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Tyler: We’ve got a guest musician on the next track, Pete!  Well, “musician.”

Peter: That’s right! Johnny Depp is playing slide guitar?

Tyler: Just incredible.  I do not mean this as a compliment.

The song rocks!  I never liked it in my youth but I think now that it’s got some merit.  Nevertheless, get Depp the hell outta here.

Peter: I did not like this song when I first heard it. I think it reminded me of “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi, and I found that disturbing. It’s one thing to rip off The Beatles or The Stones, but Bon Jovi? I was genuinely shocked, and the Johnny Depp thing just about broke my brain.

Tyler: So stupid.

Of all the lagerheaded whimsies to indulge.  “Let’s get Johnny on slide!”  “…Johnny Marr?”

Peter: No, not the famous musician, the actor! We did cocaine together on vacation!

Tyler: The hubris!

Peter: Like Icarus, they were! Flying too close to the sun. With Johnny Depp.

All that aside, it’s a pretty solid tune. I actually kind of like it now. The bridge is a blast of chaotic fun.

Tyler: It’s got body to it but it’s not overwrought.  The layers of guitars are peeled back.

Peter: They wanted Johnny’s slide work to shine.

Tyler: Mercy.  Onto the next song, which was the second single over here in the States.  “Don’t Go Away.”  In my hometown it got some airplay on the local “alternative rock” radio station, but the track lacked staying power.

Peter: Yeah, they played the video on MTV. My girlfriend at the time had MTV. It was pretty sweet.

Tyler: Feel the heat!

Peter: This was really meant to be the “Wonderwall” or “Don’t Look Back in Anger” of this album. It never really worked for me.

Or, as you noted, the rest of America.

Again, the lyrics just fall a little flat for me. The rhymes are a little too lazy/strained.

Tyler: Yeah, I’m not high on it, either.  The chorus is a bit undercooked.  It’s another one that lacks the whacked-out ambition, if that’s an appropriate word, of the rest of Be Here Now.  That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, as we just noted about “Fade In-Out,” but the result is, totally, kind of a “Wonderwall” knockoff.

Then again, an Oasis-superfan friend of Loom ranks “Don’t Go Away” among the band’s top tunes.  So maybe we’re just jerks.

Peter: We may be jerks, but we’re also right about this song.

Next up!

The titular track!

Tyler: Love it.  Love it love it.  It’s dumb as hell, it’s bursting with chemically-influenced ebullience, and it is so very happy.

Peter: It’s pretty great! I never rated this one very high, maybe because it’s sort of buried in the middle of side 2, but it’s much better than I remembered! Fun stuff.

Although, it has to be said… “Sing a song for me/One from Let It Be,” is the kind of ultra lazy lyrical offering that plagues BHN.

Tyler: Noel clearly opted to double-down on Beatle references.  Hell, “Be Here Now” is a George solo track.

Peter: I think Be Here Now is where the Beatles references started to feel excessive. We get it. You like the Beatles.

Tyler: Throwing back to the first track, Liam on “D’You Know What I Mean?” is compelled to sing “‘Fool On The Hill’ and ‘I Feel Fine.’”

Only upon revisitation for the umpteenth time, anyway, has it come together for me how optimistic are BHN’s final three songs.  Even the reprise is sprightly!

Peter: Maybe we were too rash in our condemnation of cocaine.

Tyler: Well, I dunno about that.  Our next song, “All Around The World,” is ten Goddamn minutes long.

And the video!  My God, the video.

Peter: Noel’s commentary on that video is priceless.

But, yeah, it’s waaaay too long. There are like four key changes. Madness.

Tyler: Just as “Be Here Now” can be traced to “Digsy’s Dinner” and “She’s Electric,” “All Around The World” is going for “Champagne Supernova” scope.  The boys want those crowds singing along.

Peter: Absolutely.

Tyler: Though, did they even bother with “All Around The World” on tour?  The bombast would be tough to pull off with a five-piece.

