The one thing Noel and Liam Gallagher agree on about ‘Definitely Maybe’
The Oasis reunion tour setlist contains one song released after the year 2000, and that is one song too many. Honestly, it goes deeper than that. Noel and Liam Gallagher have found it in themselves to play two songs from the infamous disaster Be Here Now, which, considering the interminable length of those songs, probably counts as about six too many.
When people talk about Oasis records, they are talking about two albums. 1998’s masterful B-sides collection, The Masterplan, and their titanic 1994 debut album, Definitely Maybe. That’s it. Just those two. What else would they be talking about?
I’ll be the joyless douchebag sitting in the corner with his arms crossed, going “two decent albums don’t make a good band!” while everyone else is losing their minds in sheer joy, I can’t deny that those albums are good enough to deserve that level of ubiquity. Definitely Maybe, in particular, is a phenomenal record. One that deserves to still be in the public conscience 30 years after its release. If you haven’t spun it in a while, give it another go, and you’ll find just what an astonishing tracklist it is.
It’s the kind of album that looks like a greatest hits record today, and with good reason. Every song can bring a stadium to its feet, as we can see from the current Oasis setlists. I’m sure if they dropped a clanger like ‘Digsy’s Dinner’ into the setlist, it would have exactly the same effect out of sheer novelty factor. Anyone picking a favourite song from that record would be hard-pressed, possibly nobody more than the Gallagher brothers themselves. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but they actually have a pretty high opinion of themselves. Who knew?!
Joking aside, one wonders how the Gallaghers feel about Definitely Maybe today. I’m sure if the question was put to them today, they’d smugly point to their ballooning bank accounts and say they feel great. However, the brothers have always had an emotional depth that they’ve tried very hard to conceal. Or at the very least, Noel does. One would assume that he has a complicated relationship with being chained to an album older than all his kids, but the truth is a little deeper than that.
Which song from ‘Definitely Maybe’ is the favourite of Noel and Liam Gallagher?
Both Gallagher brothers seem to have a genuine affection for Definitely Maybe and not just for the most obvious reason, that it made them one of the beloved bands in the history of British rock. What’s more, the best moment from it seems to be one of the vanishingly few things that, shock horror, the Gallagher brothers agree on. I know, we thought it was just Manchester City and cocaine, but it turns out that sometimes these two most abrasive of men really can agree on something.
What they agree on is that the greatest moment from Definitely Maybe is also its lead single. When asked on Radio X what his favourite Oasis song was, Noel said, “It’s always going to be ‘Supersonic‘, always. Just for how it came about that night and it still sounds amazing to me when I hear it.” Before saying later, “it’s still got the magic for me.” The fact that his brother agrees with him is a bit of shock, and not only for the obvious reason. Up until a 73 Questions feature with Vogue, Liam Gallagher had always maintained that his favourite Oasis song was ‘Live Forever’.
However, perhaps a sign that the ice between him and The Chief was thawing, when asked what his favourite Oasis song is, the first thought of Liam Gallagher is ‘Supersonic’. This is supported by his answer to an earlier question, when he’s asked what his favourite Oasis lyric is and he picks the immortal opening couplet “I need to be myself, I can’t be no one else, I’m feeling supersonic, Give me gin and tonic.”
Perhaps being defined by your work from 30 years ago isn’t such a bad thing if it’s also something that’s bringing these two otherwise estranged brothers together again after so much bad blood.
