‘All Around the World’: The Oasis song that waited to be a “big, massive rock opera”
Sometimes, an artist has ambitions for a song beyond their current scope. Perhaps there’s an instrument a composition is crying out for that simply isn’t available to them, or there’s a verse that’s perfect for a featured artist, but they’re not quite sure who yet. Maybe it requires a bigger group of musicians to bring it to life, or maybe, if you’re Oasis, it’s destined to be an epic rock opera.
Oasis wasn’t exactly short on resources in the early 1990s. The band had secured a signing with the now-iconic Creation Records and would immediately win over audiences with their debut single, ‘Supersonic’. They delved into touring and recording before putting out Definitely Maybe in 1994, but the song was missing one of the lengthiest songs they had written during their early years.
The release of ‘All Around the World’, a Beatles-meets-Britpop number with a duration just shy of ten minutes, would be prolonged until 1997. The mammoth track was unleashed to the world on the band’s third offering, Be Here Now, but why did they wait so long to record and release it?
Songwriter Noel Gallagher had a vision for the song that went beyond the budget and scope available to them in their early years. He had written it around 1992, and the band had played it throughout the years, but he knew that he wanted it to be a “big, massive, orchestral, sprawling, rock opera,” as recalled by Q magazine.
Awarding the song the time, space and, eventually, money to fulfil its full potential, Gallagher saw his vision through and ‘All Around the World’ was released as a single in 1998. The result truly was sprawling, coming in at nine minutes and 38 minutes, with tambourines and strings serving to expand Oasis’ usual sound.
Catchy melodies and Liam Gallagher’s characteristic Mancunian vocals still take the focus of the song, making it undeniably Oasis, but it’s a much bigger, much more ambitious version of their earliest idiosyncrasies. Soaring strings afford it a new gravitas, while tambourines only add to the jubilance of it all.
As the song culminates, it leans into Beatles-inspired “la”s, layered with Gallagher vocals and electric guitars. It sounds like a celebration of their successes, of Gallagher’s fully realised sonic vision. It’s proof that songs shouldn’t be rushed. Years spent honing their sound were awarded ‘All Around the World’, the rock operatic grandeur it deserved, and their longest and one of their most well-loved songs.
Revisit the song below.
