25 years of “Definitely Maybe”
Exactly 25 years ago, the world discovered the Gallagher brothers with Oasis´ debut album “Definitely Maybe”. 25 years suffering these two hooligans is the price we have had to pay for that first great album that sold 15 million copies. After that would come the ultra famous “(What's the Story) Morning Glory?” and five other albums where the musical level would go down (with the exception of some isolated songs) but the level of public shame would increase thanks to the constant and countless fights between Noel and Liam.
There are people who defend that the album, in fact was somehow irrelevant. Probably it didn’t innovate or brought something new but it's history of music and 25 years later, I never get tired of listening. Here are some curious anecdotes that you might not know!
The iconic cover picture where we can see Liam lying on the floor and Noel sitting on the couch with his guitar was taken by rock photographer Michael Spencer Jones (he would do many more for Oasis and other bands like The Verve). In the cover image there are a lot of curious elements such as the TV, which is playing “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (one of Noel favorite films), or the frame where we can see an homage to Burt Bacharach (artwork to the bottom left), or references to Pink Floyd (wink to “Ummagumma” Pink Floyd ́s cover) or Manchester United (George Best is at the window). The Victorian townhouse is located in Didsbury (Manchester) and was owned by Oasis ́ guitarist, Bonehead.
“Definitely Maybe” was released in August 1994, but the single "Supersonic" (a track Noel Gallagher penned in approximately half an hour) was released much earlier (April 11, 1994), just a week after Kurt Cobain committed suicide. The song, despite being one of the most famous of the band, only reached the position nº31 of the official UK chart, being the song of Oasis repertoire with the lowest ranking ever in lists.
The music video of "Supersonic" was repeated to untiringly on the extremely important those years, the MTV channel. And by the way, two music videos were made for the song. In the UK version, the band is playing at a roof of a hotel near King's Cross Station and the US version shows the band driving a car and playing in a hemispherical structure.
There was no other club in Los Angeles as iconic and important as the Whiskey A Go Go! and Oasis were going to perform there for the first time in September 1994 trying to conquer the American market (something they never really would achieve) after having released their first album. Somehow, previously to the show they decided it was a good idea to take Crystal Meth. In fact, the whole team must have thought it was a good idea because that day there was not a single crew member who was not really high on Crystal. And of course, the consequences were disastrous. The person in charge of placing the setlists put different ones for each member, so when the concert began each member of Oasis began to play different songs. An epic disaster that ended with Liam hitting Noel with a tambourine and leaving the stage before the show was over. Noel left the band next day to come back after some time in Vegas. Simply Epic!
“Definitely Maybe” is a record with garage sound, a cool, energetic and spontaneous guitar album. Apparently easy and fast to record. But according to all the people involved in those days, the reality was very different and the recording process of the album was hell. Endless sessions in multiple recording studios, cancellations, last minute changes and the use of many drugs and a very high number of technicians and engineers. Amid such turbulence, Noel decided to re-record large sections of the record himself, including all the bass lines. Something that Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, bass player from Oasis would discover shortly thereafter.
Two more curiosities! Noel wrote the song “Slide Away” using a 1960 Gibson Les Paul that Johnny Marr, guitarist from The Smiths has given to him and that Johnny had before bought from Pete Townshend from The Who. And the lyrics of “Live Forever” are a clear response to the 90's Grunge genre and Kurt Cobain, which Noel considered highly and unnecessarily depressing.
To finish, “Definitely Maybe” is a great album, but above all it is essential to understand the music scene of the 90s, and the story of what was probably the last mass phenomenon of Rock & Roll before everything changed with the uptake of the Internet.
Cover photograph, album artwork by Michael Spencer Jones
