Noel Gallagher on why Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger are not rock stars: “That’s what you’re paid to do”
Being a great musician and being a rockstar are two separate things. Although someone might have an objectively better voice than their counterparts whenever they’re singing, it might be impossible for them to light up the stage whenever they play as some electric frontman could. That kind of swagger all comes in how someone carries themselves, and as far as Noel Gallagher was concerned, two of the biggest rock bands of all time had two frontmen who shouldn’t be considered authentic rock stars.
Granted, it’s not like Noel didn’t know what he was talking about. Looking through his discography, you can tell that the man knows a fair bit about rock and roll from the places that he pinched from, whether that was him copping the vocal line of ‘All The Young Dudes’ on certain versions of ‘Whatever’ or eventually working in different pieces of everything from Stevie Wonder to T-Rex in the back of his classic tunes like ‘Step Out’ and ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’.
Most would call it stealing if they wanted, but not even Noel’s heroes could have delivered them quite like he could. Once his brother Liam got behind the microphone with his signature snarl and the amplifiers were turned all the way up, this was the mix of traditional rock and roll and punk that made rock and roll sound fresh again after the grunge revolution slowly fizzled itself out.
Noel had always prided himself on sounding dangerous. For as long as the recovery period from Be Here Now lasted, the group was still more than willing to take chances when it came to calling out certain bands for either not being on their level or taking music in the wrong direction, like in their feuds with Blur, Phil Collins, or Robbie Williams.
Because to Noel, rock and roll was about a certain cool factor, and not every member of The Beatles or The Stones had it. Both of them had their intense moments, but for Gallagher, both Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney weren’t the kind of rock stars that he thought of when he considered the best in the world.
As much as he idolised both bands when starting out, Noel felt that Macca and Jagger were far from what he saw in his head, saying in 1998, “Rock stars aren’t supposed to be well behaved, like Keith Richards – now there’s a rock star. Mick Jagger is not a rock star. Keith is. Paul McCartney is not a rock star; Ronnie Wood is. You’re supposed to be larger than life. You’re supposed to believe that you’re gonna sprout wings at any given point and become the Arch Angel Gabriel. That’s what you’re paid to do.”
While that’s far too broad of a brush to paint with, there’s at least some truth to that statement. As much as Jagger could dance his ass off, Keef was the one who represented the darker side of rock, and even when the Fab Four were preaching about love and peace, John Lennon was still the revolutionary trying to say something stronger than McCartney’s whimsical tunes about people named Maxwell who boasted a silver hammer.
Whereas Noel may have softened his stance on his favourite acts in recent years, there are still pieces of Oasis that work in that respect as well. Noel deserves his fair share of accolades for writing every iconic song in their canon, but in terms of being a pure rockstar, no one can touch what Liam could do whenever he swaggered to the stage.
