All Oasis & Noel Gallagher discussion v. New Studio Album !

[Kotowboy]

Also - if you see any interview where Noel has an audience - he plays up his egotistical side for comic effect.

I've seen plenty of one - on - one interviews with him where he is *very* self-deprecating and humble.

I think he knows people get a rise / kick out of him being massively arrogant and does it on purpose.

[Dave_Manchester]

Re: not-Noel Oasis song-writers, I think Liam really matured as a song-writer from Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to Dig Out Your Soul (to be fair there's really only one direction you can go after 'Little James' and it's up). His best song for the band (Boy With The Blues) didn't even make it onto the album (DOYS) but was highly praised by Noel. I'm Outta Time, Won't Let You Down (a Lennon homage that also didn't make an album), Songbird, Born on a Different Cloud (also very highly praised by Noel), Soldier On, I Believe In All (yet another that didn't make the cut), these are all great tracks to me.

[Stadler]

I'm Outta Time is a GREAT song.

[Kotowboy]

I have no proof of course - but i've read more than once that all of Liam's songs were co-written with Gem uncredited.

Also - Noel only put Little James on SOTSOG to inspire him to continue writing even though he knew it wasn't great.

But i've yet to hear Liam write anything ( without help mind you ) that's as good as Dying Of The Light or If I Had A Gun.

[Dave_Manchester]

I don't know how much of it he wrote (it's credited to all 3 of them) but I've always loved The Beat Goes On from Beady Eye's debut. Sure it's derivative and sounds like a John Lennon outtake but it's still a really great melody and vocal performance. I'd easily put that on a Greatest Hits disc of Liam and Noel's non-Oasis work.

[Kotowboy]

I bought Different Gear, Still Speeding and I liked it at first ( except Great Balls of Fire )... But after a few listens it became a game of " what song is this " ?



1. What's The Story Morning Glory

2.  Definitely Maybe / Chasing Yesterday

3. Don't Believe The Truth  / High Flying Birds / The Masterplan

4. Who Built the Moon ?

5. Dig Out Your Soul

6. Heathen Chemistry

7. Be Here Now

8. Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants

9. Different Gear, Still Speeding


Not heard BE or either of Liam's solo albums cause i'm not interested.

-------

ooh ooh I just remembered - I saw a "Liam Gallagher live" video and it was so blatantly obvious he was miming it was hilarious.

Plus another time he did a song from his - at the time - BRAND NEW ALBUM - and it was already tuned down an entire tone so he could reach the notes.

Thirdly - his "Unplugged" album. What a rip off - it has a grand total of ten tracks - half of which are oasis songs which Noel wrote. Not even his own oasis songs.

Seeing as much of Liam's solo material is co-written - I found it amusing that Noel could end up with more royalties for Liam's live album than Liam 

[dparrott]

Don't you DARE touch She's Electric!!! 

I'd like Hey Now better if the last verse and chorus was removed.  Too long and repetitive for me.

[Kotowboy]

NEW NOEL GALLGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS RETROSPECTIVE AND NEW SINGLE !



So it's already been TEN years since the first HFB album and Noel has a new HFB best of coming out with a couple of new ones on it.

I don't know if i'll get it since I bought everything so far anyway - might just buy the new songs.

Here is the new single. It's not bad. Closer to Chasing Yesterday than Who Built The Moon. I hope the NEXT studio album is closer to the first two HFB albums.

I didn't mind the EPs and Who Built The Moon but I like Singer Songwriter Noel more.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn22YuZ-ne0   <---- new single.

[goo-goo]

I didn't mind the EPs and Who Built The Moon but I like Singer Songwriter Noel more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn22YuZ-ne0   <---- new single.

My exact feelings. Prefer the first two albums (by a lot!!) vs the EP and Who Built The Moon. I hope he returns to form when the next album is released.

[Stadler]

That can't be a Best Of, there is no "A Simple Game Of Genius" on there. 

