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

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.

I love 'Hey Now', it's the best example of the wall-of-guitars approach actually working.

Listening to Be Here Now again now and thinking there's only really one song on there that I really, really dislike: 'The Girl In The Dirty Shirt'

TBF Thriller does have 'The Girl Is Mine'.
thinking this DBtT track will crack my list:
vhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiVJD10Bv7k

I remember when I saw FLCL for the first time my initial thought was "Man, I love this music. It sounds like Japanese Oasis!". This was before I knew of the phrase "Power Pop".

spending time with morning glory today. i really enjoy "hello"! "roll with it" is garrrrrbaaaage

'Roll With It' is easily the weakest single from the album, and their weakest single up to that point. I still like it, though. 'Sunday Morning Call' ... now, that's garbage.

turrican otm about noel's harmonies elevating "cast no shadow"

I have loved me some O back in the day (it's Better People prob my favorite track) but I was sure everything that needed to be said about them has been said 15 years ago

lol u guys only one song from Morning Glory was ahead of She's Electric and Cast No Shadow on my ballot

she's electric sucks

"The Girl Is Mine" is great! Certainly beats "Roll With It" as a first single.

Anyone considering voting for 'Angel Child'?

I liked 'Roll With It' at the time (bought the cassingle too!). It's easily one of the weakest songs on WTSMG but I still prefer it to Country House (xposts).

fuck almost all of the morning glory and be here now b-sides are incredible

"going nowhere"!

Oh yeah, don't forget about 'Sad Song', which was a vinyl-only track on Definitely Maybe, which they never issued as a B-side...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5efXnQIBmc

it's on the deluxe edition of def maybes

Sadly, I can't really recommend the Blur pisstake 'Bonehead's Bank Holiday', which was the vinyl-only track on Morning Glory... heh!

i listened to that one for the first time today and it's unbelievably stupid which makes it kinda...enjoyable

I think it's meant to be unbelievably stupid... Noel wrote it as kinda like a "Ringo" track for Bonehead to sing, but Bonehead decided to go out and have a couple of drinks with Liam first to steady his nerves. When they both got back, they were both too hammered to sing, so Noel ended up singing it but you can hear Bonehead and Liam in the background talking drunken gibberish.

.. dont'cha knowwwww

i still like Bonehead's Bank Holiday.

the first few lines of verse 2 of Hey Now are the worst, least thought-out lyrics i've ever heard in my life, literally sounds like they were being made up on the spot as he was singing them, those aside it's in my Top 5 funnily enough.

i always liked the cough between Roll With It and Wonderwall which is part of neither of those songs in their single form, so it's an album-only bonus!

i, so far, have a handful of ballots, only one worst song ballot. maybe not a good idea, will see.

those are called (untitled), lol.

xpost