R.I.P. Andy Rourke, The Smiths' bassist
The British musician, who had been living with pancreatic cancer, was 59
Andy Rourke, longtime bassist for The Smiths and an innovator of their seminal sound, has died. Bandmate Johnny Marr confirmed the news in a statement shared on social media early this morning. Rourke was 59.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Andy Rourke after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer,” Marr wrote. “Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans. We request privacy at this sad time.”
In a longer statement shared to Instagram, Marr recalled meeting forming a fast friendship with Rourke “as schoolboys in 1975.” The pair played music together for years before The Smiths, which officially formed in 1982 after Marr connected with singer Morrissey, who shared his own statement eulogizing Rourke earlier today via his website.
“Sometimes one of the most radical things you can do is to speak clearly. When someone dies, out come the usual blandishments … as if their death is there to be used. I’m not prepared to do this with Andy. I just hope … wherever Andy has gone … that he’s OK,” Morrissey wrote. “He will never die as long as his music is heard. He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and post-Smiths, he kept a steady identity – never any manufactured moves. I suppose, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. Andy need not worry about that.”
The Smiths’ addictively dreamy, danceable sound (Rourke once said he “wouldn’t be happy with a bassline unless you could hum it”), political through lines, and unusual influences buoyed the band, and they signed with Rough Trade in 1983.
Across The Smiths’ classic four-album run (1984's self-titled debut, 1985's Meat Is Murder, 1986's The Queen Is Dead, and 1987's Strangeways, Here We Come), Marr wrote that Rourke “reinvented what it is to be a bass guitar player.” Marr specifically highlights Rourke’s contributions to The Queen Is Dead—which NME named the greatest album of all time in a 2013 list—as “so impressive that I said to myself ‘I’ll never forget this moment.’”
Although The Smiths’ ultimately dissolved in the face of irreconcilable differences between Morrissey and Marr (not to mention drawn-out disagreements over royalties), Rourke played Madison Square Garden with Marr last September, a performance that would be his last. Marr described sharing that stage with Rourke as “a matter of personal pride, as well as sadness.”