As good a time as any to tell a story I've told before:  when I was dating my wife, we would send each other songs, and I sent her "If I Had A Gun", figuring she'd listen to it and get that it's a love song of sorts.   She had come out of a difficult marriage to a guy who was, is and always will be a colossal douche, so I wanted her to hear this part:
"Give you back a dream
Show you now what might have been
For the tears you cried will fade away
I'll be by your side
When they come and say goodbye
We will live to fight another day"

She didn't get past "burn down this city with love".   FAIL.     I still get fun of by her, her daughter, MY daughter...   It's a joke, but from then on I was technically supposed to run any song I send to my wife past my two daughters first. 

[Kotowboy]

Don't you DARE touch She's Electric!!! 

I'd like Hey Now better if the last verse and chorus was removed.  Too long and repetitive for me.

She's Electric is fine - it's like another Digsy's Dinner.

[Kotowboy]

https://open.spotify.com/album/3zHzpV6h8GdrgFqZiIGidx

The other new song from the new Best - Of.

Pretty nice. Glad he's gone back to actual songs - as much as I appreciate and enjoy Who Built The Moon. Noel just excels at the songwriting. **

I'd welcome another album as good as Chasing Yesterday.


------


** - Although these days it's not

" I wonder what the chords are for this song "

And more like

" I wonder what fret the capo is on for this song " 

[Dave_Manchester]

Great video/interview with the guy who designed all the Oasis album and singles artwork during the 90s Creation years (in other words all the singles from Definitely Maybe through to Be Here Now).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkez9aJWrcE

For me this video was pure gold because each and every one of these singles from the first 3 albums were such an important part of my youth. I bought them all (I also have the 2 'cigarette box' sets they released in 1996), played them to death because of the awesome b-sides, and the artwork was always intriguing. Watching this interview and hearing the stories behind them took me right back to my school days.

By the way, this guy's whole channel is great if you're an Oasis nut. Since Noel and Liam (mainly Noel) are unlikely to ever authorise a definitive biography of the band, the nuggets this guy manages to dig up through sheer enthusiasm and passion for the band are as close to a behind-the-scenes story as we're likely to get.

[Stadler]

Funny enough, I just bought the three "Deluxe" sets (the first three albums) with all the b-sides and a whole disk each of live and demo tracks, so I'm fresh on Oasis right now.

I too was really invested in the b-Sides; on my iPod I have all the b-sides for each of the albums as it's own "stand-alone" album, and I honestly listen to those as much if not more than the main albums.   I still have all the CD singles, even though I also have them consolidated on the deluxe sets.  Some of those b-sides are every bit as strong as the singles they backed.  Noel has spoken about how those songs weren't throwaways; he just wrote, prolificly, and when a song was ready they recorded it and released it.  Impressive, really.

It's fascinating to revisit the music.  I'm amazed how strong that body of work still is.   I'm amazed how cohesive each album is, yet how different each album is from the others.   I'm amazed at how at one moment, Be Here Now is my favorite, and yet, at another, it's Definitely Maybe. I'm amazed at how good a singer Liam is (or maybe, how "right" he is for the material). 

[Kotowboy]

When I worked in the music shop - the owner thought that oasis dropped subtle nods to benson and hedges cigs in all their single artwork with hidden Bs and Hs everywhere.

Be Here Now abbreviated is nearly B'n'H

Then they came out with the cigarette shaped singles boxsets

He thought they might be sponsored by Benson and Hedges. Now I need to go back and look at all the covers again.

[Stadler]

Cigarettes and Alcohol.   

[Dave_Manchester]

I too was really invested in the b-Sides; on my iPod I have all the b-sides for each of the albums as it's own "stand-alone" album, and I honestly listen to those as much if not more than the main albums. 

I want to set you a near-impossible task, I'm curious to see how you go about it.

There are 10 proper tracks on Morning Glory (minus the 2 Swamp Song snippets):

Hello
Roll With It
Wonderwall
Don't Look Back In Anger
Hey Now!
Some Might Say
Cast No Shadow
She's Electric
Morning Glory 
Champagne Supernova

And there were 9 b-sides from the album that were penned entirely by Noel (I'm not including covers or Step Out):

Talk Tonight
Acquiesce
Headshrinker
It's Better people
Rockin' Chair
Round Are Way
The Swamp Song
The Masterplan
Underneath The Sky

Here's the task - you're the guy charged with putting together a 12-song album from all of the above. What's the tracklist?

