i need millennial gcest aus rn. i need genuine emo phase noel i need noel in graphic tees with long sleeves underneath i need him posting smiths lyrics on myspace when liam blocks him for the 3rd time that week i need liam flat ironing his hair and wearing guyliner and skinny jeans i need liam getting in trouble at school for always having his headphones on listening to music on a stolen ipod i need noel trying to be quiet while unbuckling liam’s loud clanky ass studded belt to give him head somewhere i need
I think I digged all possible information about that period of time, and I came to the conclusion that the song "Don't Go Away" is about Loch Lomond incident and what happened after that.
The comment on Genius suggested that this song is inspired by either Gallagher's mother or Bonehead's mother who was dying of cancer.
Maybe it's true, this analysis is only my opinion and interpretation, but tbh even Noel's confirming or denying anything about any of his songs don't usually mean shit coz he's a lying liar who lies so I'm gonna die on this hill that this song is reflection on August 1996 events.
I'm not native speaker, and also, I'm writing this at 4 am, so please don't mind any mistakes.
And as the day is dawning my plane flew away
With all the things caught in my mind
Obviously after the events of early August when Noel found out about Liam's engagement their relationship couldn't not get worse or at least tense which ended with a real bad fight between brothers in the middle of September and Noel coming back to UK on September 12th looking miserable as fuck.
(I want to note here the day/night motive that is pretty popular amongst queer artists (especially closeted). I'm not gonna speak about it here, maybe I will write the whole essay about lgbt-themes next time).
And I don't wanna be there when you're coming down
And I don't wanna be there when you hit the ground
Liam flied to England the next day on September 13th with the rest of the band.
They canceled 4 gigs in America.
I feel like there could be two meanings:
1. Literal - when Noel and Liam flew home separately because they couldn't be in each other's presence at the heat of the moment after the fight.
2. It's about the day when Noel found out about the engagement, basically about August 3rd. And it's him saying "I don't wanna be near you when you realize what you've done (to me, to us?)".
So don't go away
Say what you say
But say that you'll stay
Noel's crushing out about his brother engagement to a woman (who Noel was incredibly jealous of mkay "he's got his lovely wife-to-be") and being afraid of losing him. I don't think this needs much explanation.
Forever and a day in the time of my life
'Cause I need more time
These lyrics actually made me believe that the song is about that whole messy engagements (yes, plural) situation because a week after finding out that Liam "asked The Question" Noel proposed to Meg on August 10th with a ring with fucking "forever and a day" engraving!
So I interpret this as some kind of Easter egg that the song is about that exact situation, but also maybe it's Noel shifting the meaning of this phrase from his fiancée (who - let's be honest - he proposed to only to spite his brother, I'm sorry I just can't believe the engagement was sincere) to his real love - Liam.
The fact that the next day after the engagement (August 11th) Noel openly denied getting engaged to Meg (the audacity of this evil man!) doesn't help either to make me believe he wanted to get married.
I don't have the exact quote as I'm making a chronology masterlist in my native language, so I translated the quote, and now I have to translate it back to English, but basically Noel said:
Am i going to get married and have kids? No, no... Meg always says this when she's drunk: "Why don't you marry me, you bastard?". The way I see it, I'm already married to you, it's not like I'm going to leave you or anything.
I'm sorry, Meg, you should have been allowed to kill him just for this.
Coming back to lyrics, I mean after "forever and a day" ring saying this? Nah I don't believe Noel would make such a romantic move with engraving only to mock his fiancée about not proposing to her sooner the next day.
BUT! I don't know these people, I don't know what they would or wouldn't do, as I said - everything is just my interpretation and opinion.
In conclusion, the promise of forever and a day was shifted to another person in this song, so this person could be sure the bride who actually got the ring doesn't mean anything.
Because I think we all see Noel (and Liam) don't believe in marriage (look the interview with Q May 2002:
Noel: Marriage is an absurd concept. I hate when people say, "Oh, I found my soulmate." That's bullshit. There's only one soulmate, and that's the man above. I don't even know why I got married in the first place—it was a moment of fucking weakness.
Again - it's a translation of a translation, I'm sorry I should've saved all sources but I didn't know I would want to write something like this), so the ring doesn't mean much BUT the song do mean anything (i would say everything actually).
Basically, the song has more value for Noel than the whole ring/engagement/marriage. I mean, this is very Noel-like, isn't it?
Yes, I need more time, just to make things right
Obviously, after all this mess, Noel wants to fix (or at least to try) their relationship. And that's when and why the famous kidnapping happened - to win them a little bit of time to be completely alone together (the original cottage iykyk 😅) and figure out their relationship and also what they're gonna do now that they both got engaged.
Damn my situation and the games I have to play
In the Paul Hewitt's book was described a moment when Noel reacted to news reports about Liam and Patsy "being in love":
This asshole what's he's playing at? He's in love, I'll show him "in love".
(Again not a direct quote, please if someone has a screenshot, send it to me, I spend like 30 minutes trying to find it 😭)
Obviously, that period of time messed with Noel's head, he couldn't understand what liam was doing, their relationship had always been toxic, and to figure out what was going on Noel had to play Liam's games to keep up with him, even though it drained him emotionally.
Damn my education, I can't find the words to say
About the things caught in my mind
This lyrics has the same meaning as the lyrics from "Wonderwall" (it doesn't necessarily has anything to do with "Don't Go Away" being about Loch Lomond period, it's just an observation)
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
But I don't know how
And both these phrases are summarized by Noel himself in August 2002 when he says:
I couldn't tell somebody how much I love them. I can't put it into a sentence but I can write a song.
This also proves that for Noel writing someone a song is the most romantic thing he can do (even more romantic than marriage, yeah).
Me and you, what's going on?
I interpret this lyrics as something Noel was asking (liam or himself) during their incomprehensible toxic relationship (cat and mouse games I suppose) in summer 1996 before Loch Lomond, specifically June when Noel performed a song by Burt Bacharach "The Guy's In Love With You".
This song is about a guy who suspects his partner is cheating on him and messing with his head (gaslighting him?).
The words "don't let me be the last to know" especially hurt because at the end of a day, Noel did become the last to know about Liam's engagement. Everyone knew - their mother, the band members, journalists, and Noel found out not even from his own brother but from magazines (diabolical, liam, you should be in jail).
Following information I learned only when I started to write this post but I was like: of fucking course, there's something more to prove my point:
Noel made a hommage to Burt Bucharach with this song!
The Burt Bacharach, whose song he performed in front of Liam and Patsy month before learning about their engagement.
You can't make this shit up.
All we seem to know is how to show the feelings that are wrong.
I have two thing to say about the last lyrics:
People consider incest wrong so Noel and Liam know their feelings are wrong (I'm sorry I simply don't understand how anyone can think "heterosexual!" after these words.
Feelings between a man and a woman are not wrong! Feelings between brothers are!!)
And finally - reflection about what's right/what's wrong is also popular theme in queer art.
