(Photo credit: Michael Spencer Jones)
It’s hard to deny that Oasis would be nowhere today if Noel Gallagher hadn’t agreed to manage his brother’s band in October 1991 before taking over songwriting duties. Noel wrote songs that touched the public consciousness in ways that even he himself, in his most boastful moments, couldn’t have predicted.
Slowly but surely, however, his confidence as a songwriter grew and his younger brother Liam was increasingly seen at studio sessions with a guitar in hand, working out the chords for new music he had come up with. Although he had contributed to the melody and lyrics of the shoegaze-retro song “Columbia” at the band’s very beginning, he had to wait until the next century to be credited as the first writer of an Oasis song. That song was “Little James”, a paean to his newborn son that ended up on the band’s fourth studio album. On the shoulders of giants.
After taking this first cautious step, Liam contributed three of eleven songs on the track list of the group’s next album, Pagan Chemistry. Among those songs was “Born on a Different Cloud,” which Noel admitted to being impressed by in a promotional film for the record at the time. “I don’t think he wrote it,” joked the elder Gallagher. Given his extensive songwriting contribution to the album, it was only right that one of Liam’s tracks was chosen as a single.
“Songbird”, a song that the Oasis frontman said he wrote under a tree in Paris, was released on February 3, 2003. It was the third and final single from Pagan Chemistry and reached number three in the UK singles chart. Liam then had to wait almost six years for his next Oasis single.
‘I’m Outta Time’ is one of his finest works and was a clear highlight in the distinctive mix of Oasis’ last studio album (so far). Dig out your soul. It was released in time for Christmas on 1 December 2008 and peaked at number 12 in the UK. This was the lowest placing of an Oasis single in the UK charts since their debut “Supersonic” in 1994. However, this reflected the decline of guitar bands in British mainstream music at this time rather than the quality of the song itself.
And who is the song about?
“I’m Outta Time” perfectly encapsulates Liam Gallagher’s lifelong obsession with John Lennon. The song is heavily based on the chord progression of Lennon’s 1971 single “Jealous Guy” and features a piano embellishment lifted directly from the song. Still, it took years to complete, so intent was the writer to do justice to his subject matter.
Liam openly dedicated the song to Lennon, and its theme of falling and being “outta time” alludes to his untimely death in 1980. The singer also does his best Lennon imitation on the lead vocals, getting as nasal as possible to imitate the Beatle’s voice. Introduce-era tone color.
Just in case any of us aren’t 100% clear on the song’s meaning, the youngest Gallagher brother ends it with a poignant excerpt from John Lennon’s final interview on the morning of his murder. “As Churchill said, it is the inalienable right of every Englishman to live where he wants. What’s it going to do, disappear? Won’t it be there when I get back?”
Overall, it’s a moving tribute to one of the leading lights of British rock, and a more worthy single than anything else on Oasis’ seventh album. It was only the band’s second hit penned by Liam, but if new music comes out of the Oasis reunion, we can be sure it won’t be his last.
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