---

Peter: Putting on the wired, over-ear headphones.

I don’t do that for just anything. Didn’t do it for Ringo!

Tyler: Last time out we broke down Oasis’ Heathen Chemistry, a subpar transitional album from our beloved Britpop misfits.  With Gallagher reunion fever ravaging the landscape and RFK Jr. putting down any vaccines, we’re here today to take on the big oversized Christmas stuffed animal of Oasis albums: Be Here Now.

Peter: Is the animal stuffed with cocaine?

Tyler: Yeah, it’s a wonder there weren’t promo copies of this album with Oasis-branded straws.

Peter: I’ve never done cocaine but I kind of feel like I have because I’ve listened to this album.

Sort of an aural contact high situation.

Tyler: Peter!  Stop grinding your teeth!

I believe Harry Nilsson once asked Paul McCartney if McCartney wanted some PCP.  Paul asked Harry if it was fun, and Nilsson responded, not really.  Paul passed.  That’s kinda how I feel about cocaine.

“It costs a shit-ton and makes you insufferable!”  Oh.  Where’s the queue??

Peter: I’ve heard that story but I didn’t know it was Harry offering the PCP!

I agree that cocaine does not sell itself. Lot of downside there. You heard it here first, folks! Just say “No!” (to cocaine).

I believe we have differing opinions on this album…

Tyler: Yeah.  In the very least, it’s a personal sentimental favorite for me.  Somehow or another I came of Oasis age by obsessing over both (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now, even as the air started leaking from the lofty Gallagher balloon within a few months of BHN‘s release.  It’s a hot mess, and it waylaid the boys’ work for years.  I still love it.

Peter: I was a huge fan of Morning Glory, and I was really excited to hear the follow-up, but I was pretty disappointed when I first heard Be Here Now. It’s risen slightly in my estimation over time, but I’d still probably rank it 5th or 6th out of the 7 Oasis studio albums.

Or at least that’s what I thought going in to our chat! Will I “stand by” that assessment? Stay tuned!

Tyler: You might slot it beneath Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants?

Longtime reader(s) of these dialogues know about good ol’ SOTSOG!  SOTSOG!

Peter: You know me all too well. Yes, SOTSOG may have grabbed the coveted 5 spot in my personal rankings of Oasis studio albums. Big if true.

Anyway, let’s get to it! Be Here Now, Tyler! It’s an album and a lifestyle!

Tyler: The opening track is lunacy.  “D’You Know What I Mean?”.  A toss-off Gallagherrific linguistic aside amped up into this sludgy ostensible anthem.  It’s ridiculous.  And awesome.

Peter: Yeah, this was the first single, and it really contributed to my excitement for the coming album. It’s lumbering, and massive, and, like Thanos, “inevitable.”

I don’t normally reference the MCU, but it seemed appropriate here.

Tyler: Did it though?

Peter: Some of the best Oasis songs sound like they’ve always existed. Like they’ve been stuck in stone and Noel just chipped down to where they’ve always been, waiting to be unearthed. This is like that.

Like Thanos, Tyler! Like Thanos!

Tyler: My, ha, off-brand copy of the band’s MTV Unplugged set is padded out with acoustic performances from other sources, including a German (Swedish?) radio broadcast of “D’You Know…” that reveals a nigh-identical chord progression to that of “Wonderwall.”  It’s uncanny.

This is not to undercut “D’You Know”’s force.  Oasis and producer Owen Morris were smart enough to dress those chords up with beeps and bloops and plane noises and other audio ephemera that, again, is just so fucking silly.

Peter: But it works on this one! The backwards bits and nonsense! I love it here.

Tyler: Oh, me too.  It’s beautiful bombast.

Over the years I’ve returned to a YouTube compilation of Noel Gallagher DVD commentary about the band’s many music videos.  The clip for “D’You Know What I Mean?”, wherein the boys pop out of a like army helicopter in slow motion, was apparently described by Brit legend and Noel idol Paul Weller as “Apocalypse Yesterday.”

Peter: That’s funny! The video does have real “November Rain”/jumping the shark vibes.

Tyler: “November Rain!” Oh, man, the Gone With The Wind of ‘90s video hysteria.

Peter: So the album starts off well…

Tyler: Then it plummets.  Track two, “My Big Mouth,” is my least favorite here.

Peter: I think it starts to hint at some of Be Here Now‘s larger structural issues/design flaws. I like “My Big Mouth,” but it gets absolutely buried here. There are about a thousand identical guitar tracks just layered on top of each other endlessly because these songs go to 11. I guess it sounds good when you’re coked out of your mind?

