The 1967 Beatles song Noel Gallagher crowns as their most timeless: “I always hear something new”
Just as The Beatles are always going to have critics, Oasis are always going to criticise other bands, but somehow, in that landscape of inevitability, never do you find Oasis criticising The Beatles.
Despite their gripes, there are a handful of bands Oasis cite as their eternal influences. The Smiths, The Stone Roses, and The Sex Pistols all proudly stake a claim for a seat at the table. But sitting at the very head of it, holding court and barking the orders are The Beatles.
From Liam’s vocals to Noel’s chord progressions, their sonic blueprint is dripping all over the Gallagher brothers’ approach, and they don’t care about admitting it. “If you’re talking about a musical journey for me, then it’s not complete without The Beatles,” Noel Gallagher claimed, “The Beatles are the best. They wrote the best songs, they played the best parts, they wore the best clothes, they were in the best era.”
So many of Oasis’ infectious anthems are attributed to The Beatles model. Given how straight down the line Oasis were with their songwriting, you would think that they naturally gravitated towards their heavy-hitting hits like ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Help!’ or ‘Let It Be’, but it was actually the mindbending psychedelia that they dug, and their ability to reveal endless sonic layers on one song.
When asked for his definitive Beatles track, Noel Gallagher confidently claimed it was ‘I Am The Walrus’ and continued to say, “Depending on what speakers you’re listening to it on, I always hear something new in it. Or every time it’s like, ‘I’ve never heard that…is that what that radio interference was saying?’ I mean, you’d be brushing your teeth and just think, ‘I’ve never heard that before’.”
Writing chord progressions clearly comes easily to Gallagher, but penning something as elaborate and complex as ‘I Am The Walrus’ is arguably outside of his wheelhouse. It’s a song that places Oasis along with the rest of us, as everyday fans who simply cannot comprehend how The Beatles could pull off the sort of tricks they did.
In a bid to find out, however, Oasis regularly covered the track in their early setlists. Liam’s voice soared in the chorus as he really channelled his Lennon-inspired rasp, and it seemed as if the band were dipping their toes into psychedelic realms to help inform their songwriting. But actually, it was for a very different reason.
“I’d worked out if we extended the end, we could just extend it until we played enough to get paid,” Noel explained, “So at the end, we’d always do the [sings reprise] and then Liam would just walk off and then I’d walk off and we’d stand and watch the other three trying to work out an ending for it, which they never did.”
Despite the cash grab, the cover was a bona fide tribute to their favourite band, and it was the closest they got to replicating their psychedelic brilliance. Yet there’s no denying that elsewhere, The Beatles’ influence is all over the Oasis sound, who have carried the torch for British rock and roll, after The Fab Four first lit it.
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