“Good for them”: The song Noel Gallagher called an anthem for freaks
He might aggravate some people with his blunt northernness, but the music world needs people like Noel Gallagher to keep their minds fixed on reality. It’s ironic, considering that some of Oasis’ weakest material stemmed from their unabashed self-reverence and obsession with The Beatles, bordering on parody. However, since those days, Noel has grounded himself and assumed the role of a great musical equaliser, much like Keith Richards before him.
Since stepping away from Oasis, Gallagher has demonstrated that he’s stayed in touch with the music scene, both through his own projects and his often colourful commentary on other artists. His remarks range from enthusiastic praise to hilariously scathing critiques. One of his most cutting assessments targeted one of his own prominent admirers, Pete Doherty. Speaking about The Libertines frontman, Gallagher once quipped, “[He’s] overrated. He’s marginally talented but not anywhere as good as me.”
Like Richards, who set the scene for loudmouth rockers like him, Gallagher isn’t afraid of tearing into any musicians and has given lashings to world-famous stars like Phil Collins and Arctic Monkeys. He rightfully called out the Sheffield group—another who would not exist without him—for allegedly dodging tax and being symptomatic of bands not having anything to say anymore. For him, it’s a matter of style over substance.
Given that Gallagher resides on a very specific hill in the musical world, there are other less surprising groups he has sent for. One of these is Oxford’s Radiohead, the middle-class quintet who refined rock music for the digital age in the late 1990s after breaking out with sounds that sat at the nexus of alt-rock, Britpop and experimental.
As Gallagher made a name for himself with simple chord progressions, wailing solos and anthems that everyday folk can sing along to, there’s no surprise he’s lamented the bleak and what he deems whiny nature of their music. He even once suggested they retire to a mansion in Oxfordshire and take the moaning with them so the rest of the world doesn’t have to endure it.
The Oasis guitarist has been so open about loathing aspects of Radiohead’s work that when speaking to Spin in 2008, he called 1992’s ‘Creep’ an “anthem for all freaks”, as well as weirdos and students. While that is enough to spit your coffee out laughing, it actually came by way of the interviewer boldly suggesting that many classic Oasis tunes are ruined by the lyrics, such as ‘The Masterplan’, ‘Champagne Supernova’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’.
Despite being a point many know is true deep down and the fact that some Oasis songs captured the spirit of their era, Gallagher said, “What’s wrong with ‘The Masterplan?'” After receiving a sample from that song, Gallagher turned his attention to Radiohead and used Thom Yorke as an apparent example of a songwriter whose lyrics mean little.
He said: “It’s possible to sail away on a ship of that name — when you’re off your nut on drugs! What the fuck do Thom Yorke’s lyrics mean? Apart from ‘Creep,’ which is the anthem for all freaks and weirdos and students. Good for them. But you’re not telling me ‘Live Forever’ is shit, are you? Nothing wrong with those words.”
Over the years, Gallagher seems to have changed his tune. Since then, he’s likened Radiohead songs to his and even claimed that their in-house guitar hero, Jonny Greenwood, is one of his “favourite ever musicians”. He must have felt bad about his constant bashing of them.
