The Best Gift for Johnny Marr Fans: A Discography Map Art Print

If you need a gift for Johnny Marr fans, this is the one I designed for exactly that job: a discography map art print that draws every credited musician in his recording life as a named tube line, calling at every studio album they played on with him. It runs from The Smiths in 1984 through The The, Electronic, the 7 Worlds Collide projects, The Healers, Modest Mouse and The Cribs, and on into his solo records, printed as a museum-quality Giclée from £42.

I researched it album by album from the liner notes and session credits, and the stories below are why it works as a present. They are the things a fan stands in front of and traces with a finger.

Four Albums With Morrissey, Then the Line Carries On Alone

Morrissey, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce run beside Marr through The Smiths (1984), Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead, and Strangeways, Here We Come. Then, in 1987, all three lines stopped.

Marr's line keeps going for nearly four more decades. That contrast - four shared stations and then one long, continuing route - is the whole story of his career told in a single glance, and it is usually the first thing people spot in the print.

There is a quieter detail on the debut, too. Paul Carrack, later of Mike and the Mechanics, plays piano and organ on three tracks of The Smiths, including Reel Around the Fountain, so he appears as a short spur off the very first station.

The Electronic Years: Two Pet Shop Boys and a Kraftwerk Keyboard

After The Smiths, the longest-serving companion on the map is Bernard Sumner. His line runs with Marr's through all three Electronic albums: Electronic (1991), Raise the Pressure (1996) and Twisted Tenderness (1999).

The 1991 debut carries two famous branch lines. Neil Tennant sings on The Patience of a Saint and adds backing vocals to Getting Away with It, and Chris Lowe plays keyboards on The Patience of a Saint, which puts both Pet Shop Boys on one station and nowhere else.

Raise the Pressure adds Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk on keyboards. And running quietly underneath is Denise Johnson, who sings on Get the Message in 1991, returns for Raise the Pressure, then appears once more on Boomslang in 2003, a twelve-year thread most fans have never noticed in the credits.

The Radiohead Line That Vanishes for Eight Years and Comes Back

The two 7 Worlds Collide albums give the map its best gap-and-return story. On the 2001 live album, Marr records alongside Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway of Radiohead, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Lisa Germano, Sebastian Steinberg, and Neil, Tim and Liam Finn.

Then those lines go silent. Eight years later, on The Sun Came Out (2009), O'Brien, Selway, the Finns, Germano and Steinberg all come back, now joined by Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Pat Sansone and Glenn Kotche of Wilco, plus KT Tunstall and Bic Runga.

Eddie Vedder does not return, so his line calls at exactly one station. Disappearances and reappearances like these are precisely what the tube map format was built to show.

A Beatle's Son, an American Band and Three Brothers From Wakefield

Boomslang (2003), the one album by Johnny Marr and The Healers, has Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr, on drums and percussion, with Alonza Bevan of Kula Shaker on bass.

Four years later, Marr turns up as a full member of Modest Mouse on We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007), where James Mercer of The Shins branches in with backing vocals on three tracks. Then comes Ignore the Ignorant (2009) with The Cribs, the only station where his line runs beside three brothers: Gary, Ross and Ryan Jarman.

One rule of mine worth knowing here: a production credit alone never earns a line on my maps; only played-and-sung credits do. Marr never needs the exemption. On Call the Comet (2018), he is credited with guitars, vocals, ARP Omni, drums, bass, keyboards and Memory Moog synthesiser, as well as production, so his line is earned several times over on his own records.

Here are some of the one-station guests, the names that make people lean in close:

Choosing the Right Gift for Johnny Marr Fans: Sizes and Options

Someone who came in through The Smiths will head straight for the left of the map, where the four shared albums sit. A guitar obsessive will trace the whole route, and anyone who found him through Modest Mouse or The Cribs gets the pleasure of seeing where their band fits in a much longer journey.

The print comes in two sizes, unframed or in a black wood frame, ready to hang:

Every print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium acid-free matte fine art paper, so the colours and fine line work hold for years.

"Brilliant idea... really like what you've done, Mike."

Billy Bragg, on my discography maps

Related Music Maps

The natural companion is my Morrissey discography map, which picks up the other half of the Smiths partnership and follows his solo route. Bernard Sumner's other life is charted on the New Order discography map, and the full range is in my Music Wall Art Prints collection.

Johnny Marr Gift Questions, Answered

Which bands appear on the Johnny Marr map?

The Smiths, The The, Electronic, both 7 Worlds Collide projects, Johnny Marr and The Healers, Modest Mouse, The Cribs and his solo albums, from The Smiths in 1984 to Fever Dreams Pts 1-4.

Does it cover all four Smiths studio albums?

Yes. The Smiths, Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead, and Strangeways, Here We Come all appear as stations, with Morrissey, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce running through all four.

Are one-off guests like Neil Tennant and Zak Starkey shown?

Yes. One-album contributors appear as short branch lines off the station they played on, which is where names like Tennant, Karl Bartos, Eddie Vedder and Zak Starkey sit.

Which size works best as a gift?

A2 suits a study, a hallway, or a smaller wall. A1 is the statement piece, and it is the size I would choose for someone who will want to read every line.

Is it a print or a poster?

It is a Giclée fine art print on 230gsm acid-free matte paper, not a mass-produced poster, and it ships unframed or in a black wood frame.