LONDON - Another post about albums from the past.
The more cynical Quietus reader would probably expect the members of Beady Eye – essentially Oasis without the scowling eyebrows and dictatorial plankspanking of Noel Gallagher – and frontman Liam Gallagher in particular to simply list all 13 of The Beatles’ for their Bakers Dozen choices, but not so. Indeed, while their list errs towards the tail of the 1960s, punk and the dawn of Britpop, the absence of any albums by the Fab Four in their group incarnation is telling, as is the presence of the single Beatles member who does make the final cut.
The more cynical Quietus reader would probably expect the members of Beady Eye – essentially Oasis without the scowling eyebrows and dictatorial plankspanking of Noel Gallagher – and frontman Liam Gallagher in particular to simply list all 13 of The Beatles’ for their Bakers Dozen choices, but not so. Indeed, while their list errs towards the tail of the 1960s, punk and the dawn of Britpop, the absence of any albums by the Fab Four in their group incarnation is telling, as is the presence of the single Beatles member who does make the final cut.
Running through the list with The Quietus, Gallagher and guitarist Andy Bell are at pains to point out that the compiled list is a group effort and not the choices of a single member. “Beady Eye is a democracy and we all bring in ideas and we all bring in songs and of course we have complete freedom,” explains Bell. “That’s the thing that has to be mentioned in comparison to Oasis. That doesn’t mean that we didn’t have freedom in Oasis because we did. The dynamic in Beady Eye is really healthy.”
Bee Gees - Bee Gees 1st
Liam: We’ve all been into the Bee Gees, man, from years ago. Phil Smith, our DJ, got us into it and all that stuff. It’s mega, horizontal or whatever it is.
Andy: One of the first times that I met Oasis was when they played the Hacienda on the first tour and I remember them talking about this album then.
L: That’s right! You were going, “What the fuck’s that?”
A: Yeah! I was like, “The Bee Gees?!” But it’s great. That’s the one with ‘Red Chair, Fade Away’ on it. 'Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You' is the one with the monks chanting on it and most people who are into this album will tell you that that’s the tune. They were doing a lot of psychedelic pop before The Beatles were doing it and that’s the genius about it.
L: Yeah, top band.
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
L: I like to think of this as Lennon and Elvis, you know what I mean? Lennon wouldn’t have been there without Elvis and I wouldn’t be here without The Stone Roses. Ian Brown as a frontman had the look and he was cool as fuck. He was my Elvis. The first time I saw them, that was it! I thought, “I want that!” I’d heard our kid play ‘Sally Cinnamon’ round the house and I went to see them just before the album came out and it was like, “This is it, man! This is the next fucking step!” It was like growing up a bit and you’re thinking, “This is the band that’s going to guide me to chicks and being a cool young man.” You know what I mean? This was the album that was going to carry me through. They were my guiding star.
A: I remember buying ‘Made Of Stone’ on 7” because of the sleeve and I knew just looking at it that it would be good. I bought it, took it home, played it and I thought it was great. And I liked ‘Going Down’, the B-side, much more than the A-side and that was my moment. I went to see them in Oxford and the Ally Pally and just loved them. It has a big effect on the early days of Ride. I was massively into John Squire. Before John Squire came along I was into Johnny Marr and that was very straight but John Squire had this whole other thing going on.
The La's - The La's
L: Lee Mavers is a moody little fucker but you need people like him every now and again. You should be able to dance to The La’s but it’s not all about dancing; it’s about music.
A: To me, The La’s is a dance record; this is what I like dancing to.
L: Who says you need to dance? I’ve never danced in my fucking entire life. I don’t feel the need. I’ll jump about but I’ve never felt the need to dance. There are millions of people like me who don’t need to dance to listen to music. You never heard The La’s make an indie-dance crossover record because they believed what they believed in.
A: It took me a while to appreciate this album, and with ‘There She Goes’ I thought that was all there was. I didn’t hear the album properly until I’d joined Oasis. I think Noel was playing a compilation tape and ‘Looking Glass’ came on and I said, “What the hell is this?” and that got me into them and I’ve never looked back.
L: Lee Mavers is a fucking dude, man. He’s set in his ways and I fucking love him.
A: The more time goes by, the more it gets bigger. If Mavers followed this up he’d ruin everything, which is his paradox.
L: But that’s his genius, innit? Him doing Wembley Stadium wouldn’t have worked.
