12 February 2000
I never had Noel Gallagher down as a fellow student and fan of 19th century American poetry. Here’s the first verse of ‘A Bag Of Tools’ by Robert Lee Sharpe:
Isn't it strange That princes and kings, And clowns that caper In sawdust rings, And common people Like you and me Are builders for eternity?
As you’re no doubt shouting at your screen right now, that is quite adjacent to the post-chorus verse of Oasis’s ‘Go Let It Out’. Haters among you are probably also passing remarks about Noel’s rap sheet of borrowing from classic rock and pop, but I think we’ve all learned something from this; he borrows from obscure old American doggerel too. Truly, Noel is a man of hidden shallows.
But don’t worry, there’s the reassuringly inevitable Beatle imitation in ‘Go Let It Out’ too, notably the ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ Mellotron. The rest is Oasis’s usual post-Britpop guitar churning. And Noel is perfectly capable of sharting out his own brand of doggerel too: this is the lead single from their new album Standing On The Shoulder Of The Beatles and the best he can do for a chorus is “Go let it out / Go let it in / Go let it out”. As for the younger Gallagher, he just stands there sweaty and hairy, whining out what his big brother writes for him. That must have been humiliating for Liam, and he deserves our pity.
To be honest, I’m surprised Oasis were still having number one hits in 2000. I guess since they were on the front of every English tabloid daily, the record company figured they could squeeze a last few paydays out of them by putting out whatever bland, forgettable soft rock they could muster, like souvenir merchandise for fans of Oasis tabloid newspaper front pages. However, this is Oasis’s final Irish number one single. Nevermore!
