Noel Gallagher’s favourite lyric of all time
It’s no mystery as to the artists Noel Gallagher is most influenced by. While known for a reputation of excoriating bands he doesn’t think cut the mustard, the Oasis songwriter and High-Flying Bird is never shy to bestow praise either.
His and his brother Liam’s love of The Beatles is well documented. Over the years, they have repeatedly declared their adoration for the Fab Four to journalists and covered ‘I Am the Walrus’ in their early live sets, as featured on Oasis’ The Masterplan compilation.
There’s a deep admiration for Bono’s affecting lyricism. While one of Gallagher’s favourite U2 albums is 1991’s Achtung Baby, their Americana-influenced The Joshua Tree just clinches it with its wide, anthemic songwriting, Noel Gallagher declared to The Quietus: “If I could write a song like ‘Running To Stand Still’… then I could die happy with never writing another song again.” There’s also the eternal rallying cry of Nevermind The Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, the punk hurricane that landed when Gallagher was ten years old.
Speaking to BBC, he made quite the statement: “Everything that had come before that was irrelevant once he started anti-singing. Sex Pistols came along saying the established order was about to change is their one statement to the world. I’ve made ten albums, and in my own mind, they don’t measure up to that. I’d give them all up to have written that”.
Back in 2006, music and entertainment store HMV began the ‘My Inspiration’ marketing campaign, featuring everyone from Bryan Ferry to Ne-Yo, selecting lyrics and poetry that inspired them the most. For Noel Gallagher’s pick, he chose a verse from The Stone Roses’ ’89 hit ‘She Bangs the Drum’: “Kiss me where the sun don’t shine, the past was yours but the future’s mine, you’re all out of time”.
The third single off their eponymous ’89 debut, fellow Mancunian’s ‘She Bangs the Drum’ is full of psychedelic, swaggering confidence that’s easy to envisage the impact it must have had back when Gallagher was an Inspiral Carpets roadie. With a ’60s jangle and psych-wash touching Gallagher’s love of The Beatles, singer Ian Brown’s playful, nonchalant arrogance also provides a template for his songwriting and brother Liam’s frontman style, The Stone Roses’ melodic indie lit a fire for the UK Gen X, cementing themselves as an essential band within the UK’s rich music heritage.
Gallagher further elaborated on his love for the baggy Mancunians: “People forget how revolutionary they were at the time. I remember seeing them in town when they were a ‘goth’ band. They weren’t really but they had that goth on guitar (Andy Couzens). People think of them now about the way they look and everything but they were the last people in Manchester to start dressing like that.”
Gallagher added: “Everybody else in Manchester already looked like that. But really, when this album came out after all the trouble they had it was just perfect. When you got to hear the full version of ‘I Am The Resurrection’, it was just perfect. Ian had the image and he was a great frontman, Reni and Mani were like the tightest rhythm section ever.”
