The Smiths -- "This Night Has Opened My Eyes"
One of my favorite Smiths songs. Where Johnny Marr got these chords, I don't know; he clearly knows a lot more than he is willing to admit. He has always described himself as a rhythm guitarist, but it's a kind of rhythm that's more complicated than most guitar players' leads. One of the great things about this song, a quality shared by several other Smiths songs, is the sinuous quality of it, how the details keep changing slightly throughout the song, the phrasing varied just a bit from one verse to the next: a few notes slip away here, a few more tossed in there, some variable muting with the palm of the right hand. There's nothing sterile or canned about it. The music provides a fittingly moody backdrop for Morrissey's cloudy vocals.
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