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
L: That’s the best post-Beatles album. We all like it and that, but that was the best sounding fucking one. It’s got tunes that make me cry.
A: Everything that’s on it has a warm Wall-Of-Sound feeling to it because Phil Spector produced it and it has amazing songs like ‘Wah-Wah’, ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’. I can relate to George Harrison but I’m not going to make a triple album.
L: But triple albums are too much. They’re stupid, aren’t they? Even double albums are too much.
A: There are plenty of doubles that do work: Exile On Main Street, Electric Ladyland…
L: You’ve just got to cut it off, man.
The Jam - Sound Affects
L: A top album, innit?
A: It’s got 'Start!' and 'That’s Entertainment' on it. The lyrics to that are still pertinent and Arctic Monkeys are doing that kind of social observation. That’s their shit now, isn’t it?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love
A: This is my favourite Hendrix album. It’s the best sounding one, and it’s got amazing production. It’s got ‘Spanish Castle Magic’, ‘Little Wing’, ‘If 6 Was 9’ and a really good collection of tunes. This is more Hendrix... in pop mode, which isn’t what Electric Ladyland was about. and I veer more towards this.
The Kinks - The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
L: This is a mega album. I only heard it recently and it’s very English, innit?
A: The production on this is so in the room. This came out the year after Sgt Pepper and the title tune pootles along really nicely.
L: It’s like an old sitcom, you know what I mean? It’s like Rising Damp and it’s very English.
A: It’s got great lyrics and it makes me laugh and it captures something about our parents’ lives, really. That’s the great thing about Ray Davies: he was like a mirror. In the mid 60s he’d be sat at home with a cup of tea and musically celebrating the jam on his toast. And it was natural for him to do that – that was him. But when you get other people adopting that as a style then it becomes a bit silly for me.
L: It’s like a Lowry painting and it’s top.
The Left Banke - There's Gonna Be A Storm
A: They wrote ‘Walk Away Renee’ which is the story of two band members trying to get a girl. She was going out with one of them and the other guy was after her. This collection has got their debut album and the full complete works. They’ve also got a song called ‘Pretty Ballerina’ which is much better than ‘Walk Away Renee’. It’s baroque pop; it’s American but with very British influences and as mystic pop music it’s fucking brilliant. The harpsichord in it is very much like ‘Lady Jane’-era Stones but more poppy.
Love - Forever Changes
A: Certainly not the greatest album ever made, as the greatest album ever made won’t contain mention of “snot” in it, but Arthur Lee was a 60s Lee Mavers. It’s the never-reached potential with him. Or rather, he did reach his potential because this album stands up but he got lost afterwards. But it all came together for this record. It’s a dark album and good music can be dark while still being uplifting. Love were on the front line.
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
L: That’s the best fucking dance crossover album ever made. This’ll take some beating, you know what I mean?
A: How can you beat something that came together so randomly? I was signed to Creation when that was being made and Alan McGee was coming to see Ride and then he’d be going off to see the Scream the next day, and then he’d come back raving about the mix of ‘Loaded’. For me, it was like pulling teeth because it was like painstakingly turning rock & roll into Sly And The Family Stone. It wasn’t easy but it was like mental magic. We loved it but it wasn’t something that we wanted to do ourselves. It was something that was going on on that side of the room, you know?
L: It’s a very sexy album, and I heard some the other day while walking around Harrods buying some shoes with the missus, and it’s dead good, man.
A: Primal Scream are probably my oldest friends in the music world. They were the first people I met in London when Ride got signed and I met Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes and they never let me down in terms of being good guys.
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
L: It just makes you wanna slap some cunt, doesn’t it? I’m having them over The Clash - they were a proper punk band for me. I don’t think too much about it but it’s in us all, that record.
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
A: We’ve gone for this one over their other albums because it’s got ‘Scarborough Fair’ on it. That’s our all-time favourite Simon and Garfunkel tune. We could’ve gone for the Greatest Hits, really, but that’s the main reason.
Paul Weller - 22 Dreams
A: For us, it’s Weller’s best album in years. We haven’t actually sat down and listened to Wake Up The Nation yet because he came out with it too quickly. This is a great record to listen to and despite it being a double, it doesn’t feel long at all.
Ok, the guys are a bit old :), here are (or were) my favourite 13, though I also live on albums from the past :).
