The Oasis song Noel Gallagher subconsciously wrote about himself
Oasis are almost as famous for their agitating personalities as they are for their anthemic guitar hits. The Mancunian five-piece rose to acclaim in the 1990s amidst the Britpop boom, finding favour with audiences through their catchy melodies and instantly memorable choruses, ushering in a new wave of guitar music alongside the likes of Pulp and Blur. But they also became well-known for their arrogance and arguments.
Few artists have managed to shield themselves from the wrath of the Gallagher brothers. They’ve hit out at everyone from fellow Britpoppers Blur to alternative rockers Radiohead, sparing no one in interviews or online. And when they weren’t throwing insults at their peers or predecessors, they were fighting with one another behind the scenes.
The tense relationship between the Gallaghers contributed to the downfal of Oasis, leading them to break up in the late 2000s and leading many to believe that they might never orchestrate a reunion. Years of fights and feuding had become too much to handle and the brothers decided that they could no longer work together, bringing Oasis to a fitting end.
Feuding has defined Oasis’ career and legacy almost as much as ‘Wonderwall’ has, but the Gallaghers’ projections of self-importance and arrogance weren’t necessarily always founded in truth. Sometimes, it seems, they actually stemmed from subconscious insecurities and struggles from their own lives. Take, for example, the band’s 2000 single ‘Sunday Morning Call’.
The lyrics to ‘Sunday Morning Call’ are addressed to an external figure, the story of the song told in second person. Over ghostly synths and a subdued rhythm, Noel takes on lead vocals, declaring, “Here’s another Sunday morning call, you hear your head a banging on the door, slip your shoes on and then out you crawl, into a day that couldn’t give you more, but what for?”
The song addresses a person who has doubts surrounding the life they have chosen for themselves. On the surface, it seems like it could be another of the Gallagher’s digs at their peers, and Noel once suggested that this could be true. During a conversation with Uncut, he confirmed that the song was about “certain real people that I know, but who, obviously, remain nameless.”
Noel suggested that these “well-off, rich, famous” people used to turn up on his doorstep at “ungodly hours.”
“And they’d be running you through their drug and booze hell,” he remembered. “And they ultimately think that to sort all this out they just write a check made payable to The Priory clinic, and six weeks later everyone’s going to come up smelling of roses. Course, six weeks later they’ll be back in your kitchen going, ‘I can’t handle it anymore.’”
“It’s like, you don’t want to do it no more, then don’t do it,” he continued, “But for f–ks sake don’t spend 20 grand trying to kick the habit that you can just kick by looking in the mirror and saying to yourself, ‘Where did all this go wrong, man?’ That’s basically what them songs are about.” Although his explanation of the song was almost entirely in the third person, he concluded by admitting that the song might actually be about himself.
After initially suggesting that the song was angrily directed towards those friends, Gallagher acknowledged that the song might be “subconsciously directed” at himself. Perhaps he was the one beginning to struggle with the direction his life had taken, the one feeling what he wasn’t supposed to feel, wondering if it’d ever work out right. Although ‘Sunday Morning Call’ could be interpreted as Gallagher criticising his famous friends, it could also be viewed more positively as an attempt to investigate his own emotions and to treat them with care.
