What Difference Does It Make?

"It was all right. I didn't think it was a particularly strong one. A lot of people liked it and it got to No. 10. It followed 'This Charming Man' and was part of that peak. It was all right. It went down great live, and that's when I liked it.

Every song has to be worth doing every single night. There was one stage where I was playing 'What Difference Does It Make?' seven or eight gigs on the trot and I didn't like the feeling. I knew that this was not why I had got involved in a band in the first place."

-Johnny Marr



I prefer the version on Hatful Of Hollow to the version on the debut album, because I feel the song works better in a more stripped-down form. On the debut version, the guitar production is too busy in my opinion.

I have posted two Guitar Pro tab files here.

It was featured in Total Guitar Magazine, and here are the scans of the transcription from that issue. I have uploaded the backing tracks which came with the issue here:









Here is another version to compare with. This tab also came with backing tracks which I have uploaded here(right click to save as).










Here are the scans from the Singles tab book:








Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




Here are the piano and guitar chord boxes from the debut album songbook:







nicknoh69 does an awesome, complete version on his Ric 330:




sonofdrcross does a really good job on his version. The pre-chorus and chorus riffs are the hardest for me to get, and he pretty much nails them.




lunachangue doesn't do as well on the chorus and pre-chorus parts, but he locks the rythym down.




dhowellbassist does a pretty faithful cover of the studio version, with overdubs:




Here's johnnymare playing along to the backing track in Play Guitar with The Smiths:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

7 comments:

elastronaut said...

Amazing site. I really appreciate all the hard work and effort put into it. Thanks and please keep it up!

Adolf Kuusk said...

Would it be possible to re-upload the backing tracks? Thank you !

Frank said...

I really appreciate your blog. This is delicious to read. Plus the youtube searches are all made for us. Thx.

JayZeeNYC said...

Was just looking for a tab for this song but wasn't expecting to find anything this thorough (and free). Sites like this support my theory that the Internet is awesome.

Phil Champ said...

This site is a labour of love, and I love it!

A thought about the various transcriptions. I've been trying to get the rhythm of the opening guitar riff right for years, and it doesn't work for me in 4/4. I think it's in 6/4. I can provide a Guitar Pro 5 tab if necessary to show what I mean.

Thom said...

Thanks Phil! About the GP5 file, go for it. Counting out time signatures is not my thing, I'd love to hear your take on it.

Phil Champ said...

Time signatures aren't my thing, either. 6/4 was the only one that fitted the notes! I've emailed you the GP5 file.