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Lot Essay
One of my favourite guitar players is James Williamson. The first time I heard him was on the album ‘Raw Power’ by Iggy and the Stooges. His riffs, attitude and sound were amazing. I'm not known for sounding like him, although I did in a couple of my early bands. I do incorporate things I've learnt from everywhere, and these guitars are perfect for delivering a heavy attitude.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
James Williamson famously recorded the pioneering 1973 proto-punk album Raw Power with Iggy and the Stooges on his 1969 Sunburst Les Paul Custom known as “Leopard Lady”. Williamson’s aggressive guitar playing on the record was a major influence on the young Marr, who was inspired to scrape together the money to buy a second-hand Les Paul Standard at the age of seventeen (lot 1). In conversation with Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr recalled that after hearing Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges… no other guitar was going to compete with a Les Paul. Although he would go on to trade the Les Paul Standard for a Gretsch when he started The Smiths and would become best known for the jangly tones of his Rickenbacker, Marr was drawn back to the heavier sound of the Les Paul Standard when The Smiths came to record their second studio album Meat Is Murder in 1984, and was soon seen using a black 1978 Les Paul Custom extensively on the band’s 1985 and 1986 tours.
After famously gifting that guitar to an emerging Noel Gallagher in 1994, Marr returned to the Les Paul Custom later in his solo career, acquiring this Raw Power inspired Sunburst model from Richard Henry Guitars in 2017, along with a backup Custom in a black finish (lot 110), which became some of his go-to guitars when recording his two most recent solo albums. While Marr has primarily used his Signature Jaguars on stage since their release in 2012, he explained to Kelly that In the studio, I still mix it up a lot and pull out different guitars that make me do different things. The Les Paul Customs have been a big part of my last two solo albums. Elaborating, Marr told us: People think the guitars on my solo records are mostly the Signature Jags, but they’re mostly Les Paul Customs and Yamaha SGs.
When speaking to Premier Guitar to promote the release of his third solo studio album Call The Comet in September 2018, Marr confirmed that this guitar was used to record the song ‘Hey Angel’: The main rhythm guitar on [‘Hey Angel’] is a 1973 [sic] Les Paul Custom, like the one James Williamson used in the Stooges. That guitar was running through a Fender Bassman [lot 36] cranked up very hot. The solo and lead parts were done with the Carl Martin Plexi Tone pedal, which is a great-sounding thing! On that track, I didn't layer the guitar because sometimes when you track a thick barre-chord rhythm part, you can make it sound more conventional or too polished if you're not careful, which can go against your intention to make it heavier. A good example is what Mick Ronson used to do with Bowie when he would try to ape Jeff Beck's 1960s Yardbirds style, and I've often intentionally left just one raw, in-your-face Gibson sound on a track in that style. The guitar was also used to record the album’s opening track ‘Rise’.
Following the release of his fourth solo studio album Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 in 2022, Marr told Premier Guitar: A lot of my gear for this record was really deliberately selected, and I really honed in on a few things. I’ve got two 1973 [sic] Les Paul Customs I used for some of the darker sounds. You hear that on ‘Receiver.’ I ran those through my old MXR Flanger and either my Marshall Plexi or my HH transistor combo. Those things were part of the stylistic structure I wanted to maintain. Marr confirms that the Sunburst Les Paul Custom was the one used on 'Receiver'. Marr also used the Sunburst Custom to write and record the riff for the album’s second single ‘Tenement Time’, as he explained to Guitar World in 2022: I use a couple of ’73 [sic] Les Paul Customs for that kind of glam thing. You can hear that on ‘Tenement Time’ particularly. I always have the Jag in there somewhere. But the Les Paul made me come up with the riff for that song. It’s a very glam rock kind of song.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
James Williamson famously recorded the pioneering 1973 proto-punk album Raw Power with Iggy and the Stooges on his 1969 Sunburst Les Paul Custom known as “Leopard Lady”. Williamson’s aggressive guitar playing on the record was a major influence on the young Marr, who was inspired to scrape together the money to buy a second-hand Les Paul Standard at the age of seventeen (lot 1). In conversation with Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr recalled that after hearing Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges… no other guitar was going to compete with a Les Paul. Although he would go on to trade the Les Paul Standard for a Gretsch when he started The Smiths and would become best known for the jangly tones of his Rickenbacker, Marr was drawn back to the heavier sound of the Les Paul Standard when The Smiths came to record their second studio album Meat Is Murder in 1984, and was soon seen using a black 1978 Les Paul Custom extensively on the band’s 1985 and 1986 tours.
After famously gifting that guitar to an emerging Noel Gallagher in 1994, Marr returned to the Les Paul Custom later in his solo career, acquiring this Raw Power inspired Sunburst model from Richard Henry Guitars in 2017, along with a backup Custom in a black finish (lot 110), which became some of his go-to guitars when recording his two most recent solo albums. While Marr has primarily used his Signature Jaguars on stage since their release in 2012, he explained to Kelly that In the studio, I still mix it up a lot and pull out different guitars that make me do different things. The Les Paul Customs have been a big part of my last two solo albums. Elaborating, Marr told us: People think the guitars on my solo records are mostly the Signature Jags, but they’re mostly Les Paul Customs and Yamaha SGs.
When speaking to Premier Guitar to promote the release of his third solo studio album Call The Comet in September 2018, Marr confirmed that this guitar was used to record the song ‘Hey Angel’: The main rhythm guitar on [‘Hey Angel’] is a 1973 [sic] Les Paul Custom, like the one James Williamson used in the Stooges. That guitar was running through a Fender Bassman [lot 36] cranked up very hot. The solo and lead parts were done with the Carl Martin Plexi Tone pedal, which is a great-sounding thing! On that track, I didn't layer the guitar because sometimes when you track a thick barre-chord rhythm part, you can make it sound more conventional or too polished if you're not careful, which can go against your intention to make it heavier. A good example is what Mick Ronson used to do with Bowie when he would try to ape Jeff Beck's 1960s Yardbirds style, and I've often intentionally left just one raw, in-your-face Gibson sound on a track in that style. The guitar was also used to record the album’s opening track ‘Rise’.
Following the release of his fourth solo studio album Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 in 2022, Marr told Premier Guitar: A lot of my gear for this record was really deliberately selected, and I really honed in on a few things. I’ve got two 1973 [sic] Les Paul Customs I used for some of the darker sounds. You hear that on ‘Receiver.’ I ran those through my old MXR Flanger and either my Marshall Plexi or my HH transistor combo. Those things were part of the stylistic structure I wanted to maintain. Marr confirms that the Sunburst Les Paul Custom was the one used on 'Receiver'. Marr also used the Sunburst Custom to write and record the riff for the album’s second single ‘Tenement Time’, as he explained to Guitar World in 2022: I use a couple of ’73 [sic] Les Paul Customs for that kind of glam thing. You can hear that on ‘Tenement Time’ particularly. I always have the Jag in there somewhere. But the Les Paul made me come up with the riff for that song. It’s a very glam rock kind of song.