Noel about his songs


Aquiesce
I had me guitar with me on a train to the studio in Wales and it stopped
for some
reason. So I got me guitar out. I had the intro with just the two chords. I didnīt
had the verses so I was just humming the melody. I wrote the choruses in the studio.
The reason Liam doesnīt sing the choruses is because I donīt think he can get that
high, he couldnīt then anyway. Everyone seems to think itīs about brothers which
it isnīt at all. Itīs one of my favourites. The crowd always seem to go for that one
really. I donīt know why. I wouldnīt say itīs a love song, itīs a song about friend-
ship really. I like it anyway.
We recorded it and left England and we were in Canada actually and I got a phone
call from McGee at five in the morning or something. And he wanted to put A. out
as a single. There were a bit of an argument between me and McGee and he wanted
Some might say to be the B-side. Then he wanted to put out both as singles.
I got me way at the end but looking back on it now it probably should have been a
single really, but you know, there you go.

All Around The World
I wrote this one ages ago, before Whatever. It was twelve minutes long and we
couldn't afford to record it, but now we can get away with a 36-piece orchestra.
The longer the better as far as I'm concerned. I know what people will say, but
fuck 'em basicly. The lyrics are teeny-bop.

I suppose it's wanting to emulate your idols or whatever. I just wanted to write
a big, massive, orchestral, sprawling, fucking rock opera. So...I just sat down and
decided I was going to write a fucking 11-minute song, and I wrote it.
It's somewhere between Hey Jude and All you need is love. Yeah.
A real flag-waver.

All Around The World (Reprise)
I was running out of guitar lines so I faded it in with backwards guitars.
The feet clumping at the end belong to Brian Cannon, the sleeve designer.
The door slamming has never been done before. We got a Penny Lane piccolo
trumpet in because a guy in the brass section stood up and said "You should have
a piccolo trumpet on that - and I've got one."

Be Here Now
Wrote it on the beach near Mick Jagger's house in Mustique. The opening is
played on a toy piano belonging to one of Jagger's kids. Anyway, nicked the
piano - I can't help it, I'm from Burnage. Mick can have it back if he wants.
Later, Owen Morris told me one of the greatest drum loops was the opening to
Honky tonk women. We played it and it was the same signature as the piano.

Cast No Shadow
Richard wasn't very happy for a while so l wrote it for him and about three
weeks later he quit the band. It's about songwriters in general who are
desperately trying to say something. I'd like to be able to write really
meaningful lyrics but I always end up talking about drugs or sex.
But people like Richard and Paul Weller will look after me.
"Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say." That's me. I'm not
Morrissey. I'm not Bob Dylan. I'm not Brett Anderson. They are better lyricists
than I'll ever be.

Champagne Supernova
When I was writing that, I remember going to visit Meg, who was living with some
chicks down in Maida Vale, in her old flat. I was living in a hotel in Marylebone
High Street and had just been kicked out of my flat in Chiswick, for being drunk
and disorderly.
Anyway, I went over to Meg's. I wasn't seeing her, she was just a mate and, this
may sound really corny but I had the music and melody for the song in my head but
I didn't have any words. While I was around there we were listening to a Pixies
album called, I think it's Supernova. As we were listening to this album, we were
watching a documentary about where they make Champagne in France.
You may laugh but it's true. I was there drunk going, "Champagne supernova?
Yeah man" and to this day, everyone's going, "But what does it mean?". I can't be
arsed to explain it 'cause it sounds really corny.
Some of the lyrics were written when I was out of it. There's the words:
"Someday you will find me caught beneath a landslide in a champagne supernova in
the sky."
That's probably as psychedelic as I'll ever get. It means different things
when I'm in different moods. When I'm in a bad mood being caught beneath a
landslide is like being suffocated. The song is a bit of an epic. It's about when
you're young and you see people in groups and you think about what they did for
you and they did nothing. As a kid, you always believed the Sex Pistols were going
to conquer the world and kill everybody in the process. Bands like The Clash just
petered out. Punk rock was supposed to be the revolution but what did it do?
When we started we decided we weren't going to do anything for anybody, we just
thought we'd leave a bunch of great songs. But some of the words are about nothing.
One is about Bracket The Butler who used to be on Camberwick Green, or Chipley
or Trumpton or something. He used to take about 20 minutes to go down the hall.
And then I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with hall apart from cannonball,
so I wrote; "Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball" and people were
like, "Wow, fuck, man".
There's also the line; "Where were you while we were getting high?", because that's
what we always say to each other. But the number of people who've started clubs
called Champagne Supernova is fucking unbelievable.