For several of these artists I would say "everything" by them (in the recent decades "Greatest Hits" and similar collections were quite important, for example when I was a kid the "best of" the Queen, then Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, etc. were very popular among us), but I'm trying to choose one album for every band.
I could speak for hours about them, but especially personal memories, so I'm not going to bore you :)
Oasis, (What's The Story) Morning Glory
Led Zeppelin, Houses Of The Holy
Ennio Morricone, just really everything, as he inspired everyone
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Verve, Urban Hymns
The Queen, A Night At The Opera
Stereophonics, You Gotta Go There To Come Back
Paul Weller, 22 Dreams
Richard Ashcroft, Alone With Everybody
Suede, Coming Up
Paolo Nutini, These Streets
Michael Jackson, Thriller
The Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
of course I could add many more
Bee Gees - Bee Gees 1st
Liam: We’ve all been into the Bee Gees, man, from years ago. Phil Smith, our DJ, got us into it and all that stuff. It’s mega, horizontal or whatever it is.
Andy: One of the first times that I met Oasis was when they played the Hacienda on the first tour and I remember them talking about this album then.
L: That’s right! You were going, “What the fuck’s that?”
A: Yeah! I was like, “The Bee Gees?!” But it’s great. That’s the one with ‘Red Chair, Fade Away’ on it. 'Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You' is the one with the monks chanting on it and most people who are into this album will tell you that that’s the tune. They were doing a lot of psychedelic pop before The Beatles were doing it and that’s the genius about it.
L: Yeah, top band.
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
L: I like to think of this as Lennon and Elvis, you know what I mean? Lennon wouldn’t have been there without Elvis and I wouldn’t be here without The Stone Roses. Ian Brown as a frontman had the look and he was cool as fuck. He was my Elvis. The first time I saw them, that was it! I thought, “I want that!” I’d heard our kid play ‘Sally Cinnamon’ round the house and I went to see them just before the album came out and it was like, “This is it, man! This is the next fucking step!” It was like growing up a bit and you’re thinking, “This is the band that’s going to guide me to chicks and being a cool young man.” You know what I mean? This was the album that was going to carry me through. They were my guiding star.
A: I remember buying ‘Made Of Stone’ on 7” because of the sleeve and I knew just looking at it that it would be good. I bought it, took it home, played it and I thought it was great. And I liked ‘Going Down’, the B-side, much more than the A-side and that was my moment. I went to see them in Oxford and the Ally Pally and just loved them. It has a big effect on the early days of Ride. I was massively into John Squire. Before John Squire came along I was into Johnny Marr and that was very straight but John Squire had this whole other thing going on.
The La's - The La's
L: Lee Mavers is a moody little fucker but you need people like him every now and again. You should be able to dance to The La’s but it’s not all about dancing; it’s about music.
A: To me, The La’s is a dance record; this is what I like dancing to.
L: Who says you need to dance? I’ve never danced in my fucking entire life. I don’t feel the need. I’ll jump about but I’ve never felt the need to dance. There are millions of people like me who don’t need to dance to listen to music. You never heard The La’s make an indie-dance crossover record because they believed what they believed in.
A: It took me a while to appreciate this album, and with ‘There She Goes’ I thought that was all there was. I didn’t hear the album properly until I’d joined Oasis. I think Noel was playing a compilation tape and ‘Looking Glass’ came on and I said, “What the hell is this?” and that got me into them and I’ve never looked back.
L: Lee Mavers is a fucking dude, man. He’s set in his ways and I fucking love him.
A: The more time goes by, the more it gets bigger. If Mavers followed this up he’d ruin everything, which is his paradox.
L: But that’s his genius, innit? Him doing Wembley Stadium wouldn’t have worked.
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
L: That’s the best post-Beatles album. We all like it and that, but that was the best sounding fucking one. It’s got tunes that make me cry.
A: Everything that’s on it has a warm Wall-Of-Sound feeling to it because Phil Spector produced it and it has amazing songs like ‘Wah-Wah’, ‘Isn’t It A Pity’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’. I can relate to George Harrison but I’m not going to make a triple album.
L: But triple albums are too much. They’re stupid, aren’t they? Even double albums are too much.
A: There are plenty of doubles that do work: Exile On Main Street, Electric Ladyland…
L: You’ve just got to cut it off, man.
The Jam - Sound Affects
L: A top album, innit?