Doing this for Definitely Maybe and Be Here Now is far easier, but for Morning Glory...damn it's hard because he basically wrote 2 full classic albums in one writing cycle.

[Zantera]

You don't need to make your own B-sides album when The Masterplan exists?

[Kotowboy]

The Masterplan could have been an album in its own right if he hadn't kept the songs as B Sides.

I feel like they hadn't fully got their mojo back until " Don't Believe The Truth " which almost gave me Morning Glory feels.

[Stadler]

I too was really invested in the b-Sides; on my iPod I have all the b-sides for each of the albums as it's own "stand-alone" album, and I honestly listen to those as much if not more than the main albums. 

I want to set you a near-impossible task, I'm curious to see how you go about it.

There are 10 proper tracks on Morning Glory (minus the 2 Swamp Song snippets):

Hello
Roll With It
Wonderwall
Don't Look Back In Anger
Hey Now!
Some Might Say
Cast No Shadow
She's Electric
Morning Glory 
Champagne Supernova

And there were 9 b-sides from the album that were penned entirely by Noel (I'm not including covers or Step Out):

Talk Tonight
Acquiesce
Headshrinker
It's Better people
Rockin' Chair
Round Are Way
The Swamp Song
The Masterplan
Underneath The Sky

Here's the task - you're the guy charged with putting together a 12-song album from all of the above. What's the tracklist?

Doing this for Definitely Maybe and Be Here Now is far easier, but for Morning Glory...damn it's hard because he basically wrote 2 full classic albums in one writing cycle.

That IS damn near impossible.   I'll give it a whack though (and I'm following your rules:  I'm leaving Step Out off, but I LOVE that song and it would have made the list no problem). 


Hello
Roll With It
Talk Tonight
Acquiesce
Don't Look Back In Anger
Hey Now!
Some Might Say
Rockin' Chair
Round Are Way
She's Electric/Underneath The Sky
Morning Glory 
Champagne Supernova


That dash is not a cop-out; it's the closest decision I've had to make.  I'd probably go with She's Electric, and have Underneath The Sky be the Japanese bonus track, but that's only because there are already a couple songs on the CD that have that feel to it.   I get that it's cool now to have "double studio records" - Iron Maiden, etc. - but that wasn't the deal with the Britpop scene as I understand it.  But that would have been one of the better "double studio" records ever put out if they did just that.

[Kotowboy]

Side one could easily have replaced Hey Now and the instrumental with Acquiesce and Side two could have dropped the instrumental and added in The Masterplan into Champagne Supernova.


But imagine if Morning Glory had stayed as it was and in 1997 instead of Be Here Now they released The Masterplan - but as a bona fide studio album :

1. Acquiesce
2. Underneath The Sky
3. Talk Tonight - Imagine it with the full band - Wonderwall style
4. Going Nowhere
5. Fade Away
6. Listen Up

7. Rockin Chair
8. Half The World Away - again full band version more like Cast No Shadow
9. (It's Good) To Be Free
10. Stay Young
11. Headshrinker
12. The Masterplan

I think that would have at least rivalled Morning Glory.

[Stadler]

Hot take:  I don't like The Masterplan, and it's not a substituted for a proper album. 

I think the first three albums are all VERY different.  Yes, it's all Oasis, but the songs are no more interchangable than songs from Images and Words, Train Of Thought and Distance Over Time are interchangeable.   DM was a rawer rock album, WTS(MG) is a more polished poppier album, and BHN is a denser, more... not progressive, but classic rock album.  The Masterplan blurred that, and was just a collection of good songs, but not a good ALBUM.

I don't know if it was dumb luck or a plan (though Noel claims he held "All Around The World" back, saying it needed to be done right with strings and would make a great closer for their THIRD album, which it was) but for all the cocaine and tomfoolery, those first three albums were very well-crafted visions, even if (like on the third one) the vision was a little distorted.   I cherish those records, and I'm sticking to the b-sides of the period approach.   

