Noel Gallagher on the band that gave him “the greatest moments of my life”
For any musician, songs are about more than just a catchy tune. This is the soundtrack of their lives, and the first few notes of any track could put someone back in their teenage years or remind them of some transitionary period of their lives without having to listen all that hard. While Noel Gallagher probably remembers the glory days of Oasis because of his own masterpieces, he thought that the biggest high points he had with music came from hearing U2.
Then again, it’s not like we haven’t heard this before, given that every single member of U2 seems to understand how important their music is. It’s one thing for Noel to be high off of his own hubris, but somewhere in the 1980s, Bono seemed to go from one of the most captivating frontmen of all time to the kind of person who seems perfectly happy knowing that he is the preordained missionary of rock that will one day change the world.
It’s not like they haven’t made themselves decent punching bags, either, especially considering their moves towards Big Brother-levels of business by putting an album on everyone’s phone. There is one strength to their bow, though, and that comes from their track record of writing some of the greatest rock songs of all time.
No matter how many times people try to drag them through the mud, the reason why songs like ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ or ‘One’ hold up is because of how much emotion they put into every line. Yes, there are a lot of people who tend to overemphasise their love for the band, but the only reason why they believe it so much is because the musicians themselves believe every word they are singing.
From the first time that he heard them, Noel was already head over heels, telling Rolling Stone, “Some of the greatest moments of my musical life have involved U2. Anybody who doesn’t like The Joshua Tree is a cocksucker, for a start. And anybody who went to see the Zoo TV tour and didn’t think it was the greatest of all time at that time is also a fucking idiot.”
It’s not like you can’t hear some of that kind of stadium rock energy in Noel’s catalogue, either. Some of his more adventurous projects, like Who Built the Moon, are left-turn moves reminiscent of what they did on Achtung Baby, and for as much as he hates it now, the material on Be Here Now works because of Noel trying to match the atmosphere of the Zoo TV tour in sonic form, especially with the backwards effects on ‘D’You Know What I Mean’.
More than anything, U2 helped remind everyone that anything was possible whenever someone had a guitar in their hands. They probably didn’t have to be as heavy-handed as they ended up, but when listening to a track like ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, you’re not hearing a bunch of pampered rock stars trying to sell you something. This was the sound of a bunch of kids who genuinely believed that music could make the world a better place, and it’s hard to really argue that.
