Noel Gallagher on the only person who got ‘Wonderwall’ right: “It’s too slow or too fast”
There’s a good chance that everyone and their mother has an opinion about Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ at this point. Regardless of its place in 1990s rock history, the song has been co-opted by everyone from indie rock fans to fairweather pop listeners to every single guitar-playing troubadour who wants to show off their skills at a party. But even with the iconic vocal performance that Liam Gallagher gave, Noel Gallagher was convinced that Ryan Adams was the only person who managed to do it justice.
Because when listening to the song, it does feel a little bit out of place compared to the other rockers on the record. If anything, the tune felt like it would have been better suited for Noel to play it as an acoustic-leaning song, almost in the same vein as their B-sides like ‘Talk Tonight’ and ‘Half the World Away’.
In fact, that’s probably closer to where the group was supposed to go had Liam not been mixed so loud. While the frontman would lament that his voice was much too loud in the mix, it does at least show off the range and attitude he had when it became one of their biggest hits in America.
But there’s a gentle soul at the centre of ‘Wonderwall’, and Ryan Adams knew that style of songwriting all too well. As much as he had the reputation of being on the alternative-country side of the spectrum when he first emerged onto the scene, his acoustic take on the tune is the equivalent of seeing someone build the track from the ground up all over again.
One of the best parts of his interpretation is how he plays with the melody a little bit as well. Whereas Liam just belts the whole thing from start to finish pretty admirably, this is closer to the person at the heart of the tune, trying his best to talk to his significant other but never having the right words to say to her.
Compared to the Oasis version, Noel thought that Adams actually improved on what he set out to do, telling Spin, “We’ve never got it right. It’s too slow or too fast. I think Ryan Adams is the only person who ever got that song right. I’d love to do the Ryan Adams version, but in front of 60,000 Oasis fans that wouldn’t be possible.”
That didn’t mean that Noel didn’t at least try to inhabit that kind of spirit. During some of the acoustic gigs that he played, Gallagher did seem to have his own take on Adams’ version in the pipeline, but it still doesn’t seem to capture the spirit in the same way, coming off more like he was trying to whisper the song in some respects.
Still, that doesn’t take away from the power of the iconic or the reimagined versions of ‘Wonderwall’. One of them may make a boatload more money than the other, but for anyone who’s genuinely been in that position, Adams might do a better job at capturing how that experience really feels.
