“A second-rate Rotten”: How John Lydon shrugged off Liam Gallagher comparisons
Tribute bands are a funny concept. I mean, I like many music fans have artists I hold dear, but the very idea of dressing up like them and performing in front of a crowd is enough to make my stomach churn. Perhaps the most common and most skin-crawling of all is the countless Liam Gallagher lites seen in pubs across the country.
With a tambourine in hand and a parka on the shoulder, the rest can be made easy. I say the rest, maybe not his vocals. Because, regardless of what you think about Liam Gallagher, he is a truly iconic vocalist. Behind the idiosyncratic annunciation and powerful rasp was a tender soul, who had an acute understanding of how to deliver words and phrases with such delicacy that it immediately captured the hearts of music fans all over.
That’s quite simply a skill that no tribute act could ever replicate, because it’s rooted in a deep sense of authenticity. But one thing Gallagher, like all musicians, shares with his tributing counterparts is an appreciation for his influences. Ultimately, it’s inescapable that the artists you listen to in your formative years undoubtedly inform your style and timbre. But there is a distinct difference between rip-off and influence.
Gallagher has made no bones about his appreciation for his predecessors. Despite being notoriously frosty, when it came to the likes of John Lennon, not a bad word could be said in his presence. In fact, the hallmarks of the great Liverpudlian are noticeable in tracks like ‘Don’t Go Away’ and ‘Live Forever’, where Gallagher stretches the annunciation of every word like Lennon.
But the other artist critics have always been keen to liken him to is John Lydon. But while he was largely speaking, an Oasis fan, he was quick to defuse any connotations between himself and Liam. Upon the splitting of the Manchester band in 2010, Lydon said, “It is sad. They’re a nice backdrop on a dull day. There’s no content or depth to Oasis, but it’s still poignant.” The backhanded compliment was soon followed by another, accepting the comparisons but asserting his own sense of dominance.
He said, “Noel is fantastic, one of Britain’s finest. Liam’s alright if you want a second-rate Rotten. I remember hearing ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ for the first time, and it sounded like John Lennon and John Lydon mixed together.”
Lydon has turned the screw on his critique of the comparisons elsewhere, claiming that the sole reason he doesn’t exist in the same echelons of greatness is his lack of songwriting contributions to the band. A fair point, Oasis fans would have to be willing to concede, for Liam’s creative input was minimal and in fact, non-existent until the turn of the millennium.
But as the battle lines between Lydon and Gallagher are drawn, it would be an important time to remind all fans that music is in fact a subjective medium, with small glimpses of objectivity. Whose music you prefer sits firmly within the former, while both Gallagher and Lydon’s seismic contribution to the tides of culture are indisputably objective.
