Oasis burst right onto the scene not only knowing exactly who they were, but also exactly what they wanted to be. In my mind, my dreams are real / Tonight, I’m a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.
For every thought and opinion on Oasis that has been spewed in the decades since their debut it cannot be denied the impact they made on popular culture within the 1990s and beyond. Definitely, Maybe celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, an album that left in its wake a distinctly different musical landscape than it fell into. For background on how this album changed he world of popular music, you need to look back at that music up until its release. Upon Beatlemania, pop music was what it’s “expected” to be, something that makes the listener happy, that could be sung along to by every person who listened. It was the shift The Beatles created into artistic and experimental pop that ushered in a new formula for pop music, aided by the lyrical stylings of Bob Dylan, and the edge of The Rolling Stones, and the original idea had changed with it’s time. It was in the 70s when glam rock, metal, singer-songwriter, soul, funk, and the beginnings of hip-hop would all become pop music, and the 80s when synths took over the landscape and hairspray took over rock and metal. The 90s were shaping up to be ballad heavy on one end, the other end was acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, whose existence acted as a crutch for teenagers to bemoan about how they are finally seen. The world had strayed far away from the songs that anyone would whistle and cheer for, the middle of the road pop song. It was with Oasis this format came back, hence the divisiveness of their appeal.
Going all the way back to the beginning, Oasis was formed in 1991, with Liam Gallagher on vocals and percussion, Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan on bass, Tony McCarroll on drums, and Paul “Bonehead” Aruthurs on rhythm guitar. This line up of the band would go by Rain - Liam’s older brother, Noel, would join the band as the lead guitarist and primary songwriter, rounding out the line up of Oasis we know now. In Noel’s version of events, he was invited into the band and told he could have full creative control to make them global superstars.
Bonehead would say that the addition of Noel to the band gave them unlimited possibilities, that the band had only four songs written before he joined with his ideas. The Gallagher brothers, for every thing that could be said, did have one thing going for them: they were excellent musicial collaborators. With Noel’s clear cut vision and craft for writing pop music and Liam’s ability to convey the rebellion and youthful spirit of rock and roll into every song, it can’t be denied that the two are one of rock and roll’s most important and prolific duos.
The Gallagher Brothers photographed by Kevin Cummins in 1994
Similar to the rest of the band’s existence the recording of Definitely, Maybe was anything but smooth sailing. After the first series of recording sessions in late 1993 with producer Dave Batchelor, the band was not happy with the sound on the recording, with guitarist Bonehead saying the sound was “too clean”. According to the band, Batchelor had no direction for the album, making the recording significantly more stressful than it had to be, the only song kept from the Batchelor sessions on the final cut of the album is Slide Away. In early 1994, Oasis would restart their process, this time with Noel and Mark Coyle sharing the producer chair. Production then went to Owen Morris, who mixed the album in Johnny Marr’s studio - who was allegedly taken back by the directness of the sound, created from the overdubbing Noel was doing to ensure the guitars matched his vision. Marr also questioned the background noise on the beginning of Cigarettes and Alcohol - an ode
to John Lennon and Instant Karma. The cover photo was shot by Micheal Spencer Jones at Bonehead’s house. It was inspired by the back cover of a Beatles compilation from 1966 (A Collection of Beatles Oldies), and each member of the band was urged to bring an object they felt represented themself. Noel would be represented by The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly playing on the television, and a portrait of Burt Bacharach (which some theorize to be a nod to the cover of Ummagumma and the GiGi soundtrack featured there), Bonehead by his Epiphone Riviera and a photo of George Best from Manchester United, both Gallaghers and Guigsy by a photo of Rodney Marsh from Manchester City. Liam on the floor came from Jones attempting to take away from the wood paneling on the floor, worried that it would look like a furnishing ad if too much focus was placed on it. The album would sell 100,000 copies in its first four days, debuting at the top of the British charts, and becoming the fastest selling album in British history.
