Hear Me Out: ‘Some Might Say’ is the definitive Oasis song
Oasis are not known for being the most wholesome act to emerge from the 1990s. Their music echoed the brilliant guitar hooks that The Beatles had mastered 30 years earlier, but the tension between Noel and Liam Gallagher was evident from their very first joint interview. Despite their constant bickering, they never lost their spirit, and ‘Some Might Say’ stands as the clearest testament to what the Manchester lads truly represented.
Then again, categorising Oasis was a lot harder when they first turned up on the scene. The Madchester movement had just started to die out, and since everyone from Primal Scream to The Stone Roses were still considered the titans of the British indie world, having a group that just played guitars and didn’t care that much about dance music was a bit of an oddity.
After grunge died an ugly death in 1994, though, songs like ‘Live Forever’ were exactly what the masses needed to feel better again. Whereas most acts were droning on about their problems, Noel was writing about everything that inspired him when he was still a teenager, whether that was about going out and drinking on ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ or falling in and out of love on ‘Slide Away’.
As much as Definitely Maybe is their classic record, it still scans as more of a punk album over time, and What’s the Story Morning Glory is closer to what makes Noel tick as a songwriter. Right before they went into cut the record, ‘Some Might Say’ kicked off the second wave of their career with their sunniest track of all time.
While ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Rock n’ Roll Star’ made no bones about the positive side of life, this song practically has sunshiiiiiiine shooting out of its backside. Noel’s lyrics about someday finding a brighter day are among the best words of perseverance to come out of the 1990s, but maybe the reason it works is because it’s not as positive as people think.
Looking at the verses, Noel is singing about anyone who has been dealt a rough hand in life, whether that’s those living in Hell or can’t let their spirit shine as much as they should. However, just because the light is dim at some point doesn’t mean it’s gone forever, and when Liam sings alongside his brother on the chorus, anyone could take on the world two times over with them singing behind them.
And for anyone attempting it at karaoke, it’s actually a fairly hard song to sing. For all of the great moments Liam has laid down on record, like ‘Slide Away’, he reaches for some of the highest notes in his range on the chorus, almost like he’s trying to still be a punk underneath all of the Beatles-esque melodies.
The tune is also a strange bridge between two halves of their classic material. Considering the headaches that went into making Definitely Maybe with Tony McCarroll behind the drumkit, he has the master’s touch on this song, sticking to rudimentary drumbeats to give the rest of the group a firm foundation to build off of.
But the icing on the cake is the tuning of the track. Much like ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, ‘Some Might Say’ isn’t in proper concert pitch, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily out of tune. If anything, hearing it feels like something out of a dream, as if you’ve been transported to England circa 1966 and are seeing the greatest garage band that never was thrashing away on their instruments.
Even Noel pointed out that it was one of the cornerstones of their discography, remarking in Lock the Box, “To me, that’s the archetypical Oasis song. Y’know how people say the archetypical Beatles song is ‘We Can Work It Out’, where they go, ‘That’s what defines Beatles music?’ I think ‘Some Might Say’ defines what Oasis is.”
And it’s not like that spirit dulled over the years, either, with Be Here Now cuts like ‘All Around the World’ preaching the same mantra that everything will be alright. For all of the fights they had amongst each other, Oasis was always about bringing people together, and who couldn’t relate to the idea of one bad day giving way to something better?