Cigarettes & Alcohol
IT IS FUCKING ROCK!!!  When people hear it they start smashing things up or
pinching things.  Someone wrote and told me they were bored one day, then they
heard that song and decided to go out shoplifting.  Brilliant.
I wanted to write a song that was like Cum on feel the noize by Slade.
A proper, boozy anthem.

Don't Go Away
This is about me mam. A week before Meg and me went to Mustique me mam was
in hospital. They thought it was cancer, though it wasnt and she's fine. It's a
very sad song about not wanting to loose someone you're close to. I never had
that lyrics until the day we recorded it. "Me and you, what's going on? All we
seem to know is how to show the feelings that are wrong."
It's after a row.
Quite bleak
.

Don't Look Back In Anger
I went up to The Manor when Paul Weller was recording Stanley road and
that's when I did my bit on Walk on gilded splinters. He played me his song
Wings of speed and that was the feel I tried to get on Don't look back in
anger. I did it live for the first time at Sheffield Arena.
Should people put their lives in the hands of a rock 'n' roll band?
If it's us then, yeah, I think they can.
Some of the lines come from John Lennon.  I got this tape in America that had
apparently been burgled from the Dakota Hotel and someone had found these
cassettes. Lennon was starting to record his memoirs on tape. He's going on
about 'trying to start a revolution from me bed, because they said the brains
I had went to my head.'  Thank you, I'll take that.
It's about not being upset about the things you might have said or done yesterday.
It's about looking forward rather than looking back. I hate people who look back
on the past or talk about what might have been.

D'You Know What I Mean?
I was going to make up some profound statement in the chorus but I couldn't
come up with anything that fitted. then I just thought "All my people right here,
right now. D'You Know What I Mean? Yeah, Yeah"
Very vague, very ambiguous.
Look in the mirror and wink while you sing it and it's quite saucy. The morce code
in the background was inspired by The Beatles' Strawberry fields. If anyone can
tell me what it means please let me know.

Fade Away
It was going to be on the first album. Cos that one was the main song on the set.
That probably got taken off the album for Slide Away. I probably wrote it in
Manchester. If you listen to the lyrics, I mean they say more about the song
that I can tell you write now. "The dreams we have as children fade away."
I suppose itīs a song about growing up but at the same time not growing old.
If that makes any sence. It sounds to good to be one of mine though. I think at
the time we were a bit worried cos there was a chance we were going to get sued
cos it sounds a bit like a Wham song. Freedom. But it wasnīt intentional. And then
we done a version of it for the Warchild thing. Which I wanted to do slower. That
ended up wrong as well. I mean I like the other version but I like to do it on just a
piano as well. A really slow one. Sort of an Imagine part.

Fade In/Out
The first part of the song is from the Mustique demo with Johnny Depp playing
slide guitar. I like it because itīs the first blues I've done and Liam does the best
singing I've heard from him. I said "Pretend youīre a black man from Memphis".
His not got very good rhythm and we made him stamp his foot all the way through
it. He couldnīt sing for a week after.

Fuckin In The Bushes *New
I was working on a remix for James Lavelles band Unkle. We had a day off when we
were done with the recording and we started mess around with drumloops.
I put step on step to the bass line and some guitar and we realised that it could be
quite good.
We had watched a movie about the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 and we had laughed
at some of the people in the movie, so we sampled them.
The beginning has the promoter whining at all the hippies that broke down the fences
around the concert area.

