“Some half-arsed concept”: Noel Gallagher on the only Who album he enjoys
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(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
When rock and roll first began, the album was a relatively new format in the mainstream. They were a much bigger deal in genres like jazz, but the lion’s share of the early rock and roll stars were far more interested in presenting their albums as a collection of singles for the first half of their career. Once the album became considered an art form, though, people like Noel Gallagher were still interested in hearing the hit potential on almost every tune that he heard on the radio.
Granted, it’s a bit strange that Noel wouldn’t be into the conceptual pieces of rock and roll, given his undying love for The Beatles. Sgt Peppers is seen by many as one of the very first conceptual pieces to hit the mainstream, and while not every song is connected in the same you’d see in a rock opera or anything, they were instrumental in getting people to think of the album as its own unique entity.
That’s not what was going on in the clubs, though. From the minute that the British invasion started, acts like The Rolling Stones were churning out singles at the same pace they did with albums. From Mick Jagger and Keith Richards finding the perfect melody to Ray Davies painting his masterpieces of what English life was like, it was always about making a compact statement in a three-minute window.
But if there was one person who rebelled against that medium with everything they had, it was Pete Townshend. The entire premise behind The Who’s middle period was to make sure that people knew the high art of rock and roll, and everything from Who’s Next to Quadrophenia was interested in taking the listener on a musical journey in many respects, even if Who’s Next follows the loosest of concepts considering its connection to the aborted Lifehouse project later on.
Innovation is always a good thing, but Noel wasn’t going to The Who for that kind of mentality. He knew they were one of the greatest singles bands in the world, and he was more than happy listening to tracks like ‘The Seeker’ and ‘My Generation’ in isolation than having to go through any kind of build-up to appreciate the beauty of whatever was going on in the midst of The Who Sell Out.
He was more interested in the song above anything else, and when talking about The Who’s main discography, Noel felt their best album wasn’t even a proper studio release, saying, “The Who are totally one of those [singles] bands. I do not dig any of their albums. The only album that isn’t a hits collection that I can sit through from start to finish is Live At Leeds. On their studio albums, there is always some half-arsed concept hung on a few good tunes.”
And it’s not like he is wrong to call it one of their finest records. The band had no right to make something this classic after a landmark like Tommy, but whereas their previous live shows had been spectacles with Townshend smashing his guitar, this was where they made their point with only music, blowing up songs like ‘Summertime Blues’ to gigantic proportions and practically laying the groundwork for what hard rock and heavy metal could sound like.
At the same time, Noel would be leaving a lot of great material on the table if he outright refused to listen to any of their concept albums. It might not be loaded with as many great moments from front to back, but it’s important to live in the world of Quadrophenia to understand why something like ‘Love Reign O’er Me’ works so well as the album’s grand finale.
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