Since my Oasis compilation last week went down like a storm, I thought take another stab at 'em. This time by defending their oft maligned third album Be Here Now.
The reason for the album being underrated are many and not always easy to keep track of. The main one seem to be how their 1994 debut Definitely Maybe was hailed as a the best things since things were invented, and the follow up (What's The Story) Morning Glory? got a significantly more lukewarm reception upon its release in 1995. It soon went on to become one of the best sellers of all time with a string of hit singles.
The theory then being that critics starting regretting their criticism of Morning Glory and decided that whatever album Oasis release next would praised beyond reason, before even hearing it. Which is also pretty much what happened to Be Here Now. When the dust settled most realised it wasn't really the second coming, salvation in musical form. It was, in fact, just a rock record. The backlash was inevitable. Noel's visit to 10 Downing Street to visit new prime minister Tony Blair also contributed to soiling their image as working class lads who didn't give a shit about anything but booze, drugs and raising hell.
As the years have gone by it's become increasingly clear that this is no masterpiece, nor is it a turkey. It's unsurprisingly right in the middle - it's a good album, unworthy of either extreme opinion.
"All the songs are really long and all the lyrics are shit", said Noel Gallagher in the excellent Britpop documentary Live Forever. Some songs, like D'Know What I Mean? and certainly All Around The World are too long for their own good, but the rest are fine and I disagree about the lyrics being any worse than anything else Noel's written. Other than the occasional early track like Live Forever and Rock 'n Roll Star, have they ever had memorable lyrics that weren't just a mess of random phrases that mean absolutely nothing?
It's also one of the earliest examples of what would later be known as "the loudness war". If you put your music player on shuffle you're sure to jump out of your chair and shit yourself every time a track off it comes on. It's a very compressed and brickwalled record, definitely one of the loudest mixes I've ever heard.
And with this backlash nonsense, which in a way is still going on 13 years later, the sometimes painful production, and Noel's own hatred for the album can easy cloud the fact that there are songs on Be Here Now that rank among some of the best the band ever recorded.
The three tracks below should be sufficient proof of this. But turn the volume down, or they might crack your speakers.
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You can always tell the quality bands from the shite ones by listening to their outtakes and b-sides.
Oasis (R.I.P.) was one of those bands where the non-album tracks were just as good, if not even better, than the ones that made it onto the album. Main man Noel Gallagher would be the first one to admit he was a bit arrogant with his material, and that the band sometimes perhaps didn't pick the right songs for their albums.
How masterpieces like The Masterplan, Headshrinker or Round Are Way got relegated to the back side of a single is madness. Any band would kill to have those songs on their roster and would've made them lead singles.
In 1998 Oasis released The Masterplan, a compilation of some of the best b-sides up to that point. A fecking essential record which belongs in everyone's collection, as it's every bit as good as Definitely Maybe, (What's The Story) Morning Glory? and the underrated Be Here Now.
I had about 50 or 60 non-album songs by Oasis lying around on the computer, so I decided to compile some of my favorites onto an unofficial sequal to The Masterplan, and titled it The Plasterman because I'm that clever.
1. I wanna live in a dream in my record machine (2005) 2. Full on (2000) 3. Whatever (1994) 4. Let's all make believe (2000) 5. My generation (The Who cover, 2002) 6. I will believe (1994) 7. Just getting older (2002) 8. Fade away (acoustic version, 1998) 9. Cum on feel the noize (Slade cover, 1996) 10. Eyeball tickler (2005) 11. Flashbax (1998) 12. Round are way (1996) 13. Waiting for the rapture (alternate version, 2008) 14. Heroes (David Bowie cover, 1997) 15. Idler's dream (2000) 16. Carry us all (2002) 17. Shout it out loud (2002)
Once upon a time MTV did not suck ass. No one can quite agree on exactly when this "time when MTV did not suck ass" occurred, only that is was at some point in the distant past. It depends entirely on when and where you were born, when you discovered rock 'n' roll and when you started watching MTV.
Well, I was born in Sweden in 1981, I discovered rock 'n' roll in about 1992 or so when my older sister started playing Pearl Jam's Ten on a rigorous daily basis like it was part of a probation sentence or something, and I started watching MTV Europe around the same time. Soon enough Ray Cokes (host of Most Wanted) and Toby Amies (host of Alternative Nation) were the coolest people I knew. Thus the early to mid 1990s was when MTV, according to yours truly, didn't suck ass.
Alternative Nation aired on MTV Europe in the mid 90s, and someone by the name of "numbersix99" has uploaded the entire last broadcast from 1997. Cheers, you rule. There was an Alternative Nation on the American MTV between 1992 and 1996, but I've never seen it nor do I know anything about it. Let it be known this is about the European one.
The host Toby Amies was a dishevelled hipster type (a whole decade before being a dishevelled hipster type was considered trendy and blogable) who, with hair that defied gravity, would stand under a spotlight in an otherwise pitch black studio mumbling into a microphone. Usually about some band or person you'd never heard of or how MTV was an evil multinational corporation which only existed to hypnotise you into buying Levi's and Coca Cola. I fucking loved him. Still do, actually.
Amies and the rest of the people behind the show pretty much just aired whatever they wanted and didn't give a shit. They were on in the middle of the night anyway, so no one really cared. And what they wanted to air could be anything from obscure hip hop to Captain Beefheart to The Ramones to Mr. Bungle to Melt Banana to Wesley Willis to The Firm to Man Or Astroman? to The Flaming Lips to The Cramps to Bob Hund etc etc etc. Basically all of the groovy, far out, too cool for school stuff no one else bothered to air.
In fact, Alternative Nation was so out there by today's loathesome standards that it seems completely inconceivable that MTV, that safe haven of reality shows and shittiness, ever aired something like this.
The old-timers tell me that back in the 80s everything that MTV aired was like this. Total anarchy, awesome videos by awesome people and all around coolness that pissed the mainstream in the face. How the mighty have fallen. Everything that was ever worth your time has been co-opted and fucked in the butt.
I don't expect any of your dear readers to sit through all 13 parts of that last show which numbersix99 has uploaded, but you kinda should. At least watch a couple of them and cry over all the great music you never got to hear because you didn't watch the show.
Alternative Nation - I salute thee. Satan bless your memory.
The sky is the part of the atmosphere or of outer space visible from the surface of any astronomical object.
During the day the Sun can be seen in the sky, unless obscured by clouds. In the night sky (and to some extent during the day) the moon, planets and stars are visible in the sky. Some of the natural phenomena seen in the sky are clouds, rainbows, and aurorae.
Lightning and precipitation can also be seen in the sky during storms. On Earth, birds, insects, aircraft, and kites are often considered to fly in the sky. As a result of human activities, smog during the day and light radiance during the night are often seen above large cities.
1. U2 - Indian summer sky (1984) 2. B-52's - There's a moon in the sky (called the moon) (1979) 3. Creedence Clearwater Revival - It came out of the sky (1976) 4. American Music Club - Western sky (2004) 5. Pink Floyd - The great gig in the sky (1973) 6. Oasis - Round are way/Up in the sky (1995) 7. The Beatles - Lucy in the sky with diamonds (1967) 8. Magazine - The great beautician in the sky (1978) 9. Bob Dylan - When the night comes falling from the sky (1985) 10. Nicole Atkins - Skywriters (2007) 11. Nick Drake - Northern sky (1970) 12. Porcupine Tree - The sky moves sideways (2008) 13. Thoughts & Words - Morning sky (1969) 14. Chris Isaak - Blue Spanish sky (1989) 15. The Plan - Skies above (2001)
