Noel Gallagher confirms mystery chord in Oasis’ ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’
The anthemic qualities of Oasis‘ mega-hit ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ are burned into the very DNA of the song’s chord structure. Between its direct allusions back to John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ and its switch between parallel major and minor chords, Noel Gallagher projects grandiosity and majesty in ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ through subtle songwriting techniques that often colour some of the biggest anthems of all time.
But one mystery has always seemed to elude listeners. During the song’s pre-chorus, Gallagher hits a G Major chord during the line “Stand up beside the fireplace”. But when he follows with the line “Take that look from off your face”, a strangely discordant sound takes over the track for the briefest of seconds.
It’s immediately felt when you listen to the song, but it’s nearly impossible to nail down what makes up that powerful musical turn.
With the song in the key of C Major (tuned slightly sharp on the final mix), there are only a few options for what that chord could be. The simplest answer was often to call it an E7 chord, but that oversimplifies some of the dissonant notes that can clearly be heard. The notion that it was some sort of diminished chord was also in play, and live performances often showed Gallagher simply moving the G Major chord shape up a fret on his guitar to make a kind of bastardised G# Major/Diminished shape.
The mystery behind the chord often led to a variety of answers when the song’s chords were posted in online charts. Even the official sheet music for ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ varies depending on who writes it. Different clusters of notes can get different chord names depending on the bass notes, harmony stacks, and the whims of whoever is writing it down. But the definitive playing of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ has remained a mystery.
Until Noel Gallagher recently appeared on That Pedal Show, that is. During his sit down, Gallagher rang out the iconic chords to ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ and solidified what shape the mystery chord actually is. For guitarists, Gallagher plays a G# on the low E string with his middle finger, hits a B on the fourth fret of the G string, and simply lets the other strings ring open, with the A string being muted. That works itself out to be an E7/G#, unlocking one of the major mysteries in the Oasis songbook.
Check out Gallagher demonstrating how to play ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ down below.
