“Keep What Ya Got” by Ian Brown (ft. Noel Gallagher)
Ian Brown’s “Keep What Ya Got” is highly-metaphorical, even philosophical and some would argue religious, in its approach. As such, there have been various theories put forth concerning its meaning. And ultimately, the concept which it appears the vocalist is speaking to is loosely related to materialism. Simply put, in the title what he is actually telling the person to “keep” would be something tantamount to his or her soul. And the way he espouses doing so is by rather “giving it all away”. In that sense, the “it” would refer to something like material possessions.
And all things considered, Ian and Noel don’t mean to take such action literally, as in giving away everything you own. As such, this song is obviously intended to point to a general ideology of a person not being preoccupied with his or her possession at the cost of say negatively affecting interpersonal relationships or sacrificing their piety.
“Keep what ya got, by giving it all away”
When was “Keep What Ya Got” released?
This track was originally released on 20 September 2004. And it can be found the fourth solo album of Brown’s musical career titled “Solarized”. Actually it was the first of the album’s two singles. You can also find this song on Brown’s 2005 compilation album entitled “The Greatest”.
Writing Credits
Ian Brown alongside Noel Gallagher of the iconic band Oasis wrote this song in unison. And this saw them working together for the first time on a track. And FYI, Brown is also best known for his membership of the English band, The Stone Roses. His band dominated the English music landscape in the 1980s with such hits as “I Wanna Be Adored” and “Sally Cinnamon“.
Brown also produced “Keep What Ya Got” alongside Dave McCracken. In addition to this song, McCracken also produced the song’s whole album alongside Brown.
I looked on this songs meaning( for many years )
as if you give away what you got,you get other things come to you what you need 💎
The stone rose’s did not dominate the landscape of 80’s music, they released 1 album right at the end of the 80’s so please tell me how that is dominating the 80’s? Clearly haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about.
This song is about Oasis taking the essence of the The Stone Roses including the attitude and approach of Ian Brown. The Roses became legendary by giving it all away to Oasis. The words of Ian Brown on Noel Gallagher summarize this: “I’m really jealous ’cause his band blew up and he’s really jealous ’cause my band were great .” The truth is that the whilst Oasis had the success “Now you’re at the wheel I’ll ask how does it feel?” the Roses were the real thing and the song alludes to that fact towards the end “when your halo slips for good you’ll have to wear your hood”.
Keep what you got by giving it away is a slogan from the 12 steps of recovery from AA.. C A or N A it mean to keep recovery you must help others recover…. just saying
You some are tripping rose’s first run the division, Noel Gallagher even said to write a tune with Ian brown singing was the pinikle, how can I argue with that,so keep what you got and stop wasting my prescious energy, lucky Boro FC