His Ego is Bigger than Jesus

("good god")

Liam Gallagher’s ego has always astounded me. While I will admit to being a fan of Oasis, half the time I wonder how he is able to stand up straight with a head so colossally bloated. The photo to the left, depicting the aforementioned rock star in a Christ-like pose, not only perpetuates this public persona of exaggerated self-opinion, but also emphasizes his connection to one of the most significant and influential musicians in history, John Lennon. Liam Gallagher connecting himself to Christ and John Lennon is important because it both contributes to his self-aggrandized image and it positions him and Oasis as the second coming of The Beatles.

To anyone who even remotely paid attention to Oasis during their sixteen-year career, it is no secret they thought themselves as the saviors of British rock’n’roll, The Beatles of a new generation. The photo of Liam contributes to this self-proclaimed image in two ways. First, Liam is specifically styled to look like John Lennon. His mop-top hair and round sunglasses, while not exactly the same, are unmistakably similar to John Lennon’s iconic, 1960s look, and will draw an instant parallel for anyone familiar with John Lennon’s image. Second, the religious allegory (the Christ-like pose, the heavenly rays of light radiating from his head like a halo, and the crucifix around his neck) can be seen as a metaphor for the relationship between Lennon and Gallagher. If Lennon is the father, the one who helped start the British rock’n’roll invasion of the 1960s, the God figure, then Gallagher is the son, the one who helped resurrect British rock’n’roll during the 1990s, the Jesus figure.

            Considering Liam is directly aligning himself with both Jesus and one of the most talented and respected musicians of the 20^th Century, there is no mistaking the ego needed to even consider posing for this photograph. His brazenness smacks the audience in the face, but that is what it is supposed to do. There is nothing subtle about ego and the heavy-handedness of the allegory in this photograph makes sure no one is in question of who is, as Gallagher himself would phrase it, “the dog’s bollocks.”

good god. n.d. Oasis Fanatic. oasisfanatic.com. Web.

<http://www.oasisfanatic.com/gallery/oasis/picture/0/1699.html>