Remember This Song? #1. Oasis - "Morning Glory"

(A short note: this song made me want to start a blog of song reviews. This is where it ended up.)

Oasis

"Morning Glory"

(What's The Story) Morning Glory?

Most people will remember Oasis as that British band that claim to be better than the Beatles and those brothers that fight all the time. While it's true that their legacy is less than stellar, most will also forget that Oasis did make some good music. "Morning Glory" was the first American single from their second album, "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", their much anticipated follow-up to their smash hit Definitely Maybe.

Riding high off of the success from "Live Forever" and a whole big pile of cocaine, the brothers Gallagher do here what they do best: appropriate someone else's idea and try to pass it off as their own. In the case of this song, it's R.E.M.'s "The One I Love". The main riff throughout "Morning Glory" maintains the same basic Em-D chord structure and uses the minor third and fourth to transition between the chords. However, instead of Peter Buck's chiming Rickenbacker sound, Oasis uses heavier distortion to propel their song, which moves along at a much faster tempo.

From the opening seconds, the song uses a persistent kick-drum beat to remind us that Oasis are not a sensitive mope band like many of their UK counterparts, they're fucking rockstars. The opening lines of the song, "All your dreams are made/When you're chained to the mirror and a razorblade", make an obvious reference to cocaine, but it's less obvious as to their intention here: are they reprimanding or bragging?

All that aside, there is no denying that the song rocks, and serves as a great first single to Oasis' fantastic album. While definitely the hardest song on the record, the ballads "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back In Anger" along with Oasis' version of "Freebird", "Champagne Supernova", are really what skyrocketed the band to international success...for a couple years, at least, before infighting and overwhelming egomania rendered them the 90s equivalent of 70s era Aerosmith.

Whatever.

Introduction

This blog serves only as an outlet for me to wax nostalgic about the greatest decade since the 60s. A time when the Portland dream was alive everywhere and Seattle was best known for rain and music instead of rain and a place that music used to come from.

A decade that will be remembered for flannel and boy bands instead of the cultural shift away from the pre-packaged consumerism that defined the decade before it.

A decade whose greatest hero's legacy will never be tarnished past his own selfish and cowardly final act.

A decade that gave artists a voice. A decade where "independent" was not a sub-genre, but a true ideology.

The last unspoiled decade before the internet, when delayed gratification was not a display of will, but just how things were.

The last decade of the century.

The 90s. Whatever.