Oasis photographed by Michael Spencer Jones, 1994
"There's nothing more exhilarating than the feeling that something great is about to happen. It's a force that courses, unmanageably, through Oasis' debut album even today... This is transcendental rock'n'roll music that celebrates the moment, not a moment." - Danny Eccleston for Mojo Magazine, 2014
The album opens with the aforementioned Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, which Noel says summed up everything he wanted to say. I live my life for the stars that shine / People say it's just a waste of time / When they said I should feed my head / Well, that to me was just a day in bed / I'll take my car and drive real far / You're not concerned about the way we are / In my mind my dreams are real / Now you're concerned about the way I feel. More than most in his world, Noel seemed to understand the complexity of what he was vying for, how becoming the beloved rock and roll star was to enter a world of loneliness and desperation unlike anything else, that he would be cared about exclusively to be judged and that his choices would be under microscopic view for the rest of his life. Look at you, you’re all in my hands tonight is delivered by Liam in a way only Liam could say it - like a bonafide rock and roll star. It’s sly, sarcastic in a way few could sing it. Shakermaker was written by Noel taking things from
the world and inserting them in his music, the title a reference to a popular toy of the 70s, Mister Clean, Mister Soft, and Mister Benn coming from different commercials and shows. The line Mister Sifter sold me songs when I was just sixteen / Now he stops at traffic lights, but only when they're green was written on a taxi drive past a record store Noel would frequent, allegedly around the time Liam was pushing for the song to be finished. The song opens with I'd like to be somebody else and not know where I've been / I'd like to build myself a house out of plasticine, and coupled with the ideas presented about the past, this line illustrates a common theme of the album, one that’s explored in more “mature” ways as the album continues. Written by Noel to a recording of Shine a Light by The Rolling Stones as he worked in a storage room of a building company, Live Forever is a song described by Domnic King as a meditation as opposed to a song.
Maybe I don’t really want to know how your garden grows / Lately, have you ever felt the pain in the morning rain, as it soaks you to the bone? Noel explained the song in 2006 saying; "At the time . . . it was written in the middle of grunge and all that, and I remember Nirvana had a tune called 'I Hate Myself and Want to Die', and I was like . . . 'Well, I'm not fucking having that.' As much as I fucking like him [Kurt Cobain] and all that shit, I'm not having that. I can't have people like that coming over here, on smack, fucking saying that they hate themselves and they wanna die. That's fucking rubbish. Kids don't need to be hearing that nonsense." He would say to NME in 2010: “It’s a song about having a friend who could be your friend for life. The lyrics go: ‘Maybe I don’t really want to know/ How your garden grows’, and I think that’s just saying ‘I don’t care about your bad points, I love you for the good in you. I knew when I wrote it that this album was going to be the most important album of its era.” Noel’s approach to his work is unique, he chooses to remove himself as a character or being known in his songs, and has said that every song has a different meaning to thousands of people that completely independent of his orginal ideas or intentions. The chorus of the song reads Maybe I just want to fly / Wanna live, I don’t want to die / Maybe I just wanna breathe, maybe I just don’t believe / Maybe you're the same as me, we see things they’ll never see - you and I are gonna live forever. Liam has stated multiple times that he takes the song as to be about his mother, and he sings with her mind. Maybe I will never be all the things I wanna be / Now is not the time to cry, now’s the time to find out why. Noel would say in a 2024 interview with journalist and musician John Robb, "I think the great thing about Oasis was there were these uplifting songs with almost romantic lyrics and that fucking menacing delivery - and I think thats what makes it special."
