Oasis: five favourite hits / Photo: Paul ELLIS - AFP
Oasis: five favourite hits
Five best-loved classics from the bad boys of 1990s Britpop Oasis, who make their long-awaited comeback with a reunion tour kicking off in Cardiff on Friday.
- 'Supersonic' (1994) -
The first Oasis single released was from their inaugural album "Definitely Maybe" and penned, as with most of their songs, by Noel Gallagher.
It features brother Liam's distinctive singing style: holding and drawing out a syllable, with a touch of his Manchester accent coming through.
In a Vogue interview in 2019, Liam named "Supersonic" the song he liked best from the band's repertoire and it contained his all-time favourite lyrics:
"I need to be myself/I can't be no one else/I'm feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic".
- 'Live Forever' (1994) -
The Manchester band's breakthrough hit came with their third single, which was their first to reach the top 10 in the UK charts.
The single cover was a photo of Beatles legend John Lennon's childhood home -- the band Oasis often compared themselves to, and would be compared.
"It was the tune that changed everything," Noel recalled in an interview in 2009.
The upbeat track, with lyrics such as "I just wanna fly" and "I don't wanna die", were written partly in reaction to the negative message of grunge.
In particular Nirvana's song "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die" irked the young songwriter Noel.
"Kids don't need to hear that nonsense," he later said.
- 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' (1994) -
But life-affirming optimism was not exactly a running Oasis theme, already clear from their next single and now one of their all-time classics.
In their concerts it is the most performed of all their songs, featuring 645 times according to the programmes of 837 concerts published by setlist.fm, analysed by AFP.
The track captured the band's image as bad boys, a reputation that would solidify over the next decade till their break-up in 2009.
It included lines such as: "You could wait for a lifetime/To spend your days in the sunshine/You might as well do the white line."
Questioned about the example the song might be setting for young fans, the brothers said it was not about glorifying bad behaviour.
"It's a feeling you get when you are on the dole and you've got no money, maybe to escape from your surroundings, that all you have is cigarettes and alcohol", said Noel to Zoe Ball on "The O Zone" in 1994.
- 'Wonderwall' (1995) -
"And after all/You're my wonderwall" -- the refrain is so familiar even non-fans are likely able to belt out.
The song was taken from their second of seven studio albums, and by far the band's most successful: "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" shifted over 20 million copies globally.
A 1960s film with the same title, and featuring music by Beatles member George Harrison, had been an inspiration for the contemplative song, which includes prominent mellotron that sounds like a cello.
Looking back, the Gallaghers struggled to understand the huge success of the track, or seemed to like it.
"Every time I have to sing it I want to gag," Liam told MTV in 2008, according to The Guardian.
But in 2012 he did reprise it for the Olympics closing ceremony in London, performing without Noel.
- 'Don't Look Back in Anger' (1996) -
One of the rare tracks with Noel on lead vocals, this pensive song is the second most featured in 837 concerts.
It came out towards the end of Oasis's heady mid-1990s when they were at the peak of their fame.
As a mark of their status in British culture extending well beyond the music scene, when recently-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair entered Downing Street in 1997 the fresh-faced leader invited the band for celebratory drinks and Noel was captured in a now-famous image with Blair, both sipping a glass of wine.
"I was 30, off me head on drugs, and everyone telling me we were the greatest band since who knows," Noel said to Spin magazine in 2008 about that time.
The place of "Don't Look Back in Anger" in the public imagination was clear decades after its release, in 2017, following the massacre at a Manchester pop concert that killed 22 people.
A grieving crowd spontaneously sang the song's now-poignant lyrics after a minute's silence in the city centre for the victims, days after the tragedy.
O.Ratchford--NG
