TL;DR:
- Oasis’ Liam Gallagher said one of John Lennon’s songs used to get played all the time on TV.
- He didn’t really get interested in The Beatles and their contemporaries until he was a teenager.
- Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger” has a riff that’s very similar to the John song in question.
Oasis’ Liam Gallagher named the John Lennon song that got him interested in the singer. He revealed he didn’t initially understand who John was. Subsequently, an album by another English band made him listen to The Beatles.
Oasis’ Liam Gallagher loved a John Lennon song that played on TV all the time
Gallagher has repeatedly been compared to John. The two rock stars have been known to wear dark glasses and make witty remarks in interviews. Beyond that, many Oasis songs contain direct references to the Fab Four and John’s solo career. Oasis even sampled John’s voice at the end of the track “I’m Outta Time.”
During a 2008 interview with Rolling Stone, Gallagher discussed his first exposure to John. “‘Imagine’ is the song for me, because I was putting the TV on and I remember that song being on all the time and just thinking, ‘Who’s this guy?’ and all that and then obviously you forget about it and go to school,” he said. “Later on in life I got into The Beatles, the whole band and stuff.”
Oasis’ Liam Gallagher explained why he became interested in The Beatles’ songs
Gallagher discussed how he got interested in The Beatles again when he was 16, after listening to The Stone Roses’ self-titled album. “That was the one I thought, ‘That’s it,’” he recalled. “I mean, we had The Smiths and all that around the house, and The Specials and all that, but I was out playing football. It just wasn’t my time yet.
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“[Liam’s brother Noel] brought home The Stone Roses record and I was ready then,” Gallagher added. “I was at that age, so I was just hooked. And then that opened the doors to all this,’ What does that sound like? And I need more music that sounds like this. I wonder what their influences are.’”
For that reason, Gallagher started listening to artists who inspired The Stone Roses, such as the Fab Four, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Gallagher went on to joke The Beatles were superior to God because God hasn’t made a decent album in a long time. His comment might be a reference to John’s statement that The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.”
John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ has some similarities to Oasis songs
It’s interesting that Gallagher became so interested in the song “Imagine” in particular. The John solo track has the sort of lush instrumentation found in most Oasis songs. In addition, the opening piano riff from Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger” recalls the piano riff from “Imagine.”
“Imagine” is one of the most famous ballads of all time and Oasis might not be the same without it.
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