RARITIES, B-SIDES & OTHER STUFF: Ryan Adams' Wonderwall

RARITIES, B-SIDES & OTHER STUFF: A feature paying tribute to rare songs, great b-sides, fantastic covers and bonus tracks, or anything else that catches my eye, or my ear rather.

Ryan Adams and Oasis- photo by Neal Casal

I first mentioned Ryan Adams' "Wonderwall" in my post on my favourite cover versions (read it here). The original version, written by Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, was first released in October 1995 and remains the band's most popular song. Although it is often claimed that Gallagher wrote "Wonderwall" about his then-girlfriend Meg Mathews, he has claimed this is just a rumour: "The meaning of that song was taken away from me by the media who jumped on it. How do you tell your Mrs it's not about her once she's read it is? It's a song about an imaginary friend who's gonna come and save you from yourself." Fair enough.

For those of us who grew up in the 90s, Oasis' "Wonderwall" was one of the anthems of our generation. The extent to which it was played on our radio stations meant that almost all of us knew every single word of it, regardless of whether we were fans of the band or not. Most of us would never expect that anyone could release a finer version of it, especially not a scruffy, alternative country singer-songwriter barely known by your average music fan this side of the water. But Ryan Adams made it work beautifully.

Adams first performed his version of "Wonderwall" in 2001, and later released it in 2004 on Love Is Hell, his fifth studio album. It has since been featured in episodes of The O.C., Brothers and Sisters, 90210 and Smallville, to name but a few, and earned Adams a Grammy nomination for "Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance" in 2005 (he lost out to Bruce Springsteen for "Code of Silence").

Adams' version is stunning. He took a song most people thought should and could never be covered, stripped it down to its bare bones with just a gentle acoustic guitar and atmospheric synths, and completely made it his own. Oasis made "Wonderwall" a joyous anthem about celebrating love, while Adams moulded it into a tender and sorrowful piece of music heaven. I cannot fault it. The song is full of that comfortable and embracing melancholy at its most powerful, and it remains not only one of my favourite cover versions, but one of my favourite songs of all time.

Granted hardcore Oasis fans may dismiss this version, but it is interesting to note it comes with Noel Gallagher's seal of approval: "I never got my head 'round this song until I went to see Ryan Adams play and he did an amazing cover of it."

Take four minutes, relax and take this song in; you won't be sorry.



More of Neal Casal's photographs of Ryan Adams are compiled in his book, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: A View of Other Windows; you can read my review of it here.