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A conversation between Tyler and Writers’ Loom guest Peter.

Peter: Be Here Now is your favorite? Am I remembering that correctly?

Tyler: I fucking love Be Here Now. It may have been my favorite at some point, for any number of likely-bombastic reasons.

Definitely Maybe is of course great as well.  I’ve got some love for Don’t Believe The Truth, and even more for the final Oasis LP, Dig Out Your Soul.

Peter: I was 18 when DM came out and the song “Live Forever” was a huge hit on indie radio and it was amazing. It really spoke to me at the time. Cause I was going to live forever. obviously.

Tyler: Dude, “Live Forever” hooked me into Definitely Maybe as well. “Rock And Roll Star” is a killer opener, “Shakermaker” is like a weird reference to “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing,” and then you’ve got…”Live Forever.”  Sold.

Peter: Yeah, I agree now. It’s funny, at the time, DM didn’t really register for me. A friend of mine had it on CD, but I wasn’t “mad fer it”™. So (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? kind of hit me cold.

Tyler: I circled back to DM after falling for Morning Glory and Be Here Now.  At the time the leaner tougher snarl of it wasn’t quite my thing.  Not yet.

Peter: Yeah. Same. Which is funny cause I loved In Utero and stuff like that at the time.

Not that it’s the same sound. Just, I liked loud. I liked guitars. I liked snarl.

But it grew on me later.

Tyler: Man, I was coming from a world of Hootie and Sheryl Crow and nutsycuckoo Beatle obsession.  Upon reflection, I owe Oasis more than a few miles on my path to musical adolescence and adulthood.

Peter: But then Morning Glory came and it was such a phenomenon.

Tyler: I recall my sister, 4.5 years my senior, talking about Oasis being the new Beatles.  I scoffed at that.  But then in my memory there’s a mash of Be Here Now, the immortal Noel-led MTV Unplugged, and Morning Glory.  I didn’t really grasp how deeply they were shaking popular music.

Peter: She was the right age. My older brother didn’t care too much about them. So there was a little window of people that it landed for. “Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.”

Tyler: Noel Gallagher is a hell of a hero.

Peter: Ha, it’s been fun to see him age into this pretty much universally beloved elder statesmen of rock.

Tyler: Right?  He’s still a phenomenal interview, and his music has vitality that Liam’s solo stuff often lacks.

Not that Liam’s hurting.  There’re some hot jams in his catalog.  And he’s more popular on his own than ever.

Peter: He is! But yeah, Noel’s such a great interview. Hard for Liam to compete.

We should talk about the tunes.

Tyler: Absolutely.  Let’s.

Peter: I don’t skip anything on this one. Even the little jams.

Tyler: In my younger years I wasn’t big on “Hey Now!”—I thought it a bit sludgy.  No longer, though.  I’m with you.  Every track is a must.

“Hello” crushes it, just kills it, from the jump.

Peter: I agree. Love that track.

Tyler: Even that little fade-in intro, the “Wonderwall” strum, works.  You need that little mellow touch before the fellas just kick you in the teeth.

Peter: Yeah it’s sort of meta. The album is into itself.

“Morning Glory” is one of my favorite songs on it.

Tyler: It’s probably the darkest, no?  “Chained to the mirror and the razor blade.”

Peter: Yeah for sure. That’s a coke reference right?

Tyler: Yeah, he’s talking about the ol’ adult drugs.

Peter: The big boy drugs!

I want to say, one thing I love about this album, is that Noel was great at writing great lyrics that were basically gibberish.

Tyler: Right?  So much utter nonsense.

Brilliant, brilliant nonsense.

“The sink is full of fishes, she’s got dirty dishes on the brain.”  I mean–

Peter: It meant something to me at the time. But, yeah, what’s a “Wonderwall?” It was the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. It doesn’t matter. It’s the thing you wanted.

The McGuffin.

Tyler: Yes. It makes complete sense even though it’s nonsense.

Quick aside: I think Noel stole the word “wonderwall” from George Harrison’s technically-first solo album, a very weird film score called Wonderwall Music.

Peter: Yes, right. But what did it mean in the song? It didn’t matter. It was a placehołder. It’s part of a grand tradition of rock and roll gibberish going back to “Be Bop a Lula” and “Louie Louie”. It hits the kids ears and sticks.

Later he got a little more interested in lyrics with mixed results.

Noel was going to sing “Don’t Look Back In Anger” or “Wonderwall” and Liam picked “Wonderwall.” I believe.

So Noel got “DLBIA.”

Tyler: I’ll be damned.  I mean, Liam chose the “better” song. In that it defined them. Probably still does.

“DLBIA” has honestly never quite been my favorite.  It’s great.  I just listened to it as we write, and the album needs it.

But, for some reason, there’s a hitch to my enjoyment of it.  Can’t quite put my finger on it.

Peter: “Wonderwall” was huge! My good friend says Noel got the better song. It’s hard to split them for me. Both massive hits.

Tyler: I still remember the video for “Wonderwall.”  One of the brothers pestering the other with a megaphone.  I think Liam was the aggressor, because that just seems like something Liam Gallagher would do to Noel Gallagher.

Peter: No, it’s Noel with the megaphone!

Though it seems like Liam.

Tyler: “She’s Electric”: yes.  Yes all day.

Peter: “She’s Electric” is terrific nonsense. I love it.

Tyler: It’s so happy!  Liam doesn’t make fun of it, either.  Crucial.

Really, Liam kills the delivery on all of these.  One of my favorite rock critics is a dude named Stephen Thomas Erlewine, from Allmusic.com. For years he’s maintained that Liam had the best voice in modern rock.

