Noel Gallagher on why Nirvana were “king of the catchy rock record”
For any good songwriter, you’re only as good as your last hit. Even though people have tried as hard as they could to rest on their laurels whenever they walk into the studio, fans will be able to tell within a split second if you’re doing something inauthentic or coaxing by on autopilot throughout a song. Most artists need to dig deep within themselves to create something no one has ever heard, and Noel Gallagher thought that the true master of writing rock anthems was Kurt Cobain.
When Noel first started getting acquainted with rock and roll, it all circled back to The Beatles. While nothing seemed to change since Oasis was accused of being Beatles copycats for years, Noel still had far more eclectic taste than the average rock and roll fan.
Sure, he had his fair share of greatest hits records to draw from, but Noel was stunned the minute that he heard bands like The Smiths and The Stone Roses. For a decade that was all about flashy colours and bright lights, this was the kind of music that felt like what you would hear when you were on the street half the time.
It just needed one band to bring that above ground, and Cobain took every perfect step when working with Nirvana. Despite not wanting to be as famous as he ultimately became, hearing songs like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and ‘Come As You Are’ were impossible to ignore once they started getting airplay, practically knocking every pseudo-hard rock band off the top of the charts.
Looking back on his legacy, Noel thought that Cobain was one of the greatest songwriters that had ever been, telling Rolling Stone, “Look at Nirvana. They were the fucking best, and that guy [Kurt Cobain] was the king of the catchy fucking rock record. You could not write catchier tunes than him.”
Then again, the one aspect of Nirvana that Noel loved was the exact thing that Kurt was against. As soon as the record started gaining traction, the frontman slowly started to resent what made him famous in the first place, leading him to go in the exact opposite direction by getting abrasive on In Utero.
Although Noel didn’t agree with Cobain’s cynical view of life towards the end of his time on Earth, Oasis’ rise felt like the exact inverse of what grunge was. The biggest bands in the world were brooding and angry just a few years before, but Noel’s songs about believing in yourself and making the most out of your life on ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Rock and Roll Star’ were the kind of pep talk that most kids needed to hear at the time.
There are even more than a few similarities in the way they phrase many of their songs, as well. Never mind the fact that they both rely on pop song structures, the lion’s share of Oasis’s early tunes have that same sort of punk energy that Nirvana prided themselves on years before. It was hard to parse out what Nirvana and Oasis songs meant half the time, but even if you couldn’t decipher the words, you knew it was intense.