Up in the Sky has an interesting repeating riff that levels the song, very Ticket to Ride-esque, starting in a very pointed way: Hey you, up in the sky, learning’ to fly / Tell me, how high do you think you’d go before you start falling? Noel said of the lyrics in 2010: “It’s basically about people who think they’re the voice of a generation, or a figurehead of a movement. It’s just saying ‘Why are you lot down here looking up at him?’ This band is about music, it’s about the songs.I wouldn’t ever make a political speech.” With Noel’s context, the song reads as a critique of the public who so desperately look toward their entertainers for truths a human may never have. In the same way Live Forever can be taken as an understanding piece on pain from the pressures fame, Up in the Sky reads an understanding piece on the insane ideals placed on top of musicians' heads in some cases. Hey you, wearing the crown, making no sound / I heard you feel down / Well, that’s just too bad / Welcome to my world / Hey you, stealing the light / I’ve heard that the shine’s gone out of your life / Well, that’s just
too bad / Welcome to my world. In the way Don McLean wrote of Bob Dylan in American Pie, saying he donned a thorny crown, it feels as though Noel is saying the same thing - that these people we deem important or higher than us are still just the same as us. Welcome to my world is sung by Liam in that typical delivery, anger seeping through the lines like they’re coming from one of the critics, how dare a man feel human when we’ve deemed him more? How does it feel when you’re inside me? Translates to a broad inquiery of How does
it feel to be human like us, now? You’ll need assistance with the things that you have never ever seen / It’s just another case of never breathin’ out before you’ve breathed it in is one of Noel’s shining lyrical moments on an album full of them. It illustrates this photo of getting so far ahead of yourself it seems as though you forget the simple things - Paul McCartney just three years later would say I go back so far, I’m in front of me. The whole song is a meditation on how an artist becomes a prophet, never just a person. It’s applicable to Dylan, to Lennon, to a degree the Jagger/Richards association - When the song was written it drew a parallel to Cobain. Never just a person, always a God amongst men who was to be torn down when showing the fact they’re a human with wings and halo painted on by the public.
One of the first songs written for the band, Columbia, was a promotional single that introduced their moody temperament and confusing, in the know, lyrical structure to the band - I can’t tell you the way I feel, the way I feel is all so new to me. There’s a certain maze like nature of how the song tackles its message, What I heard is not what I hear / I can see the signs, but they're not very clear, the subject itself is non-existent. In 2017, Noel would say the lyrics weren’t meant to be revolutionary in their concept - that his aim was not to impress or represent, just to write. The song is very distortion heavy, the ending refrain
repeating over and over begins with This is confusion, am I confusing you? / This is confusion, am I amusing you? / This is peculiar, we don’t want to fool ya, lyrics that evoke a certain cornerstone of the grunge world, alla Come As You Are. Am I amusing you? feels almost like a callback to the pivotal Smells Like Teen Spirit, Here we are now - entertain us / I feel stupid and contagious. The lines are aimless, the guitars are distorted beyond recognition, repetition is heavy, and it gives a certain nod to those in the “in” group, who get the nonsense as they are represented by said nonsense. In the way Lennon could say so much of nothing and scare those who never understood him, newer musicians were reusing that idea, revitalizing it for their own generation. The Gallagher brothers have never hid their admiration of John Lennon, something synonymous with them, their image, and their music. Noel has never stated if the nonsense making up the lyrics of Columbia were a tongue and cheek parody of Nirvana, but the timeline would make sense. Columbia was reportedly the first song Noel wrote for Oasis back in 1991, right as Nirvana were having their huge moment. What’s interesting about the two sides of the coin Oasis and Nirvana present in 90s pop culture was how they both cataloged a feeling of misunderstanding and confusion often found during youth in two completely different ways. Looking back at songs from your youth, that cataloged the years of life that every emotion felt but the end of the world, it’s hard for there not to be a grimace of embarrassment felt. Nirvana is guilty of this writing, as is Pearl Jam, Hole, Soundgarden - the idea of grunge is almost locked within that idea of trapped youth. That doesn’t translate to the music being bad, it just adds a certain veil for some of ever going back to enjoying the music after missing those pivotal years where it made unabashed sense. Yet here is Oasis, at their core a band whose debut is about being young, misunderstood, and at a point in life everything is meaningful yet completely pointless, and never does their music get trapped how music about change so often does.
