[Whatever] Fwd: [Excellent] Oasis article

Mon Jun 13 07:36:32 PDT 2005

I agree. It has some very good common sense points.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: jamEs 
  To: whatever at kuci.org ; oasis at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 9:53 AM
  Subject: [Whatever] Fwd: [Excellent] Oasis article

  Possibly the best article that hits the nail on the head regarding the band I've ever read.

  jamEs
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  --- Begin forwarded message:

  From: pmarin at stwing.upenn.edu (Paul S. Marin)
  Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:34:48 -0400 (EDT)
  To: excellent at shiftrefresh.com (Excellent Mailing List)
  Subject: [Excellent] Oasis article

  What a fantastic article. This pretty much sums up how I feel about 
  Oasis. I'm glad he made the point about the Ravonettes, too.

  peace,
  paul
  NP. Pernice Brothers (over and over and over and over..)

  http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/O/Oasis/2005/06/12/1083328.html

  Oasis still matters

  Thought they were washed up? Think again. Here's why ...

  By BILL HARRIS -- Toronto Sun

  The dismissal of Oasis as nothing more than a Beatles copy band is the 
  most lazy musical analysis ever foisted upon the public. 

  Through sheer repetition, it has been accepted as truth by people who 
  couldn't name or even identify three Oasis songs. 

  But as the Gallagher brothers themselves might say: Don't believe the 
  truth. 

  Let's make one thing clear: I'm the biggest Beatles guy ever. As wide as 
  my tastes are, John, Paul, George and Ringo have been No. 1 on my depth 
  chart from the time I was a humming infant. 

  And, for the record, I think Oasis is brilliant. 

  Not every Oasis song is a gem (not every Beatles song was, either). And 
  not every utterance from the tart tongue of Noel Gallagher, or the marble 
  mouth of Liam Gallagher, is worthy of inscription on a plaque in their 
  hometown of Manchester, England. 

  But for my entertainment buck, the batting average of Oasis -- as singers, 
  songwriters and occasionally outrageous personalities -- continues to be 
  far higher than any of its contemporaries. 

  Respecting both the Beatles and Oasis, rather than pitting them against 
  each other in a bizarre cross-generational rivalry, won't endear me to 
  everyone, I suppose. 

  And a lot of folks won't like this, either, but here goes: While I 
  recognize the quality of fellow British bands such as Radiohead and 
  Coldplay, I find them to be, well, a little dour and dull. 

  Oasis songs, on the other hand, make me want to pick up my guitar and 
  learn how to play them. 

  Noel Gallagher, the driving force behind Oasis, once said, "We've only got 
  half a dozen good bands in England -- there's Oasis and there's five Oasis 
  tribute bands." 

  Really, how can you not love a quote like that? But there are plenty who 
  openly cheer for Oasis to fail as punishment for such audacity, whether 
  you take Noel at his word or think he's just screwing around. 

  Oasis-bashing has become a rock-critic cliche. In response, fans of the 
  group have developed a bunker mentality as they continue to buy tickets to 
  concerts and sing along to almost every song. 

  Most reviews of the band's new CD, Don't Believe The Truth, have fallen 
  between "not as bad as their worst" and "not as good as their best." That 
  last charge is something Oasis always will have to live with, and it 
  amounts to the price of past success. 

  Since Oasis burst to the front of the Brit-pop scene in the mid-1990s with 
  two seminal albums -- the impudently catchy Definitely Maybe and the 
  anthem-laden (What's The Story) Morning Glory? -- the Gallaghers 
  constantly have been reminded how each subsequent effort has not measured 
  up. Alanis Morissette, coincidentally, has gone through much the same 
  thing in the past 10 years, post-Jagged Little Pill, and you probably can 
  point to other examples as well. 

  Not every Oasis CD has been a gem. But how many artists who have been 
  around as long as Oasis can claim to be clunker-free? To my ear, on 
  average, Oasis still has more good songs per CD than the norm. Regardless, 
  many critics continue to focus on the worst of Oasis rather than the best. 

  Oasis has taken far more abuse than has been warranted. Really, in this 
  God-forsaken era of sampling-addicted rap artists and American Idol 
  squealers topping the charts with the most formulaic drivel in the history 
  of recorded sound, how did Oasis ever become the poster-boys for alleged 
  musical thievery? 

  Not only is it not fair, it's not accurate. 

  Listen to Rock 'n' Roll Star, or The Hindu Times, or Lyla, the single from 
  the new CD. The Beatles never sounded like that, folks. Listen to 
  everything Oasis has to offer, rather than picking and choosing certain 
  songs to prove some point about how derivative the band is. 

  Oasis has its own sound. I can pick it out a mile away. 

  Do some Oasis songs remind you of Beatles songs? Absolutely. But guess 
  what? Oasis is a British group that plays hard-driving, melodic rock and 
  roll. There are going to be similarities, to the Beatles, to the Who, to 
  T-Rex, to countless others. 

  I had a good laugh last year when, for the first time in decades, I heard 
  a Rolling Stones song from the mid-1960s called Child Of The Moon. It's 
  the closest thing to an Oasis song that isn't actually an Oasis song I 
  ever have heard, right down to Mick Jagger's vocal. All that's missing is 
  updated instrumentation and Liam's voice, and it would fit snugly onto any 
  Oasis CD. 

  The point is, just about everything sounds a little like something that 
  came before, if you listen hard enough and have a musical library wide 
  enough to recognize it. Heck, the Raveonettes, a critically acclaimed 
  group from Denmark that played at Lee's Palace in Toronto last weekend, 
  owe much of their sound to the Jesus and Mary Chain and almost all of 
  their harmonies to the Everly Brothers. But no one seems to be up in arms 
  about that. 

  So why does Oasis get picked on so much? 

  Part of it has to do with the magnitude of the band's profile. But Oasis 
  also has paid for its perceived arrogance, which I find endearing and even 
  humourous, but others do not. 

  I recall several years ago when Oasis was playing at Molson Park in 
  Barrie. When Noel Gallagher emerged from backstage, he greeted the 
  assembled throng with the words, "Show some respect for the best f---ing 
  band on the planet!" 

  I thought it was great. To have the nerve to say that, especially in front 
  of a Canadian crowd that primarily was on hand to see Neil Young, showed 
  incredible rock-and-roll bravado. But as Oasis ducked a shower of plastic 
  water bottles for the rest of the afternoon, I had to listen to the 
  grumbling of those around me who thought Noel's words somehow were 
  inappropriate. 

  Noel's proclamations through the years -- whether he's bragging 
  unrepentently, or ripping himself, or ripping his bands' rivals, or 
  ripping his brother -- have provided me with more chuckles than any 
  stand-up comedian. He's full of bombast. Personally, I think his musical 
  resume gives him the right to say just about anything he wants. But even 
  if you don't agree, why can't everyone just lighten up? When did popular 
  music become so serious? 

  That the United States largely has shunned Oasis because of the band's 
  arrogance is the height of irony. It appears the U.S. appreciates 
  "attitude" only when it's homegrown. 

  But Oasis is not exclusively about crazy quotes and battlin' brothers. It 
  comes back to the music, and I am of the strong opinion that Oasis does 
  not get the credit it deserves. 

  Oasis still takes me someplace. 

  A place where guitars still are loud. 

  A place where singers still sneer. 

  A place where songs still have tunes, not just beats. 

  Call it my own personal Oasis. 

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