“How dare you”: The Oasis album Liam Gallagher insisted on changing
Most of the biggest rules of Oasis come back to only two core people. Despite the band being a pseudo-democracy towards the end of their tenure, there’s no question that Noel and Liam Gallagher were the ones who called the shots and were the de facto heart of Oasis whenever they performed together. And while ‘The Chief’ normally got the final say on whatever made it onto a record, Liam wasn’t going to roll over when he felt that he was getting disrespected on this album.
As soon as the 2000s dawned, though, both Liam and Noel only had each other to hold onto. They had come out of the post-Be Here Now haze, and even if Standing on the Shoulder of Giants offered a bit of a comedown from everything, it was time for everyone to get back to business once Gem Archer and Andy Bell joined the group.
While Heathen Chemistry worked much better as a collection of singles than a proper album, it did mark one of Liam’s high points with ‘Songbird’. Compared to Noel’s token love song on the album ‘She Is Love,’ Liam does him one better by getting straight to the point, only needing two chords to talk about his relationship with Nicole Appleton. And despite being two of the biggest sparring partners, even Noel had to admit that his brother made a fantastic song by the end of production.
Although Liam certainly came into his own on Don’t Believe the Truth, things started to go sideways when they started picking tracks for their best-of album Stop the Clocks. Aside from the fact that Noel still had selective amnesia and refrained from putting in any Be Here Now songs, ‘Songbird’ got a prime spot on the track listing.
Since the entire album was packaged like little memories of songs, each track had its own illustration. Although Noel’s idea of putting up a red wall for the colour of love was a decent choice, Liam figured that it was a personal attack against his relationship and demanded that it be changed.
And as Liam is wont to do, he wasn’t exactly subtle about it, either, with Noel recalling, “I got a message on my answer machine. He was like, ‘The colour red? Beside the song I wrote about my missus? Who I’ve got a child with? How fucking dare you!’ He only had to say he’d like to change it. No problem. But instead, it descended into personal abuse.”
While Liam did get his way and had it changed, it’s not hard to see why he may have had a problem with it. Noel had suggested that he may have thought it reminded him of a red toilet wall, but red being the colour of love may have led the frontman to think that it was a symbol for his relationship running towards a brick wall.
Though it was water under the bridge for a while, having that same illustration for the song ‘Champagne Supernova’ instead was a perfect substitution. Since red is still the colour of love, seeing Noel dedicate space in the liner notes next to the song they have played live more than any other track may as well have been a subtle tribute to the fans who brought them that far. That way, the fans could be happy, and Liam got a proper presentation of his love for his other half.
