“They were one of the greatest”: The band Noel Gallagher thought should have sold millions
Not every band is destined to be as famous as their fans want them to be. Even if they should be selling out arenas and making some of the most celebrated music of all time, there are always going to be certain limits on how far artists can push themselves in the studio and go against the grain whenever they perform live. While it hurts when some bands fall by the wayside, it stings even more when people like Noel Gallagher look on at their favourites getting lost in the shuffle.
Then again, there are no rules when it comes to which bands get to be the kings of rock and roll. There’s a lot of luck that has to be on someone’s side to be one of the biggest acts in the world, and while they may have written some of the finest songs of their generation, it’s not always easy to see what people have on their hands unless they see it in hindsight. But for Noel, he knew that all he needed was the perfect balance of songwriting and attitude.
As much as Oasis became notorious for the fights between Liam and Noel, ‘The Chief’ figured that they needed to come correct if they proclaimed themselves to be the biggest band in the world. It might have been easy for someone to make their own nostalgic trips through classic rock, but once Britpop was in full swing, Definitely Maybe and What’s the Story Morning Glory were celebrated more for their fantastic songwriting than the obnoxious behaviour that the band did on the road.
But Noel wouldn’t have been the songwriter he is today without his influences. Although there is the looming shadow of The Beatles in nearly every song he writes, he was always interested in reaching for other influences, and when he was kneedeep in the indie sphere, he couldn’t think of a better band to worship than The Velvet Underground in their prime.
For all of the punk rock that Noel sported when he first started his career, Lou Reed should be considered the first official punk rocker. Iggy Pop was the one interested in destruction, but Reed wanted to defy the status quo in a more esoteric way, usually writing songs that had to do with life in the gutter or the darker side of life, whether that was detailing his problems trying to find his dealer on ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’ or detailing every single second of a drug high on ‘Heroin’.
Although the band didn’t get appreciated until years later and were reviled in their time, Noel knew that they were well worth the same accolades that most singer-songwriters of the 1980s had to deal with, saying, “Phil Collins sells a lot of records, but he makes shit albums. Velvet Underground didn’t sell any records, but they were one of the greatest bands of all time. So fucking work that one out.”
Going through Reed’s back catalogue, though, he still never seemed to get the same respect that he deserved. While there were plenty of tunes of his that were popular like ‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, they didn’t get to become famous until they were used in a different context, whether it was people latching onto the former in Trainspotting or the latter being used as one of the best hip-hop samples of all time with A Tribe Called Quest.
Regardless of how many people shout their praises for The Velvet Underground, though, their reception in the mainstream will forever be predicated on how many people bought their records instead of the ones that praised their songs. It’s not exactly fair by Noel’s standards, but it’s the hard truth of the business that not everyone can play on the same big stages as he can.
