We Got The Power
by Gorillaz (featuring Jehnny Beth)

Album: Humanz (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This impassioned call to arms features Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth, while former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher supplies backing vocals. Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn's band Blur was known for its rivalry with Oasis in the 90s, but it seems the old animosity is now a thing of the past. "Now it feels like, completely, you know, not news at all really," Albarn said.

    Gallagher, he added was "really great." "He's fantastic in the studio and it's nice when you see how someone goes about their business."
  • Speaking to Radio X about recording the song Albarn revealed that Blur guitarist Graham Coxon nearly featured as well: "At one point this song had Graham, Noel and me on it and it was sort of heading slightly in the wrong direction."

    "It was becoming almost retro in its sort of spirit and way too rocky for this record so I kind of stripped it right back down again," he added. "We play it slightly different live then how it is on the record. It's sort of the song that comes on during the final titles of a film. The climax. I thought Jehnny would take a bit of the testosterone off."
  • The track was one of four tunes from Humanz that were previewed by Gorillaz on March 23, 2017. Speaking with BBC Radio 1's Mistajam, Albarn explained the album's title: "We're in transition, we're turning into something else. The album came from this dark fantasy which came into my head. Imagine the most unpredictable thing that changes the world, how would you feel on that night? Will you go out, will you get drunk, will you just stay in and watch TV, will you talk to people?"
  • Damon Albarn told Vulture.com that Noel Gallagher practically begged him to be on Humanz. He said: "In a sort of lighthearted way, I'd promised Noel he could be on this record. He was always like, 'I want to be on the next Gorillaz record,' and I was like, 'Sure.' I thought it might be cute, the idea of us singing about the power to love each other."
  • Albarn told Q magazine the Humanz album is a response to a Trump presidency. "I told everyone to imagine you're in America after the inauguration," the Gorillaz co-founder said, "and it's the worst-case scenario: how would you feel that night? Let's make a party record about the world going f--king nuts."
  • Noel Gallagher was unaware for a long time that Damon Albarn had replaced Graham Coxon with Jehnny Beth. He recalled to Q magazine: "The first session (for what became 'We Got The Power') was just throwing ideas in. The interesting thing was, when I went back in the second time, there was still no talk of Jehnny Beth from Savages. She wasn't on the track then. So that happened after I finished the second time. I didn't hear about Jehnny Beth until about 10 minutes before I heard the finished thing. I guess that's the way Damon works, it's forever changing until it's finished, and even then it's never finished. The deadline runs out and that's it."
  • Jehnny Beth had written a song for herself called "Let's Get Out of Here" a few weeks before she laid down her vocals for "We Got The Power." The Savages frontwoman recalled to Q magazine: "I knew I wasn't going to use the lyrics which were, 'and, we dream of home. I Dream of life out of here. Their dreams are small. My dreams don't know fear.' Damon told me to go to the mic and sing them, so I did. I recorded my part in one morning."

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