Your music's shite it keeps me Polling all night: OASIS (ILM artist poll 78) --- Voting open until Sunday August 21, 2016

oh god "little james" is on now....

"have you ever played with plasticine? even tried a trampoline?"

I couldn't imagine the Noel Gallagher of 1996 or 1997 letting that onto an album.

yeah "little james" is probably their nadir up to that point. agreed that the lack of confidence really hurts the record. even the cover - it feels faceless, generic, a total non-event. they needed something punchy and alive, even a "back to basics" record or some energetic cover tunes or anything. would have been better to wait until they had that ready than to ship a mere ten tracks of which only a few really show any spark. "i can see a liar" may be a bit forced, but at least it shows some version of a rock band they could have been at this point. actually reminds me a lot of the foo fighters on the (better) there is nothing left to lose.

Whereas the first three tracks show some promise, and about as experimental as they ever got up to that point.

Yeah, 'Fuckin' In The Bushes' still sounds good, but it falls off pretty damn quickly from there.

This Shock of the Lightning track is going to singlehandedly cause me to revisit some of the later stuff.
thanks to whoever posted it. I seem to recall how Standing was just awful, and then they toured with the Black Crowes and I was done.

So much changed between Be Here Now and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants: Noel cleaned up, Bonehead and Guigsy left the band, Noel & Liam both had kids and got divorced, Creation Records folded, they stopped using Brian Cannon for their sleeves and changed their logo (a mistake, IMO), Noel decided he couldn't be bothered being the sole songwriter anymore, and they brought the guitarist from Heavy Stereo (of all bands) into the band, and Andy Bell - who, as great as he was in Ride, always seemed like an ill fit and a bit ofl a tourist in Oasis. The fact that they relegated him to bass was amusing, though... but you had all of this shit going down and it seemed to me like all concerned were in it to top up their bank accounts by that point. The whole fun and purpose had totally gone, they weren't the same band in any way and Noel should really have gone solo then, rather than waiting another 9 years to do it. It marks the point for me where Oasis stopped being about five guys having a laugh and having a great time doing what they were doing, and started being a way of keeping the cheques rolling in... and I think it showed in the music.

When they played Wembley Stadium in 2000 or thereabouts, and Liam was drunk and slagging off the audience, the venue and Noel and ranting on about how Patsy was taking all of his furniture and leaving him with a "teabag", I really thought that it was game over. I was really surprised that they continued after that, but it could only have been for the money.

Well their sole purpose was to be the biggest band in the world and once they got to be for a brief moment, it was like there was nowhere else to go. As much as the songs being bad on "Giants", I always wished theyd branch out a bit seeing as their scope was getting limited. Noel isnt a hem hem aesthete but hes certainly more adventurous in his listening (his "whats in my bag" episode has albums from Can and David Axelrod) but he is such a "not 'avin that pretentious shite" fogey he doesnt challenge himself with his own music and prob a fear that Oasis fans want ye olde meat and potatoes. Wasnt there a psych album that was shelved (produced by Amorphous Androgynous)?

I always thought it was funny, given Noel's endless comparisons to Beatles, Stones, Crazy Horse etc, he never gave a shit about emulating the constituent parts of those bands, part of what made THEM great. There's no Wyman or Molina or Harrison in the Oasis story - it just became the Noel and Liam show. It all wore thin after the original rhythm section left.

There's no Wyman or Molina or Harrison in the Oasis story - it just became the Noel and Liam show. It all wore thin after the original rhythm section left.

― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, August 3, 2016 7:11 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I couldn't agree more with this, and it definitely was the "Noel and Liam show" after the originals (Bonehead, Guigsy, McCarroll) had gone.

Bonehead was as much of a character as Liam and Noel were during his time in the band, probably more so. When he left the band, his official line was that it wasn't fun anymore and he wanted to spend more time with his family. On the other hand, Noel's on record as saying Bonehead decided to leave when the newly-sober Noel got annoyed with him wanting to party/have a "good time" during the Standing... sessions when he was trying to keep Liam off the alcohol for three months so he could sing on the album. Basically, a kind of "if I'm not allowed to have a good time, nobody can" type of attitude - which, given how the band had operated up until that point, must have rubbed everyone up the wrong way.

