Oasis A to Z

Stop Crying Your Heart Out

HC single, soundtracked some significant soccer thing in the UK, it's a simple ballad that screams Oasis-by-numbers which kind of sums up HC really.

I recall Gem talking about hearing Noel's demo and being blown away by it, but he's the most easily amazed man in rock, bless him, so that never counted for much. Stark piano intro, echoing backing vocals, music-box outro.

Proper-dull. The band looks cool in the video, though I'm not impressed by the girl.

Still, 7/10

An accurate rating and probably twice the tune of Let There Be Love, so that counts for something. A polished turd off HC albeit with too much polish, but it's somewhat moving nevertheless.

The video is indeed cool though and Liam looks top. I do always remember thinking it was weird how the girl seems to drop the match at the end though - these were still firmly my madferit days so attention to detail and that. Also over here I reckon this song is best remembered for being played on the credits after England got knocked out of the 2002 world cup. Oh what fun. What's the tune for after they get knocked out in the group stages in 3 weeks, lads? I'm thinking A Quick Peep.

always think this is a bit underrated, lovely vocals and doesn't ourstay it's welcome. 8.

I went off it very quickly (Oasis by numbers) but then it began to grow on me the less often I heard it. Probably the only song on HC which has improved with age. 8/10.

The list I was working from included a few tracks that don't really count (Stop the clocks and Strange thing), so there are only 30 songs left after this one:

Street Fighting Man

Muddy cover of the Rolling Stones' track as a b-side to All around the world, on paper it should work and live it probably did but the mix on this is the height of BHN shoddiness - the whole thing just sounds like static, so it's hard to love. Fact: I did not know this song when Oasis covered it. I knew it was a cover but it would be many years before I listened to the original. 6/10

this

I'd say it sounded more like the notion some people who didn't like Oasis had of Oasis-by-numbers tbh.

Also it is one of those songs people love to cover while being terribly easy to turn into shit. Don't know if that means production or Liam is what makes it but good song anyway.

Going to go through the list later and do my ratings. Most of the HC and DBTT b-sides I either can't remember hearing or haven't heard, so there's a fair bit of going into the unknown for me.

Sunday Morning Call

Not a great choice of single but it was slim pickings from SOTSOG (as solid as the album may be), it's very SOTSOG, with the choir and all that.

Noel sung, of a piece with Roll it over, Where did it all go wrong and Let's all make believe - drug comedown, disenchantment with the party hopping celeb lifestyle. Noel's rocking a Roy Orbison look in the video (not great), but Liam looks good hamming it up on the piano. I liked the cover art for this one (and the theme in general for all the single/album art).

I'll cop it for this score - 7/10

I really like Sunday Morning Call. It's one of the few Noel-sung tracks where the vocals don't totally fucking grate on me.

Supersonic

The first single, proper, written in haste in the studio. It works though - nonsense lyrics with some classic lines throughout, and an epic riff. The album version is slower than most live renditions and poorer for it. The Knebworth version is great, with that big dark chord coming in on the first "myself" blowing everything away. Also notable is the version per the Chicago Rosemont Horizon Be Here Now set, with the guitar hero intro. The video's cheap and looks decidedly 80s (maybe that's just the Manchester effect). 8/10

Take Me Away

B-side to the previous track, just Noel and an acoustic, a la Angel Child and Sad Song, it's of course about escape (that old, recurring theme), there's a Beatles reference ("I'd like to be under the sea"), and apparently it's about Liam, or at least one line is ("I could be you if I wanted to, but I've never got the time") according to an old interview.

I like the unexpected rhyme in "We're going where the grass is free" instead of "green", but there's not that much to it.

Ends with lyrics that are meant to be a climax but they're duds. 6/10

Talk Tonight

Fan favourite b-side, included on The Masterplan compilation and performed live many times, it's a bittersweet ballad sung by Noel. Liam at the time blasted it for Noel's American accent which I can't really detect, and I think it was an NME review that suggested the song had the feel of what Kurt Cobain would be doing were he still alive at the time.

Written about a real life Noel encounter with an American fan, it's not perfect but still pretty damn good - "you and me see how we are" captures beautifully a romantic connection, especially early on, where you feel as though you're two souls with a unique understanding of the world. "I'll never say that I won't ever make you cry, and this I say - I don't know why" represents the internal struggle of knowing your own faults and wanting to admit them without alienating or repelling the other.

The concept of a lover saving your life appears here as in Wonderwall. I always appreciated the keyboard-accompanied versions like on Jools Holland (maybe?). 7/10

Thank You for the Good Times

Andy Bell penned b-side from the HC era, it opens like the Heroes cover and shares a similar wall of sound treatment throughout. I've seen a few comparisons to Some might Say but don't really hear that.

Liam sings it well, but I'm not sure who the song's intent is aimed at - who's being guilted into thanking? The fans? Not sure Bell's in a position to ask that. "I drink to every sucker standing here - among the few who try to cheat the years. There's always one of us who's blown away - or stopped and strapped for breath along the way" - is this about musicians, other bands? 7/10

Good one

The Cage

HC instrumental bonus track - not one I come back to. It's not horrible, and probably recognisable as an Oasis song to a casual fan. 5/10

The Fame

Noel sung BHN b-side; sounds very BHN. Opens with a wail like IHITIK and Step Out. I guess it's Noel's take on "To be someone" - self-mockery, pointing and laughing at the rock-star celebrity lifestyle. Some very first draft lyrics along the way (blowing through you like a hurricane, breaks like glass but not in your hand). It is too long and not really all that great. 6/10

I used to put the AATW b-sides on quite a bit in the common room at school back in 1998. No-one has demanded that I be tried for war crimes since so I think I've got away with it.

The Fame - 3/10