Reel Around The Fountain

"'Reel Around The Fountain' was my interpretation of Jimmy Jones' version of 'Handy Man'. It came from one of mine and Joe Moss' marathon R&B record sessions one morning at Crazy Face. We went from listening to The Platters, which I wasn't really getting behind, to Jimmy Jones. I remerbered hearing the track from when I was a kid, 'cos one of me aunties or somebody used to play it. So I remembered the melody of 'Handy Man' but then when I tried to play it myself I got it all wrong, which was useful really. I was trying to do a classic melodic pop tune, and it had the worst kind of surface prettiness to it. But at the same time, Joy Division was influencing everybody in England. That dark element -- it wasn't that I wanted to be like them, but they brought out something in the darkness of the overall track. In a sense, Bernard Sumner was one of the most influential guitarists and writers of the '80s. There would never have been a U2 or a Cure if it hadn't been for Joy Division."

-Johnny Marr



I've found two different Guitar Pro tab files for this song and I have uploaded them here(right-click to save as).

Here also are the scans from the Smiths debut album piano song book with guitar chord boxes:








Daniel Earwicker's version:




Another version by lzymot:




Here's kusaka2580 on a Ric 330/12:




Here's pljnr on a Tele:




Here's hnavarro on a strat:





7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi! great site!
a part from the usual "how soon is now" there is no mention of effects and amps for any particular song, even in the section "marr's gear"

kind of a big hole in your data collection right there
--
Felix
(i guitar in a smith cover band from quebec, canada)

Thom said...

Hi Pierre, thanks for your comment.

If you have any information on Johnny's specific settings, please let me know. Unfortunately what is on the site only reflects what is available and what I have found, or what has been shared with me. I have never seen an interview with Johnny where he specifically describes his amp settings, or specific efffects settings. I don't wish to speculate on what these settings may be... but if you're looking for a Smiths sound, try a Roland JC-120 or Fender Twin Reverb, a Boss Chorus, and a delay and tremelo should cover most things.

Jim said...

Hi,
Great site. I'll be working through it gradually. Meanwhile I found this interview recently where Mr Marr talks at great length about guitars and amps. Thought you might be able to extract some intelligence from it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNOqNbIcz_Y

Gover said...

This is a brilliant website m8
i've just started my own website dedicated to the smiths would be ghrateful if you could become a follower
http://thesmiths-gover.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Great site! If anyone here can provide Skype lessons on a broad range of Smiths tunes, I'd be interested.

ivanhoe said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcEusUAf5dU&feature=grec_index

Great vid here, Johnny talks about his amp/ settings/ tone etc. also drops in some lovely smiths riffs.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to thank for this wonderfull site and the great job you did.
The Real around the fountain by Pljnr is really good.