Liam Gallagher’s favourite songs by The Rolling Stones
In the pantheon of great British bands, Oasis and The Rolling Stones are perhaps the two most divisive. This facet is very much by design. Both bands are quite happy to brave the slings and arrows of critics, swagger forth and put noses out of joint by knuckled force. Liam Gallagher‘s prowling ways typify this.
As does his taste in music. Speaking about his love for the primordial Sex Pistols, Gallagher said: ”Anything off Never Mind the Bollocks will do me. I think that still hasn’t been touched. You consider the day and age with all this technology going on, but they were doing it pretty simple, man, and still the aggression and the passion. No one has ever touched that record.”
He loves the energy and simplicity of rock ‘n’ roll. That can be mystic, but you know it when it slaps you across the chops. “I’m not thinking about anything except getting the message across,“ he once said when it comes to his musical philosophy. “I don’t even know what the f**king message is!” As the Stones once sang, “It’s only rock ‘n’ roll but I like it.”
Thus, it is perhaps no surprise that Liam is somewhat of a fan. And when discussing his favourite track in their repertoire, he told Absolute Radio: “‘Gimme Shelter’ is amazing. But, for me, I would go with ‘Jumping Jack Flash’. But then there’s loads, d’you know what I mean? But ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ gets the party started.”
The non-album single from 1968 saw the band return to their blues roots and ditch the Sgt. Pepper bandwagon they had just been aboard. They returned to simpler rock in style. In fact, this return to normality is at the core of the song’s message; as Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995, the song arose “out of all the acid of Satanic Majesties. It’s about having a hard time and getting out. Just a metaphor for getting out of all the acid things.”
Gallagher knows a thing or two about a head-clearing party so it seems fitting that he cherishes the danceable catharsis of this simplified classic that got its name when Jagger was awoken by Keith Richards’ heavy-footed gardener one morning. However, he rattled off a slew of songs in second place too: “‘Sympathy for the Devil’ and all that stuff. ‘2000 Light Years’ and all that tackle. ’19th Nervous Breakdown’, but I’d go with ‘Jumping Jack Flash’.”
We’ve wrapped those all up in a little LG-recommends playlist below for your enjoyment.
