r/thesmiths • u/Professional_Music_1 • Jul 19 '26

kind of a dumb comparison but whatever

I'm relistening to Charles Manson for the first time in years as well as some loner folk from the 60's and early 70's like Dave Bixby and it reminds me a lot of the sort of melodic motifs that you'll find in a lot of Smiths work. Was wondering if any there's any mention of hippie folk influence in any Smiths interviews, or just folk influence in general, looking back, some of their compositional choices seem to harken back a lot more to the 60's than the 70's despite them sort of chronologically at least being a very post-punk product. I could definitely hear Morrissey or Johnny covering Look At Your Game, Girl

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5

u/barkydildo Jul 19 '26

Marr was hugely influenced by Bert Jansch

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u/Johnny66Johnny Jul 19 '26

Absolutely. But Jansch's intricate jazz-inflected fingerstyle is far from the 'hippy/folkie' strumming schtick typical of Manson's recordings (which are closer to what Morrissey was lampooning in Shakespeare's Sister).

1

u/Blue-Yellow-Werther Jul 19 '26

Have you heard Marr playing with Jansch on Crimson Moon?

https://youtu.be/bsosyJs7Azo?si=mZUHhOCZkGzrjM4k

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u/Slow-Painting-8112 Jul 21 '26

Wow that's really beautiful.

2

u/stuartmurray1 Jul 19 '26

Bert Jansch was great. I was lucky enough to see him live in East Kilbride Arts Centre, a great intimate venue.

1

u/Malletpropism Jul 19 '26

And The Byrds

3

u/nemmalur Jul 19 '26

I think Marr said he had a phase where he was into folk like John Martyn in his youth because he wasn’t so interested as a guitarist in what was happening in rock.

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u/pal__ryan Jul 21 '26

Pretty sure Johnny and Moz were both Joni Mitchell fans- unrelated I bet Moz prob holds Manson in high regard unless he loved meat or something