The Professor of Rock

I stumbled upon Adam Reader's YouTube page yesterday and find myself going down his rabbit hole. He's from Idaho and he discusses music as well as anyone I've ever seen. He does a great job interviewing the musicians most of us know and love. His interviews are more like conversations between friends, casual and deep and meaningful. In this video, he explains why The Smiths are his favorite band of all time. But then he said this:

"Morrissey and Marr are the greatest songwriting duo since Lennon and McCartney."​

I'm very much a fan of The Smiths and then Morrissey but that is a bold fucking statement. Thoughts?

Here's The Smith's video and you can subscribe to his page and watch more of his musical dissertations. Looking at the right side, I see he has a video on Depeche Mode ...

 

He's so passionate.

 

Not much of a Morrissey fan.

What I mean is: Morrissey sucks.

 

Hang the Slacker
Hang the Slacker
Hang the Slacker

 

You just won yourself a cheap tray.

 

Under appreciated? Yes. The best? That’s a huge stretch.

 

Armageddon, come Armageddon.

 

Reggie Kray?

Do you know my name?

 

I can't name a better one.

The key there is songwriting duo. There really aren't that many and it means Morrissey's solo work doesn't count.

Johnny Marr is my favorite guitarist and the stuff they did together is just brilliant.

Who are the other duo options? Difford and Tilbrook, certainly. Joe Strummer and Mick Jones.

There's a case to be made for Elton John and Bernie Taupin but they're very much not my thing.

 

Can you pinpoint a duo in U2 or REM?

Shit, everything Jagger and Richards wrote post-1970 blows The Smiths out of the water.

 

Looks like an interesting rabbit hole to venture down when I have the time. Living in Salt Lake City, but apparently from Idaho. Respect!

 

I'm going on the assumption that Jagger/Richards would be considered a Lennon/McCartney contemporary and wouldn't count. Otherwise, yeah.

U2 and REM always credited the full band for songwriting. From what I've seen, in both cases the full bands would create the music and then hand it over to Bono/Stipe for the lyrics.