The Times: "20 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" - Johnny Marr #6 (January 13, 2023)

6. Johnny Marr

The jangly counterpoint to Morrissey’s miserabilism, Marr’s chiming chords helped to define the indie sound. Since the demise of the Smiths those clamouring for his fretboard fairy dust have included Bryan Ferry, the Pretenders, the The, Pet Shop Boys, Talking Heads and Hans Zimmer.

The 20 greatest guitarists of all time

In honour of Jeff Beck, here is our list of 20 other rock guitar gods — and goddesses. Credit was given for style and attitude, as well as technical ability, and the emphasis is on rock — we didn’t include people who rarely strayed from blues, folk, jazz or funk.

www.thetimes.co.uk

 

[Juan Dulces]

Johnny Marr is a ludicrously overrated guitarist. He’s a fantastic songwriter, but the jingly jangly guitar sound was nothing new and he borrowed heavily from others.

Ability-wise, you would think that there's a huge difference between JM and someone like Steve Vai. But, there's not that big of a difference between JM and Bert Jansch. Bert was unreal good, in the days before 'shredders'.

Johnny is one of the most listenable guitarists ever. He's gifted with large amounts of grace and finesse. When he plays guitar only, he brings a tremendous amount of musicality to any band he's playing in. He composed and performed most Smiths material (that he's known for) when he was barely twenty years old.

 

[Juan Dulces]

This is almost just British/American guitarists so it’s a bit hard to take it seriously. Eric Clapton once said that Ronnie Le Tekrø is the best guitarist ever

Interesting. Hendrix said that when he saw the band Moving Sidewalks - featuring a teenage, pre-ZZ TOP Billy Gibbons - that Gibbons was the greatest player he had ever heard.

 

[terrancestamp]

Great songwriter and singer though and I loved his guitar work on Faith, Seventeen Seconds, Pornography, Head On The Door, Kiss Me, and Disintegration. His use of repetition is mesmerising.

Amazing songwriter, but not sure he noodles very much on the guitar like the heavy hitters do.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I’m completely uninterested in autistic virtuosos and technically perfect guitarist, but here are my favorite guitarists:
Pelle Ossler
Blixa Bargeld
Johnny Marr
Bruce Springsteen
Bernard Sumner
Robert Smith
Robin Guthrie
Sami Sirviö
Willie Nelson
Scotty Moore
James Burton
David Eugene Edwards

 

[Redacted]

Hmm no Edge

 

[Hodd99]

Keith Levine is missing although his entire sound was stolen by U2!

 

[general disarray]

What about Jonny Greenwood?

 

[Anonbloke]

Fairly "vanilla" list. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd should be on there - Television's "Marquee Moon" is quite possibly the greatest guitar album of all time

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

 

[woovee]

Keith Levine is missing although his entire sound was stolen by U2!

John McKay of Siouxsie and the Banshees is the one who is the innovator: he is the one who created the serrated radiant guitar sound with a bell-like quality, as soon as in late 1977 when he recorded the band's first Peel Session. Keith Levene arrived later. Keith Levene's first note with PiL arrived far as PiL was formed in May - June 1978.
The Edge cited the Banshees-Mk1 many times in interviews, like during his interview on Elvis Costello's show.