Gas Panic *New
A bit like Led Zeppelin, some smoothing hip hop. For two years ago I used to have
these difficult agony attacks. The clock was 4 one morning and I couldnīt sleep.
Mostly I used to wake Meg and she was forced to sit and talk with me all through
the night. But this night she didnīt wake up so I decided to get a guitar and write
a song about how I felt.

Going Nowhere
That was written before we had a record deal. Itīs about what we were going to do
when we got all the money. But we didnīt record it until 1997. I donīt know why we
never done that one. I like it, I like the fact that we just finished the album and
there were million guitar tracks on the album. There was only me and Whitey
present at the time becuase everybody was just having a hard day or just had enough
really. So I just went in there with Whitey and done it on an afternoon.
The songīs really old, probably from 1990. That one was pretty spontanous, we just
got everyone down there and sort of done it.

Go Let It Out *New
It started out like a very slowly, melancholy piece, almost Lennon- like.
But then we did the demo recordings and it went faster and became rockier.
I played a Paul McCartney- like bass line and we decided to find as many
instruments from the 60īs as we could, old mellotrons and sitar sounds.

Half The World Away
...I played This guyīs in love with you. Thatīs where I pinched all the chords from.
Sort of moved a few around, put that one there and put that one there. And there
you go, you got another song. Paul Wellers favourite ever Oasis song.
I like the lyrics as well. Again itīs about leaving cities. Iīm not sure anyone else
likes it. I played the drums on that one as well actually. Because our ex drummer
wasnīt the most talented people in the world. Probably the easiest song to play...

He just couldnīt get it right...
I think Bonehead plays the keyboard on it. I think Owen plays the bass.

Headshrinker
Really, really old one. Written before we had a manager or anything like that.
Thatīs one is really fast, really loud. Probably the best drumming track that the ex
drummer ever done. Itīs written about a girl that our Liam was going out with at
the time that was a pain in the ass. She followed the band everywhere. Sheīs a bit
of a weirdo as well. I donīt know what headshrinker actually is. Just thought it was
a phsyciatrist or something I suppose. It sounds like the Faces on speed, doesnīt it?
We used to have a lot of fast songs like that years and years ago in 92, 93.
We were more like a punk band then really.

Hello
It's one of the three songs on the album that's not about anything. I spend as much
time on the lyrics as I do on the music. I'd like our kid to spend more time on them
but he spends no time at all. Obviously, everyone is going on about the Gary Glitter
thing, but I just had that in for a laugh.

Hey Now!
This song is about being in a group. It's a massive step forward for us.
Some people are not going to like it, because they're just going to want more songs
like Cigarettes & alcohol or Supersonic. The band has changed a lot and there's a
different vibe.

I Am The Walrus
We put on the single that it was recorded at the Cathouse in Glasgow in 1994.
Which it wasnīt. It was a lie. So anyone that was on the gig I apoligize for that,
itīs not actually you clapping. That version was recorded in 1993 when we were
invited up to these Sony people at this seminar once every year. I donīt know why
it was being recorded. About a year later we was listening to this and thought it
was brilliant. So we mixed it and it was excellent and then we were;
"Where is that from?" "Itīs from the Sony seminar." "Well we canīt put that on
it sounds really..." So we decided that we were going to pick a gig in random and it
was the Cathouse in Glasgow. And if you wanna know where the clappingīs coming
from in the beginning and the end, itīs from a bootleg with the Faces.
None of us has ever thought we were the Beatles, you know. Expect Liam whoīs
thinks his John Lennon. It took us months and months to work it out.
A lot of people used to say it sounds better than the Beatles version. Itīs just
more guitars than the Beatles version. Itīs a bit faster and a lot louder. It could
have been nice to do proper in the studio but I think that one stands up really.

I Can See A Liar *New
This one sounds a bit like the Sex Pistols, the song could have been on Nevermind the
Bollocks. Itīs Liams favourite and he must always get his favourites on the records.
Liam is Liam and he usually always whines. He doesnīt stop until he gets the way he
wants.

