Like Oasis, The Chemical Brothers were a wholly British phenomenon. A duo of DJs presenting a dance sound designed to be played on gigantic arena stages, The Chemical Brothers blended together underground hip hop, soul, and rock sounds without any discrimination. At their most colourful and psychedelic-leaning, The Chemical Brothers recruited Noel Gallagher to sing on “Let Forever Be,” one of the greatest songs of the alternative era of the 1990s.
But how did the song come to be? And how did two British DJs, essentially, I suppose, spinning British psychedelia records, manage to win all those awards and gain such a following? These are the questions that I’m trying to answer today.
The Chemical Brothers’ Journey to Making “Let Forever Be”
I think that, looking back, it was a long time coming. Much that was going on in British pop culture, not to mention on the international charts, prefigured the arrival of The Chemical Brothers.
In the early 1980s, New York hip hop showed how samples could be blended together to create brand new records. Sex Pistols‘ notorious London-born manager, Malcolm McLaren, even had a genuine hit with his own version titled “Buffalo Girls.”
By the end of that decade, Manchester-based bands like The Stone Roses or The Happy Mondays were creating a dance-rock hybrid. The musicians and the fans were the “24-hour party people” according to the media. And that attitude carried over into the arena spectacle of Britpop offered by Oasis, Blur or Pulp.
Finally, all during the 1990s, a competition to create exciting, innovative electronic dance music existed between U.S. DJs and their British and European counterparts.
Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons simply had the ability and the guts, I suppose, to put all of that together. Heavily inspired, initially by The Dust Brothers, the production team behind The Beastie Boys, Rowlands and Simons created a critical favourite with 1995’s grandiose “Exit Planet Dust.”
The Chemical Brothers’ all-electro sound was more rocking than some of the bands getting to play Wembley during the same period. That’s why by the time of 1997’s “Dig Your Own Hole,” the duo was scoring genuine charting hits, winning Grammy awards, and turning their sound into an arena-filling proposition.
One early fan of the band was Oasis’ chief songwriter and occasional vocalist, Noel Gallagher. In 1997, he guested on “Setting Sun,” an electro dance rocker that was a surprising and enduring hit.
Free to do anything, what would The Brothers do for their third album?
Meaning of the Lyrics to “Let Forever Be”
The Chemical Brothers and, especially, Noel Gallagher, never shied, I think, from their love of 1960s psychedelia. Here was a whimsical, highly promising sound that, I suppose, had fallen out of favour for nearly four decades by the time of “Let Forever Be.”
Oasis had been accused of ripping off The Beatles, the creators of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” arguably the most important heirloom of the psychedelic era. This is why Gallagher had no problem adding his songwriting talents to Rowlands and Simons’ ideas.
Mixing heavy breakbeats, loops, psychedelic sound effects and Gallagher’s ear for a strong alternative-rock chorus, The Chemical Brothers produced one of the defining songs of the 1990s with “Let Forever Be.”
But what do Gallagher’s lyrics actually mean? As with many of his trippy, “Revolver” inspired tracks, Noel goes for an impressionistic approach, sketching images and allowing the listeners to attach their own meaning.
Yet, unlike “Supersonic,” the lyrics aren’t total nonsense either. “Let Forever Be” is Gallagher at his most optimistic, using Lennon-esque phrases like “shining on everyone,” “breathing with everything,” “spending time in the gutter screaming a symphony.” And while this is entirely speculation on my part, Noel Gallagher’s detailed youth of experimenting with LSD may have played a role in the writing of “Let Forever Be.”
Music Video for “Let Forever Be”
“Let Forever Be’ is just as noteworthy, if not more so, for the promo video as it is for the music itself. Michael Gondry directed the music video. At the time of its release, the technology used in it was deemed revolutionary.
Taking inspiration from 1960s pop art and Ray Davies’ “Starmaker” and using cutting-edge visual effects, the promo offered a glimpse of a young woman’s nightmare of being under constant scrutiny.
The pacing, the effects, colours and dance sequences turned this into one of the most popular music videos of the era. Many, including myself, still consider this music video, which essentially describes a bad trip, to be one of the best of its kind made during the 1990s.
The Legacy of The Chemical Brothers and “Let Forever Be”
“Let Forever Be” was the Chemical Brothers’ fourth straight Top 10 single in the United Kingdom. The 1999 album “Surrender” received generally strong reviews and sold over 1.3 million copies.
It also signalled an inflexion point. No longer were rock bands using live guitars, like Oasis, the only ones that could create loud, rowdy party music. No longer were rock bands the only groups that could headline arena tours.
The Chemical Brothers never lost their critical appeal (they’ve won six Grammy awards), and their commercial potential has decreased to a very small extent in the decades since. Seeing them live a few years ago reminded me of why this duo of DJs is one of the best live bands in the world. “Let Forever Be” may just be their finest hour.
