See I don’t feel the emotional resonance at all, it feels totally contrived and “cookie-cutter songwriting” to me (lyrically, at least)... but I get We’re All Different.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 2 April 2018 17:35 (six years ago) link
The lights being blinding references the fact that there are SO MANY people telling us how to live and love that it's too much, it's hard to figure out how to live in a way that feels true to one self.
― Frederik B, Monday, 2 April 2018 18:48 (six years ago) link
It is cookie-cutter, it's half a line from Beatles and another one that rhymes. But it makes sense, it clearly touches a nerve with millions of people, and just throwing up our hands and saying it's nonsense is the laziest form of criticism.
― Frederik B, Monday, 2 April 2018 18:50 (six years ago) link
Ha ha, so this time I actually am being called lazy ;) Your interpretation of the line at least makes sense, though I think you're being too generous (I don't see how the rest of the song's lyrics point toward that reading; they seem mostly like vague gibberish to me).
Am I allowed to criticize the couplet By now you should've somehow / Realized what you're not to do on the grounds that "what you're not to do" is totally forced and phony diction?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 2 April 2018 19:03 (six years ago) link
I mean, honestly, reading thru the entire lyrics -- they're really bad, a collection of cliches that add up to nothing!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 2 April 2018 19:04 (six years ago) link
A few lines that seem half-inspired kind of loosely woven together and boom, you get Oasis's american radio career
I'm still unconvinced that 'Wonderwall' and 'Champagne Supernova' are two different songs. Any attempt to remember lyrics from one and I end up with half of the other.
― mh, Monday, 2 April 2018 19:24 (six years ago) link
Someday you will find meCaught beneath the landslideAnd after all, you're my wonderwall
― mh, Monday, 2 April 2018 19:25 (six years ago) link
'what you're not to do' is not that good, but it's also just a variation of 'what you gotta do' from the first verse, and I'm fine with it. It's not a particularly good song, but it's very direct. As is a lot of Oasis lyrics, even though a lot of it is drug garbled nonsense. I read a point somewhere about how the one thing Oasis did better than anyone was taking the absolutely banal and unimpressive and make it sound really important. 'We see things you cannot see' 'Where were you when we were getting high?' 'I don't believe that anybody feel the way I do'. A lot of their songs I find awful, completely bullshit awful, for exactly this reason, they're odes to mediocrity by a mediocre band. But Wonderwall is pretty good.
― Frederik B, Monday, 2 April 2018 20:01 (six years ago) link
let's hear what Lionel Messi has to say imo
I have to say I wasn’t expecting much but it is some of the best material I have ever heard. They are absolutely amazing. Their songs are incredible. I would have to say ‘Supersonic’ and ‘Live Forever’ are my favourites. I have been listening to their stuff on my iPod dock in the hotel room, on the way to the matches and in the dressing room. I can’t believe it’s taken me all this time to finally listen to them.
http://www.nme.com/news/music/oasis-207-1289921
― niels, Monday, 2 April 2018 20:10 (six years ago) link
The key line is:And all the roads we have to walk are windingAnd all the lights that lead the way are blinding
I always assumed the first line was a (lazy) reference to the song title “The Long and Winding Road,” and the second is, well, a rhyme (what does it mean for the lights to be blinding, in terms of a metaphor? why are they blinding?)
It means that we can't see where we are going, metaphorically speaking.
It's possible that's inspired from The Long And, but at least it's a maybe/maybe not, as opposed to 'it clearly is' which is par for the other lyrical nicks..
― Mark G, Monday, 2 April 2018 21:11 (six years ago) link
I wasn't....expecting this thread expansion.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 2 April 2018 21:12 (six years ago) link
Oasis = butt
― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Monday, 2 April 2018 21:14 (six years ago) link
then why don't I like them?
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 2 April 2018 21:32 (six years ago) link
"It means that we can't see where we are going, metaphorically speaking."
I'm pretty sure it means that the lyrics were written by a lazy drunk who got kicked out of school at 15.
― Moo Vaughn, Monday, 2 April 2018 21:51 (six years ago) link
a collection of cliches that add up to nothing
― valorous wokelord (silby), Monday, 2 April 2018 21:52 (six years ago) link
i never liked this song or Oasis (though I fortunately missed constant exposure / it never forced itself upon me), so i never learned how to play it on guitar. as an American I also know it as the quintessential "annoying guy at the party with an acoustic guitar trying to get laid" song. anyway my brother asked me to play it on guitar as a joke so I looked up the chords and the chords are more sophisticated than I thought! not difficult, just not the easy peasy lemon squeezy open chords I assumed it was made of. lots of barre chords, in other words acoustic guitar dilettantes would have a shaky go at it.
But they are all open chords though, according to one of those crappy guitar chords website I've just this minute looked at.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Monday, 2 April 2018 23:02 (six years ago) link
isn't F#m the first chord?
― flappy bird, Monday, 2 April 2018 23:05 (six years ago) link
I should say I didn't expect any barre chords in the song. I know there are thousands of guitar tabs that probably make it easier to play, I believe I looked up whatever the chords Oasis used.