I Hope I Think I Know
I liked the demo but it's too pop for me now. It reminds me of the Busscocks but
I think its going to be like Hey
now on Morning glory - the one nobody mentions.

It's Getting Better (Man!!)
I wrote this one jamming on the stage with the band in America. A really happy
tune even though there was alot of bad going down. Because we get connected
with The Beatles all the time I thought I'd write a Rolling Stones song. You can
almost see Keith and Ronnie with some fags in their mouths giving it some.

(Itīs Good) To Be Free
Done in the same studio on the same day as Whatever.
I started writing it in a swimming pool. And when I was in Las Vegas I finished it
off. It sounds like we are having a really good time in the studio because we were
all laughing. But it wasnīt funny at all.

Listen Up
Listen Up was done in the same day as Fade away I think. Never played it live. No,
we played it live once I think. Could never really get the pace of it right cos the
last drummer that we had wasnīt really up to much. The start sounds a bit like
Live Forever and then the guitar riff from Supersonic comes in. Which is quite
funny. Itīs another melancholic titled song about you know;
"Sailing down the river alone trying to find your way back home. And I donīt
believe in magic, but life is automatic."
Itīs all about being on your
own.
I donīt know if itīs an old one or if it was written specific for the single. But
it sounds like an old one cos I was in a traveling phase then. Living in Manchester
and living in London.

Little James *New
This is Liams first song, itīs dedicated to Patsy Kensit and James, her son with Jim
Kerr. One day when Liam was in one of the rooms we put a microphone on when he
was singing the song for himself. We recorded it without saying anything to him.
Some days later he went on vacation with Patsy and we wrote down the words, made
the melody and when he came back from Teneriffe the song was finnished and he
could go into the studio and sing.

Live Forever
That's for our mam.  It's quite simply one of the ten greatest songs of all time.
I said that when I first wrote it and I stand by it now.  I challenge anyone else
in the next ten years to come up with anything as good.  Except for us of course.
Well, it's about relationships that people have, not necessarily with girlfriends,
about friends and friendships that live forever.. commitment. It's not about
anything, it's not a love song, the word love, you can love Mars bars, and I love my
bike. It's a song about respect, having respect for your girlfriend, your mother or
your father or your friends. The line "We see things they'll never see", only two
best friends would say that to each other, two twins maybe.
Itīs a song of hope, a song about being young and trendy.
A fucking good song but I think I can do better.

Magic Pie
I sang this one and of course me and Liam had a row about it, but itīs his favourite
track now. The first line "An extraordinary guy? Can never have an ordinary day."
comes from him asking me "How come you never get into any of the situations I get
into?" And I borrowed something from Tony Blair's speach at the last Labour
conference. "There are but a thousand days preparing for a thousand years."

Morning Glory
It's a cynical song about drugs.

My Big Mouth
Even I'm not interested in what I've got to say half the time.
But "I aint never spoke to God, and I ain't never been to heaven" thatīs about
fans who think you're on the phone to John Lennon and you have all the answers.

Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is *New
This song was made by a coincidence when we did the demo recordings. We liked the
energy in it. But I would have wanted to work more with the lyrics, itīs just the
same words being repeated over and over.

Rockinī Chair
Rockinī Chair was going to be on Morning glory. Itīs really old, as old as
Going Nowhere. Itīs another song about just trying to leave the place where you
are. Just leaving town I suppose.
Thatīs one of a lot of peoples favourites. We only played it live once. Blackpool,
Empress Ballroom. Scott was in the band and he couldnīt get it right so we ditched
that one.

Roll It Over *New
My own favourite. Itīs about people that gossip, I know lots of people that do it,
especially women. Itīs a catchy and happy song that shows the direction that we
like to go in the future. Itīs more gospel influenced, bigger and more psychedelic.

Roll With It
Of course I was disappointed it didn't get to Number One, but it's still a great
song. If anything, it gets better the more time goes by.  It's just great, mindless,
senseless pop music.  If Cigarettes & alcohol made you want to go out and nick
stuff, this makes you want to take it all back.  Yeah, it's a good one.

