Oasis: Mad for it? Not me

[johnfoyle]

As usual Mr Morley hits the nail on the head .
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http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/musi ... ory=635815

Oasis: Mad for it? Not me

Liam and Noel's new album is being hailed as a return to their former glory. For Paul Morley though, Oasis will always be a parody of themselves - or at least a parody of a band that wants to be the Beatles

05 May 2005

I confess that, in my carefully selected and supremely expert list of the top 50 post-punk Manchester bands, Oasis are placed well into the lower half, round about number 47, just below Northside, and just above Simply Red. Without Liam's voice snarling into Noel's mushy, complacent rhymes, they would be firmly planted at number 50: the kind of sentimentalised, four-square, anti-art, anti-thought, rock and/or roll band that the Buzzcocks and The Fall formed in opposition to.

I always felt that they were not even as Quo as rumoured, not as Mott as I would have liked, and more ELO than Beatles, more Lynne than Lennon. It all came down to a camp haircut, a comedy walk and a way with swearwords that seemed more Bernard Manning than Iggy Pop. I am the man who, when asked his opinion about Oasis, likes to quote Morrissey (always good for a line when you need to adopt a pose of withering, but accurate, condescension and scorn): "a couple of painter and decorators from Burnage."

Their music always seemed a botch-job - the colours were fine, if a little too bright, the wallpaper was obviously knocked off but had a nice English pattern, and they got the job done without much fuss. Very quickly, though, the paper peeled, you noticed the brush marks in the paint, the greasy fingerprints, and the terrible mess around the skirting boards.

I was unmoved when they were cited as saviours by the Brit-hailers thrilled that "naughty" Oasis represented a return to the point of rock and roll as a rebel yell involving the use of riffs, rants, rudeness and all round mock-cockiness. Oasis seemed designed by a mid-1990s rockist committee desperate to conceive a simple-minded rock'n'roll band with a tidy messiah complex, faking faded psychedelia, and daintily echoing the appealing cuddly-druggy lines of the Beatles: a rock group out of a world where the Cavern opened up onto Carnaby Street and the guys wore Union Jack jackets and the girls wore pretty little things because they were pretty little things who made you go all lovey-dovey. John Steed would be their manager, David Bailey snap them, and Harold Wilson give them gongs. All would be well with the world, and the 21st century would be as conservatively fab as the 1960s.

It was a formula that was destined to swiftly date, to become embarrassing. It was a formula that meant the group could never progress musically: they would stay rooted to the spot, their gigs a musical tribute to the old days of Oasis, where grouchy old-timers gamely represented the good old days.

The all-new, all-old, Oasis now seem to have found their nice, 47th-best post-punk Manchester place, as a stubborn, hard-working nostalgia-group, nostalgic for a Brit-hyped 1995 that was itself nostalgic for a Brit-swinging 1965.They were defined by Millennium-fearing fundamentalist rock critics as royal protectors of rock's holy legacy, as a glamorous entity redefining rock's codes and conduct. But, really, they were just a warm mug of artificially flavoured milky memories, passing quaint old-fashioned music through a post-punk, post-rave, post-Thatcher filter.

They suit being the failed prophets reduced to grumpily parodying their moodiness and smugness mainly because they always seemed a parody of themselves, or at least a parody of a band who wanted to be the Beatles but knew the ghost of Johnny Rotten would disapprove.

Their latest music shows how they continue to gnaw bits even from themselves, so that the new single, "Lyla", is craven Clapton, slightly Sladey, a little Stonesy - pebbly really - and also comes with some of the ash and stale-beer of "Cigarettes and Alcohol" and a splinter of the shyster swagger of "Roll With It". It also comes complete with some of the forlorn, fraudulent edginess of other recent Oasis attempts to rekindle their former glory.

I am mildly tempted to improve Oasis's position in the Manchester post-punk top 50 now that they have become rather poignant yesterday's men, with a band full of solemn looking session musicians, and a quality of premature middle-aged melancholy. For all the tetchy pride and surly self-confidence they continue to project, they seem trapped by their reputations both as mythical monsters and prosaic plagiarists. The top dogs have become underdogs, the obnoxious outsiders turned into tamed entertainers.

