"Wonderwall": I Don't Get It

I think this is nonsense and I don't even like Blur.

if you need an explanation of this song's impact and legend, just get 8 or 9 american males between the ages of 19-23 totally wasted and let them loose on a room at a karaoke place (preferrably in koreatown) and all the mysteries of the universe will be revealed.

There's apparently a Beastie Boys cover of Wonderwall floating around on the interweb. I tried downloading a copy of it, but it wouldn't play in iTunes for me.

The same goes for loud bands that release a ballad as a (typically the 3rd) single ... hence the Wonderwall problem. For a start, imagine the melody with out the backing...

Miss Kitten could do it. Or The Pogues.

Why does Blur come up everytime someone mentions Oasis? I don't see the connection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_With_It

Roll With It was released as a single on 14 August 1995, and received a great deal of attention when Food Records, the label of chief Britpop rivals Blur, moved the original release date the single "Country House" to clash with it, sparking what came to be known as "The Battle of Britpop". The British media had already reported an intense rivalry between the two bands and this clash of releases was seen as a battle for the number one spot. The media sensation was spurred on by verbal attacks from the respective camps (in particular Noel and Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn and Alex James), that extended beyond the music industry to the point where the two bands were regularly mentioned on the evening news. In particular, public imagination was sparked by the contrast between the gritty, working class Oasis and the artsy, middle class Blur. In the end, Blur's "Country House" single sold 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 copies of "Roll with It". The singles charted at number 1 and number 2 respectively. However, in the long run, Morning Glory went platinum 13 times, while Blur's album The Great Escape only managed to go platinum 3 times.

Ah, so you've never danced on a podium at Love Muscle to Jackie O's version then?

(I once did this, a couple of hours after returning from "seeing" Oasis at Knebworth. This single moment was better than the entire 6-7 hours at Knebworth put together, as I explained to everyone within earshot. Ah me, the follies of middle youth.)

"Oasis is a band that finds ways to sing love songs without enacting them. When Liam Gallagher asks listeners to ''love one another,'' part of the fun is hearing the lyrics tug against the persona. And at Wednesday's concert, part of the fun was watching Liam and Noel Gallagher avoid physical and even eye contact. Theirs is, not coincidentally, a very Oasis sort of love: unrequited, unexpressed and possibly even unfelt. "

heres the full thing:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E5D81F3BF937A15755C0A9639C8B63

Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

Backbeat the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels
The way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk along are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me?
And after all
You're my wonderwall

I really like the gratuitous incorporation of "backbeat."

While obviously bigger in Britain, The album went multiplatinum (one of the best selling albums of the year) and "Wonderwall" went top ten here.

x-post I agree wholeheartedly, Dan.

I find it emotionally incoherent. I have no idea where it's supposed to be taking me. The only bit I find at all affecting is the "There aare many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how" line.

I like lots of other Oasis songs, including the supposedly mawkish 'Don't Look Back In Anger'. 'Wonderwall' remains a mystery to me.

Now, the point of this story is not to claim special favor for Oasis or this song -- many *many* different bands and songs have captivated people on the down and out and turned things around for them, after all, including lots of stuff *I* hate quite openly. But something about Sanneh's quote there bugged me a bit. When I had the chance to have a beer and a chat with Noel in 2000, I passed on this story and he was quite moved.

That said, I do also always prefer the Noel-sung versions.

and Ned...yr point is entirely fair. again, were debating here a song that many of us claim to derride but somehow got to millions of people and, for better or worse, is now part of a cultural conscious. this is something about music, esp popular music, which will forever confound me, but also something that reminds me that its all worthwhile

(that said i still can't figure out "simply the best" ...)

While we're on the "Oasis saved my life" tip: in all seriousness, "Don't Look Back In Anger" helped me get over the deaths of both my father and stepmother. (Of course, the fact that my stepmother was called Sally was not immaterial to the situation.)

I remember on my fathers birthday, there were quite a few of us there listening to the chart to hear the inauguration. it missed, number 2 robson and jerome were number one but looking back how thin the line is between the two both were populist ballads only autism to differentiate, that’s unfair. Looking back Common People to me looks like the high water mark. Blur had razed the ground at the Brits the old guard (annie lennox et al) seen of by the descendent of the '80s underground (perhaps not ideologically) after the high summer (as a child i believed it all this was 1966 or whatever this was better than that cos the nostalgia hadn't really kicked off well not in my world, i went to bed early, I Love 1970 + didn't start for another few years, that’s when the walls closed in on me) wonderwall is the first slide on the slope down. live aid to live 8 with britpop in the middle, wonderwall the sticky wicket the moment that the most popular drone rock band ever reinstated englebert humberdinks victory.

c.f. "Mystery Train": Is he riding the train? Is it taking his baby away? Outside the boxcar waiting? Or take me away to nowhere place? The emotional version.

My friend Jon once said he made a cassette tape of nothing but "Wonderwall" looped over and over again. I hated the song until I loved it. Then I became obsessed with it. Nice thread...

Perhaps for maximum appeal a song must by nature be “empty” listener relates song to own (universal?) experience rather than “subtlety” coded messages (New Way (Quick Wash and Brush Up With Liberation Theology)) and so forth. Whatever there is to “get” is not the lyric, Gallagher N admits as much though anti intellectual posturing (“It’s only rock ‘n roll” sneer) is part of his equation of course though at the same time he does not pull the Robbie / Eminem I’m only an entertainer card. Oasis not entertainment (snarf snarf) not arty. Coldplay empty as anything but made the leap to U2 size that eluded Oasis, not tripped up by roots in punk rock / c86 mentality, hello Blur! (graham coxon went out with lead singer of huggy bear during great escape period, it’s like metaphor in human form or something!) but having nothing to say beyond escaping there environment to a very big house in the country? Though maybe that’s just the way it seems, a rag to riches meta story written over by Nicky Wire, Paulo Hewit et al Oasis as blank canvas Maxwell from Big Brother singing Be Here Now songs to himself, the post ecstasy post feminist Status Quo

Why? I don't think I see the reason.

I think Alba has a point, about incoherence. I like also what Miccio says about 'Backbeat'. I was thinking that yesterday when listening to the song.

OTM!

Did anyone ever make effects pedals which were also bike pedals and which you could only use while simultaneously pedaling a stationary bike and going ham on a guitar, because if not I will file my patent now and build one for u.

It's been mentioned here before but yes, all this song has going for is a few details like the way the second verse starts with cello/vocals then drums then bass. That really works. Also, the melody of the pre-chorus is kinda nice. It is in the chorus when things really go wrong. So lazy and anti-climatic! Perhaps they wanted to break the pattern of full-blown anthemic choruses for a change, but it really doesn't work. Although it clearly must work for some people.

wish I'd made a $2 bet that a pedal geek fight would erupt on a thread about "wonderwall"

I mean, "Soon", sure, I get that

Pedals are for lames, real shredders use racks

Backbeat, word is on the street / That the fire in this thread is out

Pedal point geeks i need u

Wild thread

gallagheresque

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/articles/this-british-song-has-just-been-voted-the-best-of-all-time/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=042018britishsong

utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=042018britishsong

lmaooo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFvREW50hFk

Ha. catching up: UMS and Vancouver Jim brought some serious wisdom upthread.

namaste