Shakermaker
This is just a basic twelve bar blues.  It was recorded at Out of the blue in
Manchester, but we had to do the recorded version without the
"I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" bit because Coke threatened to sue.
That's why you never see us doing it live on video, 'cos Our Kid always ends up
singing the bit he's not supposed to.  Are the words gibberish?
Yeah, of course they are.  Top gibberish though.

Sheīs Electric
It was the first song I wrote for the album. Someone asked me if it was about Blur.
But it's not.
It's like a Small Faces song or something by The Kinks.

Some Might Say
It was the first song I ever wrote when I moved to London and it was inspired
by listening to The Faces. Alan McGee wanted the A-side to be Acquiesce
because he didn't think Some might say sounded like a number one.
He's a great man but his one fault is that he has absolutely no idea how to pick
singles.  As soon as I'd written Some might say I was absolutely certain it
would be a number one and I was right.  I never had even the slightest doubt.
That was the gin 'n' tonic getting the better of me. I met a guy in Swiss Cottage
who came up to me when the single was Number One. He said;
"That song really meant a lot to me." because heīs a Christian. And I asked if heīd
heard the group at all and he hadn't. So I told him we had this song called
Cigarettes and alcohol and being a Christian he wouldn't really dig that. He
seemed like a really down-to-earth bloke. And he's telling me a song means a lot to
him as a Christian and I'm having a conversation with him when I'm drugged up to
the eyeballs. It's a laugh, man.

Stand By Me
It starts "Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday". When I first moved to London
me mam kept ringing up and asking if I was eating properly. So I tried to cook a
Sunday roast and puked up for two days with food poisoning. It was back to
Pot Noodles after that. "There is one thing I can never give you, my heart will
never be your home."
. That's about the private space you have to keep. The place
where I go to write my stuff. Meg was fairly upset by that.

Stay Young
I donīt like it. I wrote it in mistake for the last album. Why it didnīt go on the
album is because when I got back to England I wrote Magic pie. Sounds like the
Kinks as well I think. I donīt like the guitar solo on it. I donīt like the sound of it
either. Thatīs one of the first one we recorded for Be here now and I think we done
that in Abbey road cos when you start doing an album you usualy starts with the
ones you like the least just so you can get into it really.

Sunday Morning Call *New
The song is about a special person. A wonderful human being that lives life but
canīt handle setbacks. I canīt reveal who it is.

Supersonic
That was originally going to be the B-side to Bring it on down, but then when
we wrote it we knew it had to be an A-side.  It was written and recorded in 8
hours at the Pink Museum in Liverpool.  When Alan McGee heard it he threatened
to drop every other act on his label.  He didn't keep his promise though, the
Scottish bastard.
I was just bladdered, out of it really. I sort of just played around with words.
The girl called Elsa was really a dog. They had this big Rottweiler in the studio.
All I did was find something that rhymed with it.
It just came out of nowhere... I knew it was a classic as soon as we'd finished.

Talk Tonight
I probably started writing it in Las Vegas and finished off writing it in Texas
where we were due to record B-sides for Whatever but we recorded that and
then we pushed that one forward to go on Some might say.
I met this sort of Oasis fan from San Fransisco while on our travels.
....it was strawberry lemonade and she was addicted to that so thatīs why thatīs
in there and she took us around playgrounds where she use to play as a kid.
Itīs all about that really. Itīs quite melancholic but quite uplifting in the same way.

The Girl In The Dirty Shirt
Meg is the girl in the dirty shirt. We were doing a gig in Brighton just before me
and Meg were going out. She was at the hotel ironing a dirty shirt because she
hadnīt brought enough clothes with her. I know it sounds a bit soft. Liam will
read this and say, "You wanker!" becuase he thinks all the songs are about him.
He even thinks Wonderwall is about him.

