Bonehead on the song that defined Oasis
Most of the Oasis story normally revolves around the love-hate relationship between the Gallagher brothers. As much as the band behind them may be equally as important, seeing Noel and Liam going after each other in the press and doing the lion’s share of the interviews has led many fairweather fans to think they had done most of the heavy lifting. Although Oasis may have thrived off both men’s star power, their biggest strength in the early days came down to their rhythm guitarist, Bonehead.
Initially forming the group under the moniker The Rain with Liam on vocals, Bonehead was considered the band’s only guitarist before the frontman convinced his brother to come along for a jam session. Having the initial spark from the first song they played, Bonehead quickly switched to rhythm guitar and began adding his mark behind the scenes.
Rather than let Noel take over most of the guitars in the studio, Bonehead’s fuzzy approach to rhythm guitar solidified the band’s punk ethos in the early days, making their live shows sound absolutely massive. While the guitarist would remember how strained their time in the studio was in the beginning, he knew that one song had everything that Oasis was about.
Then again, when working on the first handful of demos, Bonehead remembered being shocked at how brazen Noel could be when working on his material. While the guitarist was known to get sceptical when Noel would pinch riffs from the likes of T Rex when making works like ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’, he also remembered being blown away when he heard a song like ‘Live Forever’ for the first time.
Outside the band’s immortal anthems, Bonehead held on to their credentials as a rock and roll outfit before anything else. As much as they might have been cribbing from various indie groups around the same time, Bonehead knew that their mission statement came from the track ‘Rock and Roll Star’.
Featuring one of Liam’s most impassioned vocal performances, the piece practically announced the band to the world when it opened their debut album, Definitely Maybe. Featuring some of the most caustic guitars to feature on an Oasis record, the entire song feels like an adventure in over five minutes, going from the straight-ahead rock and roll in the first section to the waltz timing of the last section.
Although the band would be bound for more classics to come, Bonehead had no problem calling the song the definitive Oasis track for him, telling Mojo, “For me, the standout track is ‘Rock and Roll Star’. That sums up Oasis for me. It captures our sound and our attitude. The lyrics also meant a lot to us because, coming from where we did, everyone dreamt of being a rock and roll star.”
The rest of the decade would also see the group capitalising on that momentum at every opportunity, with Noel helping the band reach bigger and better heights on the following album, What’s the Story Morning Glory. The lyric sheet might read, “It’s just rock and roll”, but every member of Oasis knew that there was a lot to gain out of three chords and the truth.
