Apart from the much-talked about fondness for The Beatles, and the [allegedly] wholesale pilfering of tunes, melodies, riffs, etc. from their songs, there have been alleged and proven instances of other people's tunes acting as inspirations for Noel's songs. Whether these amount to mere reference points or to direct borrows...judge for yourself:

Alive

Girl Afraid by The Smiths [recurrent two-note guitar break]

Cigarettes And Alcohol

Get It On by Marc Bolan & T Rex [central three-note riff]

Cloudburst

Standing Here by The Stone Roses [melody]

Don't Look Back In Anger

Imagine by The Beatles

Fade Away

Freedom by George Michael & Wham [first bars of vocal melody]

Half The World Away

This Guy's In Love With You by Burt Bacharach [opening chords played backwards]

Headshrinker

Stay With Me by The Faces [opening riff]

Hello

Hello Hello I’m Back Again by Gary Glitter

Live Forever

Shine On Me by The Rolling Stones [melody similar to opening chords]

Round Are Way

Everybody Needs Somebody To Love by Solomon Burke [horn riff]

Shakermaker

Flying by The Beatles [close relative]

I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing by the New Seekers [refrain]

She’s Electric

With A Little Help From My Friends by The Beatles [nine-note coda]

Slide Away

Cortez The Killer by Neil Young

Some Might Say

Ooh La La by The Faces [obscured by different tempo]

Step Out

Uptight by Stevie Wonder

Rosalie by Bob Seger

Swamp Song

On The Road Again by Canned Heat

Underneath The Sky

Call Me by Blondie [similar guitar part]

Whatever

Day In The Life by The Beatles [initial bars]

End Of A Century by Blur [initial bars]

How Sweet An Idiot by Neil Innes of The Rutles

All The Young Dudes by David Bowie

As to artists in general, many bands have been mentioned; this is clearly an evolutionary issue.

But The Beatles, Small Faces, Kinks, Pete Townsend of The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Jones of Sex Pistols, Paul Weller of The Jam, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Stone Roses, Lee Mavers of The La’s, Stooges, Richard Ashcroft of The Verve, Primal Scream, Cast, Beck, Bob Marley, Chemical Brothers have had an impact to a greater or lesser degree. Albums by all these artists have on occasion been cited by all or some of the band as influences.

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c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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