The Masterplan
Thatīs my favourite song I have ever written I think. I wrote that one in an hotel
room in Japan and again it was that we needed some more songs for B- sides.
I remember just sitting down with the guitar when it wasnīt really much happening.
Sort of a quiet night, maybe really early in the morning. I swear the things just
came out. I like the sound of it. I like everybodys playing on it. I like the singing as
well. I donīt know why Liam didnīt sing that one. I love all the lyrics on that one.
I think itīs the most complete sing I ever done in the studio.
I donīt like playing the guitar solos on tour anymore. I used to like it at first but
I donīt like it anymore cos I used to play the same thing sort of over and over on a
different melody. It sounds different but it is the same.
Owen suggested that we turn the tapes over and play it backwards and play just
some serie of random notes and then weīll see if we could get some sort of solo out
of it. We thought it was going to take hours. When we turned the tapes back over,
that was it. And I think we maybe had to take a couple of notes out. And then we
spent a couple of days on the strings and the brass and then just got the intro and
you know put them on the side of it and that was it.
That is everybodys favourite song I think.
All the fans that used to surround the band was always going;
"You got to save that for the next album." But the next album was like two years
away at that point. I donīt mind thinking of it as being a B-side.
I guess the masterplan was to be the biggest band in the world and we probably
were for a good year periodly...
And then it sort of leveled off since then. Which is climax and taking a bit of the
heat off really.
The first line; "Take the time to make some sence of what you want to say", thatīs
probably me sitting down thinking about what I want to say I think, but thatīs a
good line and then; "Cast your words upon the waves", means the air waves.
I suppose itīs about peoples fear of growing old...
Well you know, all we know is that we donīt know. You know if you wanna dance,
dance. If you donīt, donīt. I suppose itīs saying that there is no masterplan.

The Swamp Song
When we were doing Morning Glory this is one of the first songs we ever jammed
with Alan. It sounds very much like On the road again.

Underneath the sky
I can remember sitting with a tape recorder with Owen in a little flat that was
rented in Camden town. And it was the night before we were going into the
studio and we needed one more track. Itīs a litte like the ...Street by the
Kinks in the middle. Itīs not identical but I always liked that bit. So I think I got
that bit first and wrote the verses around that. The piano bit is Bonehead playing
the high bits and me playing the low bits. Being a left-handed I have always wanted
to build a left handed piano, to me it would be more natural. Which is why I never
play piano. On this one I just play only two notes like that and he plays the
rythm bit. The piano solo reminds me of something off Strange ways here we come
or something like that. And the guitar bit at the beginning, it sounds like a keyboard
or something but itīs actually one of the guitars. But it didnīt take that long to do
that one. It was only about an afternoon or something before we started doing Cum
on feel the noize that night. I like the backing vocals on it, we layered and
layered and layered them. So it sounds like a different instrument and Liams
singing is really good on it. I like the way he ends it, he says "Agaiiiinnnn".
Thatīs one of my favourites and we never play it live.

Where Did It All Go Wrong? *New
This song will remind people that we are a rock band. The lyrics are about all the
rich and famous people that used to follow me home and tell me about their problems.
Many rich people is pshycic and self destructive. They think that they will be ok
again if they just put themselfs into private clinics every six months. But there
are only themselfs who can solve the problem.

Who Feels Love *New
Itīs a bit Dear Prudence, a bit Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, very much Oasis
and really big. But you can dance to it. I wrote the song early in the morning in
Thailand for one and a half year ago. I wanted away from London for a while.
We visited lots of temples and I suppose I picked up the moods from there.

Wonderwall
Well it's for Meg. And it's a classic. What more can I say?
She had a company which folded and she was feeling a bit sorry for herself.
The sentiment is that there was no point in her feeling down, she has to sort my life
out for me because Iīm in bits all the time.


Taken from different interviews with Noel Gallagher.
Some of the songs are taken from The Masterplan interview disc, newspapers and
other sources.
Might not be word by word exact. As they are written down by myself. A non-
english speaking person. Live with it.
Though if you see any big errors please let me know...   :o)
And of course...if you want to put this up on your own site please contact me first.