#561: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

GETTING MORE TALE #561: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

In November 1995 I was going through another breakup.   A big one — my first really serious girlfriend.  After some soul-searching, I thought this would be a good time to expand my horizons a bit, including musically.  By 1995, heavy metal music was not doing well.  It was on life support.  I wanted to check out other forms of rock and roll.

Working at the Record Store was the perfect environment for exploration.  Christmas 1995 featured a lot of store play for Oasis, who my co-working buddy T-Rev was a huge fan of.  Their new album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was beginning to take off.  It also appealed to a metal head like me.  It had a bit of everything:  rockers, ballads, and hooks.  It was a breath of fresh air, and loud as fuck.  Grunge bands had dominated and carried with them cloudy skies for the early 90s.  Oasis brought back fun aspects of rock and roll, and were right in synch with the Beatles resurgence happening at the same time with the Anthology series.  Oasis were almost a poor man’s Beatles.

I mean, they really wanted to be The Beatles, didn’t they?

I got to listen to the CD a lot in store, but we had a long waiting list for used copies. Because of that it would be a few months before I was able to get my own copy of Morning Glory.  T-Rev was on top of things, and had been collecting Oasis singles.  Oasis had a knack for B-sides, and often saved their best tunes for singles.  This was rare; in 1995 it was unheard of to save good songs for single B-sides.  Oasis didn’t care and did it anyway.  My first Oasis purchase was actually the CD single for “Don’t Look Back in Anger”.  T-Rev made sure it was stocked, even though we rarely stocked any singles.

So “Don’t Look Back in Anger” was my first Oasis purchase ever.  Buying a new copy of the single was more expensive than buying a used copy of the album, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.  I dug the piano part ripped from John Lennon, and the bright melody with a hint of shade.  It really felt like an homage to the Beatles.  And the B-sides weren’t half bad either.  “Step Out” and “Underneath the Sky” were both top notch songs each with their own flavour.

The track that really sold the single for me was “Cum on Feel the Noize”.  T-Rev asked, “Why would they cover that song?”  I explained it was originally by Slade, not Quiet Riot.  Oasis’ version is more authentic to the Slade original.  The song was a perfect bridge between my heavy metal past and my Oasis present.

Oasis quickly became my favourite “new” band in 1996.  That was the year that we opened up the branch of the Record Store that I managed.  I thought Oasis would be a good band for store play, and while some customers enjoyed that, no staff members did.

Oasis did their part to keep the single alive in the 1990s.  They issued box set after box set, re-releasing their old singles to those who missed them the first time.  The coolest of these were the “silver” and “gold” boxes.  They were plastic hard-shell box sets, one for the Definitely Maybe singles and one for Morning Glory.  They included an interview disc (same one in both boxes) and made it easy to get caught up on Oasis’ CD singles.

These were good times.  Though a breakup with a girl was the trigger, Oasis was the remedy.  Some songs, like “Cast No Shadow” had me wallowing in my own pity, but it was hard not to feel good things with “She’s Electric” and “Roll With It”.  For that reason, although there may be better Oasis albums, What’s the Story remains the most personal to me.

TOP FIVE REASONS TO LIKE OASIS:

5) Lars says it’s OK .

4) They had a member (Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan) who looked like Mr. Bean.

3) Noel frequently refers to Liam derisively as “our kid”.

2) Wibbling Rivalry

1) Liam Gallagher’s unibrow.

55 comments

  1. I was never into Oasis and had no idea they covered “Cum On Feel the Noize”. I also did not know that the song was not a Quiet Riot original. I learn some new every day. :)

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  2. I was big fan of Oasis at the exact time you’re writing about. I used to gobble up all the U.K. music mags that were almost entirely made up of Oasis coverage. That band is definitely of that time, but here in Midwest USA, put on a ballad or a rocker by Oasis at a house party or tailgate TODAY and watch the people sing along and nod their heads. This band is remembered AND forgotten equally here in the USA. They had some many killer singles and B-sides they put out “The Masterplan” to collect them all on one disc. Lots of GOOD TUNES, there!

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    1. Remembered AND forgotten. That’s well put.

      It was smart of them to put out The Masterplan but there were always a few songs I would have preferred. Isn’t that the way?

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  3. I am glad they got you through tough times. I was happily dating my girlfriend (now wife) then.
    I hated Oasis then. Maybe I should try and re-listen to them.
    I could have sworn they were doing Heat Of The Moment when I heard the start of Cum On Feel The Noise. To me their version sounds like Sgt. Pepper does Slade. I think the QR is, although heavier, a truer version of the original mainly to Dubrow sounding so similar to Noddy Holder.
    How would this album score out of 5?

