let me start by saying "stop me if you think you've heard this one before" (the original) is probably my favourite song of all time. i have been obsessed by it from the first time i heard it. i was late to discover The Smiths (partly due to the obsessive and covetous nature of my friends that were huge fans), so "strangeways here we come" was the first album of theirs that i bought and had for my own. i was blown away and while it played on my stereo speakers for the first time, my bedroom was transformed into the magical realm of morrissey and marr (and rourke and joyce, of course). at that age, guitar was my main instrument, and johnny marr's guitar arrangements were the most beautiful i had ever heard. the instrumental sections of "stop me if you think you've heard this one before" sounded like 15 angels armed with six-strings, twelve-strings and harpsichords and the way andy rourke's bassline danced in between him made me dizzy. THEN, when morrissey delivered some of the most vivid, brutal and devastating lyrics i had ever heard disguised in the most beautiful sung melody i had EVER heard, i was completely f**ked up (everyone has their own opinion on how ironic his intentions were, i don't pretend to know that).
anyway, skip ahead 8 years, i'm dj'ing in some of the most grimy (yet geniunely music-loving) hip-hop clubs in dowtown new york, and i try to widen my audience's horizons as much as i can get away with. i figure out ways to drop some of my favourite "not hip-hop" tracks into my sets without getting shot at. to sandwich a classic Clash tune between eric b and rakim and epmd is not easy. to try and play the smiths is even harder. on some nights, i could get away with playing "how soon is now?" with the run dmc "it's like that" instrumental underneath it and could feel the crowd become intoxicated with hearing this music for the first time. other nights, i would completely lose the crowd when trying to teach them something new (note that this is way before the "mash-up" era aswell, people were not as accustomed to juxtaposed genres). but much in the same way grandmaster flash and kool herc found ways to drop the Rolling Stones in the playgrounds of the South Bronx, i was obsessed with figuring out a way to drop these tunes that i loved and opening up the dancefloor to all good music.
last year, when i came up with the breakbeat-based cover of "just" (by radiohead) and played it out for the first time, i realised that all of the sudden hip-hop kids, baggie kids, indie kids, funk heads, etc... could all get down to this classic song instantly. so i started f**king around with more and more of these "versions", mainly because i enjoyed seeing people enjoy them, and, because Radiohead themselves validated my cover, i didn't feel in fear of disrespecting the original artists.
when i recorded the original demo of "stop me if you think you've heard this one before" with my friend (the singer) daniel merriweather, the first thing i did was send it to morrissey and marr immediately, before i put the strings on it or anything, i needed to know if they would be alright with it, basically like a kid showing his parents his finger painting for their approval. it took a long time to hear back from them, but when i found out that morrissey liked it and especially liked daniel's vocal, you can imagine how i felt (johnny marr approved it aswell, but i don't know his exact thoughts): the man who co-wrote my favourite song of all time gave blessing to this new interpretation.
i'll add, i can't understand the people who have a problem with the "r&b" interpretation. first off, rhythmn and blues gave birth to ALL other forms of contemporary music. more relatedly, morrissey and marr famously met for the first time (in morrissey's house) and bonded over their shared love of that music. and during the making of "strangeways...", every night they would listen to northern soul records before retiring to bed. "r&b" has become a dirty word nowadays, soiled by the cookie-cutter crap records that come out and because of the lack of love, musicianship and geniuneness that go into making them. i would like to think that the records that i make are trying to restore some sort of respect to the genre, albums like amy winehouse's "back to black" or nikka costa's "like a feather". "stop me..." is probably the most musically involved number i have ever been a part of, i even scrapped the entire first orchestra arrangement and recording because i felt it wasn't emotional enough for the song. there are 26 real humans playing on the song, the only thing not 100% live and real is the drum beat (but that needs to exist as the hip-hop element of the song).
i didn't have any inkling that this cover was going to get so big. when i started it, i didn't even have a record deal. anyway, now that it is, the grumblings have understandably surfaced. i understand many hold the original song to be sacred, to them i can only say ignore mine and enjoy the version that you always have. but remember your heroes esteem and condone this homage, and that an entire section of the population who never knew and would never know this song will now discover what you all have known for so long, that stephen patrick morrissey and johnny marr wrote some of the most beautiful songs that ever were.
this is not an apology but a way of showing respect for people who love the Smiths like i do
thank you
mark
That's his reply to a Smiths fan who contacted him....
