The song Noel Gallagher considered his rock opera: “Big, massive, orchestral”
From the get-go, Liam and Noel Gallagher very quickly nabbed themselves two spots among the British rock god legions when they first hit the scene in 1994 with Definitely Maybe. In many ways, Oasis were like a second coming, cutting through the exuberance and flamboyance of music and just giving the people what they wanted – a proper good rock and roll band.
But compare the Gallagher brothers to other British exports like, say, Queen, and it’s pretty obvious that their concepts of rock music were quite different. Oasis bore none of the theatricality or indulgence of a figure like Freddie Mercury, yet it seems nonetheless that the heights of his ostentatious stardom still rubbed off, even in just a small way, into the land of Britpop, lads, and booze.
This came after Noel Gallagher claimed that ‘All Around the World’, one of the more coherent efforts of an otherwise notoriously chaotic Be Here Now, was his version of a Mercury trademark. He said at the time of its release: “I just wanted to write a big, massive, orchestral, sprawling, rock opera”.
Certainly, “sprawling” was an apt way to put it because clocking in at a mighty run time of nine minutes and 38 seconds, ‘All Around the World became the longest-ever song to top the UK charts. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ chalked up a measly five minutes and 55 seconds, for what it’s worth. Those “na-na”s at the end of the Oasis anthem account for almost three minutes of its timespan alone, making it clear that this was undeniably Gallagher’s seemingly never-ending magnum opus.
Of course, in other senses, it might have come across as a bit of an all-or-nothing moment because by this point in Oasis’ tenure, the cracks were already beginning to rupture, and it was only a matter of time before they turned into voids. The creation of Be Here Now was wrought from the beginning, between the Gallaghers’ famous brotherly spats and the effects of hallucinogens that made the whole thing sound more breathy than Britpop. Although the tune in question was a number one hit, the album itself holds the esteemed title of killing the entire musical movement it was supposed to represent.
In other words, they were in need of some redeeming features in the form of close-circle reinforcement. That came via the Gallaghers’ then-wives, Meg Mathews and Patsy Kensit, respectively, who sang backing vocals on ‘All Around the World’. Alongside them was seasoned session musician Mark Feltham, who played the harmonica to give the tune its classic, anthemic, raspy drawl.
For a song with the aim of becoming transcendental and a grand odyssey, the sentiment of “All around the world, you gotta spread the word/ Tell ‘em what you heard” is a pretty fitting notion. Whether it gains operatic status is perhaps a bridge too far, but it’s evident that Noel Gallagher had his sights set on epic proportions with the tune and most definitely hit the mark on fulfilling that dream.