    If you like the band can you suggest a song I might like since I don’t think I like any of their songs.
    Also, is the post Oasis music any good. I was contemplating checking out Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds out of curiosity. Liam still seems like too big of a dickhead to pique my curiosity.

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      1. Yes. I do like that song. Thanks for the reminder.
        If only all of their songs sounded like that I might have gotten into them.
        Sadly the previous songs/albums turned me off.
        Maybe I’ll check out their later albums.

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        3. K found Don’t Believe the Truth super cheap and used it as a stocking stuffer along with a Joy Division cd. JD has gotten more play

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      2. I just found out that Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) was on the last 2 albums, Don’t Believe The Truth and Dig Out Your Soul.
        I wonder if his input helped the sound. Now I will for sure search them out.
        I’m sure the writing was on the wall for the demise of the band, bit to me popularity and album sales do not make a record good. Often quite the opposite.

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  4. Still say the Be Here Now album is there best but like you I went on the Oasis kick as well. Liked the fact that they were still rock. Something different yes but not mopey like drivel. Course with the brothers being Knuckleheads I would always read in Rolling Stone some kind of dust up between the Gallaghers….
    Great post and it’s always cool to see how certain albums resonate with people at times….

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    1. Be Here Now is an album that is a grower. It took me a full year of listens but I didn’t give up. That’s a cocaine album. They were coked completely out of their heads.

      And the dust ups were legendary. I love those stories.

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      1. Yeah dude totally agree….I liked the album off the get go as the first two tracks were and still are classics…
        They are hilarious as even Noel was bashing the deluxe edition of it as it was released..who the fuck does that? hahaha….

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  5. Never really took to Oasis, myself. Whatever and the hype got me interested in the first album and while there’s decent stuff on there, I just wasn’t sold. My brother got into them, though… and a few friends… all telling me they were great. I just don’t hear it. Even to this day I don’t hear it. Right band at the right time, I reckon. No more than that.

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      1. Screaming Trees and Manic Street Preachers opened for them on much of that tour, I believe. Rumour has it (confirmed by Nicky Wire and Noel) that Lanegan was close to going for Liam (apparently he was acting wide every evening and mocking the band on stage).

        However, there’s one gig in particular (Long Beach) where I read that the Trees blew them off stage. No surprise, really…

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  6. Oasis annoyed me a lot. I didn’t care for their attitudes, and didn’t care for them being overplayed on the radio. I have softened up over the years but I still can’t really get into the music much.

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  7. Haha! I love that Slade cover. Oasis did a lot of great covers for B sides in the 90s. I know there was a lot of kick back against Oasis after this album got so big, I’ve always loved it.

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      1. I’m not big on Be here now and the one after that, but the first two and albums five and six are all excellent. I also love the single Whatever.

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  9. It’s funny: Oasis is a throwback group, one where equal amounts of fans love them and hate them. You know what? You need that kind of passion from fans in rock-n-roll. Needless to say, there aren’t a whole lot of groups/performers into today’s music that inspire those feelings.

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  10. Never a fan but the title track rocks. The whole Britpop thing left me a bit cold. Wildhearts were a much better alternative and kicked some serious, beatlish, metallic ass. Redd Kross too.

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    1. Redd Kross were pretty cool. But I found a few so called Britpop bands that were worthy of my attention. Kula Shaker were pretty great. And their bass player is a second cousin of Roger Glover’s I believe!

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  13. I’ve never liked them too much myself after the 1st album – we just got them pushed at us by the second over here. It was the song ‘Roll With It’ that did for me, hated it!

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    1. It’s a pretty ordinary tune.

      Over here it was different, they weren’t pushed quite as hard. And I found their antics to be terribly amusing. I’m not sure why Liam sang “A champagne supernova up your bum” at the MTV awards.

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  14. Oasis recorded a TON of covers…I would list them all,but cannot remember all at this moment. Studio covers I remember (and have)

    Street fighting man
    Helter skelter
    I am the walrus
    You’ve got there your love away
    Heroes
    My generation
    Hey hey my my
    Cum on feel the noize

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  16. Oasis exploded when I just started University in Manchester, which was also where I was born and raised, but I was never much of a fan. I think it was the Beatles thing that got on my nerves since I didn’t think that The Beatles really needed replacing.

    I got really titsed off with twats who had never been to Manchester in their life all of a sudden developing a nasal sweary tone in their voice because they thought it was the thing to do when born in Bristol but were a student in Manchester. It made me hate Oasis even more!

    On the flip side though, I was happy that Sifters Records in Burnage, where I bought a lot of my early LPs back in the day, got some valuable promotion that still is effective to this day from being namechecked in an Oasis number and that the guy who ran it never inflated his prices or turned into a dick on the back of it. He still has people pitching up asking if he is “Mr Sifter” before being subjected to selfie-hell!

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