The post-Be Here Now Oasis were so relatively professional that it's easy to forget just how excessive they were before that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jfQ4q4Hfcc

i'm having an absolute blast listening to Oasis again, never thought i would say that again in my lifetime.

i listened to Be Here Now twice in a row now, trying to see if i want to pick a song from that album.

i could pick 25 b-sides and be happy with my ballot. that is how much i love their b-sides.

this is amazing for anyone who hasn't seen it/ heard it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caB5RoaBvsI

going to probably play Standing today.

Kinda into how this is becoming the SOTSOG listening club thread. I spun a couple tracks yesterday but maybe I'll do it in full today. The Masterplan is where I really need to dig in though - it was so big that at the time I kinda zeroed in on a few select tracks and never fully explored the rest. Rediscovered ''Listen Up'' yesterday, man that's great.

The version of 'Listen Up' on The Masterplan has been edited down. I think they cut out a portion of the guitar solo!

'Underneath The Sky' is probably the most underrated track of that period, though... they never played it live, like 'Acquiesce', 'Round Are Way', 'Rockin' Chair' or even 'Step Out', but it's as great as any of them.

Yeah, that's totally my fave from that disc, definitely making my ballot. ''Going Nowhere'' is also very pretty, and effectvely yearnful imo. They had this great mix of braggadocio and desperate need when they were still on the rise, very hard to sustain that once you've hit the top (and once you're on the decline even). Like the whole vibe of Live Forever disappears from their output very quickly; they lean for a while on the Shakermaker/Supersonic steez and it works up to a point, but leavened instead by weary ballads, it's not quite as compelling of an album-length listen.

'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' ... I remember hearing that on the radio and thinking "fucks sake Noel, you're not even trying anymore" ... It just sounded like he'd written it in his sleep, and he'd definitely written better ballads... and it sounded so dreary and miserable and... it felt like a fucking power ballad.

I think the chorus on that is okay, for a power ballad, but the rest is soooooo turgid. Like they heard, idk, Stereophonics' "Mr. Writer" and said "what if this were less energetic?"

watching these guys' early videos.. man the 90s, alt rockers so schlubby looking!

i guess they're wearing fred perry and stuff.. still... bagginess!

If you watch the videos in order, you can see an immense leap in production values from 'Don't Look Back In Anger' to 'D'You Know What I Mean?', one moment they're making yer-bog-standard '90s "indie band" clips, the next it's fucking helicopters, bright colours and Yellow Submarine rip-offs.

Even from the DM singles to the Morning Glory ones is a big jump I think - still kinda standard "standing around and waiting for it to look cool once it's cut together" alt-rock band stuff, but Supersonic looks (in the best way possible) like a band with one afternoon, five hundred bucks, and access to somebody's roof, while, like, Don't Look Back In Anger has like two dozen made-up extras, location rentals, nice color film, and "wossisname from The Avengers." But yeah suddenly with D'You Know What I Mean it's like, okay, imperial phase has arrived.

As much as Noel's (hilarious) commentary slags the idea of video-making generally it seems clear to me that they were super crucial to their rise and domination - their videos make them look cool as shit and 100% support the narrative of some ordinary blokes who're just here to rock, mate, and yet who also have this superstar swagger and sneer waiting to shine. It was catching Champagne Supernova by chance on MTV once that made me have to get their album, they just looked and sounded cool as shit. Now I cringe a little at that - Liam's beard! - but at age 14-15, mannn....

