Where Were You October 3rd 1995? A Written History of How Oasis Became My Favourite Band

Where were you October 3rd 1995?  I was at The Stone Road Mall in Guelph, Ontario, Canada with some friends.  I'm almost certain we were going out for dinner at Legend's Bar & Grill because we could use our meal cards at this establishment.  But of course, we needed to stop into HMV first because it was a Tuesday and Tuesday was and still is, new release day.  I likely suggested or insisted that we do this.

On the new release wall I saw Oasis' 2nd effort "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" and I immediately grabbed it.  I didn't even know it was out (email was only just catching on, we weren't there with the Internet yet) so was pleasantly surprised. I also am pretty certain I picked up Lisa Loeb's "Tails" that night, which I still have in my collection. Don't ask me how I can remember this stuff. But the Oasis album is the subject of this post and without a doubt changed the way I listened to music.  Although Do You Sleep? by Lisa Loeb is still a killer tune.

I'll backtrack a little bit.  I stumbled upon Oasis' excellent debut "Definitely Maybe" almost by accident.  Again, it was at an HMV (but this one was in Oakville), on a listening station in October or November of 1994.  My friends and I had 2nd period spare in Grade 13 so we would frequently make the 10 minute drive from Burlington to Oakville to hit HMV (at that time I guess our hometown Burlington wasn't populated or cool enough to warrant having it's own HMV).  Anyway, as soon as I hit play on the listening station disc man and heard the opening chords of Rock N' Roll Star I was hooked and I was pretty sure when I got to Supersonic that Oasis were my new favourite band.

After digesting "Definitely Maybe" and feeling that all the songs were great, I needed to see if Oasis had any other songs. Over the course of 1994, I discovered that Oasis had put out CD singles for Live Forever, Shakermaker, Cigarettes and Alcohol and Supersonic.  I picked all of these up as they had b-sides, which I soon discovered were as good as the album tracks.  My friend Simon and I then found a real gem in Hamilton when we were CD shopping at Dr. Disc at the end of 1994.  As an aside, if people asked me in high school what my hobbies were, the answer was CD shopping.  And creative writing.  But mostly CD shopping.  And I guess things haven't changed, though the blog is a way to keep the writing candle burning.  Anyway, we found the CD single of an Oasis song I'd never heard of called Whatever.  This wasn't on "Definitely Maybe" and contained 2 b- sides (It's Good) To Be Free and Half The World Away that also weren't on the album (Slide Away, the penultimate album track from DM rounded it out).  So obviously this was an easy pick-up. Whatever and the b-sides solidified my feelings that Oasis were awesome.  Many Oasis tunes made my best of 1994 mix tape compilations (I want to say there were 3 tapes that year), though Always by Bon Jovi was number 1 for legacy reasons and because it is an amazing power ballad.

In May 1995, we were going on class trip to Toronto (maybe to the Art Gallery of Ontario or somewhere cultural like that).  I knew that Oasis was coming out with a new single called Some Might Say (though I'm not sure now how I knew this), so I had Dr. Disc order it for me.  It came in the day before the class trip so I immediately taped the song and the three b-sides so I could walkman it up on the bus.  I was loving Some Might Say, despite the rather inane lyrics, the song soared and the guitar outro was bueno. Revisiting the reissues of "Definitely Maybe" and "WTSMG" and hearing the early live cuts included makes you realize what a powerful singer Liam Gallagher was. I feel the Some Might Say single, backed with Acquiesce and Headshrinker equal Liam's voice at its most powerful. In addition, the b-sides on this single (also including the Noel sung Talk Tonight) are probably the best trio included on any of their singles. So where did Some Might Say fit? I wasn't sure as again it wasn't on DM.  And then in August 1995 Roll With It came out and it still wasn't part of an album. But the song was good (not as good as Some Might Say) and the b-side Rockin' Chair is still one of my favourite b-sides by any band ever.

