The Oasis masterpiece that Liam Gallagher helped Noel to write
Most Oasis fans have come to grips with Noel Gallagher being the group’s songwriting captain. No one gets the nickname ‘The Chief’ by accident, and Noel’s willingness to steer the band through the 1990s with one classic song after another was unrivalled by anyone else in the Britpop sphere. Then again, Noel may have had a little more help than he had led on.
When making some of the first major hits for Oasis, Noel was unashamed about stealing from other acts. Throughout their debut, Definitely Maybe, it’s easy to pick out different pieces of rock history laced throughout every song, from the T. Rex pastiche on ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ to the incorporation of George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ on ‘Supersonic’. If the first album made them superstars, the next record would refine their sound even more.
Looking to keep the momentum going, Oasis descended to the same studio that Queen had worked in to produce ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for their next move. Instead of looking through some of their favourite records to steal riffs, Noel made stand-alone masterpieces across the album, from the immortal ‘Wonderwall’ to the psychedelic juggernaut that is ‘Champagne Supernova’.
When working on his featured song, Noel got help from his brother Liam. Even though Liam wouldn’t write a proper song for an Oasis project until ‘Little James’ off of Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, his questioning his brother led to one of the most iconic choruses of the ’90s.
As Noel was writing on the road, he had started the building blocks for what would become ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, having only the melody for the longest time. After blocking out the lyrics with whatever gibberish, Liam came over to him, asking him who ‘Sally’ was in the song.
Noel recalled during an interview with Uncut the moment that Liam helped finish off the chorus, saying: “At the sound check, I was strumming away on the acoustic guitar, and our kid said, ‘What’s that you’re singin’?’ I wasn’t singing anyway, I was just making it up. And our kid said, ‘Are you singing, ‘So Sally can wait?’ And I was like – that’s genius! So I started singing, ‘So Sally can wait.'”
When it came time to cut the track for What’s the Story Morning Glory, Noel gave Liam an ultimatum on the songs, saying that he had the choice to sing ‘Anger’ or ‘Wonderwall’. Choosing the latter, Noel ended up with one of the biggest singalong anthems in British history, with the crowd overpowering him most of the time when he sings it live at his solo shows.
While Noel has always been very coy about what the identity of Sally is, he did say that a fan suggested the perfect identity for her. In the DVD commentary, he revealed, “A fan came up to me real earnest and asked, ‘Is Sally Sally Cinnamon?’. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it wasn’t, so I said yes.” Being one of the primary songs by The Stone Roses, the Oasis anthem ended up bringing everything full circle for the lads from Manchester.
