Ryan Adams is ‘not gonna cover an album again’

Mark Ortega 3 Comments

I have a ticket to see the Oasis documentary Supersonic in a few days, and on my day off today I went into an Oasis time-suck on YouTube. This included watching one of their two shows at Knebworth House (where 125,000 people each day saw them), and reading old Oasis-related stories.

Oasis’ most critically-panned album was their third record, Be Here Now. Noel Gallagher himself famously described the album “sounds like a bunch of guys on coke, in the studio, not giving a fuck.”

Ryan Adams said in a 2014 interview with NME before his awesome self-titled album came out that he himself likes Be Here Now.

“People make judgements about records but the music is eternal. I like ‘Be Here Now’. I don’t even care if Noel Gallagher doesn’t like it, because you know what? I will take two bong hits and that record will blow my mind.”

With that context in mind, and Adams’ killer re-imagining of Taylor Swift’s 1989 last year under his belt, I got thinking. I asked Ryan Adams on Twitter if he ever decided to re-imagine another album, could he tackle Oasis’ overproduced epic Be Here Now? Much to my surprise, Adams actually answered.

I thought Ryan Adams’ take on 1989 was sheer brilliance. I’d say it got more acclaim than it did naysayers, but some of the negativity definitely caught fire. Known troll Father John Misty took his shots at Adams over it, and there were some cheeky lists made on what albums Ryan Adams should tackle next. All that bullshit aside, I can understand why Adams doesn’t want to become known as the dude that covered an entire Taylor Swift album, particularly when he has about 20 years of material that stands on its own.

Ryan Adams is one of my favorite musicians out there and I’m obviously more excited to hear some of his own new material over him recording someone else’s. But I’d hope that his choice to avoid doing so was more than just because he caught flack for it. That bums me out that people’s criticism can be enough to stoke an excellent artist’s creativity and thinking outside the box. Especially when that artist is someone who has done brilliant takes on other people’s songs, including Oasis “Wonderwall” — which Noel Gallagher himself has said he likes.

Be Here Now has some brilliance hidden among the cocaine-fueled production choices, and I bet if Adams took a crack at it, he could unearth a memorable version much the way he did on 1989. If Ryan Adams was gonna learn anything from re-recording Taylor Swift, it should’ve been that haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate and he just has to shake, shake, shake it off.

Watch a video of Ryan Adams covering Oasis’ “Supersonic” while playing on the same bill as Noel Gallagher:

The response to Adam’s tweet has been overwhelming sadness as most people enjoyed his take on 1989:

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