There was no arguing with who wrote the best songs in the early days of Oasis. Although the band could create a signature sound whenever each of them strapped on their guitars, it was apparent that Noel Gallagher was the driving force behind every song, making masterpieces at an alarming rate that left many great songs relegated to B-sides. Even though Noel could claim to be one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, he may have to give some credit to his brother, Liam, for one classic.
Before Noel had even decided to join forces with his brother, they were making their first steps into stardom with the working band name, The Rain. After playing in half-empty halls throughout the Manchester scene, Liam eventually convinced Noel to join them at a rehearsal one day, which led to ‘The Chief’ being born.
Throughout the band’s following rehearsals, Noel would become one of the dominant forces in the group, penning such classics like ‘All Around the World’ and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ in their early years. When working on their first official songs, though, the band had an instrumental that they would use for Liam to walk onstage without any melody based around it.
While the tune would morph into the hypnotic epic ‘Columbia’, Noel initially had nothing to do with the song. As the band rehearsed and waited for Noel to show up, the song started as a joint effort between them and their friends, The Real People, whom they would frequently collaborate with to get their ideas down.
As Bonehead started with a chord progression centred around three looping chords, Liam began to spit out the first things that came into his mind, which would become the final lyrics to ‘Columbia’. Although The Real People would eventually help him put together more of the lyrics, the only original piece that Noel brought into the song was the line centred around seeing the signs but not being very clear.
As original drummer Tony McCarroll recalled in his book The Truth, “One of our rehearsals had developed into ‘Columbia’, an instrumental that needed finishing. Liam sang a melody to himself while Chris Griffiths plucked away on his acoustic…Noel looked proper chuffed and was immediately repeating the melody. When Liam proudly told Noel that he was involved in the writing, Noel’s smile seemed to vanish.”
While getting the writing credits down for the band’s debut, Definitely Maybe, both Liam’s and The Real People’s contributions seemed to vanish from the credits, with Noel taking all the royalties for the song. This wouldn’t be the last time that Liam got written out of the equation, either, being the inspiration by Noel giving the name Sally to the main character in the song ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.
Even though Liam wouldn’t get proper credit on an Oasis release until ‘Little James’ on Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, he didn’t need one to provide the core sound of the band. Despite Noel’s fantastic songwriting, it’s his little brother’s booming voice that gave a soul to every melody in the group’s prime.
