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:

Suffer Little Children

"I think we probably did it on our first two gigs. I think we were writing better stuff - that's the answer. It was always considered an album track. Maybe we had a doubt about it at the time."

"Looking back on the first album now I can say that I'm not as madly keen on it as I was. I think that a lot of the fire was missing on it and most of our supporters realise that as well. Although having said that, 'Still Ill' and 'Suffer Little Children' and 'Hand That Rocks' are all still great songs."

-Johnny Marr

Suffer Little Children was played live only once that we know of, on October 4th, 1982. It has a haunting quality to the guitar line, which is fairly simple and repetitive compared to some other Marr compositions. I think that it's a good song for beginners to tackle because it sounds just as good slow as it does fast, and you can ramp up the speed when you get the hang of it.

First off, here are the scans from the debut album piano song book:





marrzipan is one of the many cool, generous guitarists who make this site possible, and he has a great version of this on youtube. He was kind enough to share the tabs he made from his cover. I have posted them here, with his notes(click to enlarge):



He also passed along a Guitar Pro tab that I have uploaded here. It has a tab of the second and third guitar parts as well!

Here's his version to follow along with:





For comparison, here is Daniel Earwicker's take on the song. He uses a pull-off where Marzipan fretted notes on the second chord of the verse. It's different in other ways as well, but both are really great versions.




adameater also does a nice acoustic version. It sounds a little different from both of these; I think he might be incorporating some of the second guitar, which is cool.




Here's uncleskinny on acoustic:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:




Here's a great multi-track version by captaincarwash:

This Charming Man

"Of all our singles I think I like 'This Charming Man' best, just because the rhythms are so infectious. Smiths music really moves me."

- Andy Rourke


"A couple of days before I wrote 'This Charming Man' I'd heard 'Walk Out To Winter' (by Aztec Camera) on Radio 1, and I felt a little jealous. My competitive urges kicked in. I felt that we needed something up-beat and in a major key for Rough Trade to get behind. That's why I wrote it in the key of G, which to this day I rarely do. I knew that 'This Charming Man' would be our next single. I did the whole thing in one go into this TEAC 3-track tape recorder that I used to write on. I came up with the basic chords and immediately overdubbed the top line and intro riff."

"I wrote This Charming Man for a John Peel session. I just leapt out of bed and wrote it. It was the culmination of trying to find a way of playing that was non-rock but still expressed my personality. I felt we needed something more upbeat in a different key and was miffed that Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame was getting on the radio and we weren't. That's why it's got that sunny disposition; my usual default setting was Manchester in the rain. When we were recording it, Rough Trade's Geoff Travis came in and said: 'That's got to be the single.'"

"I remember writing it, it was in preparation for a John Peel single. I wrote it the same night as 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' and 'Still Ill'."

"'This Charming Man' was the first record where I used those highlife-sounding runs in 3rds. I'm tuned up to F# and I finger it in G, so it comes out in A. There are about 15 tracks of guitar. People thought the main guitar part was a Rickenbacker, but it's really a '54 Tele. There are three tracks of acoustic, a backwards guitar with a really long reverb, and the effect of dropping knives on the guitar -- that comes in at the end of the chorus."

"I don't want to be playing 'This Charming Man' when I'm... 22."

- Johnny Marr

Here is a great video of Johnny looping the rhythm part and overdubbing the lead:



Notice he starts the riff on the second and third strings, around the twelfth fret(14th if you have his usual 2nd fret capo on).

I have uploaded several Guitar Pro tab files here. Each file has several different guitar tracks, some with bass tracks as well. I have uploaded a multitrack for the song here. This has the isolated guitar and bass parts, and it's a great tool for learning the song.


Here are the scans from the Singles tab book:








I have uploaded another tab and it's accompanying backing tracks. Those are here(right click to save as). Here's the tab:








UPDATE 10/12/08: I have also uploaded these scans from the debut album song book, for completists only.







lunachangue gives us a pretty spot on version:




The cover sonofdrcross does is equally good:



He also does a great version on bass:




325C58 tackles the hatful version, with bass and rythym guitar as well:




Daniel Earwicker plays just a few bars on his 12 string Ric:




martinyyz has another good version. Really clear recording of the fretboard, too:




Here's nicknoh69 on his les paul:




Here's WilliamFs11 on acoustic:




Here's isisluna23 on a Les Paul:




Here's chiasson65 with another great bass cover:




abyface does an awesome job:




adameater does the Hatful version on acoustic:




Another take by martinyyz:




Here's a cool version by johnnymare:




Here's Pandaprops on guitar:



and bass:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:




Here's a great multitrack version by captaincarwash:

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: