Confessions of a Fanboy 002: An Evening with Oasis
Published April 03, 2006
So is the music - not that anyone will ever tell you that. Oasis' biggest secret is their music. Read an article about the band in the press these days and you are much more likely to read references to the infamous in-fighting of the brothers Gallagher, booze, drugs, outrageous statements made in interviews - everything except for the music.
There are not many bands who have released singles with B-sides that later became hit singles in their own right or released an album of B-sides that went on to outsell plenty of albums of supposed A-sides by other artists. That is the kind of depth of quality in the Oasis canon. These guys throw away songs are better than the best others have to offer. I realize sales is not the best or final arbiter of quality. Sometimes sales and quality appear to be mutually exclusive. This is one of those occasions where they are not.
The Wife to Whom I Am Married is fond of a song called, "Going Nowhere." It was first released as a B-side to the Be Here Now single "Stand By Me." Noel Gallagher handles lead vocal. Musically, the song uses horns and strings expertly to create a sort of Burt Bacharach homage and also features my favorite Noel Gallagher guitar solo.
"Gonna get me a motor car
Maybe a Jaguar maybe a plane or a day of fame
I wanna be a millionaire so can you take me there
Wanna be wild cos my life's so tame
Here am I, going nowhere on a train
Here am I, growing older in the rain"
The aspirations are a little shallow. The sense of feeling trapped in an unfulfilling life with no direction and nothing but empty dreams that seem so far away is anything but shallow. The music and Noel's vocal only add to this sense. The song has long been one of my favorites, as well.
"Is it worth the aggravation
to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for?"
---"Cigarettes and Alcohol"
This is why Oasis gets crushed with the 'rip off' tag. They take an obvious and universal sentiment and marry it to a T-Rex riff. You think the song has lived forever (yes, that's fuckin' terrible and I don't care) but it hasn't. Not really. "Cigarettes and Alcohol" is another of way of saying, "Take This Job and Shove It."
Social commentary delivered with big, loud guitars and an arrogant sneer.
II.
When Oasis announced their first-ever concert in Nashville, the Wife to Whom I am Married and I decided this was a "must." In addition to Nashville being an easy two-hour drive from our house, the show was booked at Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman used to be the home of the Grand Ole Opery. They have since built a new facility for the Opery. I had only seen one other show at Ryman. It seemed a nice midsize place to see a show. Getting to see them live was going to be the fulfillment of a musical dream.
Josh Hathaway is Assistant Music Editor for BC Magazine. He is formerly an award-winning journalist and broadcaster and publishes the BC Network site Confessions of a Fanboy .
- Confessions of a Fanboy 002: An Evening with Oasis
- Published: April 03, 2006
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Rock, Music: Live Concerts, Music: Alternative Rock, Music: Adult Alternative
- Part of a feature: Confessions of a Fanboy
- Writer: Josh Hathaway
- Josh Hathaway's BC Writer page
- Josh Hathaway's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
Thanks, Connie. It was a real kick in the crotch.
TicketBastard goes up against the wall when I am king.
"can i help you with anything else?"
whoa...your response sure showed a ton of restraint!
The shades of red I turned holding it in... I tell you what. Had I not been at work when I placed that call it would have been blistering.
I don't like Oasis much, DJ, but I did love your Ticketbastard story. I have a couple of painful stories myself, but fortunately not for tickets I ever actually ended up with.
I have had really good luck with getting tickets from them for some things, and not so much with others. Their attitude uniformly sucks, though.
Lisa, thank you so much for reading and commenting. I have a feeling this will not be the last time I write about Oasis. I think they are a bit misunderstood as a band because of all the bullshit they created around themselves. I think they have done themselves a disservice. The music is better than a lot of people think. I might make a fan out of you yet! =)
Thanks for reading!
I love Oasis. Cheers!!!!
DJ: I know full well how awful what you had to endure feels. I think you let TicketmasterBastard off too lightly.
Er, guilty secret, despite my previously stated and unchanged (despite your excellent defence!) opinion on Oasis, I will admit to loving "Live Forever".
Just shows every dog has its day, he wrote churlishly ;-)
Christopher, I have a special appreciation of how much that admission must have hurt. I appreciate you reading and commenting.
I think I let TB off too lightly as well. My surrender had more to do with how much more of my emotion and time I was willing to invest in the situation. The more I thought about it and talked about it, the angrier I got. I finally just decided to let it go because I did not want to carry that around with me any longer. I am still not happy about it. I will certainly think a little longer before I buy my next set of concert tickets.
Chloejazz... glad to hear from a fellow fan. I was beginning to feel lonely! =)
hey, i did admit to liking "Rock & Roll Star".
is Zak Starkey on the latest record? i could almost (i did say "almost") buy it because of that.
Zak plays on some of the tracks on the album, Tony Kirkbride, ex Proud Mary drummer plays on the others.
Gutted for you not to See Noel. Set is better with Masterplan in it now at the end of the tour then it was back in May, with no "Slow Noel" songs in it at all. Acoustic Noel is a rare thing these days. He was swapping Masterplan for Talk Tonight around a few months ago, but that seems to have stoped.
Keep up the Oasis writting, and here's to an unrestricted view next time!
John, thanks so much for reading, commenting, and the well wish. I hope for better luck as well.
A friend saw them on the Heathen Chemistry tour and they got Noel singing "She's Electric" but no "solo acoustic." I think the days of Noel, an acoustic, and a stool are about over. It's a shame because so many of the early great B-sides are in that vein (as you no doubt know). "Talk Tonight" is one of my Top 5 Oasis songs ever.
