Noel Gallagher, the contemporary answer to Peter Green
There are many different classes of guitar heroes, and one of the most influential groups is those who prioritise feeling over technical prowess. Whether it’s the wailing blues of BB King, the fiery, chaotic brilliance of Jimi Hendrix, or David Gilmour’s cerebral harmonies that seem to reach deep into the psyche, some of the most beloved guitarists in history are masters of emotion rather than flashy technique. This distinguished group also includes Peter Green and Noel Gallagher, who have made a lasting impact through their expressive, soul-stirring playing.
Due to his mental decline and extended period in obscurity, Green is often overlooked by the outside world, which tends to wax lyrical about the more commercially friendly soloing of Slash, Eddie Van Halen, and Eric Clapton. However, Green is very much the player’s player. His emotive, textural tendencies derived from a love of the blues, and his more epic, pulsating moments remain some of the best of the era, regardless of what outfit that be in, including his two most lauded acts, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac.
It’s reflective of Green’s scope that he gathered fans from across the musical spectrum, including one of his ultimate heroes, BB King, as well as Mark Knopfler, Joe Perry, Kirk Hammett and Noel Gallagher. King once lucidly remarked: “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”
Even the recently passed Mayall, one of the most influential forces in fusing blues and rock ‘n’ roll, who played with both Clapton and Green, said the latter was much “better” than the former. He once commented: “Peter in his prime in the ’60s was just without equal”.
To put it simply, Green was one of the first British musicians, like Mayall, to take the spiritual tact of the blues pioneers and pour his entire being into his work on the fretboard. Playing was a conduit to release his complex thoughts, a form of utter catharsis, and this, in tandem with his original songwriting and undoubted ability, made for a compelling package. The sincerity in his writing and performances made him stand out in his era, and have continued to keep his music sounding remarkably fresh to this day, with the warm atmosphere of his Les Paul incredibly distinctive.
Gallagher, meanwhile, has repeatedly commented on his love of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. Listening to them even helped inspire him to conceive the name for his successful post-Oasis project, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Their band name and the Jefferson Airplane song ‘High Flyin’ Bird’ were all he needed to bring it to life.
Gallagher has always been self-deprecating about his guitar-playing abilities. In a 2011 interview with Music Radar about the first High Flying Birds album, he revealed that the inspired, Jeff Beck-esque guitar parts at the end of ‘Stop the Clocks’ were played by Paul Stacey, not him. He explained why, acknowledging Stacey’s superior skill in achieving the sound he envisioned for the track. The former Oasis man said: “I can barely play like Peter Green, let alone fucking Jeff Beck”. He has also commented on Green’s sonic character and how it “weeps” so profoundly that it “fuckin’ blows me away”.
Gallagher is such a big fan of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac that he performed ‘Sandy Mary’, ‘Love That Burns’, and ‘The World Keeps On Turning’ at the Peter Green Tribute Concert at London’s Palladium in 2020 to honour the late hero. Although the performances featured acoustics, it became clear just how similar Gallagher’s style is to the blues-inflected rock of Green, from the licks to the rhythms.
Two Green classics with Fleetwood Mac instantly bring to mind the rousing style of Gallagher that underpinned Oasis’ success in the early days. In the Mancunian outfit’s masterstrokes such as ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’, ‘Supersonic’ and ‘Morning Glory’, you can clearly hear the bluesy attitude of Green’s Les Paul on his highlights ‘Oh Well’ and ‘The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)’.
The towering, grooving character of ‘The Green Manalishi’ is most stylistically similar to Gallagher’s signature stadium-filling riffs and open chords. While it may have been relatively simple to play, its potency is undeniable. The cinematic, spine-tingling opening is exactly the kind that would have legions of mod-cuts transfixed decades later when Oasis took the stage, showcasing Gallagher’s ability to craft timeless, captivating moments.
Like all Green numbers, ‘The Green Manalishi’ had the blues at its heart, but the bite with which it was brought to life and the atmosphere it yielded opened up the gates to the realm that Gallagher would firmly sit in when his vision for Oasis was at its most lucid. Its opening bursts are so incredibly Britpop. Just listen to ‘Up in the Sky’ or the electric opening of ‘Bring It On Down’ on Definitely Maybe. Obviously, there are also prominent glam-rock and Madchester elements, but the spirit of Green is there, too.
Other moments point to the sonic and spiritual connection between both players. ‘World in Harmony’, the closer of the 1969 album Then Play On, also contains distinct flecks of what would later become Noel Gallagher’s sound, existing at a nexus between the blues, hard rock and psychedelia. In the final third of the track, when the brief but crunching blues riff emerges, musically, you are instantly reminded of the sleazy ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’ and, spiritually, the searing heart of ‘Morning Glory’.
Furthermore, in the album’s more psychedelic moments, of which there are many, the atmospheric, reverb-drenched guitars likely marked the beginning of Gallagher’s exploration into this stoned form of rock. This connection is evident in tracks like the deeply narcotic chimes of ‘Shakermaker’ and the instrumental ‘Fucking in the Bushes’, both dripping with the essence of Peter Green’s acid-rock influence. Gallagher’s wailing solo on the latter is straight out of the Green playbook, capturing the raw, psychedelic energy that defined much of Green’s work.
Even the ancestors of ‘Wonderwall’ – specifically its deeply flowing acoustic chimes in the pre-chorus – and the wistful hammer-ons in the opening of ‘Champagne Supernova’ and its solo can be found on the 1969 record.
There might be many contenders, but Noel Gallagher is the closest thing to our contemporary answer to Peter Green. It’s also fitting that he should have purchased one of the late rocker’s guitars and be so bold as to wipe his signature off it in front of the aghast worker, who had annoyed him with his rude attitude. He quite literally took the mantle, bolstering the longstanding connection beyond any doubt.