Tyler: The volume of blow these guys had to be doing, around the clock, to ensure that these songs sounded reasonable, boy, they kept some dealers in business.

Peter: The Wikipedia page for this album mentions there were several people on the Oasis payroll around this time with questionable qualifications…

There are live versions of this song that really rock. Here it’s just a pile of sonic soup.

Wait, you can’t have a pile of soup.

Tyler: I didn’t want to say anything.

Peter: *slop.

*sludge?

Tyler: Pile of sonic slurry?

Peter: Does slurry pile?

Tyler: Good point.  I think it’s probably runny.

Eugh. This is gross.

I am also chuckling.

Peter: You should leave all this in! Let them see how the sausage gets made!

Tyler: “I came here wanting commentary about Oasis and I got this vaudeville act.  I won’t be back.”

Peter: I think I’ll vote slop!

Tyler: Slop it is.  “My Big Mouth,” everybody!

Peter: Next up is “Magic Pie.” This is where things start to really go off the rails for me. I kind of like this song, but the production is not doing it any favors. The idea that each song has to be more grand and massive than the last is really evident here. It’s over seven minutes long!

Tyler: I love “Magic Pie,” but yeah, it’s ridiculous.  Even the title pushes the limits of Gallagher-brand whimsy.

“An extraordinary guy can never have a lonely day.  He might live a long goodbye, but that is not for me to say.”  That is some nonsense.

Peter: Yeah, the lyrics are a bit strained on this album. He wrote a good chunk of it whilst vacationing with Johnny Depp and Kate Moss, which could not have helped matters!

Tyler: Oh, of course he did.

Peter: At Mick Jagger’s villa in Mustique, no less!

Tyler: No wonder these guys thought they were unassailable rock royalty.

Peter: The Marvin Hagler quote about it being “tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 AM when you’ve been sleeping in silk pajamas,” seems apropos here.

Who wants to write lyrics when you can hang with John-Moss?

Did they have a celebrity nickname? If not, I’m calling dibs. Mopp? DeKate?

None of these are “good.”

Anyway, “Magic Pie” is just too darn long. It’s going to be a theme!

Tyler: Noel would tell you, Peter, that you are just a child with nothing to lose but your mind.  Yeah, your mind.

“Stand By Me” is next.  You’d’ve thought that The Replacements would’ve shut the door on audacious history-flouting rock titles by calling an album Let It Be, but no no!  Noel, years after the Mats, calls a song, yes, “Stand By Me.”

Of course, there is a Beatles connection—John Lennon performed the original on a 1975 collection of covers.

Peter: I made a reference to this song earlier. Now it makes sense! I can just imagine our readers putting that together and chuckling (internally). This was a big single. I never liked the line “Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday.” That level of incompetence when it comes to food safety is pretty astonishing, to be honest.

Or maybe he threw it up because of drug and alcohol abuse? Either way, no thank you!

Tyler: Another intro for the ages.  Noel, through himself and through Liam, has serenaded us over the years with some real lyrical dross.  Here on Be Here Now, though, as you note, Peter, everything is heavy and grandiose and self-important.  Even throwaway lines are puffed up with non-profundity.

Peter: Agreed. The tune is fine. It’s catchy and anthemic. Plus, it’s got that classic Noel harmony vocal in the chorus. But the lyrics bring the whole operation down. Too bad, really.

Tyler: I still enjoy it, though not nearly as much as “D’You Know What I Mean?” or some tracks yet to come.

Next up in the five-slot is a song I vividly recall Matt Pinfield praising to the Gallaghers on 120 Minutes: “I Hope, I Think, I Know.”

This is more fun than “Stand By Me.”

Peter: I like “I Hope, I Think, I Know.”

Tyler: Me too!  It feels a little lighter on its feet than its trackmates.

Peter: Also, it’s under five minutes! A rare, sensible production choice on Be Here Now.

Tyler: “I Hope…” followed by sixth song “The Girl In The Dirty Shirt” might represent the high point of this album.  Both tunes are terrific.

Peter: Huh, I never thought about it like that, but I kind of agree!

I’m processing this new realization.

Tyler: Breathe, man, breathe!  Breathe in some cocaine!

Peter: This sends the investigation into a whole new direction.

Tyler: “The Girl In The Dirty Shirt” is possibly my favorite moment on BHN.  Those keys!

Peter: It’s probably my second favorite on the album? It sounds like it could be on Morning Glory.

“That’s high praise!”

Tyler: “High” praise?  I was joking about the cocaine, Peter.  Think of Mrs. Peter!

Peter: She can score her own coke.

---