Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger

I was checking out UK #1’s Blog the other day and he posted this song as going number #1 in 1996. As Stewart points out…they borrow a lot of music but to me… they do it to enhance what they have…not a rewrite of the same song. 

I’ve heard this song just a few times and his post brought it back. Over here in America, I only really heard Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova with any consistency. This one I like better than either one of those. 

They borrowed from John Lennon’s Imagine for the intro but that is fine. The line “So I start a revolution from my bed” was supposedly linking Lennon’s Bed In for Peace in Toronto. Just looking at them… they could have stepped out of the mid sixties mod movement. They were part of the 90’s Britpop scene of Blur, Pulp, The Verve, and others. I was always drawn to Oasis more because they didn’t go out of their way to sound modern or mix in modern styles. They did sound 90s but in a mid-sixties type of way. 

Guitarist Noel Gallagher sang the lead on this song not his lead singer brother Liam Gallagher. Noel is credited with writing this one. He gave his brother Liam the option of singing lead on this one or Wonderwall. Liam picked Wonderwall (look for the quote below) which is the one that Noel wanted to sing because it was about his then girlfriend.

The song peaked at #1 in the UK, #24 in Canada, #55 on the Billboard 100, and #20 in New Zealand in 1996. 

I’m going to borrow this bit of Stewart’s post from UK #1’s Blog: 

“Meanwhile, it has also been voted the 4th Most Popular #1 Single ever, the 2nd greatest Britpop song (after ‘Common People’), and the Greatest Song of the 1990s. (And, most importantly, the 2nd Best Song to Sing Along to While Drunk – controversially robbed of top spot in that poll by Aerosmith’s God-awful ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’.) It is also by far the best of Oasis’s eight number ones… and I hope that’s not too much of a spoiler for what’s to come!”

Sorry for the long quote below but it pretty much tells the story of the song. Plus I love the dig he makes at Liam at the end.  

Noel Gallagher: “We were in Paris playing with The Verve, and I had the chords for that song and started writing it. We were due to play two days later. Our first-ever big arena gig, it’s called Sheffield Arena now. At the sound check, I was strumming away on the acoustic guitar, and our kid (Liam Gallagher) said, ‘What’s that you’re singin?’ I wasn’t singing anyway, I was just making it up. And our kid said, ‘Are you singing ‘So Sally can wait?’ And I was like – that’s genius! So I started singing, ‘So Sally can wait.'”

“I remember going back to the dressing room and writing it out, it all came really quickly after that. (The title) ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ just popped out. We wrote the words out in the dressing room, and we actually played it that night, in front of 18,000 other people. On acoustic guitar. Sat on a stool. Like an idiot. I never do that now.”

“When we were coming off recording ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger,’ I was originally gonna sing ‘Wonderwall,’ and Liam said, ‘I wanna sing it!’ And I was like, ‘I’m singing one of them, so you take your pick. He chose ‘Wonderwall’ and I chose the other one, then it came out as the single. And on that (BBC TV) series Our Friends In The North – the last ever one where they all meet up, when they’re all older and have all got kids, and they’re all alcoholics – that was the music for the end credits. And I still haven’t seen that episode, but loads of people have come up to me, saying, ‘Man it was so powerful.’ And it kind of took a life of its own after that. It took over from ‘Wonderwall’ in England as our most famous song. And it’s the biggest song of the night now, when we play it live. Which must do Liam’s head in – as he doesn’t get to sing it – but it makes me feel pretty good.”

Don’t Look Back In Anger

Slip inside the eye of your mind
Don’t you know you might find
A better place to play
You said that you’d never been
But all the things that you’ve seen
Will slowly fade away

So I start a revolution from my bed
‘Cause you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside, summertime’s in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out

And so Sally can wait
She knows it’s too late
As we’re walking on by
Her soul slides away
But don’t look back in anger
I heard you say

Take me to the place where you go
Where nobody knows
If it’s night or day
But please don’t put your life in the hands
Of a rock and roll band
Who’ll throw it all away

I’m gonna start a revolution from my bed
‘Cause you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside ’cause summertime’s in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
‘Cause you ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out

And so Sally can wait
She knows it’s too late
As she’s walking on by
My soul slides away
But don’t look back in anger
I heard you say

So Sally can wait
She knows it’s too late
As we’re walking on by
Her soul slides away
But don’t look back in anger
I heard you say

So Sally can wait
She knows it’s too late
As she’s walking on by
My soul slides away
But don’t look back in anger
Don’t look back in anger
I heard you say
At least not today

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

41 thoughts on “Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger”

  2. Great song. Actually a pretty great album, I need to go check if I still have a copy here… if not I should. ‘Wonderwall’ was mighty impressive and the best pop type offering they ever did but this one might well have been their best rock tune. Also, I think it was adopted as the city anthem in Manchester after a terrorist attack, wasn’t it?