Peter: Good question. I saw them on the tour for this album, but I don’t remember if they played it.

Tyler: That show must’ve been one hell of a spectacle.

Peter: It was weird. Liam was not happy with our lack of enthusiasm, as I recall.

Tyler: What’s the Noel line about Liam?  “He’s a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Peter: Perfect.

It’s interesting to note, this song has been around awhile. I believe it was the first Noel-penned song they ever played as a group. Before Noel was in the band even? I’m trying to remember.

Tyler: “All Around The World?”  I’ll be damned.

It is kind of an anthem for beginners.

Peter: Apparently he held it until the third album because previously they couldn’t afford the production he had in mind. He reckoned one orchestra wouldn’t be enough. He wanted two.

Tyler: Oh, well, of course he did.  Perfectly reasonable.

Peter: I have a soft spot for this song because my son really loved it when he was little. We heard it a lot!

Tyler: That’s sweet.

Peter: Lucky for me, he liked The Beatles, The Monkees, and Oasis. Plus rando sixties stuff. We enjoyed a lot better playlist than most parents are subjected to.

Tyler: Well done, Peter and Mrs. Peter!

Peter: Can’t take any credit. You get the one you get.

Tyler: How stirring!  I hope you’ve written that sentiment down for him in a card.

“Dear Son of Peter.  We got the one we got.  Love, Dad”

Peter: I meant we got lucky!

Tyler: Well, yes, that’s how babies are made.  AY-o!

Am I on cocaine?

Peter: The song is still going. That’s how long it is.

The next one is also long!

Tyler: Yeah, the final two songs here take up a good solid seventeen minutes.  That’s some track length for, I dunno, Brahms Viola Concertos or something.

Even Phish keep it tidy in the studio.  But not Narcotic Noel.

Peter: You could cut three minutes from “It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)” and never miss it.

Tyler: They repeat the title so many times.

Peter: It’s just too darn long.

I like it, but it’s too long.

Tyler: Yeah, I like it as well.  Absurdly punctuated title and all.

Peter: Yeah, that title.

Tyler: Yet another Beatles reference, too.

Peter: Right. Drink.

Is this the most needlessly inflated run time on the album?

Tyler: Easily.  Without question.  They really do sing “It’s gettin’ better, man!!” over, and over, and over, and over again.

Peter: It just gets boring after a while.

Tyler: Not a good concluding sentiment.  “Let it end!”

Peter: But, I do like the song. I would love it if they radically re-cut this album. Wiped a bunch of the over-the-top production. A forty minute version of this album could really cook.

Tyler: Ooh, now that’s something.  Noel actually did have a crack at “re-producing” “D’You Know What I Mean?” a few years back.  It’s available on the deluxe streaming edition of BHN.

Peter: It’s true, although, I actually prefer the original in that case. Sorry, Noel!

Tyler: I imagine he’ll forgive you after dabbing his moistened eyes with a pound note.

Peter: He probably uses them as toilet paper in the W.C.

Tyler: Gotta love Noel, for so very many reasons.  I believe I once read him say, in essence, that he’s fine if his kids don’t take on jobs, what with the ample Gallagher fortune.  Dad of the year!

Peter: Adopt us, Noel!

Tyler: “We love SOTSOG!”

Peter: The reprise of “All Around The World” is totally justified and not at all gratuitous!

Tyler: Closing as it does with the sounds of footsteps and a door closing.  Fucking profound, Peter.

Peter: This album is so long. It pushed the edge of normal CD capabilities, as I recall.

Tyler: For God’s sake.

Peter: Also, it was LOUD! Do you remember that? If you tried to make a mix tape of Oasis songs, the Be Here Now tracks were all way louder.

Tyler: What a bunch of assholes.

I adore them.  But, all jokes aside, the excess and the drugs were hampering the music.

Peter: It’s one of the great bridge too far albums. If it had gone unreleased it would be legendary today. As it is, it really captured a moment in time. We got a sense, in real time, of what it was like to be Oasis at the height of their fame. We got to be there then.

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