Watch Johnny Marr Play “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” For The 1st Time In 25 Years
Well, we got the My Bloody Valentine album, so a Smiths reunion must be at least a thing that could happen, someday, right? Wrong? Still, for a couple of dudes who have turned down millions of dollars and messiah-level adoration in exchange for the continued satisfaction of a good grudge, Moz and Marr don’t really seem to shy away from the Smiths’ actual, y’know … music. Morrissey liberally sprinkles Smiths hits into his live sets these days, and as Marr told us in our epic recent interview, “It seems a little like I’m shortchanging people if I don’t play ‘How Soon is Now.'” Today, for the NME feature “Song Stories,” Marr tells the story behind another Smiths’ classic, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” playing the song for the first time in 25 years, on the very guitar on which it was written: a red Gibson ES-355, bought for Marr by Seymour Stein — an iconic instrument that later inspired Noel Gallagher to play the same exact model. The story itself is cool, but it’s actually chilling just watching Marr’s fingers on the fretboard, hearing those chords that are so deeply embedded in your gray matter and bone marrow, and yet here sound totally immediate and fresh. Watch.