Stop the Clocks (song)

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"Stop the Clocks" is an Oasis song, written by Noel Gallagher and was originally intended to be included on their sixth studio album, Don't Believe the Truth, but was removed from its line-up late on and, to this day, remains unreleased. The track is probably the most eagerly awaited new song amongst the band's fans because Gallagher, on at least four occasions, has said that he feels it's one of best songs he's ever written.

The track was rumored to be a possible inclusion on Oasis' best-of album, also called Stop the Clocks. However, the final tracklising did not include the song.

It was written whilst Liam Gallagher was recording vocals for "Stop Crying Your Heart Out", during recording sessions for Heathen Chemistry, sometime in 2001, and was first mentioned in interviews by Noel in the Autumn of 2002. Noel told Tokyo's J-Wave radio station that it's about, "A dream I had one night. It's wondering about if you were dead, how would you know you were actually dead, how would you know you were actually alive. When you go to bed and you dream dreams... if you never woke up, how would you know? Maybe we're all just dreaming now." In March 2003, he told Austrian TV show 'Arena' that, "it doesn't sound like anything we've done before or anything I've ever written... in its lyrical content it's quite near to The Masterplan".

On May 3, 2003, Noel played the song in public for the first time at the Zanzibar club in Liverpool. Noel and fellow Oasis guitarist Gem Archer played a five-song acoustic set as a favour to The Bandits, who were headlining at the time. [1] A review passed on to the NME said that the song was as a cross between "The Hindu Times" and "Wonderwall", similar to late George Harrison-penned Beatles. It features the lyric 'Stop the clocks and leave it all behind / On the backseat of my mind'. Another review, published at AngryApe, said that the song left the crowd "divided and unsure", adding that it was "a fairly melancholic affair crossing Fade In-Out with Who Feels Love?. It's classic Oasis but with more soul, fairly mature and well structured as opposed to 3 chord catchy pop songs." [2]

More details about the song were revealed by Gallagher at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2004, with Noel telling a backstage programme on BBC Three that the track was seven minutes long and would probably never be performed live because it was, "just me and an acoustic guitar and lots of backwards stuff and it's something to be listened to when one is very high". It's not known whether Noel was referring to his original demo or if he was referring to a version which had been recorded in early Don't Believe The Truth recording sessions before Glastonbury.

The song was widely expected to be included on Oasis' 2005 album, Don't Believe The Truth, when it came out in May of that year. However, Noel revealed in a short interview to Q in March 2005 that the song, which was tentatively slotted in at track 7, in between "The Meaning Of Soul" and "Part Of The Queue", that the song might not be included on the album, adding that there was a debate taking place at that moment. The absence of the track was soon confirmed, when Oasis' official web site released the final track listing for the album, with "Stop The Clocks" nowhere to be seen.

During promotional interviews for Don't Believe The Truth, Noel was asked about the song a few times, but he never said anything about the track other than what he talked about in an Oasisinet.com webcast on April 22, 2005. In a two-hour chat with fans, hosted by Gary Crowley, Noel was asked about the song and why it wasn't on the record. He replied: "The whole album was kind of based around that song. It was kind of a long "Champagne Supernova"-type thing and it's got fantastic lyrics and a great vibe, but I felt that we never really got the correct version. We've got 6 or 7 versions of it and not one of them really sat in the pocket for me. But it's there and it will now be on the back burner. Originally the album was going to be called Stop the Clocks, which would have been a great title but, because these songs were so new, that song began to feel very old because it was written in 2001. But it will come out eventually."

Noel has since revealed that part of Oasis' next studio album could include songs which were written for Don't Believe The Truth and are, in his opinion, equal to anything on that album, but weren't included on it as they didn't quite fit the feel of the record.

On Radio 1 on December 1 2006 Noel Gallagher said of Stop the Clocks: "Everybody has got different favourite versions - and until we can decide on which one, then it shall remain in the vault. Hopefully we will get around to it next time." He also confirmed that the words on the cover of the Stop the Clocks album are the lyrics to the song.

On March 3, 2007, Noel Gallagher has exclusively played the first chord of "Stop the Clocks" during his semi-acoustic show in Moscow, but then he said that he won't play the whole song yet.

[edit] The 'Stop The Clocks' album

When details were first revealed in July 2006 for an Oasis' best-of album, entitled Stop The Clocks, fans naturally assumed that the song would be included as a bonus track on the album, as is the case with many other artists compilation albums. A tracklisting, first publised in The Sun and reprinted by dozens of other media outlets, included the song, plus another documented unreleased Oasis song, Liam's "The Boy With the Blues", as the final two songs on the album. However, a denial of this tracklisted was quickly issued by the band's management. Confirmation of the tracklisting of the album came on September 11, 2006 with no new songs included.

When asked about the absence of any new tracks on the album in press interviews, Noel Gallagher said he thought putting bonus tracks on a 'best-of' album would take the focus away on what was supposed to be a retrospective collection.

At a Q&A with fans at the world premiere of Oasis' "Lord Don't Slow Me Down' documentary in New York on November 4, 2006, Gallagher revealed that the song had been considered for inclusion but was rejected as they still didn't have a finished version that they were happy with releasing. He also revealed that there are versions that he sings on and there are versions with Liam singing.

On the Oasis dedicated issue of NME, published in February 2007, Noel said: "I really fancy doing a record where we just completely throw the kitchen sink at it. I'd like to get a 100-piece orchestra and choirs and all that stuff."

[edit] Lyrics

In May 2003 a set of lyrics purporting to be from the demo of 'Stop The Clocks' were posted onto an unofficial Oasis forum. They went as follows:

Stop the clocks and turn your love around

Let your love lay me down

And when the night is over there'll be no sound

Lock the box and leave it all behind

On the backseat of my mind

And when the night is over where will I rise?

And what if I'm already dead, how will I know?

How will I know?

Lost inside my head behind the wall

Do they hear me when I call?

And when the night is over where will I fall?

Where will I fall?

But if I'm already dead

How will I know?

How will I know?

And now my fight is over there'll be no sound...

Although these matched the theme that Gallagher had spoken about in the Japanese radio interview in 2002, the appearance of the lyrics were nevertheless greeted with some sceptisism and cynicism by some fans. The only hint that they could have been the real thing came in an NME review of the May 2003 live performance of the song, which included the line Stop the clocks and leave it all behind".

Confirmation of the legitimacy of these lyrics came in a page of the booklet included with copies of the "Stop The Clocks" album. The page has a distorted, warped, circular image of a variation of the main artwork of the album, with the following lines wrapped round it:

Stop the clocks and turn the world around

Let your love lay me down

And when the night is over there'll be no sound

Lock the box and leave it all behind

On the back seat of my mind

And when the night is over where will I rise?

Oasis
Liam Gallagher | Noel Gallagher | Gem Archer | Andy Bell | Zak Starkey
Tony McCarroll | Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs | Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan | Alan White
Discography
Studio albums: Definitely Maybe | (What's the Story) Morning Glory? | Be Here Now Standing on the Shoulder of Giants | Heathen Chemistry | Don't Believe the Truth
Compilations: The Masterplan | Stop the Clocks
DVDs: Live by the Sea | …There and Then | Familiar to Millions | Definitely Maybe – The DVD
Films: Lord Don't Slow Me Down
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The Rain | Britpop | Owen Morris | Creation Records | Big Brother | Awards and nominations