'Morning Glory' and 'Champagne Supernova' weren't even released as singles in the UK, but the videos to both still got as much airplay as the four singles they did put out ('Some Might Say', 'Roll With It', 'Wonderwall' and 'Don't Look Back In Anger') to the point where it felt like they'd actually released six singles from the album. It turned into some kind of alternative rock Thriller, which I don't think anyone saw coming when 'Some Might Say' came out. Of course, the band were playing a lot of the B-sides live, too, so any time a live gig was broadcast, the B-sides would get a fair bit of exposure - stuff like 'Talk Tonight', 'Acquiesce', 'Round Are Way' and 'The Masterplan'. I'm looking at the gigography for the Morning Glory tour and it's just nuts - the tour kicks off in July '95 and wraps up with the Maine Road gigs in April '96, but then they're back out four months later to do Loch Lomond, Knebworth, MTV Unplugged and the North American tour that nearly finished 'em off. A month later, they're in the studio starting to record Be Here Now. I once read a comment by Marcus Russell (Oasis manager) where he said something like "maybe we went into the studio too soon" ... you think!?

I remember 'D'You Know What I Mean?' getting a lot of airplay, with it being the first single from the album, but I don't remember seeing 'Stand By Me' or 'All Around The World' as much, and the latter is probably one of the most expensive videos they ever made. I wasn't even aware that they'd made a video for 'Don't Go Away' (it wasn't a single here) until many years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab1nJg4RKw0

listening to definitely maybe i'm only now realizing that the japanese band the pillows were prob huge oasis fans (it's extremely visible on stuff like "up in the sky" and "digby's diner") so now i can't help but thinking of them as "what if oasis were actually good"

'Up In The Sky' is definitely one that's going on my ballot, it's always been a favourite of mine and I was always a bit confused as to why they stopped playing it live circa Morning Glory. Some nice chord changes in it, too.

great song, i'm def voting for it too

One thing that did grab me when revisiting Definitely Maybe was how lemon fresh Liam's vocals sound on it, although I think his best singing is actually on Be Here Now. He'd lost a lot of range by the time of Don't Believe The Truth and it's nice to hear him sing without all those "solo Lennon"-isms he picked up later.

"slide away" is a p rough vocal take but it's kinda endearing

"d'yer wanna be a spaceman" has always been my fav oasis song and it's almost entirely due to this silly macross plus amv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6VQlGeAUC8

My favourite Liam vocal is actually on 'Don't Go Away', which I think is one of his more sensitive, emotional pieces of singing of the type he'd be completely incapable of just a few years later. Just compare it to the bulldozing he gives 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out', for example.

On the whole, though, revisiting all of this stuff has reminded me that I actually do still really like Oasis' stuff from 1994-1998. It's reminded me why I liked all that stuff in the first place. By the same token, most of the stuff from Standing on the Shoulder of Giants onwards has reminded me and made it clear to me why I stopped giving a shit.

Both '...the Sky' songs will be high up on my ballot (several xposts)

'Slide Away' is my favourite Liam vocal, his singing definitely lost something as the years went on.

Apparently on their last tour they were playing the songs in different keys to the original recordings to accommodate for the changes in Liam's voice... seems to me that he never really looked after his voice.

The thing about Morning Glory as alt-rock Thriller is that those six songs pretty much exhaust the album IMHO - "Hey Now" is filler, the "Swamp Song" tracks might as well not be there, and "Cast No Shadow" is just a lesser "Don't Look Back In Anger." That leaves "She's Electric" and "Hello" as good-to-great album tracks but that's not really what classic albums are made of, especially since "Roll With It" is pretty underwritten and wearying (IMHO). If they hadn't burned so much stuff on B-sides, they actually could have done a much more consistent record, even if maybe not a wall-to-wall classic, with "Round Are Way," "Underneath the Sky," "Acquiesce," etc. I like "It's Better People" but it kinda doesn't fit on that album maybe (and certainly doesn't answer the "underwritten" problem). "Rockin' Chair" also just kinda "feels" like a B-side to me. I suppose it was really too far past the release of "Whatever" to stick it on there. Still, there's some material to work with.