[Kotowboy]

Noel also said that after the first 3 albums - they would change styles dramatically - and that was true too.

Shoulder Of Giants was not a masterplanpiece - but at least he wasn't trying to just make Morning Glory again.

Heathen Chemistry was like the new band's debut album and then Don't Believe The Truth was like the new lineup's Morning Glory. It has a similar magic to me.

Dig Out Your Soul was them skipping their Be Here Now and going straight to the experimental album - which like Shoulder of Giants has a lot of good stuff

but a few duds like Soldier On and The Meaning Of Reality.

[goo-goo]

Do the deluxe versions contain ALL the singles amd B-sides written during that album cycle?

[Kotowboy]

Check Wikipedia but I think so. Spotify would tell you I think.

[goo-goo]

Check Wikipedia but I think so. Spotify would tell you I think.

Well, Spotify has both deluxe and the singles albums…so not sure if everything is included. Oasis was my high school band along with Dream Theater so I want to create a complete Oasis playlist

[Stadler]

Check Wikipedia but I think so. Spotify would tell you I think.

Well, Spotify has both deluxe and the singles albums…so not sure if everything is included. Oasis was my high school band along with Dream Theater so I want to create a complete Oasis playlist

Goo, I think they do.  I can check for you, but it may take a day or two. 

For the record, I LIKE Shoulder a lot, and I LOVE Dig Out Your Soul.  For me, Heathen and Don't are misses.  For me, the more Noel is writing, the better.   I know this is harsh and maybe unnecessary, but I'm not interested Gem or Andy's songs.   Sorry, I'm just not. 

[Stadler]

Goo-goo, so here's the deal.

On the Definitely Maybe set (by the way, the three are called the "Chasing The Sun" versions), you get all the b-sides, plus "Sad Song", except, it doesn't have the live version of "Bring It On Down" from the "Shakermaker" single.   (You also don't get the full original Creation demo, which I would have liked to have heard).   There are also two download only tracks - "Live Forever" and "Digsy's Dinner" from Glen Eagles in '94 that aren't on the CDs; I'm going to try to find them myself, I'll let you know.

On the (What's The Story) Morning Glory? set, you get all the b-sides, plus "Bonehead's Bank Holiday", except, it doesn't have the live version of "Live Forever" from '95 from the "Roll With It" single.  You do get the "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" from the Japanese "Some Might Say" single.  There are also two download only tracks - "Hello (Demo)" and "Wonderwall" from Knebworth that aren't on the CDs; I'm going to try to find them myself, I'll let you know.

On the Be Here Now set, there's a fair amount missing.    You do get the Mustique demos, which are cool, but you don't get "Angel's Child (Demo)" or "Heroes" from "D'you Know What I Mean?" single.  (Don't quote me on the Angel's Child; I don't know if that's the same as the Mustique demo version; I have yet to compare them).  You don't get the cover of "Street Fightin' Man" from the "All Around The World" single, and you don't get "Cigarettes and Alcohol (Live)" or "Fade Away (War Child Version)" from the "Don't Go Away" single.  Not crucial misses, though the "Heroes" and "Street Fightin' Man" are solid covers.

[Kotowboy]

This is by the by - but my fave thing to strum on an acoustic to try it out are the opening chords to Whatever.

[Dave_Manchester]

I too was really invested in the b-Sides; on my iPod I have all the b-sides for each of the albums as it's own "stand-alone" album, and I honestly listen to those as much if not more than the main albums. 

I want to set you a near-impossible task, I'm curious to see how you go about it.

There are 10 proper tracks on Morning Glory (minus the 2 Swamp Song snippets):

Hello
Roll With It
Wonderwall
Don't Look Back In Anger
Hey Now!
Some Might Say
Cast No Shadow
She's Electric
Morning Glory 
Champagne Supernova

And there were 9 b-sides from the album that were penned entirely by Noel (I'm not including covers or Step Out):

Talk Tonight
Acquiesce
Headshrinker
It's Better people
Rockin' Chair
Round Are Way
The Swamp Song
The Masterplan
Underneath The Sky

Here's the task - you're the guy charged with putting together a 12-song album from all of the above. What's the tracklist?