Oasis were largely hated by their heroes for what seemed a million reasons, they were brash, unprofessional, popular without much work to get there, and suddenly hailed as the new saviors of British pop and rock, but there was one real reason they gained so much
pushback from their elders: they were proof they were old. George Harrison was brazenly outspoken about this distain saying in 1996:"They (Oasis) don’t actually need him (Liam). Noel is really good. He writes the tunes and he sings better than Liam as far as I’m concerned. They are a tidy band. They’ve written some good songs which I’ve enjoyed and I liked their Unplugged show on MTV, but that was mainly because the silly one wasn’t there! He’s a bit out of date, you know. He’s a bit of a - he’s just - he’s just silly. He’s silly. I feel a bit sorry for him, really, because I think he’s totally missed the bus, and I think it was proven when you see the band without him singing. You know, they’re more in tune and you know, he’s just excess baggage, I think. And all he does is make people think what a bunch of prannies they are.” (Liam responded by calling him a nipple). Paul McCartney said in 1997: "They’re derivative and they think too much of themselves. They mean nothing to me.” Mick Jagger would say it's impossible to dance to their music, Bob Dylan said he liked them though (maybe the highest praise one could really reciveve). If Liam could sarcastically croon on Supersonic: Can I ride in you in your BMW? / You can sail with me in my yellow submarine it was a sign The Beatles were finally at age of reference, at an age where most of the record buying youth was never around at the same time as the Fab Four, had never lived in a world inhabited by the giants of pop. While once the irreverent “in-crowd” suddenly they were being told You need to find out what it’s all
about, because no one’s gonna tell you what I’m on about. The brothers were
seen as bratty and fresh, speaking back in a way any 20 year olds with boatloads of cash would, being adored and showered with praises of their talents. They held the culture in a similar angle to The Beatles: quintessentially English and speaking to their generation in some sort of secret language, not bemoaning about how no one understands them but suddenly taking pride in being the outsiders looking in and laughing at the world. As stated earlier, Noel has an ear for a pop melody like few others - a pop songwriter who never had to sacrifice his message for a catchy hook, and Liam was the archetypal rockstar, talking back, pretending to be all sex and no brains; Noel was The Beatles and Liam was The Stones. The broad references to a yellow submarine wrapped in a catchy and hummable chorus enact a photo of the Liverpudians who took over the world for one of the most tumultuous decades of the century, while a verse with references to German women with a fascination in drugs and being a member of the mile-high club paint a photo reminiscent of the bad boys of rock and roll. She makes me laugh, I’ve got her autograph a play on Anita Pallenbergs newfound status as an icon of Britpop is a wonderful touch as well.
The incomparable Anita Pallenberg, pictured in 1968, with Noel by John Ferguson in 1996, and by Dave Beckett in 1997
Bring it on Down is a punk-adjacent number about an annoying but unshakable person. You’re the outcast - you’re the underclass / But you don’t care - because you’re living fast. In the way Bernie Taupin penned songs like Social Disease as a subtle critique of rockstars of his time, it seems as though Bring it on Down is a spiritual half-sister song, though the added bonus is Liam Gallagher would never attempt to hide that disdain behind a goofy delivery. I know you’ve got a problem the devil sends / You think they’re talking about you but you don’t know who. It’s a bitter song, but it is so fun to hear the band lean fully into the harder sounds they are capable of. This was the first introduction to their influences of the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop's influence dripping just as heavily on this as the Lennon
influences on Shakermaker. The last single released for the album, Cigarettes and Alcohol was the first inkling to the public that Oasis had it in them to be just as rough around the edges as the grunge movement was, albeit with a more lighthearted subject matter. Similar to My Generation or Satisfaction, the song aimed to talk to the disenchanted youth of the 1990s. Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for? / It's a crazy situation, but all I need are cigarettes and alcohol spoke to the 90s youth the way Things they do look awful cold / Yeah, I hope I die before I get old spoke to the baby boomers of its time. The song melodically references Marc Bolan’s opening riff of Bang a Gong (Get it On), which in itself was inspired by Little Queenie. The B-side of the single almost plays into the single, the B-side being a cover of The Beatles I Am The Walrus. You could wait for a lifetime / To spend your days in the sunshine / You might as well do the white line echoes Lennon’s Sitting in an English Garden waiting for the sun / If the sun don't come, you get a tan from standing in the English rain. The thing about Cigarettes and Alcohol was it was the brashest and most honest depiction of the crutch substances had begun to reveal themselves as for the youth and of many performers they grew up idolizing - there was no dancing around the subject from the Gallaghers. You might as well do a white line / cause when it comes on top, you’ve got to make it happen. The song would be covered by Rod Stewart in 1998 for his album When We Were New Boys, though it lacked that certain youthful push found within the original. Interestingly enough, the B-Side was made to sound a live recording even though it wasn’t, and the show they ripped the audience sound for? Faces. Noel would say of the song in 2024, “The songs [of Definitely, Maybe and Oasis at large] are timeless - they deal with universal truths. Cigarettes and Alcohol appeals to every young kid, even now.”
