Oasis Were A Brit Special
Liam Gallagher’s appearance at the Brit Awards this week did little to dispel his boorish, laddish reputation but it should be remembered why he was there. As he hurled profanities to the wind, before literally hurling the award and his microphone into the audience, it overshadowed the fact that Oasis were being honoured for producing the greatest album of the last thirty years. The award was given in recognition of their second studio album, 1995’s ’(What’s The Story) Morning Glory; but in my opinion that album’s precursor is the one that truly deserved the accolade.
’Definitely Maybe was the debut album for Oasis. It was released in 1994 and quickly changed the course of ’indie music, creating the halcyon days of ’Britpop and sparking a media frenzy over their supposed hatred of Britpop rivals Blur.
’Definitely Maybe is a modern masterpiece of that there can be no doubt, it formed the backdrop to my early twenties and bore witness to many a burgeoning romance and then many a heartache that followed. As a young man from the North of England myself, Liam’s nasal twang seemed to resonate deep within my soul and the biting lyrics of Noel Gallagher seemed to talk directly to me of the life that I was living every day.
The opening track ’Rock n Roll Star defined their manifesto brilliantly. They had experienced little success before the CD was released and yet here they were with a confident, cocky swagger insisting that they were going to be stars and that their music epitomised rock and roll: what was even better is that as the album progressed it became clear that they were right!
Musically, the album seems inspired by both The Beatles and the glam rock of the early 70’s, particularly T Rex whose hit ’Get It On provided the riff for the Oasis anthem ’Cigarettes And Alcohol’.
These influences were no bad thimg, they provided a healthy dose of good old fashioned dirty rocking to a music scne that was becoming dominated by dance music and sugar-coated manufactured pop groups whose main musical goal was to be able to afford designer bedding.
The album is not rock, rock and more rock however, songs such as Slide Away show the tender, melodic side of Oasis and the undisputed showstopper of ’Definitely Maybe is track number three, ’Live Forever’: a beautiful love song perfectly expressing the sheer all-excluding euphoria that young love can bring.
Oasis second album, the recently honoured ’(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? saw the breakthrough of Oasis into the mainstream. It spawned their behemoth standards ’Wonderwall and ’Don’t Let Book In Anger as well as their first number one single ’Some Might Say’. To my mind though, and to many other critics, it lacked the subtlety, it lacked the variety, it lacked the exuberance, it lacked the sheer beauty of their debut offering. Where Definitely sounded raw and real, Morning Glory sounded over produced and laboured in parts. It marked the slide of Oasis into the sub-standard pub rockers that they became.
Let us not forget though that for one brief year, Oasis really did rule Britannia. Is (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? the greatest album of the last three decades? Definitely not. Is then ’Definitely Maybe the album truly deserving of this title? Maybe.
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