Of course, the fact that the singles were packed out with good songs probably helped them be such hits! I wasn't a British record buyer in the mid-90s but I can imagine feeling like, "ehh, it's a few bucks but there are all these songs on there and they've got a solid track record with me!"

I dunno, I've always really liked 'Cast No Shadow', mostly because of Noel's harmonies on it and the mellotron strings. Funnily enough, 'Cast No Shadow' was originally meant to be a B-side, but got promoted to the album after 'Step Out' got bumped from the tracklisting. There's early promo copies that exist with 'Step Out' on the album, but these promos got withdrawn. They didn't even bother to change any of the running order, just swapped one track for another...

https://img.discogs.com/J4Iu5SqB6di-JlX3z_GQeCWk710=/fit-in/500x488/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-5941309-1406911583-5972.jpeg.jpg

^ Although, hang on, that promo has both 'Step Out' and 'Cast No Shadow' on it... wtf?

But yeah, 'Cast No Shadow' was basically written as a B-side and got promoted to the record, while 'Step Out' was written for the album and got relegated to a B-side.

I like "Hey Now" and I really like "Cast No Shadow". "She's Electric" is a dreadful tune tho and played to death on Irish radio still (even tho it was never a single)

I remember liking She's Electric okay - the Beatlesy moves there, like the vocals on the outro, worked very well for me as a teen - though it certainly has a B-side-ish quality. Probably needed to stay on the album to establish that they were still "fun" and pub-ready or something. I remember a review claiming it was basically Digsy's Dinner pt. 2 which isn't quite right, but not totally off either. I think if the "And I need more time" part were a little more interesting the whole song would work better - as it is every verse sorta ends with "and I'll write more lyrics to this later."

Listening to "Some Might Say" right now and I think it might end up higher on my ballot than I'd figured - it's almost totally empty as a lyric, total McCartney nonsense-writing, but it sounds great, super hooky and the guitars just pound away at it. Great swirling racket around this basically upbeat jaunty kinda rock number. Whoever decided to run that echo effect over all the vocals was OTM, it makes even stuff like "Ah my dog's been itchin' / itchin' in the kitchen once again" sound so good.

xxxpost:

As for 'Hey Now!', I always thought that one was a touch underrated even at the time, but I can understand why - it's kinda dwarfed by many of the other tracks on the record, and I don't think Oasis actually played it live at all. I do like the way the strings build up at the end, though. I think 'The Swamp Song' "snippets" on the record work better than the actual track itself, particularly as an interlude between 'Morning Glory' and 'Champagne Supernova' (the whole "radio tuning in"/"waves" part) ... 'She's Electric' and 'Hello' are probably my two least favourite tracks on the LP at this stage, the former is kinda the 'Digsy's Dinner' of the album, whereas 'Hello' is definitely down there at the bottom of the Oasis 1994-1998 pile for me. I don't think the band themselves considered it to be one of their better songs either - it had disappeared from the setlist even by the Be Here Now tour, and unsurprisingly (for obvious reasons) never made it into their set on subsequent tours.

yeah "Hello" is kinda a rubbish opener

I wonder if Noel ever commented on that, by the way... the 'Hello' lift was legally cleared and the songwriting credits were shared right from the moment the LP came out, and the album sold a fucking truckload. Must have been fucking embarrassing given what happened afterwards.

I agree, the Swamp Song transition to Champagne Supernova is great - but bumping it up to a "track" status kinda feels like faking a full LP's worth of material when you don't have it. It's forty seconds long and there are several rather long tracks on the album, so just making it part of Morning Glory wouldn't have been uncalled for.

I like "Hello" though! Even if some of that comes from Gary Glitter, I think it's an all right opener. It's got the right attitude and I think it's catchy enough. As far as setlists go... were they using it as an opener? If so, I could imagine it just getting replaced with other things in that role, but I really don't know much about live Oasis.

Y'know, I don't think they ever did open with it! I think they'd normally open with 'The Swamp Song' and then go into 'Acquiesce', although if I remember, it was 'The Swamp Song' into 'Columbia' at Knebworth.

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