Oasis have always been “on the bench” for me. As in one day when nothing else interests me then ill pull them off the bench and delve into the back catalogue, bootlegs, etc. I have every Oasis album, and really like the singles. I have the first singles boxset (autographed by Noel – score!!). I have a few bootlegs. A few live dvds. Ive been a very casual fan.
Over the years I’ve pulled U2, Stones, Sheryl Crow, Tenacious D, Mellencamp, etc off the bench. All have resulted in successful innings.
On Monday I decided to pull Oasis off the bench.
Sunday night was a bad night for me and for some reason I was reading through the booklet that came with Stop The Clocks. The lyrics to Wonderwall hit me hard like ive never felt from the band before:
And all the roads we have to walk along are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how
These words sum up so much that I've wanted to say to certain people over the last 12 months – the worst year of my life. A year when I constantly have to remind myself that there is a reason to continue and a reason to move forward and a reason to believe. But there's a few people who are there in the background helping me find the reason to move forward. I just don’t know how to say to them just what their support has done to me and how its helped me. The words “thank you” just don’t seem to cut it in my book.
So one of these people is a huge Oasis fan. Huge. For many years he has tried to get me to pull the band “off the bench”. Ive resisted cause there’s always something else to listen to. At the moment theres nothing else to listen to. Nothing interests me. I heard there was a new Springsteen album coming soon. I heard there is full songs from the album floating around. It doesn’t interest me at the moment. It might one day, but right now im not going to force myself to listen to an artist who I am obsessed with and force myself to listen to his new music. That's lame. Ill listen when i feel the need. When the fire is there inside me. I look forward to that day.
I still have not heard Magic.
Im absolutely loving Oasis' track Slide Away over the last few days - iTunes tells me ive heard it 24 times.
Let me be the one that shines with you
And we can slide away.
So I sent a note today to this Oasis obsessed friend of mine. Lets call him Mr Sheep;
Man, big into Slide Away. Its just awesome. Time to take em off the bench. Im now officially reaching out to you to take me on an Oasis journey. I have every album, I have a few dvds and i got about 12 bootlegs (Paul gave them to me a few years ago) So i got stuff you might even like. So – obi wan – hook me up. Like that Springsteen thing ive spent the last 5 months agonizing over – turn me into a fan.
Mr Sheep responded as below;
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From: Mr Sheep
Sent: Thursday, 4 December 2008 8:38 PM
To: 'Adam Baker'
Subject: RE:
Ok first, gimme gimme gimme bring on all the Oasis bonus dvd’s, bootlegs, dna samples and all the other stuff that would make Sam cream his pants, I’m keen. Can you bring for Chrissy?
2nd – I was to come home and start listening to Oasis and get in the Oasis vibe and talk Oasis, I listened to Slide Away, like you said, awesome. Then all of a sudden I had this overwhelming need to hear GNR Better and turn it right right up. FFFAAARK that track just kills it!
3rd Back to Oasis. I decided since you have every album I am going to write you a mix for you to create in your playlist of whatever media player you use of the tracks that own me from Oasis at the moment, ala the long awaited Springsteen mix.
I have decided to make it CD length in case you are so inclined to burn it. Wow which is hard than I thought. Had to kick out a lot of classics, but this isn’t a radio or crowd pleaser mix, this is for hard core music nerds like you and me so I was brutal.
01 Fuckin In The Bushes (Standing on The Shoulder Of Giants) – Killer of an intro, an instrumental, brutal and with a touch of where I think Noel and Chemical Brothers come together
02 The Turning (Dig Out Your Soul) - The bold “new” Oasis sound, hard to pull this album a part as it works so well as an album. Bits of this remind me of The Whitlam’s and Happy Mondays while other bits are pure Oasis
03 Magic Pie (Be Here Now) – You might see a lot of Noel vocal tracks in this mix but I never not like a track he sings on. Not my favourite album, but an epic track.
04 Live Forever (Definitely Maybe) – As mentioned earlier, interesting in reference to Kirt and Noels contemplation of fame and music
05 Talk Tonight (The Masterplan) – Great acoustic track. Goosebumps and sing along. Love how Oasis always chuck coughs in on the recordings. Maybe coz they’re full of cigarettes and alcohol.
06 Supersonic (Definitely Maybe) – One of the original definitive and best Oasis moments. Listen to this and see despite all the Beatles comparisons, this is the Oasis sound they crafted and others (eg Jet) did more to rip off Oasis than Oasis did the Beatles
07 Acquiesce (The Masterplan) – Love the verses being done by Liam then the chorus by Noel. It’s one of ‘The King’s’ choices for his Best B Sides of All Time compilation.
08 Cast No Shadow (What’s The Story Morning Glory) - I first really got into Oasis with this album. Mirko got it first. We’d just turned 18 and used to go to the Charles Hotel or the Patch and get drunk on our Aus Study money and I’d sleep over his place and he would play this CD when we would go to sleep and this is the track that sent me off to happy land. It’d dreamy, but it’s deep.
09 Part of The Queue (Don’t Believe the Truth) – This album really grabbed me and brought Oasis back off the bench in a big way. Like I kind of said in my ‘Gratitude’ CD – the song is about being lost in the city and coming to grips that we live in this world with a bunch of strangers. Love the piano at the end.
10 Go Let It Out (Standing on The Shoulder of Giants) – Groovy, big beat, the Oasis ‘funk’ in a way. Is that a mellotron in there by any chance?
11 She is Love (Heathen Chemistry) – Just a great love song. Is that the mellotron again?
12 Waiting For The Rapture (Dig Out Your Soul) – Just love where they’re going with the whole production of this album. Noel does this gritty 2/4 timing style tracks so well. White Stripes done the Oasis (better) way, but don’t let FQ know I said that.
13 Let there be Love (Don’t Believe The Truth) – Ok it is pretty Beatlesy this one. But done so well. Love when Liam and Noel sing on the same track. Ahem Mellotron.
14 The Hindu Times (Heathen Chemistry)- Turn it up load in the car and sing. Sing loud. Memories of being crushed by a thousand Sam types to this song. They all moshed for 2 mins then adjusted their hair. Just kidding.
15 Rock N Roll (Familiar To Millions) – Speaking of the Mosh. Oasis crowds are pretty full on, a touch of soccer hooliganism. I did this track Karaoke in Albury between gigs with the FAC boys. Simon did a Robbie Williams track or something and Shaun did the Beatles maybe? Anyway the pommy bloke behind the bar yells our “What the fok is this, kill English music night?”
16 Stop Crying Your Heart Out (Heathen Chemistry)- Lives somewhere between Let There Be Love and Cast No Shadow. Great song, love Noels radio sound repeat vocals.
17 Wonderwall (What’s The Story Morning Glory)- Probably where it all really started for me and Oasis. I mean I knew Definitely Maybe through Brendan’s brother Geoff when he went through his whole Brit Pop phase (Blur, Oasis, Suede, Pulp etc) but this one was a huge song for me just out of school. Love the little bit of Supersonic at the end.
Hope you like dude. Now I know a small portion of the hell you felt with my late night Bruce Springsteen comment.
Of course you will have your own favourites but these are the main songs that keep Oasis in my starting side.
Sheep.
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The mix disc - made to the above specifications - will be made on the weekend.
The journey has begun. Ill report back on how my travels are going.
Thanks for the inspiration Mr Sheep.
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