The Oasis song that left Liam Gallagher in tears
Liam Gallagher has never struck anyone as the kind, sensitive type. Given the kind of vicious lines that he tends to dish out in the press and occasionally at the expense of his brother, Liam has been known to assert himself as one of the toughest rock stars when he gets a microphone in front of his face. While looking like the ultimate level-headed badass whenever he takes the stage, the Oasis frontman remembered breaking down in tears while recording the band’s ballad ‘Don’t Go Away’.
Before the band had even started work on Be Here Now, though, the past few years had already been one of the biggest emotional rollercoasters any band could have had. After becoming one of the most in-demand bands in Manchester off the strength of Definitely Maybe, What’s the Story Morning Glory was where Oasis staked their claim as one of the biggest bands on the planet.
Riding the wave of massive hits like ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’, the pressure was on to see what Noel Gallagher had in the pipeline for the next album. Whatever he could dish out with a guitar and pen, though, Liam would always be able to sing his heart out, having swagger and sincerity as long as he had words in front of him.
While most of their third release, Be Here Now, would suffer from dragging songs on for way too long and the band playing up their Beatles worship to the point of self-parody, ‘Don’t Go Away’ is still one of their most memorable ballads. For all of the praise bestowed on tracks like ‘Wonderwall’ and even ‘Slide Away’, this might be one of Liam’s best vocal performances of his entire career, singing with the kind of passion that only comes from a singer’s heart rather than their diaphragm.
Getting the whole song down on tape was not going to be easy, though. After going through a couple of passes of the track, Liam would end up leaving the studio in tears, getting too overwhelmed at the moment to continue recording.
When asked about the moment in a documentary afterwards, Liam said that the emotional weight of the song ended up getting to him a bit too much, saying, “The last time I cried was when we recorded ‘Don’t Go Away’. I couldn’t sing it. I’d lost the plot. Just by me thinking of a certain thing, and I thought, ‘I can’t be singing this song’, and I had to go away and sort myself out”.
Compared to the typical nonsense that appears in a handful of Noel’s greatest tunes, ‘Don’t Go Away’ might actually be the most earnest love song he ever wrote. While he never said who the song was specifically about, the chorus is so open to interpretation that it could be about basically anybody, either singing it to your lover who is walking out on you or not letting go of a family member.
Liam would eventually get it together during the tour for Be Here Now, singing with that same heartfelt passion and even finding a way to add a little bit of swagger to the song. Not many people can sing a heartbreaking ballad and still look like a rock god, but Liam is quite possibly too cool to be bogged down by ballads.