They have sunk into a world that is more Heat than NME, even as the NME itself is more Heat than NME. Seeing the little scamp Liam being interviewed by the son of Judith Chalmers on the ITV2 coverage of Hell's Kitchen seemed to confirm how Oasis have swung away from the rock'n'roll hall of fame towards the I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here wood - away from a respectable position in the mainstream rock hierarchy to a little novelty perch on the margins.

Even in their prime they seemed like a museum piece, and their museum-like quality increases each time they contrive a comeback. They are now doomed to forever recycle themselves and their own coarse recycling of rock history. Carry on, Oasis.

[LittleFoole]

I've never thought of Oasis as anything more than a big bore....like watching a damn beard grow on a dead man, for cryin' out loud. Pompous might've been a better moniker for them, eh ???

[Boy With A Problem]

I like 'em ok - the first two records are great - so what if they rip off the Beatles and the Jam and T Rex with a bit of Johnny Rotten snarl thrown in - I never got too caught up in the attitudes and the goings on with these guys - but I confess to digging the music. I saw them last night on Jonathan Ross - I guess they're supposed to be drumming up interest in the new record, but the played an absolutely killer version of "My Generation" (do they do that on the new lp?) - if you start getting caught up in their personalities, the hype machine, the Weller endorsement and their idiot fans - I could see where it would be easy to hate these guys....but man those first two records....

[millen]

When I happen to see/hear them somewhere, TV, festival, radio, I stay to listen, but I'd never put them on myself.

[MegJS]

Oasis are too boring and monotonous. One and the same song every time.

btw in some interview Elvis said something like that.

[selfmademug]

To quote a Travis song, "What's a wonderwall anyway?"

[Boy With A Problem]

some answers here:

http://www.marmalade-skies.co.uk/wall.htm

[Jackson Monk]

Oasis??? Insomnia cure

[selfmademug]

some answers here:

http://www.marmalade-skies.co.uk/wall.htm

Is there no end to your knowledge and resourcefulness??!

[guidedbyvoices]

I actually quite liked them through the 2d album. They understood the power of a great b side, and even though they were ripoffs, it's like The Strokes first album - sometimes good ripoffs do the job well. But then they got huge and ridiculous. But I remember hearing those b sides that Noel would sing (before Don't Look Back In Anger got huge) and some radio sessions he sang and wished to god Liam would just hang it up...

In the end though, for me they were just another in a long string of great UK bands that have a great album, maybe a 2 one, and then fade away.

Let's see, Stone Roses, La's, uh... blanking on in between, but Oasis, Travis, almost Radiohead, but they changed, so I put the Bends in there, Coldplay...

[bambooneedle]

I like Oasis. Elvis Costello said he liked them too, btw.

Some people don't get them:


http://www.xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=66252

Oasis Record “Greatest Album Ever” (Again)

The eternally self-effacing Liam Gallagher has given his views on the forthcoming Oasis record (he thinks its quite good, apparently). Plus all the details of new UK Oasis dates.

Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher turned up to the premiere screening with his son Gene and wasted little time explaining exactly why his band’s new album, rumoured to be titled ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’, may well be the greatest album ever recorded.

“[There’s] a load of songs. Some written by me, some written by Noel,” Liam explained to the BBC. “I reckon it’s a good album. I don’t want to say too much about it, you know what I mean, ‘cause people think you’re a big head an’ that.

“It’s gonna be great, just better songs. The best in the world I reckon. It’s inspired by life, it’s not all about family, it’s about everything.”
The album is expected to hit shelves on May 16 while the first single is rumoured to be ‘I Stand Alone’ and released in late March. Noel Gallagher has confirmed that the new record will definitely include tracks 'Guess God Thinks I'm Able', ’Part Of The Queue’ and ‘The Importance Of Being Idle’.

Oasis have also just confirmed they will play two more UK shows at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena on July 12-13. Tickets are priced at £32.50 and go on sale 9am on Saturday (February 12). Click here for Newcastle ticket availability from Saturday.

Oasis full tour dates are:
Glasgow Hampden Park (June 29) SOLD OUT
Manchester, City of Manchester Stadium (30) SOLD OUT
Manchester, City of Manchester Stadium (July 2) SOLD OUT
Manchester, City of Manchester Stadium (3) SOLD OUT
Southampton Rose Bowl Stadium (6) SOLD OUT
Milton Keynes National Bowl (9) SOLD OUT
Milton Keynes National Bowl (10) SOLD OUT
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena (12)
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena (13)
Dublin, Marlay Park (16) SOLD OUT

[millen]

I like Oasis. Elvis Costello said he liked them too, btw.