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    1. Yes it was…I think in Stewart’s post he does mention that. I was really only exposed to the American hits at the time…I remember hearing this just a few times…I have been listening to them quite a bit since I read his post…I also like Noel’s songs solo…really cool music.

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    1. They were like the Davies…not going to mend that feud. i liked them because in the middle of grunge…it was nice to hear something melodic.

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      2. That would be a great one! The Davies of course, Everly Brothers, Fogerty Brothers, the Robinson Brothers in the Black Crowes…. they all fought with each other a lot.

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      4. Sure! I would love to do a collaboration if you want…but I wasn’t trying to steal your idea…just making suggestions lol.

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    1. Thanks! I forgot about that one. I’m listening to it now and I remembered it as soon as I started to play it.

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  6. Great post, and thanks for linking to my post : ) I love the dig at Liam too, for choosing Wonderwall over this. They just can’t help themselves… For what it’s worth, I can’t imagine Liam singing this, just as I can’t imagine Noel singing Wonderwall. They both own their respective songs!

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    1. No problem…it’s coming up again with Bluetones with your site….They do have similarity in their phrasing but that is about it. I thought they would have a reunion by now but I don’t think so lol. They are like the Davies brothers but they cannot work together like they could.

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      1. I don’t think there’ll be a reunion in the near future, because they both seem incredibly stubborn, and because they’re both doing fairly well with their solo stuff. And I hope they don’t do it when they’re in their seventies, just for the money…

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      2. Yes….if they are going to do it…now would be the time before it gets too late.
        It would be cool to see a one off concert anyway…the same with REM

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  8. I loved Oasis right from the start. (‘Discovered’ here in Glasgow of course at possibly my favourite ever venue, King Tuts Wah Wah Hut.) 😉

    I bought / love all the early singles and albums but this song is the one that really gives me goosebumps.

    After the terrorist bombing of Manchester Arena on 22nd May 2017, there was a gathering in the city centre for the nationwide two minute silence a day or so later … and this happened:

    https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/noel-gallagher-don-t-look-back-in-anger-has-become-anthem-for-defiance-after-manchester-bombing-a3701641.html

    The song was then sung at the formal tribute gig and Noel sang it when the Arena re-opened some time later.

    It’s truly become ‘Manchester’;s song.’

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  9. It is a classic – and a hit again following the Manchester Ariana Grande concert terrorist bombing which killed quite a number of fans and maimed more. It seemed to catch the mood of the nation. I saw Noel sing this 11 days ago with his High Flying Birds band, and of course it was the encore closer. There’s not really any way you can follow it!

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    1. I just wish America would have been more exposed to them. It’s a great one for an anthem. I can see why this would resonate with people.

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  10. I absolutely love this song, just behind Champagne Supernova as my favorite of theirs. I do still wonder if he should have let Liam sing it, but Noel did an admirable job on it and most of the Oasis stuff he sang on. 

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  11. Oasis, a band I’ve heard and like but need to listen to more. I know there are brothers that sometimes don’t get along (Kinks, anyone?) and that one is considered a bad boy, iirc.

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  12. You didn’t tell me John Steed would be in that video! I had to rewatch it to look for Emma Peel. No luck.

    The Argentina show was like a Pete Seeger concert – a sing-along from the first words. Nobody waited for the chorus. They either had the audience really well-miked or it was a really loud audience.

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    1. Funny you mention him….I was going to look up his name because I’ve seen him in a lot of films.
      It’s magical when crowds do that.

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      3. Close. That’s Patrick McGoohan. I just checked and The Prisoner is on Amazon Prime. Time to watch it again! I haven’t seen it for 40 years. (I saw it when it was first on in the 60s and then PBS showed it again in the 80s.)

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  13. Great track. Noel wrote some brilliant tunes and this is one of them. Never knew he gave Liam the option to pick a track to sing. lol. With those guys I thought it was always about fighting. lol

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