In September 1995 I was off to start my post-high school life, chasing a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Guelph. I was moving away from home for the first time, living with 3 roommates (whom I didn't know) in a building that was designed by the person who built a prison in Kingston. But I was excited. A girl in my alcove noticed me wearing an Oasis t-shirt early in the year which got us talking about the band. One day, she ran downstairs saying she had just heard and taped the new Oasis song Morning Glory off the radio. Yes, taping songs off the radio was a regular thing prior to Napster, iTunes, etc. I dubbed it off her tape and wow, I was blown away. This was somehow better than both Some Might Say and Roll With It. Buzz saw guitars, vague lyrics about razorblades and mirrors (Cocaine references were lost on me then, as they still are now). This upped the ante for the new album, but none of us had any idea of when it was coming out.

So the first month of school was good and we were hitting our groove by October, as I said, we figured out what alcohol serving restaurants accepted our meal cards. When I flipped over "What's The Story" at HMV, I saw that it contained Roll With It and Some Might Say, which quelled the small worry that was kicking around inside my head.  Also it had Morning Glory on it, so automatically it fit the like 3 songs, buy an album rule we had for buying albums (though this never really applied to me.  I have a story about Weezer's "Blue Album" I'll save for another post).

When I got back to the dorm I put on "WTSMG" and immediately after hearing Hello the thought was "best album ever".  Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger reinforced this, though it was kind of surprising to hear Noel on lead for the latter as traditionally songs with his lead vocal were pegged for b-sides. It was a good surprise. The whole album flowed for me immediately. No bad songs (even the Swamp Song instrumentals fit). And soon, I began playing the album at least 3 times a day for the rest of 1995 up until we left Guelph in May 1996. Two of my roommates said that they had to buy the album once they left school for the summer because they were that used to hearing it all the time, even though they weren't fans of Oasis. I picked up the singles for Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger when they dropped in late 1995/early 1996. As an aside, The Masterplan probably is the best b-side in the history of b-sides. I even bought the Chemical Brothers' Setting Sun single because Noel sung the song (still a good song). I bought every magazine Oasis was featured in also. I was full-on obsessed.

Because of "WTSMG", I like Radiohead, Pulp, Chemical Brothers and ironically, Blur. Even though these 4 bands don't really sound anything like Oasis. And Oasis is the most straightforward sounding of those bands above, but they got me into British music, which then got me into electronica, which then got me into indie rock. Before I was a complete hair metal / meat and potatoes rock kind of guy, not that there is anything wrong with that mind you and I still enjoy these genres. But "WTSMG" opened my mind to other genres.

Listening to that album over and over again as I was in a new place with new people made me "feel" music maybe for the first time and each song has a great memory attached to it. I never played or wanted to play an album as much as this one and this holds true today. The recent reissue of the album (of course purchased on new release Tuesday) brought it back into focus for me, although I never really go too long without spinning it. Hearing Noel's demos for some of the album's barn burners show what a gifted song writer he is in terms of melody, structure and soaring choruses (present tense, the first High Flying Birds album is a gem), but listening them along side the finished product also shows what Liam brought to the party even if he wasn't penning the actual songs.

In my mind Oasis was an impenetrable force that couldn't be destroyed. If people talked shit about them I staunchly defended their work. I still won't shut-up about them (just ask my wife). Their 1994-1996 output I would put up against the definitive 2 year period of any other band. Noel has admitted that he should have held onto some of the b-sides for future albums and he was probably right, though I do like at least half of each post-Morning Glory Oasis albums (including all of "Don't Believe The Truth" and "Dig Out Your Soul", both late career masterpieces).

I think without sounding too heavy handed, this album was (is) like religion for me. Bon Jovi, my previous fave band (there will be posts on this), took me through my years of innocence and my first taste of high school. Oasis and "WSTMG" specifically was with me almost from the beginning of my journey to becoming the person I am today. Right place, right time but the music backed it up for me.

Yep, I think I'm going to re-institute the 3 time a day playing of this album starting now. You know what some might say...