Liam onstage in Japan, 1994 by Paul Slattery
Digsy’s Dinner is largely a joke: Noel said the song was about a stupid song about a conversation he had with Smaller frontman Peter ‘Digsy’ Deary where Deary sang about lasagne. What a life it would be if you could come to mine for tea / I’ll pick you up at half past three, we’ll have lasagna. The lyrics are reminiscent of the later era Beatles, meaningless yet fun, and the instrumentation feels like mid-70s Bowie. Written about Noel’s rocky relationship with his self proclaimed soulmate and recorded after a fight with bassist Guigsy, Slide Away is an emotionally charged, almost grunge-like song (In the Neil Young
way, as opposed to the Nirvana way). We'll find a way to do what we've done / Let me be the one who shines with you, and we can slide away. There’s a motif Noel carries through the lyric, that the two sides of the coin are so inherently different that in a well wishers dream it would all work out and a realists dream it’s unsalvageable. I've tried praying but I don't know what you're saying to me illustrates this divide in a way few other words would be able to, Two of a kind, we can find a way. Noel denied this song the single treatment, saying the idea of five singles off a debut album was insane, but released it on the CD singles Whatever and Champagne Supernova. Both Gallagher brothers have stated they wished they performed the song more while Oasis was still functioning as a band, guitarist Gem Archer once said it was a song for the fans about its status as a cult favorite. Paul McCartney said this song is his favorite of the record. The album closes with Married with Children, an acoustic song recorded in a bedroom before most of the album was finished. It’s a stark contrast from the rest of the album, a surprisingly stripped back vocal for Liam that finds him crooning to imaginary and an unspecified figure. I hate the way even though you know you’re wrong, you say you’re right / I hate the books you read and all your friends / Your music’s shite, it keeps me up all night. Noel says inspiration for the song came from being told off by an ex-girlfriend as he watched the show Married with Children. The placement after Slide Away was intentional, in 2010 Noel would say “Slide Away is an uplifting song about two people in love, and after that comes a cynical one where they’ve moved in with each other, they’re married with children and they fucking hate each other!” While the song is more or less about the trials of marriage, it’s still, by some miracle, uplifting: There’s no need to say you’re sorry, goodbye I’m going home / I don’t care no more so don’t you worry, goodbye I’m going home. Liam is accompanied by just an acoustic guitar, and just as soon as it started, Definitely, Maybe closes on a self-fulfilling note.
As the culture stands now, Oasis is a touchstone of those who existed before, during, and after their tenure as a band. A back to basics band that revitalized the old school rock and roll spirit to praise and hatred, that acted as a mouthpiece for the working class teenager when bygone icons sold out, and now, ignoring the drama left in their wake, act as a reminder of being the last great rock and roll guitar band - fronted by a real rockstar and genuine master of lyrical styling. Without Oasis, rock and roll would’ve died with Kurt Cobain just months before their debut. They brought back what was sorely missed from music: the everyman. While subsects liked grunge, hip hop, or the country coming out of the time it was one band that captured the spirit of every person regardless of language barriers. To understand yourself so completely that you can perform a song that everyone relates with the words you sing because of how you do it is not easy. Oasis isn’t Noel’s band, it’s not Liam’s band - it’s the people's band. Definitely, Maybe cemented the need for a cultural touchstone by being what was needed. In the amount of time it takes to write Noel off as a cocky bastard for saying he knew the album would be the most important of its era is the same amount of time it takes to understand how true the statement is. When was the last time a band had been on everyone's tongue in a good, bad, or indifferent way - one where everyone knew a song that they couldn’t deny was a modern day standard? They didn’t have to be the biggest band in the world just yet - they already captured something for everyone. Working class boys from Manchester who didn’t bow to the company nor each other, it’s what people needed but could’ve never asked for. As Liam crooned, It’s just rock and roll, and tonight I’m a Rock and Roll Star.
In a complete retcon of everything just said... Oasis reunited after 15 years. An event that was once such a stupid hope that it's possiblity kept such company as pigs flying or world peace - there's no real preperation for that. 17 shows across 2025, and people already doubting how long they can last - Oasis is so back.
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