Peter: I remember Noel saying he was the better singer but Liam had a better voice. Which is correct.

Tyler: There’s an inherent vulnerability to Noel’s vocals, ya think?  At least by comparison to Liam’s gale force approach.

Peter: Yeah. More nuance with Noel. But Liam’s got that John Lennon meets Johnny Rotten thing going. It’s pretty flinty.

Peter: One of my friends at the time thought “Some Might Say” was really deep, which it is not, but still a good tune.

Tyler: “Some Might Say” is a fucking triumph.  God damn transcendent.

Peter: “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday” was a great B-side as well. Super fun.

Tyler: “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday” is a delight.

Peter: “Champagne Supernova” was such an “anthem.” I remember them playing it at some awards show and Liam was so drunk.

It was a trainwreck.

Tyler: Did he spit on the stage and sing “Champagne supernova up your bum?”  I saw him do that on the VMAs.

Peter: I don’t remember that, but probably.

I think it was the VMAs.

Tyler: I’ll tell you, like more than half of the songs on Be Here Now are longer than “Champagne Supernova,” but they often don’t need to be.  I love that Be Here Now excess—it’s part of what makes the album—but there’s a lot to be said for how the band earns “Supernova” as an epic finale.  Does that make sense?

“Supernova” is, what, seven minutes of no-gristle rock perfection.

Peter: Yeah, Be Here Now is long in a different *cough* coked-up *cough* way. “Champagne Supernova” feels like the right length. It doesn’t get old for me.

There are a few albums that have been sort of “right time at the right place” albums and WTSMG was a huge one for me.

Tyler: In retrospect, it did me a lot of favors.

I have a question.  It’s an important one.  Oasis fans need to know.

If you could, would you add “Acquiesce” to this album?

Peter: Um, I do think “Acquiesce” is great. I don’t know where I’d put it though. For me, the album is kind of perfect already. Every transition is burned into my brain. It’s that kind of album for me. Like Revolver, Purple Rain, Ys, Hadestown. There isn’t a thing I’d change about it.

Tyler: I feel the same way.  It’s kind of like how Beatle fans debate whether “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” should’ve been added to Sgt. Pepper. It sounds fun and great in concept, but doesn’t make much sense when you lay it out.

Peter: Exactly!

Where would you put them?

Tyler: And what might you cut? Heresy!

Peter: Exactly.

Tyler: We haven’t yet talked “Cast No Shadow.”  Another faux-profound wonder.

Though, if this song catches me in self-indulgent weak moments, I will be all “Yeah, I’m bowed with weight, too!”

Embarrassing.

Peter: Yeah, “Cast No Shadow.” Another one that’s mostly cool-sounding gibberish.

Tyler: “As they took his soul, they stole his pride.” Sounds so profound!

Peter: “As they took his soul/They stole his pride” Seems like the soul part is way worse. Who cares about pride at that point?

I was writing that at the same time as you.

Tyler: That’s a hell of a jinx right there.

Peter: Yeah, it sounded good though. At 18 or whatever I was. I didn’t mind pseudo-profound.

Tyler: Hell, I’m knocking on 40 and I still don’t mind psuedo-profound.

I don’t know that we’ve yet marveled and cooed over “Roll With It.”

Peter: Um, yeah, “Roll With It.” Another effortless melody. When he’s on Noel’s songs sound so effortless. It’s like they came to him fully formed.

The way Paul dreamed “Yesterday.”

Tyler: And it’s so damn hopeful, too.  It’s upbeat and happy and defiant in the most charming way. This must’ve sounded alien to American radio back in ’95.

American rock radio, I should say.  My boys in Hootie took pop radio by storm that summer.

Peter: Yeah. Though ’95 was a real turning point.

Wait. Are you kidding about Hootie?

I mean, are you, pro-Hootie?

Tyler: My affection for them? I was a sheltered pre-adolescent. Fucking loved me some Hootie.

I’m pro-Hootie. I saw a reunion show on their tour in ’19. It was just great.

Peter: I have a lot of thoughts on this.

Tyler: I’m not gonna stop you.

Peter: I’m not hating on Hootie. Let me say that up front.

Tyler: Understood.

Peter: Something turned in 1995. The zeitgeist or whatever. Grunge was done. Kurt was dead. And things like Hootie started coming back and dominating the scene. Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler were the Elijah. It was sad for me because that alternative/grunge thing was my jam. But Oasis existed outside of those things. It was a really welcome reprieve from the end of an era.

The older brother in Clueless is into grunge. But the movie’s not about him. I was the older brother.

Paul Rudd plays the older brother, I think.

Tyler: There’s a universality to the appeal of Oasis.  That’s not to say they’re for every listener.  But the things that make them exceptional are not niche.  Does that make sense?

Peter: The songs are timeless. It’s a classic for a reason.

Tyler: Paul Stephen Rudd?  Also memorably featured in ’95’s Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers.

Peter: There was a Halloween movie that year? With Paul Rudd? Amazing. I should watch that.

Tyler: No. No you shouldn’t.

It attempts to chalk up Michael Myers’s unquenchable bloodlust by depicting him as victim of the Curse Of Thorn.  There are like druids and a baby and Rudd being very, very serious.

Peter: Okay, that sounds terrible.

Tyler: It is real bad.

I was twelve and found the screenwriter on Prodigy.  I sent him what must’ve been a horrendously obnoxious e-mail taking apart the movie.  He responded—with remarkable thought and patience—with a long description of all the scenes the studio inserted or changed.

You know what’s really special when it comes down to it?  Liam and Noel singing together.

Peter: WTSMG 10/10. No notes.

Tyler: 10/10 indeed.  This one’s a classic.

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