"Wonderwall": I Don't Get It

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!

elwisty- still posting?

nope

Looking from a window above don't you know you might find
A better place to play
Came back only yesterday, but all the things that you've seen
Want you near me

All I needed was the love you gave
Cause you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside, summertime's in bloom
Only you

Sometimes when I think of her name, she knows it's too late
As we're walking on by
Her soul slides away, it's getting harder to stay
When I see you

When I see a couple of kids
And guess he’s fucking her and she’s
Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm,
I know this is paradise

Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives—
Bonds and gestures pushed to one side
Like an outdated combine harvester,
And everyone young going down the long slide

To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if
Anyone looked at me, forty years back,
And thought, That’ll be the life;
No God any more, or sweating in the dark

About hell and that, or having to hide
What you think of the priest. He
And his lot will all go down the long slide
Like free bloody birds. And immediately

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

Nope: https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/worst-songs-ever-oasis-wonderwall/

According to Wiki, though, “Wonderwall” remains the most streamed nineties single on Spotify and “the most streamed song released before 2000, with over 428 million streams as of March 2018.” This sounds right.

HURL

Thanks, Alfred. I should’ve commented earlier, but, nevertheless, I’ve really enjoyed the series!

As an American I immediately associate Wonderwall with either the trope of the single guy with the acoustic guitar at the college party or as the song covered by unsuccessful country artists at showcases and open mics to demonstrate their cross-over appeal. I guess the two overlap. Neither is a good look.

As I hacky bar-band staple, I think I've heard this one played even more often than "Hallelujah" or "The Joker."

"I" = a

After the second set of verses and a return of the chorus, “Wonderwall” has nowhere to go yet insists on filling its allotted time of 3:45

The Mike Flowers Pops version is imo superior to the original in every way, but it's notable that it truncates the song by finishing at exactly this moment

This song is heavily featured in the Netflix series “Everything Sucks” (which is set in a high school in 1996) – the album, song, and video are major plot points. It almost feels like “product placement”...

(I wuz skeptical that any U.S. teenagers could have found meaning in this song, but my wife – a few years younger than me – assures me that it’s possible...)

This song is heavily This song is heavily featured in the Netflix series “Everything Sucks”featured in the Netflix series “Everything Sucks”

I might say "Everything Sucks" if I were exposed to Oasis daily.

This song means nothing to me, whenever I hear it I think “hey, it’s Wonderwall”

Of songs from the 90s whose lyrics begin with the word “Today” that I don’t really care about, I would say this is a more enjoyable song than “Today” by the Smashing Pumpkins

"anyway here's wonderwall" is a popular meme with the youth

Excellent song

It’s someone who doesn’t understand how they feel trying to express how they feel despite not having the tools to do so. No wonder I speaks so loudly to so many people. Completely meaningless but so loaded with hollow spaces where you can insert your own meaning.

So of course the key lyric is “there are many things that I would like to say to you but I don’t know how”.

Notably I was able to type that lyric almost completely with predictive text on my phone. Noel G is predictive text as lyrics.

this was one of my favorite songs when I was ~10 years old, can't really hate

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you pic.twitter.com/qCoF30eEWK

— Sean Leahy (@thepunningman) February 7, 2017

You're all missing it.

The key line is:

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead the way are blinding

That's a great line (OK, pair) that any songwriter would be pleased with, I don't know if any previous song has something similar, and if "Wonderwall" didn't have it, it would not be the big hit it is now.

I like the pathos of
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do, about you now
incredible noone had written that before since its the essence of so many songs

I also like the cello and the drum fill before the 2nd verse starts

and the Beatlesque video:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6hzrDeceEKc/hqdefault.jpg

song is def played and half the lyrics are lazy (not that it has a big impact on the song's quality, if anything it makes it easy to sing along) but I can't see how it's bad

The best Oasis ever did. Not that it says a lot. I'll shout along if it comes on the jukebox.

wtf it's garbage

I like most of the stuff on the first three Oasis albums as just dumb rock fun, but 'Wonderwall' and 'Champagne Supernova' are just part of the bland alt-rock radio wallpaper of my teen years, songs that just pop up unnoticed between 'Watch That Girl Destroy Me' and 'Pure Massacre' just before the DJ gives away some Green Day tickets.

as usual Neil Cicierega completely ruined this song for me, every time when it comes on all I hear is "TODAY duh day duh day duh day duh day"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yQFebRcznA

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?)

I like the pathos of
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do, about you now
incredible noone had written that before since its the essence of so many songs

This is a good lyric? It’s so trite...

I mean honestly these lyrics seem like a collection of empty catchphrases. I’m impressed anyone can glean any meaning at all...

I've always treated Oasis lyrics as the admirable if not quite successful product of a non-native songwriter trying to translate their songs into English.

They usually conjugate correctly, at the very least.

Geir OTM, as always.
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, July 4, 2005 4:53 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean honestly these lyrics seem like a collection of empty catchphrases. I’m impressed anyone can glean any meaning at all...

― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, April 2, 2018 1:23 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Precisely. It's perhaps the greatest exponent of an artist seeking (or forced by external demands) to make a show of sensitivity (qua "ballad" or whatever) without actually engaging in the slightest bit of even faux substantive expression/thought. This is why it's a song of choice for acoustic buskers throughout, I presume, the English-speaking world.

I was in Dallas in December for an annual company meeting, and one evening several of us found a local bar to have some drinks. There was a singer/guitarist there just doing acoustic covers, everything from Adele to Pearl Jam. When she started playing "Wonderwall" she almost literally didn't have to sing a single lyric. The entire bar sat singing it at the top of their lungs. I was flabbergasted.

The lights being blinding underscores how hard it is to follow the long and winding road. This isn't exactly difficult.

So break down the metaphor for me. The road isn’t difficult to follow because the path is dark or obscure (as you might expect) – it’s actually illuminated – but it’s TOO well lit, the lights are “blinding.” What does this mean, in terms of a metaphor involving guidance (the lights) through the twists and turns of life or difficult situations (the road)?

At best, it’s a lazy line meant only to rhyme and vaguely sound appropriate; no good songwriter would be proud of having written it.

Neil Cicierega ruined this song, looked at it in his rear-view mirror, then reversed back over it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2fh8qfDiA

"these lyrics don't follow an internal logic, therefore the song is bad" is probably my least favorite form of music criticism.

xp 1:45 there is one of the few things that makes me laugh out loud every single time I hear it

xpost
I was responding to a comment that said That's a great line (OK, pair) that any songwriter would be pleased with. I made my case why this isn’t true (IMO). If you’d like to make a substantive counterargument rather than calling me “lazy,” feel free...

Or sorry, guess you didn’t call me “lazy,” don’t know where I got that from (LOL)

not arguing that it's a great line, but it's certainly a memorable one, and Oasis is one of those bands that cares a lot more about the scan of the melody than the actual words. if it's easy to remember, or easy to chant in a large group setting, even better. i think those lines achieve their goal.

If that’s the standard, then fine... seems like a low bar (or saying, “it’s a good song because it’s popular”).