On August 31, 1978, 14-year-old Manchester schoolboy John Maher met 19-year-old Steven Patrick Morrissey at a Patti Smith gig in the city. Both sons of Irish immigrants, the two young men also shared a love for punk and glam rock, and it was this common ground which led them to form The Smiths in the spring of '82, and strike up a songwriting partnership which would change world.
Johnny Marr, as John Maher would become better known, had his eyes truly opened to the power and potential of punk rock six years earlier, when he purchased The Stooges' Raw Power album on the recommendation of friends.
"At the age of 14, I was starting to play guitar in a certain way and the name [of Stooges’ guitarist] James Williamson kept cropping up," Marr told The Quietus in 2015. "A couple of guys I knew assumed I had been listening to Raw Power because of the way I was playing riffs. So I thought I had better investigate."
"Eventually I want into town to buy it and I picked up a copy for about three quid, which was all I had," the guitarist told writer John Freeman. "The cover alone made me want to buy the record, and, when I heard it, I realised why my mates had been saying what they had. In particular, the song Gimme Danger started off with a riff that was very much like one I was playing with the band I was in at the time.
"As a guitarist, James Williamson’s playing struck me as having the technique of Jimmy Page but with the irreverence and attitude of Keith Richards. I have since become friends with James and have talked to him about what he was doing back then. He knew exactly what he was doing and it was very deliberate, which is always quite impressive."
Marr spoke about Raw Power as The Record That Changed My Life in an 2020 interview with the website vinylwriters.com.
"I was living with my parents, in a small flat in what was Europe’s biggest concrete complex back then. Outside my room’s window, there was one of those big yellow street lights that would seep through the room. I listened to Raw Power, the orange light shone through the curtains, and I was in another world."
Talking to Spin in 2012, Marr said, "I got the first two Stooges albums immediately after I got Raw Power, and I know every note and word on them. I know plenty of people who think the first two albums are the best, or more important and influential, and even though I love them, I love Raw Power more."
"It was an opening into a world of rock & roll, sleaze, sexuality, drugs, violence and danger," the guitarist told The Quietus. "That’s a hard combination to beat.
"When you inevitably are asked about your favourite record, you can scratch your head and go through a list, because your taste changes from year-to-year or through different periods of your life. However, I have always been able to say that Raw Power is my favourite from the moment I first heard it, and I don’t think it has been equalled since."
