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I‘m really of two minds about Oasis’, and specifically Liam Gallagher’s, love of The Beatles. On the one hand, this is a nice little cover of “Tomorrow Never Knows.” (Extra points for Johnny Marr.) On the other, I just read what the Gallagher brothers supposedly did to John Lennon’s talisman. You know the one he wore practically daily from early ’67 to late ’68.
First Noel:
“I bought [Liam] a few presents in the 90’s. I bought him a thing from an auction which was an Indian necklace thing that John Lennon wore when he went to see the Maharishi. It’s worth a fortune — it was round the man’s neck when he wrote ‘Sexy Sadie’ — so I sent it to him for Christmas and next time I saw him he had it on. He took it out the frame and the label saying ‘worn by John Lennon.’ I said, ‘What are you doing? It’s fuckin’ memorabilia!” and he said, “John Lennon wore it, I’m wearing it”. He’s probably flushed it down the toilet by now I don’t know, haven’t seen it since.”
Yeah, well, John Lennon did a lot of things, Liam, but he didn’t wear Buddy Holly’s glasses. Here’s what L. Gallagher said about the necklace:
“It came in a glass case, but I wanted to try it on. So one night I came in, tanked up and took a hammer to it. All these beads started falling off and rolling across the floor. I thought, ‘Fuckin’ hell, John Lennon’s beads! It’s back in a case now.”
You know, I’m agnostic on the subject of whether Liam is really the reincarnation of John Lennon. It would be just like Lennon to bend the rules somehow and transmigrate into somebody seven years old. “They’ll never find me here! Hee hee hee!” But unfortunately Liam’s the Hamburg version. And according to this thread, both Gallaghers were lying.
Anyway, here’s the cover. See what you think.
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I think it’s totally defensible that Liam wore the necklace–I’m all in favor of living with objects, having your hands on them, be they books, records, artworks, a butcher cover, or a very expensive piece of Beatle jewelry. But not that he got drunk and beat it with a hammer. That’s why these two are considered twats.
I’ve never heard a Tomorrow Never Knows cover that I thought was worth it; I much prefer songs that are obviously inspired by or homages to TNK, such as the Rutles’ “Joe Public” and Matthew Sweet’s “Lost My Mind.”
Devin: Are you familiar with the Phil Manzanera – 801 Live version of TKN? I always found it respectable.
Here it is, everybody — 801 doing “Tomorrow Never Knows”. I’m liking what I’m hearing…
https://youtu.be/UkGXUn0Kuuw
The thing I dislike about this Oasis cover is too much testosterone. They love John, but I don’t think they get him.
Steve Hoffman! Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time…
In 1980-something he produced a breathtakingly beautiful remaster of some Buddy Holly tracks for MCA, from the original master tapes. It was the only good thing MCA ever did for Buddy’s legacy. Before and after Steve, they released jumbled messes from poor third-generation sources, and even allowed some vile posthumous overdubbing.
But there was some controversy surrounding Steve’s experience with them. I believe he left under murky circumstances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJx7xnTVWX8
An additional note: Liam named his son “Lennon.”
He does have aspects of Lennon’s talent — I really like his voice — but unfortunately he seems to have gotten a full load of Lennon’s least attractive characteristics without the leavening of Lennon’s humor and humane impulses.
I like Noel Gallagher’s solo albums since the band’s breakup better than Liam’s. He’s a great bassist and a better songwriter than Liam, IMO.
Speaking of John Lennon/Beatle covers, I’ve always been of two minds about The Silkie version of Hide Your Love Away. Sometimes I like it, and other times I think it’s too soft-folkie; too PeterPaul&Maryish for my taste.
[edit]
They were helped by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison to record a cover version of “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” on 9 August 1965 at the IBC Studios at around the same time as The Beatles’ own version was released on their album Help! The song charted in the UK at # 28 and at # 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in the same year. Lennon produced, McCartney played the guitar and Harrison kept time by tapping his guitar and also playing the tambourine. When the recording was completed, Lennon was so pleased with it that he played it over the phone to Brian Epstein and told him that they had just recorded a Number 1 hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNyy00Hjl2g