The only rock star Noel Gallagher could relate to: “Exactly what I do”
Being the leader of any rock band means having the weight of the world on your shoulders. It might be easier for you to work around any problem by telling someone what they’re going to be playing and writing all of the songs. It’s hard when the entire livelihood of the band, crew, and producers is riding on your ability to put pen to paper and write something classic. While Noel Gallagher was up for the challenge when working in Oasis, he believed Pete Townshend was among the few who understood his pain.
That’s because as much as Oasis cribbed from The Beatles, the dynamic of the band was nowhere near the likes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Noel and Liam had the same kind of volatility as a group like The Kinks, but Noel’s ability to write stirring songs that lit a fire in people is what Townshend always thrived on.
When Townshend first got into writing music, he didn’t actually think that he was going to make a career out of it. On several occasions, Townshend remembered thinking that this would be a quality way for him to have fun throughout his adolescence before he started to pick him on his real career as an artist.
Things don’t always work out that cleanly, and the minute that ‘My Generation’ blew up, Townshend had an entire movement of rock fans at his feet, wanting him to make something more ambitious. While most of their 1960s catalogue features some of the greatest singles released by any band, like ‘The Seeker’ and ‘I Can’t Explain’, Townshend’s vision was always centred around taking rock and roll to the big-time rock operas like Tommy.
Although Oasis never went down the road of making some sweeping conceptual masterpiece or anything, Noel could at least respect that he was speaking the same language as Townshend in the Britpop world, telling Rolling Stone, “Pete Townshend’s the only guy that I can relate to, because he wrote all the songs and all the words and sang backing vocals, and he gave ’em to somebody else to sing ’em, and that’s exactly what I do. And we particularly don’t get on with our lead singers.”
Even though both Townshend and Noel had their moments when they got behind the microphone, having someone like Roger Daltrey and Liam as their mouthpiece always worked a lot better. Sure, neither of them was on the same level of songwriting as the guitarist beside them, but without that booming voice in front, it might have been harder for someone to tell them apart from any other band on the scene.
Granted, both guitarists did at least offer a great complement to their singers on backing vocals and the occasional lead. They didn’t have the force as much, but when listening to songs like ‘Going Mobile’ or ‘Going Nowhere’, their softer approach to singing is a nice palette cleanser when all you’ve been listening to is rock and roll. Noel and Townshend may have come from two separate eras of the rock world, but each of them knew their ability to translate iconic melodies for their singers to send into the stratosphere.
