The rock legend Noel Gallagher thought was overrated: “Not anywhere as good as me”
Rock and roll was always supposed to evolve at some point. No matter how many people complain that rock was much better back in their day, the only way for the genre to thrive is if someone comes along who manages to take those old tropes and make them sound new again. Although bands like Radiohead had been going beyond the genre altogether, The Libertines were proud to represent the punk values of the genre, but Noel Gallagher didn’t understand the appeal of Pete Doherty at first.
He wasn’t alone at first when it came to Up the Bracket. There was a waywardness that ran counter to a lot of polished indie at the time, marking it out as a point of divisive difference. The more people dig into it, though, the more they will come to appreciate what they were doing, making the kind of everyman brand of punk on tracks like ‘The Boy Looked at Johnny’ or ‘I Get Along’. After all, all the best art is divisive.
If anything, this felt like a more tuneful version of what some of the hardcore punk groups had been doing beforehand. The US had these kinds of outfits decades before with The Replacements, and it looked like that kind of disaffected punk rock energy had started to spill over into the next generation.
But Noel Gallagher was a punk at heart, and he didn’t think that Doherty’s music was all that special, telling Stuff Magazine, “[He’s] overrated. He’s marginally talented but not anywhere as good as me. If he wasn’t fucking a supermodel, no one outside of NME would give a shit about him.”
For any casual fan, though, this is Noel Gallagher 101. The entire premise of his persona is about tearing down anything that he doesn’t see as true rock and roll, but when looking through The Libertines’ credentials as a rock act, all of the pieces are there for a great rock and roll group.
Outside of their notorious escapades behind the scenes, the chemistry between Doherty and Carl Barat is the kind of dual genius role ripped straight out of the days of Mick Jones and Joe Strummer, each going back and forth making great pop songs. Even though it’s not anything groundbreaking at times, a track like ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ isn’t intended to be deep. It’s meant to make the listener feel something whenever it comes on.
If anything, seeing Gallagher talk up Doherty as overrated is incredibly confusing, considering his love for Sex Pistols. Back in their prime, the founders of British punk were also the kind of group that made some of their best material out of their image and put mountains of attitude behind every song, so why doesn’t the same principle apply here?
Then again, Doherty never intended to ape the style of the first punk regime. Gallagher may have found his way into rock and roll legend with Oasis, but just like The Strokes had done half a world away, The Libertines made the sound of grimy clubs and boozed-up rock tunes actually sound fun again.
