Written by
Recorded
Early version: 2004
Lead vocalist
Official releases
Unreleased
Live
First played: May 3, 2008, Zanzibar Club, Liverpool, England.
Noel Gallagher: Acoustic guitar + vocals
Gem Archer: Electric guitar
Terry Kirkbride: Bongos
Comments
"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 dream dreams, if you never woke up, how would you know? Maybe we're all just dreaming now." - Noel, J Wave Radio, Tokyo, Japan, September 29, 2002
"[At the moment it's] acoustic, but could be massive" - Noel, Fast Forward, Germany - October 4, 2002
"[It] is one of the best songs I've ever written". - Noel, BBC Radio 2, London, England - October 26, 2002
"I wrote it quite recently and to me I think it's the best song I've ever written, and the few people that have heard it really like it." Noel - Today FM, Dublin, Ireland - February 5, 2003
"People are saying it's the best song I've ever written. And that's from mates outside the band who were: 'Aye, that's OK,' when I played them Wonderwall to them for the first time. I've got so bored waiting for The La's to come back that it sounds like how I'd want them to if they did return." - Noel - Planet Sound, England - February 15, 2003
"I think is the best song I've ever written because of the words and the music… it doesn't sound like anything we've done before or anything I've ever written..in it's lyrical content it's quite near to The Masterplan… it's only an acoustic demo at the minute." - Noel, Arena, Austria - March 18, 2003
"Stop The Clocks probably will never be performed live because it's seven minutes long and it's just me and an acoustic guitar and lots of backwards stuff and it's something to be listened to when one is very high". Noel, BBC Three, Somerset, England - June 23, 2005
"It was written whilst Liam was doing vocals for Stop Crying Your Heart Out… [Don't Believe The Truth] was based round that song, it's a kind of long Champagne Supernova-thing… it's got fantastic lyrics and a great vibe… we've got six or seven versions of it 'cos none of them quite 'sat in the pocket'… originally the album was going to be called Stop The Clocks… it'll come out eventually." - Noel, Oasisinet Webcast, London, England - April 22, 2005
"We've got about 20 versions of that and it's still never really sat in the pocket for me…got to the end of mixing the album and it just seemed from a different time… I don't know what I'm going to do with the song to be honest….it's a great tune, all the versions we've done are great but not one of them are the definitive thing really." Noel, XFM, May 30, 2005
"I prefer the first one, the demo." - Gem, XFM, May 30, 2005
"There are so many versions of that song now we could put it out as an EP on its own!" - Noel, NME, August 23, 2005
"There's actually that many versions of it now, there's about 8, and we still can't decide which is the best one, so I don't what's going to happen with that." - Noel, 99.3FM The Fox, Vancouver, Canada - September 7, 2005
"A song I wrote about 5 years ago now, and we've done that many demos of it, there's acoustic demos and demos with drums and without drums and fucking bongos and with instruments and one with Liam singing it and one with me singing. We've never quited nailed it to one version that we're all happy with. We were going to put that track on it (Stop The Clocks album) and we couldn't be arsed, not got a good version of it." Noel, Lord Don't Slow Me Down world premiere Q&A, New York, November 4, 2006.
"I wrote it about 5 years ago, and it started off as an acoustic song and then we done it as a big rock thing. 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." Noel, BBC Radio 1, Stockport, England - December 1, 2006
"Every time I write a new song I say it’s the best ever! But it’s not the best thing I’ve ever written. There are about ten different versions and I can’t decide on which one. It’s a good song, the lyrics are great." Noel, The Sun, England - December 1, 2006
"I don’t think Our Kid can get it right. I don’t think it’s the best he’s written — it’s a tune but not his best. He’s done about four versions but he’s not happy with it so it’s a bit of a nightmare." - Liam, The Sun, England - December 1, 2006
"It is an amazing tune. It has quite a heavy theme to it and we’ve had a few goes at it. We’ll get it right one day." Andy, The Sun, England - December 1, 2006
"I did say at the time that it was my best song ever, but I'm kind of prone to saying things like that, as you probably know." - Noel, MTVU.com, December 2006
Other info
An early studio version leaked on to the Internet on May 6, 2008, along with a live version from 2003 a day later. It's not clear as to when the studio version was recorded, but best guesses are it being from an early Don't Believe The Truth session in 2004.
Downloads:
Early studio version, 2004: http://www.sendspace.com/file/rdltgy
Noel semi-acoustic 2003: http://www.sendspace.com/file/8jkjfh