A: It’s got 'Start!' and 'That’s Entertainment' on it. The lyrics to that are still pertinent and Arctic Monkeys are doing that kind of social observation. That’s their shit now, isn’t it?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love
A: This is my favourite Hendrix album. It’s the best sounding one, and it’s got amazing production. It’s got ‘Spanish Castle Magic’, ‘Little Wing’, ‘If 6 Was 9’ and a really good collection of tunes. This is more Hendrix... in pop mode, which isn’t what Electric Ladyland was about. and I veer more towards this.
The Kinks - The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
L: This is a mega album. I only heard it recently and it’s very English, innit?
A: The production on this is so in the room. This came out the year after Sgt Pepper and the title tune pootles along really nicely.
L: It’s like an old sitcom, you know what I mean? It’s like Rising Damp and it’s very English.
A: It’s got great lyrics and it makes me laugh and it captures something about our parents’ lives, really. That’s the great thing about Ray Davies: he was like a mirror. In the mid 60s he’d be sat at home with a cup of tea and musically celebrating the jam on his toast. And it was natural for him to do that – that was him. But when you get other people adopting that as a style then it becomes a bit silly for me.
L: It’s like a Lowry painting and it’s top.
The Left Banke - There's Gonna Be A Storm
A: They wrote ‘Walk Away Renee’ which is the story of two band members trying to get a girl. She was going out with one of them and the other guy was after her. This collection has got their debut album and the full complete works. They’ve also got a song called ‘Pretty Ballerina’ which is much better than ‘Walk Away Renee’. It’s baroque pop; it’s American but with very British influences and as mystic pop music it’s fucking brilliant. The harpsichord in it is very much like ‘Lady Jane’-era Stones but more poppy.
Love - Forever Changes
A: Certainly not the greatest album ever made, as the greatest album ever made won’t contain mention of “snot” in it, but Arthur Lee was a 60s Lee Mavers. It’s the never-reached potential with him. Or rather, he did reach his potential because this album stands up but he got lost afterwards. But it all came together for this record. It’s a dark album and good music can be dark while still being uplifting. Love were on the front line.
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
L: That’s the best fucking dance crossover album ever made. This’ll take some beating, you know what I mean?
A: How can you beat something that came together so randomly? I was signed to Creation when that was being made and Alan McGee was coming to see Ride and then he’d be going off to see the Scream the next day, and then he’d come back raving about the mix of ‘Loaded’. For me, it was like pulling teeth because it was like painstakingly turning rock & roll into Sly And The Family Stone. It wasn’t easy but it was like mental magic. We loved it but it wasn’t something that we wanted to do ourselves. It was something that was going on on that side of the room, you know?
L: It’s a very sexy album, and I heard some the other day while walking around Harrods buying some shoes with the missus, and it’s dead good, man.
A: Primal Scream are probably my oldest friends in the music world. They were the first people I met in London when Ride got signed and I met Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes and they never let me down in terms of being good guys.
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
L: It just makes you wanna slap some cunt, doesn’t it? I’m having them over The Clash - they were a proper punk band for me. I don’t think too much about it but it’s in us all, that record.
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
A: We’ve gone for this one over their other albums because it’s got ‘Scarborough Fair’ on it. That’s our all-time favourite Simon and Garfunkel tune. We could’ve gone for the Greatest Hits, really, but that’s the main reason.
Paul Weller - 22 Dreams
A: For us, it’s Weller’s best album in years. We haven’t actually sat down and listened to Wake Up The Nation yet because he came out with it too quickly. This is a great record to listen to and despite it being a double, it doesn’t feel long at all.
Ok, the guys are a bit old :), here are (or were) my favourite 13, though I also live on albums from the past :).
For several of these artists I would say "everything" by them (in the recent decades "Greatest Hits" and similar collections were quite important, for example when I was a kid the "best of" the Queen, then Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, etc. were very popular among us), but I'm trying to choose one album for every band.
I could speak for hours about them, but especially personal memories, so I'm not going to bore you :)
Oasis, (What's The Story) Morning Glory
Led Zeppelin, Houses Of The Holy
Ennio Morricone, just really everything, as he inspired everyone
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Verve, Urban Hymns
The Queen, A Night At The Opera
Stereophonics, You Gotta Go There To Come Back
Paul Weller, 22 Dreams
Richard Ashcroft, Alone With Everybody
Suede, Coming Up
Paolo Nutini, These Streets
Michael Jackson, Thriller
The Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
of course I could add many more
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