Johnny Marr (de son vrai nom John Martin Maher) est un musicien anglais né à Manchester. Guitariste, compositeur, mais également clavieriste, harmoniciste et chanteur, il est surtout connu pour son rôle de compositeur au sein du groupe culte des années 1980 : The Smiths.
Son jeu de guitare créatif, mélodique et harmonieux en a fait une référence pour toute une génération de musiciens anglo-saxons, notamment le Mancunien Noel Gallagher (Oasis) ou John Squire (Stone Roses).
J’aime bien faire Down On The Corner en classe avec mes élèves :
La chanson est sur l’album Boomslang (2003). Et en passant, je vous recommande son dernier album, The Messenger (2013).
La vidéo a été filmée par Eric Tu :
“It was it the very first date of Johnny’s US tour with the Healers, the Coachella gig was the next day .
When we first met, i immediately felt the calmness and simplicity of Johnny and I loved the fact that the ‘legendary guitarist’ was actually a real down to earth person… which
to me gave the song an even more raw honesty.I felt that the video should convey that, hence, the portrait concept.
Johnny was willing to do whatever was necessary to get the job done for the video… but he actually didn’t need to do more than one take because he nailed it. Johnny just being Johnny.We framed the shot like a portrait of his daily life. The rest of the action in the video , the doors opening and closing, the shots of Sunset Blvd through the door, the people in the reflections sound checking for the evening gig at the Viper Room, was totally unplanned and natural. Those were really his roadies setting up… no hired extras.
The video was shot in all one-take and intentionally camera choreographed to be honest and subtle.”
