The Meaning Behind “Easy Money” by Johnny Marr and How Greed Never Falls Out of Fashion

When Johnny Marr began thinking about his second solo album, Playland, he wanted to take advantage of his well-honed touring band. The band was on the road when Marr started tinkering with a new guitar riff. It became the album’s first single, “Easy Money”, and they recorded it right there in the back of the tour bus.

Videos by American Songwriter

Though the song is upbeat, Marr chose a darker topic to sing over the pop track. “Easy Money” isn’t a new concept, but Marr’s indie funk tune works like a charade metaphor for the games people play chasing wealth.

About “Easy Money”

“Money is a preoccupation of everybody,” Marr said, “and it took me quite a long time to write something that appeared to be simple.” It’s easy, pardon the expression, to lean into clichés about money being the root of all evil. But Marr frames it inside a pop hook with the repetition of an electronic track.

The repetition feels like a lesson people never learn.

Working for it all, but it’s money, money
It’s money, money
It’s money, money
Watching the windfall, but it’s only money
That’s money, money
That’s money, money.

He added, “The riff was so catchy and infectious that I wanted it to be about something that appeared to be trite but was actually quite universal.”

It’s just all expense
No way to earn except
There is no inner sense, no, baby.

Modest Johnny

The riff to “Easy Money” echoes the Modest Mouse hit “Dashboard”. Marr began writing with Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock in 2005. He tells the story of Brock drinking “an impressive jug of wine” and asking Marr if he had any riffs.

The first one he showed Brock became “Dashboard”. Marr eventually moved to Portland and became a full-time member of the band. They released We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank in 2007. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking the first U.S. number one for the guitarist.

Marr played the riff on Brock’s Fender Jaguar, prompting Marr to ask, “Where have you been all my life?” The Jaguar became his primary guitar, and Fender now offers a Johnny Marr signature model. Though it wasn’t his main guitar in the band that made him famous, he said everything he’d recorded with The Smiths sounded exactly right on the Fender Jaguar.

Now with his own Fender-made signature guitar, he’s following in the footsteps of legends like Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix. This and a hit record: That’s money, money.

Photo by Andy Cotterill / Courtesy The Oriel