I can pretty well promise you this won't be the last Oasis piece in this series. Thanks again!
Oasis has actually offered Zak the full-time gig but don't want to put too much pressure on him as he gets ready to help out The Who on their upcoming tour.
yea, that's why i mentioned it: i saw Zak playing drums on the Roger Daltry Play The Music Of Pete Townshend tour.
he absolutley killed.
Zak can really drum. I would love to have seen the fucker play but I could hear him and have heard him on Who live thingies of late in addition to as John mentions Don't Believe the Truth. The guy is good.
Zak is by far the best drummer I've seen in any band 1st saw him for the Who a few years back at the Isle of Wight Festival and was impressed by his energy, now seen him drum at 7 Oasis gigs, including his 1st in Poole 2004, and he gets better and better, the drumming solos at the end of Rock and Roll Star and Cigs and Alcohol are now highlights of the show for me.
Also have seen the She's Electric version you talk about played.Now I've seen them more times than most people(well into double figures) and have only seen Noel take to the Stool once in an oasis headline show, again was on Heathen Chemistry tour, although right towards the end after Liam had his teeth knock out by those German Bodyguards. Where he played a slow blues version of Married with Children and the "Ryan Adams" style Wonderwall. I've also seen him play Talk Tonight and One Way Road Acoustically, when He and Paul Weller were part of the Support Act for Richard Ashcroft at a Charity gig in 2003.
As for rarities I've seen, Headshrinker at the First gig of this tour at the Astoria in London was pretty special as they've not played it again since.
Also the days of major setlist changes are over. Noel explained he didn't think it was fair to fans to keep changing it as people might miss out on seeing a song they really wanted to see.
Personally as a big follower of the band, I'd love to go back to those days, as it has become a pretty predictable set. But I'm not complaining as any time I go to see them is a bonus. I see it like following a sports team, some times they play great and it's amazing, sometimes they play Ok, and sometimes it's a disaster(like the 1st time I ever saw them and Liam was so Drunk, he could hardly stand let alone sing in tune), but when they are amazing it's a sight to behold, and that's why I go back and see them so many times. Will they play an acoustic version? or dust down an old B-side or a Definitly Maybe album track? It excites me every time
Over here in the UK, they are an insitution and brought real music back to the people in a time when music was really Sh*t. Nobody has got close to them since in capturing the imagination and doubt they will for a long time to come. Yes they might not have reached the heights of the 1st two albums in the proceding years,and they never will because those two albums were imense, and yes they shout their mouth off, but at least they something to say. At their peak in the UK they sold out 2 nights at a venue holding 125,000 each night in half a day(this before the advent of ticket "bastards") and for this tour sold out 500,000 UK tickets in less then 24 hours selling time. So people still beleive in them! They have been the Soundtrack of life and hope they continue to be. Sorry for going on, and I know they don't get the greatest press elsewhere in the world, but I could write good things about them all day. Glad I'm not the Only One!
Good work DJ Radiohead!
Sir DJ - How miserable this was for you and the Wife to Whom You are Married - and to not get any satisfaction from the tix folks.
I wish there may be a future Oasis concert for you, with backstage passes and free booze.
Thank you, Sir Mary. I would be much too afraid to go backstage at an Oasis show. The legendary asskickings and brawls... my Kung Fu sucks ass.
I saw them -- unobstructed -- in Toronto a few weeks ago and they were fanatastic. Just a good, solid, LOUD, rock and roll band. Didn't play too many songs off the new album, just the gems from Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory.
Try getting tickets from Craigslist next time.
legendary asskickings and brawls... my Kung Fu sucks ass.>/i>
No problem, I'll learn ya a few good moves.
But typing html tags will not be one of them.
my typing kung fu sucks ass.
Very nice introduction to the band, and as for the concert story- as a hardcore fan myself, I feel your pain :(.
Saw them quite a few times myself, and while I always run the 'front-row-or-death' stampede and aim for the right part of the stage just to be in front of Noel, the last time I saw them (a couple of months ago in Florence), I did manage to end up in the 1st row and to the right which however later turned out to be right in front of the enormous speaker with Noel behind it. I have of course managed to see him throughout the show, but hardly as much as I would have liked to.
You're right, coming to their show and not being able to see the Genius behind the Music is wrong in so many ways. NY without the Statue of Liberty; Paris w/ no Eiffel Tower, etc.
I do hope you get to see them again, properly, in the future and envy you for having a like-minded Oasis fan for a spouse ;).
Live Forever :)!
DJ, a wonderful screed right here. I'm sorry as hell it's taken me so long to get to these, but thank the lord, there's four new ones for me!
What a horrendous tale, though, i can only hope you'll get to see them good and proper before long. I've never seen them in any shape or form, and probably won't now. Around the time of Be Here Now i'd have crawled through the jissom o' the damned to see these fellas, the moment passed. I'd imagine they'd be marvellous, though.
I dunno what song snared me back in the day, i suspect it might have been Live Forever also.
And Be Here Now is a seriously, seriously underrated record.
Thanks, Duke, for stopping by.
Be Here Now, for me, is not a great record but does have some great songs. I think it has its moments but every one of those there is a point where he shot himself in the goober. I don't hate it the way I have sometimes let on. It just isn't all that special to me as an album. And then when I go listen to some of the marvelous B-sides from those singles I am left to wonder what might have been.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/45896)
Nice job - Josh.
I have my own collection of stories that start out with the words, "Do you know how bad Ticketbastard sucks!?" I've learned the hard way if it's a band you want to see and truly experience it's best to go through other ticketing outlets.
Sorry the show wasn't everything you hoped it would be.