Well I Wonder


"'Well I Wonder' I really like as well. It's one of those things that a modern group could try and emulate but never get the spirit of. It's so simple."

"I remember the start of the record because I moved back to Manchester very deliberately- to get the atmosphere right for the instrumental tracks I was writing. And that worked out immediately because 'Well I Wonder' came out of that, with the rain and everything. When we did it I knew it would be popular because it had that real sense of yearning in it."

"I think [the outro] is an A minor shape capo'd, I'd have to listen to it."


-Johnny Marr


Well I Wonder is another one of my favorites. The ending guitar coda is one of my all time favorite Marr guitar runs. It comes at the perfect time, after setting up a great musical tension.

I have found a Guitar Pro tab for this song which I have uploaded here. The ending riffs aren't exactly right, but the rest of it is very good in my opinion.

Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder songbook:






Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans.


This version by ResidentSmith78 is very good:




Rodtomcab does a nice cover as well, integrating the bassline at times:




Oscar80It does a cover here with vocals. He doesn't get the end guitar part exactly right, but he's the only one who's attempted it. It still sounds cool, and it's in the right direction.




dhowellbassist has a great multi-tracked version here:




I don't usually post full-band renditions, but this one by rider1967 is truly great. The Smiths never played this song live! Que lástima.




Here's an amazing version by davidguitarist91. He does a great job on the coda:




frankshankley does a cool rendition of the intro/outro chords on bass:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgpOwbLBZEQ&feature=response_watch

Watch that for an acoustic fingerpicking version

Anonymous said...

I have the Meat Is Murder book. It's not tab as the scans show and the outro is not clear. I love the outro and no one has figured it out. I even emailed J Marr's website but he didn't respond.

Thom said...

I agree, no one has quite gotten the outro yet. It's not too far off in the guitar pro tab, I'm sure we will have a good tab of it with time.

Anonymous said...

Hi Thom, it's been 3 years since your last comment, has anyone managed to find an accurate tab of the ending riff? Also one of my favourite JM moments.

Thom said...

Hi Anonymous, send me an email and I'll see what I can do to help you.