A Bell Will Ring

No Bukowski today, but I've got something just as good for ya! The wise words uttered by the Brothers Gallagher in their recent Mojo Magazine interview:

Liam: "I take time to wonder what makes us do what we do. Call me weird. I don't smoke pot. I don't take mind-bending drugs. I just drink lager and have a cigarette and talk a load of crap."

Liam on Noel: "But love is the same kind of thing. If you love someone you respect someone, you respect someone you love someone. It all comes in the same...sandwich."

More Liam on Noel: "I don't like him. He's a fucking smug cunt. And he don't like me because I'm a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. I embarrass him because I don't take things quite as serious as he does."

Noel on a meeting with an Epic rep from the USA: "We go to a posh restaurant. He's asking 'Why can we not get this record done?' And I'm telling him how it doesn't sound right, and how I'm going to write more songs, and he says 'You know who you sound like? Right now, just sitting there? Do you know who you sound like?' Well, I'm scrolling through the Sony acts thinking, Is he going to say Dylan? I'll go as low as Bruce Springsteen...Anyway, I go Who? He says 'Anastacia!'
"It didn't compute for a minute. Again, I went WHO?, and there it was again,'Anastacia.' So I poured another glass of wine, necked it in one, looked at him and said, I've got to fucking go now, 'cos I've just broken out in a rash. As I was looking at him, I thought, You will never see my face again, and I will never lay eyes on you. Whoever you fucking are, and whatever your fucking name is this is where it finishes for me and you. I walk off, down Knightsbridge, collar up, pissing down with fucking rain. Just when it can't get worse, a black cab pulls up and goes 'All right, Liam!"

Noel on Don't Believe The Truth producer Dave Sardy: "Plus, he kind of explained a few things to me about my songwriting that I had forgotten about. He said 'The thing about your songs is, why write another verse when three choruses will do?' I was going (taken aback) That's correct man. Who listens to verses anyway? Verses are shit. He was also better at massaging Liam's ego, getting the right performance. Every time I say to Liam, You might want to try and back off on that, the words he hears in his head are, "Your two sons are lesbian Nazis.'"

Noel on Liam's attitude: "We were at this awards ceremony and our table was kind of in the middle of the room, so everyone had to circumnavigate our table. So a lot of these people tap me on the shoulder and say hi. And out of the corner of your ear you hear...'Fucking cunt...fucking cunt.' I think he gets himself into a shamanic mantra of the word 'cunt'. That's his mantra: 'He's a cunt and they''re shit." He's not into other people getting nine out of 10 for album reviews, let's put it like that."

Liam on his legacy: "But I don't sit and dwell about it. I tell you for fucking why. I'd rather look back on my career - or whatever the fucking hell it is - in 20 years time and sit next to Bono and Coldplay geezer and all these other fucking lightweights and go, Well you didn't save the world, so you can fuck off...and you-you! - you can wash your hand. I'll be sitting there and I'll know I HAD IT. And maybe you didn't balls it up ever. You might still be fucking Sting or you may be fucking Batman, but I'll be fucking Liam G, man. And I AM STILL HAVING IT."

Owen Morris on Wonderwall: "Wonderwall took about six hours to record. Noel had a more complicated arrangement which we agreed wasn't right. Alan probably took one take to do the drums. I'm convinced we got where the drums come in wrong - it should have been on the word "backbeat" - but there we were. I wrote the cello part, Bonehead insisted on playing it on the Mellotron, Liam sang it in four goes. I did the repeat echo part. It was mixed on MDMA in Rockfield after seeing The Bluetones in Hereford. We did a mx and Liam came in and said turn down the vocal. That was the master mix."

Good stuff! Be sure to pick up the new issue of Mojo with Oasis on the cover. Well worth my $8.99. I downloaded Don't Believe The Truth on Friday, and you know what? It's pretty damn good. One thing about it that has shaken me to my very core is that Noel's three songs are the worst on the record. Scary. I'm interested to hear the b-sides, as that is how I judge every Oasis record. How did the songs that didn't make the record sound?

I'll have more on the new record next week. And if you're a Wonderwall fan, pick up a copy of the version Ryan Adams did. So much awesome.