Doing this for Definitely Maybe and Be Here Now is far easier, but for Morning Glory...damn it's hard because he basically wrote 2 full classic albums in one writing cycle.

That IS damn near impossible.   I'll give it a whack though (and I'm following your rules:  I'm leaving Step Out off, but I LOVE that song and it would have made the list no problem). 


Hello
Roll With It
Talk Tonight
Acquiesce
Don't Look Back In Anger
Hey Now!
Some Might Say
Rockin' Chair
Round Are Way
She's Electric/Underneath The Sky
Morning Glory 
Champagne Supernova


That dash is not a cop-out; it's the closest decision I've had to make.  I'd probably go with She's Electric, and have Underneath The Sky be the Japanese bonus track, but that's only because there are already a couple songs on the CD that have that feel to it.   I get that it's cool now to have "double studio records" - Iron Maiden, etc. - but that wasn't the deal with the Britpop scene as I understand it.  But that would have been one of the better "double studio" records ever put out if they did just that.

Great tracklist. My own commits 2 acts of Oasis heresy by kicking off Wonderwall (decent song but it was fucking EVERYWHERE when I went to school, so much so that I never again want to hear "Because maybeeeeeeee....") and Roll With It. Roll With It is a good rocker, an iconic 90s Britpop song, but I think Hello and Morning Glory do the same kind of thing better. Noel himself doesn't think too highly of the song (with customary eloquence he calls it "shit")...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_with_It_(Oasis_song)#'Battle'_with_Blur

So this is my own 12-song tracklist:

1. Hello
2. Acquiesce
3. Talk Tonight
4. Don't Look Back In Anger
5. Some Might Say
6. Rockin' Chair
7. Underneath The Sky*
8. Cast No Shadow
9. Morning Glory
10. Hey Now!
11. The Masterplan
12. Champagne Supernova


*In terms of chords, mysterious lyrics, vocal melodies, instrumentation and trippy production I can make a strong case for this being Oasis' most creative song.

[Stadler]

I should know this by now, Dave, but what's your current take on Be Here Now?    It might actually be my favorite Oasis record right now.  The "Chasing The Sun" version has the Mustique demos which give a lot of those songs a sort of different life.

FYI, the band are releasing the full Knebworth '96 show in November.

[goo-goo]

Goo-goo, so here's the deal.

On the Definitely Maybe set (by the way, the three are called the "Chasing The Sun" versions), you get all the b-sides, plus "Sad Song", except, it doesn't have the live version of "Bring It On Down" from the "Shakermaker" single.   (You also don't get the full original Creation demo, which I would have liked to have heard).   There are also two download only tracks - "Live Forever" and "Digsy's Dinner" from Glen Eagles in '94 that aren't on the CDs; I'm going to try to find them myself, I'll let you know.

On the (What's The Story) Morning Glory? set, you get all the b-sides, plus "Bonehead's Bank Holiday", except, it doesn't have the live version of "Live Forever" from '95 from the "Roll With It" single.  You do get the "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" from the Japanese "Some Might Say" single.  There are also two download only tracks - "Hello (Demo)" and "Wonderwall" from Knebworth that aren't on the CDs; I'm going to try to find them myself, I'll let you know.

On the Be Here Now set, there's a fair amount missing.    You do get the Mustique demos, which are cool, but you don't get "Angel's Child (Demo)" or "Heroes" from "D'you Know What I Mean?" single.  (Don't quote me on the Angel's Child; I don't know if that's the same as the Mustique demo version; I have yet to compare them).  You don't get the cover of "Street Fightin' Man" from the "All Around The World" single, and you don't get "Cigarettes and Alcohol (Live)" or "Fade Away (War Child Version)" from the "Don't Go Away" single.  Not crucial misses, though the "Heroes" and "Street Fightin' Man" are solid covers.

