Liam Gallagher rediscovers an oasis in music with solo debut
Liam Gallagher
"I don’t need to get any more famous " says  Liam Gallagher   now 45. "God  no. I didn’t miss it terribly. I just wanted the universe to plow me some songs  which it did. If you’re good to rock ‘n’ roll  it’ll be good to you. And I’ve been good to rock ‘n’ roll.” (Photo: Rankin/Warner Bros.)
There’s a village in England that  Liam Gallagher  calls home. Like everyone else there who isn’t a one-time lead singer for Oasis and/or recipient of Q Magazine’s benediction as the Greatest Rock Band Frontman of All Time  he occasionally putters around town on errands  now and then bumping into one particular neighbor with whom he has a lot in common.
Like  Gallagher   Ray Davies is a massive figure in pop music history. They draw from a similar stream  each conjuring the sound of mid-1960s English rock ‘n’ roll  though only Davies was actually there at the time. Each has a brother with whom he has famously feuded  Noel Gallagher and Dave Davies  respectively  to the point of brawling onstage as fans watched in horror and delight.
Nothing more needs to be said  especially now that Gallagher  45  has stepped out with his debut solo album  As You Were  out now. The Lennonesque edginess in Wall Of Glass  the guitar chords and rhythms in Bold that recall Across The Universe  the tambourine beat and waltz time of You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away resurrected for When I’m In Need  even the title of the track You Better Run and the lyric that quotes “happiness is a warm gun” — all of these elements a debt to The Beatles that  Gallagher  freely acknowledges.
Looking back at the antics of  his  younger days   Gallagher  says  “I was drinking too much." (Photo: Bebeto Matthews  Associated Press)
As You Were also confirms that  he ’s back at full strength after a long hiatus. “A lot of personal stuff was going on ”  he  says. “I was drinking too much. Then I thought  “You know what? I’m gonna go live in Spain  get me head together and get some sun on me bones.’”
Somehow  that didn’t happen. But  he  did pick up  his  guitar and  to  his  surprise  out came a new song  ‘Bold.’ “Obviously I didn’t write it in a day — I wrote it in half a day ”  he  remembers.
Others followed quickly. “I didn’t go  ‘I just write a song because I’m not famous anymore and I must get back to the top of the charts ’”  he  explains. “There’s none of that nonsense. I don’t need to get any more famous. God  no. I didn’t miss it terribly. I just wanted the universe to plow me some songs  which it did. If you’re good to rock ‘n’ roll  it’ll be good to you. And I’ve been good to rock ‘n’ roll.”
 His  voice showed no rust  either. “I should have taken better care of it ”  he  admits. “But I’m a snarly rock ‘n’ roll singer. You don’t want to start watering it down because you’ll end up sounding like Noel Gallagher. And we don’t want that.”
Maybe not. But neither does  Liam  feel apologetic for sinking  his  sound even deeper into the bedrock of the 1960s with As You Were. “Yeah  maybe I wish I’d been around back then ” he concedes. “These days there’s a lot of genres  which I guess is a good thing but it can also get in the way. I’d have liked the times when it was just The Stones  The Kinks  The Who  The Small Faces  The Beatles and all that stuff. I reckon they were more my people.”
"I don’t need to get any more famous " says  Liam Gallagher   now 45. "God  no. I didn’t miss it terribly. I just wanted the universe to plow me some songs  which it did. If you’re good to rock ‘n’ roll  it’ll be good to you. And I’ve been good to rock ‘n’ roll.” (Photo: Rankin/Warner Bros.)
There’s a village in England that  Liam Gallagher  calls home. Like everyone else there who isn’t a one-time lead singer for Oasis and/or recipient of Q Magazine’s benediction as the Greatest Rock Band Frontman of All Time  he occasionally putters around town on errands  now and then bumping into one particular neighbor with whom he has a lot in common.
Like  Gallagher   Ray Davies is a massive figure in pop music history. They draw from a similar stream  each conjuring the sound of mid-1960s English rock ‘n’ roll  though only Davies was actually there at the time. Each has a brother with whom he has famously feuded  Noel Gallagher and Dave Davies  respectively  to the point of brawling onstage as fans watched in horror and delight.
Nothing more needs to be said  especially now that Gallagher  45  has stepped out with his debut solo album  As You Were  out now. The Lennonesque edginess in Wall Of Glass  the guitar chords and rhythms in Bold that recall Across The Universe  the tambourine beat and waltz time of You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away resurrected for When I’m In Need  even the title of the track You Better Run and the lyric that quotes “happiness is a warm gun” — all of these elements a debt to The Beatles that  Gallagher  freely acknowledges.
Looking back at the antics of  his  younger days   Gallagher  says  “I was drinking too much." (Photo: Bebeto Matthews  Associated Press)
As You Were also confirms that  [TGT] ’s back at full strength after a long hiatus. “A lot of personal stuff was going on ”  [TGT]  says. “I was drinking too much. Then I thought  “You know what? I’m gonna go live in Spain  get me head together and get some sun on me bones.’”
Somehow  that didn’t happen. But  [TGT]  did pick up  [TGT]  guitar and  to  [TGT]  surprise  out came a new song  ‘Bold.’ “Obviously I didn’t write it in a day — I wrote it in half a day ”  he  remembers.
Others followed quickly. “I didn’t go  ‘I just write a song because I’m not famous anymore and I must get back to the top of the charts ’”  he  explains. “There’s none of that nonsense. I don’t need to get any more famous. God  no. I didn’t miss it terribly. I just wanted the universe to plow me some songs  which it did. If you’re good to rock ‘n’ roll  it’ll be good to you. And I’ve been good to rock ‘n’ roll.”
 His  voice showed no rust  either. “I should have taken better care of it ”  he  admits. “But I’m a snarly rock ‘n’ roll singer. You don’t want to start watering it down because you’ll end up sounding like Noel Gallagher. And we don’t want that.”
Maybe not. But neither does  Liam  feel apologetic for sinking  his  sound even deeper into the bedrock of the 1960s with As You Were. “Yeah  maybe I wish I’d been around back then ” he concedes. “These days there’s a lot of genres  which I guess is a good thing but it can also get in the way. I’d have liked the times when it was just The Stones  The Kinks  The Who  The Small Faces  The Beatles and all that stuff. I reckon they were more my people.”