Johnny Marr Flies Solo

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Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr will release his debut solo album this summer under the tag "Johnny Marr and the Healers." Marr, who never sang on a single Smiths song, will be making his debut as a lead vocalist.

In a post on his Website (www.jmarr.com), Marr writes that his friend Chrissie Hynde encouraged him to take the mike. He also explains that after all his various collaborations -- which include Hynde, Billy Bragg, The The's Matt Johnson and New Order singer Bernard Sumner -- he was ready to go it alone. "I've kinda run out of people, so I'm on my own now. All the people I ever wanted to work with, well, I've been working with!"

Marr's not exactly on his own, as Mickey P (of Beck fame) is producing the album, and Zak Starkey, the in-demand Beatles offspring, plays drums.

Despite reports to the contrary, the album does not mean the end of Electronic, Marr's on-again/off-again project with Sumner. "Everyone seems to love a good feud," Marr writes of the rumors of Electronic's demise. "Bernard and I are really close friends, and at the moment he's doing New Order and I'm doing my album."

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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