Guest post by Nathan Arizona
So the rumors were confirmed this morning. The battling Gallagher brothers will bring back Oasis after 15 restless years and separate solo careers. It would have been hard to turn down the estimated $50 million the tour will bring. Noel’s on the hook for a huge divorce settlement, but there are many ways two blokes who grew up in a Manchester council flat could use the money.
This is good news. Some might say Oasis combined engaging melodies with powerful, ringing electric guitar as well as, or even better than, any rock group since the ’60s. At least the top group of the ’90s, according to some chroniclers of the era. A welcome rock band at a time when rock was in decline. An exuberant band when other bands were looking down at their shoes. Chart-topping songs and albums.
But don’t count on everything being peachy with the batting Gallaghers between now and the first concerts next summer in Europe. Liam and Noel famously don’t get along, at least since they were very young and a drunk Liam staggered into the house and took a whiz on Noel’s new stereo. Well, there used to be a toilet there, Liam said.
Huge early success only made matters worse. They were oil and water. Liam was rowdy with a guttersnipe flair, Noel was quieter, more thoughtful. That never changed. Band dynamics didn’t help. Liam was one of the founders, but Oasis didn’t take off until they brought older brother Noel in to write the songs and play lead guitar. The situation was ripe for resentment. Noel was the key to the music, but Liam was the more flamboyant (and better looking) lead singer and frontman. Liam likely resented Noel for being more talented.
So there was that time when Liam slammed a tambourine on Noel’s head (Noel quit for a while) or when he did the same thing a few years later with a guitar. Or the time when Liam spat beer in Noel’s face on stage, or when he called Noel’s band the High Flying Birds the High Flying Turds. Then there was the incident when Noel hit Liam with a cricket bat after he invited some unwanted friends to a recording session. At one point Liam missed a few gigs and blamed laryngitis. Noel said Liam had a hangover. Liam sued him and demanded an apology. They finally broke up the band after a backstage fight at a Paris concert was one spat too many.
Let’s see what happens now. Some might say it’ll be a rocky road.
Noel called this song from the second album the most “Oasis” song they ever recorded. One critic said it represented a shift in British culture. Noel was going for a thoughtful look at society’s ills, which he could pull off. But he got stuck at the chorus and “in the end I just gave up and thought, fuck it, I might as well just go with stupid stuff like fishes and dishes and dogs itching.” The surreal blend of serious and bizarre was a key to his success.
This stirring tune has the famous (or infamous) line about “walking down the hall/faster than a cannon ball.” Noel said he just needed a rhyme with “hall” and that’s all he could come up with.
Liam sounds particularly snarly in this one. Maybe it’s the Mancunian accent.
