This Night Has Opened My Eyes

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro file here.

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
















Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Songbook:




There are also several great versions up on youtube.

Here's Peter Weldon with an amazing multi-guitar version:


 

 Here's viniciuskiko:




Here's buckleyboyben:





Here's djs1986, on guitar and bass:




Here's JRLGuitar on electric and acoustic:






Here's modfather1965:

Barbarism Begins At Home

"I came up with the riff the day that Troy Tate came up to Manchester to meet with us. It was almost because our first proper producer was about to arrive that I thought we needed a new song, maybe, and it was a sunny afternoon. We played it in the daytime, which was unusual because there were these machinists working downstairs on the floor below, and we wouldn't want to be working stuff out at high volume. There was no drums there, it was just me and Andy jamming like we used to when we were 14 or 15. I know a lot of fuss has been made and Andy is, quite rightly, proud of that bassline, but, personally, harmonically I don't think it comes anywhere near Andy's other stuff. 'Nowhere Fast', 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore', 'The Headmaster Ritual', all tower above it. It was one of those things where it was a good idea at the time, but later, as we played it, I didn't think it really represented the band. The overall thing, all of it, was a little bit corny."

"Barbarism Begins At Home is a bit naff. I don't like the tune - there's no emotion in it."

"With 'Barbarism Begins At Home,' a lot's been made of the funky aspect of the bassline, but that track harks back to what I was doing with Andy before The Smiths. I guess it came out of this love of retro kind of James Brown records, and things like Rip Rig & Panic and The Pop Group. That period of anemic, underfed white funk. It's me and Andy being townies in Manchester, liking a bit of the American No-Wave thing. James Chance, I guess."

-Johnny Marr

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


Here are the scans from the Meat Is Murder songbook:




Thanks to Ted Maul for these scans.


Here's another great version by Daniel Earwicker:




Here's juttkeys:




Here's buckleyboyben:




Here's IFoughtTheLaw369 with two full-length versions on guitar and bass:






Here's sonofdrcross on bass:




Here's a full-length version from nicknoh69:




Awesome acoustic version by WilliamFs11:




Here's lunachangue with his Ric 330:




Here's barjabulon:




Here's davidguitarist91 on his Les Paul:

Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

"Some writing moments you do remember really specifically and that was one. We were coming down from Carlisle. I was sat on the tour bus, with my guitar, unplugged. I'd come up with this figure, I was absolutely ecstatic about it, but I couldn't work out how my fingers were playing it. So I was holding my breath in case I lost it."

"'Strangeways' has its moments, like 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Love Me'. Last time I met Morrissey he said it was his favourite Smiths song. He might be right."

- Johnny Marr

I have uploaded a Guitar Pro tab file for this song here(right click to save). Oddly enough, it has the long intro tabbed, and the entire bass part, but no guitar parts. Hopefully someone can amend the file and add them in.

Here are the scans from the Strangeways PVG book(thanks to MorrisseyScans for these tabs):

Here are the tabs from the Singles book:









Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




thirdynumberone has updated his previous acoustic attempt with an awesome electric version, and he also does the full intro:




buckleyboyben does a great version of the same riff, on his guitar which is tuned to F#(no capo needed):




adameater does a cool little lesson on acoustic:

Meat Is Murder

"That was a riff I'd been playing around with for a few days before. Really nasty, in open D. I didn't know the lyrics but I knew the song was gonna be called 'Meat Is Murder' so it all just came together in the take."

"I think 'Meat Is Murder' is in open G tuning,or open D,it might have a capo on the second fret."

- Johnny Marr

Until reading the above quote, I had no idea that this song was played in an open tuning. I haven't investigated any live performances to see if he played it in standard tuning as well, but I know he tuned his les paul up to E when playing Headmaster Ritual.

I haven't ever seen a tab for the song in open D, and I haven't seen anyone on youtube play it this way. Maybe someone will pick it out[edit: buckleyboyben has done it, video below]?

However, I do have a good Guitar Pro tab of this, and I have uploaded it here.

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.


pljnr did a near perfect cover here:




Oscar80It did a really great job with this cover, in standard tuning:




buckleyboyben has done a cover of the live version, in open D with a capo on the second fret:

Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

"The song, as it was, just faded in, so i thought we had to do something a bit more interesting. Basically, I put all the reverb on the drums up so it sounded like it was coming in from some large hall, then faded it down really quickly. Then I took all the reverb back off and faded it up again. The effect was supposed to be like the musics in a hall somewhere, it goes away, then it comes back and it's nice and clean and dry. A bit like opening a door, closing it, then opening it again and walking in."

-Stephen Street

"Other times, I'd drop off a cassette of some music at Morrissey's house. He lived about two miles away, and I'd ride round there on my Yamaha DT 175 and post them through his letterbox. 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others' was done that way. All the music for that came in one wave while I was watching telly with the sound down."

"Some things just drop out of the heavens, and 'Some Girls...' was one of them. It's a beautiful piece of music."

"I think I used a Rickenbacker 330 with delay on and a Strat for the outro. A lot of chorus and delay, I think."


- Johnny Marr

This one has a lot of renditions on youtube, which is great. It's a challenging part, but it's something that once you hear, you want to learn... at least I feel that way. A lot of people have taken it on, so I have posted as many good versions as I could find

Also, there are 2 Guitar Pro tab files I uploaded here(right click to save). One is for the live version, but it's not complete.

Daniel Cárdenas informed me that the Guitar Pro version posted here was in a weird tuning(second string was tuned up 1/2 step) and was in the wrong key. He transcribed the song into the correct key, and I transposed the fretboard positions into something that I think is more accurate. I moved the figures down one fret, which eliminates 1st fret barre chords and utilizes more open strings and open chord positions. I have left the older version in the rar file for comparison purposes. If you can help improve it further, let me know.


Here is a scan from Guitare Xtreme, a French magazine:



Thanks to reader Dupont Dupond for the scan.


Here are the scans from the Complete Chord Dictionary:




Here are the scans from the Queen Is Dead piano songbook with guitar chord boxes:








Daniel Earwicker's first attempt:

His second attempt, this time a fairly definitive cover of the 'live' version:

tomscotland on a strat:

goleirinho, whose version is the first left-handed video I have posted!

elvismarinho's cover:

and here's Stevebanany:

smitestyle is next:

sonofdrcross again does both guitar and bass really well:

Here's buckleyboyben:




Here's another version by barjabulon:




Here's Salvia02390 with his take on the live version:




Here's two spot on guitar and bass covers by johnnymare:






Here's a great bass cover by my friend John Biscuiti:

And lastly, here's The Smiths at their final show. Johnny plays it, um, like a ringin' a bell. Just totally effortless and smooth, it's

amazing.