― flappy bird, Monday, 2 April 2018 23:06 (six years ago) link
Em7 according to what I've seen, once you put a capo on it's just an endlessly circling collection of Neil Young chords.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Monday, 2 April 2018 23:08 (six years ago) link
It’s played with a capo on the 3rd fret.
― Siegbran, Monday, 2 April 2018 23:08 (six years ago) link
So easy peasy lemon squeezy after all (it's my wonderwall)
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Monday, 2 April 2018 23:10 (six years ago) link
best thing about this song is how they got the reflection of the lights to fit inside his sunglasses in the video
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 2 April 2018 23:44 (six years ago) link
'all the lights that lead us there are blinding' is a reference to stage lighting, obviously.
there are lots of songs that talk about being blinded by stage lights, it's a metaphor for feeling overwhelmed
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 00:11 (six years ago) link
So, there you go.
I don't like "Wonderwall" that much, not even because of its ubiquity: I didn't like it then. Don't know why, but hey.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 06:00 (six years ago) link
Well this thread has introduced me to nick ciciriega.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 06:27 (six years ago) link
Neil not Nick
My condolences
― obnoxious pun (ultros ultros-ghali), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 09:42 (six years ago) link
gettouttahere
― imago, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 10:42 (six years ago) link
Any incipient fans of NC are kindly directed to Lemon Demon, his project of original music, and its recent album Spirit Phone, which could cure anybody of Wonderwall in under an hour
― imago, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 10:47 (six years ago) link
It's played with a capo on the second fret and it's all open chords, but probably even lazier than using straight open chords as Noel keeps a couple of notes static throughout most of the song, only moving a couple of fingers at a time.
Anyway, I'll defend Oasis' '90s work any day of the week, but I agree with Mark G - I don't really need to hear this song again and, popular as it may be, it's never been one of their best.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 13:58 (six years ago) link
A wall is a barrier, a means of protection from the potentially hostile outside world. Mr. Gallagher foreshadows this notion by asserting that the song's subject may be that which saves him, which protects him from harm. In this case, the source of his fears seems to be wonder, the very possibility of being overwhelmed by something both surprising and amazing. The person to whom he sings provides, after all, a bulwark against that very fear, by both grounding him and grinding his hopes and dreams to dust. We must, therefore, conclude that the titular 'Wonderwall' is none other than Liam Gallagher.
― Orbital Ribbonbopper, Inventor of Flying and Popcorn (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 14:08 (six years ago) link
Mr. Gallagher, tear down this wall
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 14:27 (six years ago) link
Far be it from me to defend Noel Fuckin' Gallagher but that's an aesthetic choice to use 7th chords.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 15:44 (six years ago) link
As I said, upthread, Neil Young uses them all the time.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 15:45 (six years ago) link
Or perhaps it's just the way he plays guitar since he uses those chords in quite a fair amount of his songs.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 15:49 (six years ago) link
A few tracks emerged one or two years before Wonderwall all riffing on Serge Gainsbourg's 'Bonnie And Clyde' chords (MC Solaar 'Nouveau Western', Renegade Soundwave s/t single and Saint Etienne's 'I Buy American Records') so wondered if Noel just based it on one or more of those (albeit only to result in something a lot worse than them).
― nashwan, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:16 (six years ago) link
No, they sound nice, that's why he uses them, he likes them, they please him, that's how it works. (xp)
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:18 (six years ago) link
[o]It's played with a capo on the second fret and it's all open chords, but probably even lazier than using straight open chords as Noel keeps a couple of notes static throughout most of the song, only moving a couple of fingers at a time.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 8:58 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink[/i]
why is any way of playing guitar "lazy" if it sounds good or gets the sound you want it to?
replace gem archer with marty friedman!
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:28 (six years ago) link
actually nevermind that's a great idea actually
pick out a sequence of lazy string fingerings. tune the guitar to make it all sound acceptable.
― Tapes 'n Tapes of Osho (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:28 (six years ago) link
the laziest way to play is to just strum and change tuning in real time
― Tapes 'n Tapes of Osho (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:30 (six years ago) link
proposed oasis lineup:liam gallaghermarty friedmanjad fairtony levin on chapman stickmeg white
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:32 (six years ago) link
liam gallaghermarty feldmanjad fairbernard levin on chapman pinchermeg white
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:33 (six years ago) link
i like this song because i was 10 when it was insanely popular
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:46 (six years ago) link
When I was 10 'Don't Worry Be Happy' was insanely popular.
― nashwan, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 16:49 (six years ago) link
Also a good song
― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 18:01 (six years ago) link
No, they sound nice, that's why he uses them, he likes them, they please him, that's how it works. (xp)― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 4:18 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 3, 2018 4:18 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Of course he likes them, which is why he chooses to play them that way, which is why he plays guitar that way. Obviously. Also, because it's within his admittedly limited ability.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 18:42 (six years ago) link
Oh go away and learn to play the guitar yourself, or do something interesting with your life, just leave us alone.
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 18:47 (six years ago) link
Tom - for one thing, I already know how to play guitar, and secondly it's not really my problem when someone tries to disagree with me by actually agreeing with me and gets pissy when it gets pointed out.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 19:05 (six years ago) link
for you, turrican: https://youtu.be/LG4hOjJ9tEs
― stormzy daniels (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 3 April 2018 19:17 (six years ago) link