the thing that's so fraught about interpreting noel gallagher songs is that he rarely is writing about only one thing. his lyrics are more a collage of different pieces sewn together. a verse or line here, a bridge or chorus here. he’s a song seamstress at heart and its the seams that are so damn good they make you think of one overarching thing. but a line or two sounding like a particular thing doesn't necessarily mean the entire song is about that.
lock all the doors is a frankenstein song that gets cut up and sewn back together with new verses for one song and a new chorus for another. if i had a gun can be about running away with sara from oasis but it also borrows a line from a simple game of genius seemingly directed at liam during a less strained time when the thought of having an orderly exit plan seemed possible. she taught me to fly can be about his wife inspiring them to fly solo and then sneak attack a shot fired at his brother in the bridge. there she blows! can be directed at his ex in exasperation look at what i did for you and also include taunts to his brother about the oasis ship appearing on the horizon: hurry up and don’t be late don’t get left behind.
the consequence is that this probably includes songs of big fan speculation like wonderwall. i'm taking to saying i'm wonderwall agnostic in the face of all the evidence about who its about. i'm less concerned with who wonderwall is about and more concerned with the themes that show up repeatedly in other songs. this search for salvation in absence of a higher power. this inability to say what you want to say. an unstable balance of awe and derision and insecurity.
ultimately i think the best thing a songwriter can do is to talk minimally to little about what a song is to them and leave it for the audience to hear and project on it themselves. when i'm looking at interpretations of oasis songs its 20-30 years later. the songs as they mean for me are set in stone regardless of what the songwriter intended or who they were influenced or inspired by. what i learn about the time of the writing does little to change how i feel about the song. thinking interpretations as a mental exercise is just one way to become closer to the music you already love. but there is a line for me. i start to hate on it when i pick it apart line by line. i think im more apt to have interpretations on their solo stuff cause they're less tied up in my own memories and so i'm more willing to consider other ideas. but even still i've started analyses on a full song and grow to hate it after some time cause its such picking at cotton in the dark. rather i like to pick out a line or two that starts reminding me of a particular thing. links to other songs or context details of the time. still a danger in it as it becomes too tied to biography and not enough just existing as a sonic wave. that is the one time i want to take in the song as a whole not on lyrics but on sound.
there really is too much focus on words in music driven by writers more in love with their own pen than the sounds coming out of their stereo. and much of the time the sound is the priority for songwriters and the words are only playing a supporting role. noel has said about wtsmg that the words were chosen more sonically rather than narratively (sounded good rather than made sense). sometimes the sound is doing something completely at odds with the words. i will have to write about the soundscape of council skies in another post cause i do think its a solid half of the story of that album.
so listening to the council skies album i can hear different layers. there’s the five stages of grieving a relationship crashing and burning but also seeking to find a new level of freedom belonging acceptance. i can hear him taunting his brother and returning to his roots more comfortably and stretching his muscles in future forward look to an oasis reunion. these layers often intertwine narratively and at times sound like they are in a tug of war. sometimes they twist and get him cornered stuck in a rock and a hard place. but what i hear most of all is significant for a songwriter who struggled for years to match the soundscape of his biggest album. what i hear is the most comfortable and authentic record he’s written since. i think more than anything council skies is the album noel was trying to write since 2009 if not since 1998. having done it his head was freed up to look elsewhere. there may be other things i do not hear. but these all link to what i heard when i knew nothing: frustration at the present and comfort in looking back and striving to rise above it all. cause his strongest survival instincts always seem to kick in after he’s been kicked in the teeth. get off the floor and believe in life