Shoplifters Of The World Unite

"You can hear Nils Lofgren's influence on me in the solo on 'Shoplifters Of The World Unite'. That's all done with false harmonics, which is a steel player's technique: you touch the strings with a right-hand finger an octave higher than where you're fretting, and then pluck the string with your thumb."

"I think of them as guitar breaks. I like the one in 'Shoplifters' -- that was the first time I used harmonizing layering. People have said it sounds like Brian May, but I was thinking of stacked Roy Buchanans."

"Also, you can leave [a wah pedal] on, opened slightly without even touching it -- that gives you a completely different tonal range. The 'Shoplifters' break was the
first time that I really discovered that. And if the filter is open in just the right place, you can get a harmonic to sing like a bird."

-Johnny Marr


I have uploaded a Guitar Pro tab file here(right click to save).



Here is the complete score from the "Louder Than Bombs:Off The Record" book:
















Here are the scans from the Singles tab book:










Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:





Oscar80lt has a cool acoustic version of this here:




Here's The Smiths playing on The Tube. There's a couple of shots of Johnny's positions that might be helpful:

5 comments:

Adam Tocock said...

Lovin' this site.
What a funnin' choon!
Acest Smiths song ever, yeah? Yeah.

Unknown said...

Great site man. A real labor of love on your part. Thanks for assembling all this fantastic info.

Thom said...

Thanks for the nice comment, Roger. I still have some more work to do, I'll be making some improvements this year.

Sam said...

Any chance of getting the tab for the unreleased instrumental riff?!! (wishful thinking!)

EddieHaskell said...

Where can I find a video or tabs that cover the guitar break? Love your site!