Damn. Thanks Stads for the information. I guess I'll just add everything and remove duplicates. Really sucks that Oasis called it quits. They were one of those life changing bands for me.

[Dave_Manchester]

I should know this by now, Dave, but what's your current take on Be Here Now?    It might actually be my favorite Oasis record right now.  The "Chasing The Sun" version has the Mustique demos which give a lot of those songs a sort of different life.

FYI, the band are releasing the full Knebworth '96 show in November.

I love Be Here Now, it's the first album in my life that was an 'event'. The first 2 albums came in such quick succession that they kind of crept up on the public at large (not me, I was there from the beginning, I saw them when they were playing pubs) but the anticipation for BHN was immense, it was all anyone talked about in school. I'm fascinated by albums that capture the public's imagination. It doesn't really happen anymore as far as I can see. The upcoming Adele is making headlines on the BBC but it's not the same thing. I'm talking about albums that were cultural phenomena and are essential parts of their eras (Brothers in Arms, Sgt Pepper, Dark Side of the Moon, even Nevermind). It's an incredible thing when for a while a music album pushes all other headlines one space down in the newspapers and dominates the national consciousness (again, I don't think it happens now, but it did then).

Be Here Now was the closest my generation in England got to our own Brothers in Arms. The freakin' Prime Minister was talking about it. And then it came out and, as with all highly anticipated albums, its flaws were what were first noticed (a phenomenon I refer to as Chinese Democracy Syndrome).

As time's gone by I think it's a fascinating document of a band that had reached the height they wanted to reach but didn't quite know what to do once they'd got there, so they just did a shitload of coke and made everything louder. As equally fascinating to me as epoch-defining albums are the ones that immediately follow them. Floyd followed up Dark Side with a quiet, introspective "fuck you" to the industry that had made them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Lindsey Buckingham followed Rumours by tossing the entire kitchen sink onto Tusk. Metallica followed the Black Album with a 27-song double album of blues-rock complete with artsy cover art and photos showing a band clad in nail polish and mascara. The albums that followed classic albums tell me a lot about how the artists felt about their success.

Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory are cocky, swaggering records, but there's also a degree of class to them, and also humour. BHN is just the drunken loud-mouth at the bar who ends every night by chinning someone. It's loud, brash, mostly inelegant, but always captivating. And of course in amongst it all is Don't Go Away, which is the most heartfelt lyric Noel ever wrote and Liam ever sung. I reckon the day Noel handed those lyrics to Liam is one of the very rare moments when Liam shut the fuck up for a moment and recognised how lucky he was to have a brother that could express what he could only feel about the one unbreakable thing they had in common.

They wrote great songs after it but to me BHN is the band's last great album.

[Kotowboy]

I should know this by now, Dave, but what's your current take on Be Here Now?    It might actually be my favorite Oasis record right now.  The "Chasing The Sun" version has the Mustique demos which give a lot of those songs a sort of different life.

FYI, the band are releasing the full Knebworth '96 show in November.

I loved Be Here Now in 1997 - massively preferred it to Ok Computer. I could already see the cracks forming though as D'You Know What I Mean is basically Wonderwall. I Hope I Think I Know was like

another Some Might Say. Girl In The Dirty Shirt was like a slower She's Electric. Stand By Me is a good song but Don't Go Away was like Slide Away but not as Good.

Fade In / Out was cool. The first time they used Drop D - which they'd later use extensively on Dig Out Your Soul.

Also I did like All Around The World despite it being like 11 minutes long and It's Getting Better Man is probably the best song on the album with a great Noel solo that's fun to play.


Did anyone see that interview with Noel recently talking about his new Best of HFB? He said the final oasis gig was literally the last time he practiced lead guitar.

he says he's lost it all now. Which is a shame - as he really could play - when he could be bothered.

[Dave_Manchester]

^^ Fade In/Out is the one track that I've never been able to really connect with (fucked if I can figure out what Johnny Depp's meant to be bringing to the table either). I've warmed a lot to Magic Pie and I Hope I Think I Know over the years but I'd replace Fade with the awesome Stay Young in the tracklist.