thing. Lowe added: A classic Pet Shop Boys B-side arrangement: Johnny Marr, a string arrangement, several mixes, and cost a fortune.
After forming The Healers in 2000, Marr used this guitar to write and record the song ‘Down On The Corner’, which was released as the second single from the group’s 2003 studio album Boomslang. Marr also played the D-35 in the official music video for the song, filmed in one take by Eric Tu at the Viper Room on Sunset Strip in 2003. On the final North American leg of the Boomslang Tour from 27 April to 25 May 2003, Marr used the 1971 D-35 for promotional radio appearances in support of the album, which included being photographed with the guitar for a promo shoot at KBCO Radio in Boulder, Colorado, on 5 May 2003.
In between touring with The Healers, Marr played this D-35 when he contributed to the tracks ‘The River Bank’ and ‘Fool’s Mate’ on Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch’s 2000 album Crimson Moon, recorded at Jansch’s home studio in late 1999-early 2000. Marr first appeared on stage with the guitar when he and ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler accompanied Jansch in a performance of his album track ‘River Bank’ on BBC Two’s Later… with Jools Holland on 20 May 2000. The performance was later included in the BBC Four compilation programme Acoustic at the BBC, first broadcast on 2 September 2011. In honour of Jansch’s 60th birthday, Marr made a special guest appearance at his career retrospective concert at LSO St Luke's in East London on 24 October 2003, enlisting the D-35 to accompany Jansch on five songs including ‘The River Bank’ and ‘Fool’s Mate’. The concert was recorded for the 2003 season of BBC Four Sessions and broadcast on 21 November 2003. Marr made another guest appearance with Jansch for Patti Smith’s Meltdown Festival at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 24 June 2005, accompanying Jansch on the D-35 for the songs ‘Pretty Saro’ and ‘Pretty Polly’.
In conversation with Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr reflected: Studying [Bert’s] playing when I was a kid came in handy when we got to play together, whether it was in his front room, in my kitchen or onstage at the Royal Festival Hall - especially when he went completely off script and started improvising… We never talked about it, but we felt that playing together should be like a conversation. He was a man of few words, but we used to do all our communicating on the guitar. I'd go round to his place in Kilburn and have a cup of tea, get the biscuits out, and… then we'd get the two acoustics out and play for about two hours. While no recordings exist of their sessions together, Marr acknowledges that it was the best guitar playing he’s ever done.