The Smiths are not short of excellent songs but one of their biggest hits could have featured Linda McCartney. The Wings instrumentalist would find herself with an impressive discography, often working with husband, Paul McCartney. But Linda, who died in 1998, could have been a temporary member of the Morrissey and Johnny Marr-featuring band after they invited her to the studio.
While The Smiths would find their request for Linda McCartney’s piano mastery rejected, they did get a “polite” response from the Wings member. Should the collaboration have come to pass, Linda McCartney’s work would have featured on both I Know It’s Over and There is a Light That Never Goes Out for The Queen is Dead. Speaking to NME back in 2011, Marr confirmed the potential collaboration was rejected out of hand by Linda McCartney.
He said: “Lyrically it was supposed to be about Geoff Travis. I don’t know whether it is or not. All I can tell you is that it was part of three songs that I wrote all in the same night, alongside I Know It’s Over and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. Morrissey sent Linda McCartney a postcard [asking if she would contribute to the track] and we got a polite reply saying she couldn’t do it. We were ready for her to come and to sing and play keyboards on it. I wish it had happened.”
It was an ambitious play from The Smiths, with Marr separately saying that he and Morrissey did benefit musically from their time together in the group.
He said: “As he [Morrissey] was evolving that would encourage me to evolve and vice versa. That could be down to something as simple as what you’re wearing on tour or on Top Of The Pops, or digging deeper and taking on themes that you haven’t yet taken on. For instance, where I’d musically be trying to do something that I haven’t done before but is still impressive, Morrissey would be doing the same lyrically.”
Despite heaping praise onto his former bandmate, Morrissey has made it clear he wants nothing to do with The Smiths, Marr, or his ex-bandmates. The Notre-Dame songwriter would try and sell his share of the band’s assets and rights late last year. A post to his website confirmed that he was “burnt out” and wanted nothing more to do with the group.
More recently, Morrissey slammed Marr in a now-deleted post to his website. Amid the statement was an allegation that Marr had been “destroying” The Smiths’ legacy with his statements post-split.
Morrissey wrote: “I am somehow more shocked by the words of Grant Showbiz in this BBC program. They are slanderous, and even worse-they come from someone whom I always held solidly in the highest regard – until now. Even Soviet Statues crumble. The people who continually shout the loudest are those who look for relevance. Marr, I firmly believe, is destroying the legacy of the Smiths. He plants seeds of doubt everywhere. He’s done it so loudly and so often that he has trapped himself.”
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