He also said they repeat themselves.
And also that they should stop whining and start writing new songs.

[Otis Westinghouse]

He also said Morrissey has been repeating the same song for the last 20 years, so what does he know?

I remember very well the early hype with Oasis. I used to listen to the Whiley/Lamacq Radio 1 show quite a lot then, and they went totally overboard about how unbelievable they were and how Liam didn't move but just stood there looking cool. I was almost convinced when I heard Live Forever, which I thought was a brilliant expression of growing up in a place like Burnage and wanting to be immortal, but now I think they're just two painters from Burnage. They were good on Ross, though, and the annoying Lyla spent the next day lodged in my head.

Good old Paul Morley. He always makes me chuckle. As for Liam, his interviews just make me cry.

[VonOfterdingen]

I love Oasis and people who says that the music is boring either don't know it or have just decided not to like them. That's ok - i feel that way about some bands but honestly, i know i'm wrong in some way.

They are an important part of British music history - like it or not.
(Though the first two albums came out in my high school years, which of course got an influence on my opinion.)

But as i've said before - listen to 'Columbia' or 'Gas Panic' a few times and find out what a perfect rock anthem sounds like

[Jackson Monk]

I like Oasis. Elvis Costello said he liked them too, btw.

He also said they repeat themselves.
And also that they should stop whining and start writing new songs.

Yes. Instead of writing the same one over and over and over and over again.

[cosmos]

"Don't Look Back in Anger" is a killer song. Love that one!

[bambooneedle]

Which particular songs of theirs seem the same?

[Who Shot Sam?]

Oasis? Zzzzzzzzz...

Never could get past their whole image. The music's not terrible, but it's not terribly original either.

[Mike Boom]

First two albums - yes - but come one - ripping off the Beatles? - how boring - the nadir for me was the orrible "All Around the World" - what an awful song. But there is worse - Jet - what an even worse band - "Look what youve done, youve made a fool of everyone" - how fucking original.

[VonOfterdingen]

First two albums - yes - but come one - ripping off the Beatles? - how boring - the nadir for me was the orrible "All Around the World" - what an awful song. But there is worse - Jet - what an even worse band - "Look what youve done, youve made a fool of everyone" - how fucking original.

Because all Beatles songs makes perfectly sense or what...? And only got original lyrics? (ob la di. ob la da)

[Mike Boom]

Because its been done to death - ripping off the Beatles is just flogging a dead horse - they are just a Beatles cliche. Its like painting by numbers.
I mean if your going to rip someone off - do it with style.
Their biggest crime is they add nothing and do it with zero flair - whereas someone like Cheap Trick do it with a sense of humour, a certain panache and a hell of a lot of class and quite frankly piss all over anything Oasis have ever done. All just my humble opinion mind.

[cosmos]

"I prefer Cheap Trick"

- Homer Simpson

[Mike Boom]

"Rock 'n' Roll had become stagnant. `Achy Breaky Heart' was seven years away......"

[bambooneedle]

Live Forever and Wonderwall, perhaps?

Good songs...

I could see how they were smart enough to attract audiences at the time with grunge hero wannabees and their fans still coming out of the woodwork after 'King Kurt' was already dead for two years. I had a pretty detached outlook to the popular music scene but it was refreshing to see Oasis coming over like they did and show comical contempt for the mostly stupid music press.

They knew what they were doing, that there was going to be backlash. Perhaps now they'll have songs that aren't all 'the same', for all the difference it will make to whoever hated them then...

Paul Morley? Who cares.

Here's a good story, from Q ('96): http://www.oa515.com/inter009.htm

[Otis Westinghouse]

Paul Morley? Who cares.

Me. Always liked the man. Gave Costello a nice review in Feb at the Hammersmith too. When I was, oh, 15 or 16, and addicted to the NME, we had to say in class someone who we wanted to be. I knew a footballer or Ian Curtis was out of the question, so I wrote Paul Morley, thinking that was more realistic. I like seeing him on the TV a lot these days.