"Wonderwall": I Don't Get It

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.

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.

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?

I mean, honestly, reading thru the entire lyrics -- they're really bad, a collection of cliches that add up to nothing!

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.

Someday you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
And after all, you're my wonderwall

'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.

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

The key line is:
And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And 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..

I wasn't....expecting this thread expansion.

Oasis = butt

then why don't I like them?

"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.

a collection of cliches that add up to nothing

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.

isn't F#m the first chord?

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.

Em7 according to what I've seen, once you put a capo on it's just an endlessly circling collection of Neil Young chords.

It’s played with a capo on the 3rd fret.

So easy peasy lemon squeezy after all (it's my wonderwall)

best thing about this song is how they got the reflection of the lights to fit inside his sunglasses in the video

'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

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.

Well this thread has introduced me to nick ciciriega.

Neil not Nick

My condolences

gettouttahere

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

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.

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.

Mr. Gallagher, tear down this wall

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.

Far be it from me to defend Noel Fuckin' Gallagher but that's an aesthetic choice to use 7th chords.

As I said, upthread, Neil Young uses them all the time.

Or perhaps it's just the way he plays guitar since he uses those chords in quite a fair amount of his songs.

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).

No, they sound nice, that's why he uses them, he likes them, they please him, that's how it works. (xp)

[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.

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, 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!

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.

the laziest way to play is to just strum and change tuning in real time

proposed oasis lineup:
liam gallagher
marty friedman
jad fair
tony levin on chapman stick
meg white

liam gallagher
marty feldman
jad fair
bernard levin on chapman pincher
meg white

i like this song because i was 10 when it was insanely popular

When I was 10 'Don't Worry Be Happy' was insanely popular.

Also a good song

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

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.

Oh go away and learn to play the guitar yourself, or do something interesting with your life, just leave us alone.

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.

for you, turrican: https://youtu.be/LG4hOjJ9tEs

(xp) No, you're right, it's not your problem, it's our problem we're lumbered with you.