The story of ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’: The album that almost broke Noel Gallagher
When Oasis embarked on their reunion tour last year, I was tasked with drafting up a predicted set list for Far Out readers.
After stroking my chin for a good few hours and listening to their discography top to bottom, I painstakingly put together a list of 25 songs. Not to my surprise, but to my disappointment, I fell into the obvious trap of picking songs solely from the first two albums, besides ‘Fuckin’ In The Bushes’ as a walk-on.
To the die-hard Oasis fan, it was sacrilegious, but in reality, none of those songs felt as though they could be left out. Despite pushback, I wholeheartedly believe in ‘Columbia’ being on the set, as I do with ‘She’s Electric’ and ‘Cast No Shadow’, because all three of those songs represent the band at their energetic and vital best.
That doesn’t mean I’m ignorant of the deep cuts. No, quite the contrary in fact. My task was to draft up what I imagined would make the final cut, not what I, as an individual Oasis fan, would have wanted. Had that been the case, then a string of tracks that soundtracks my fandom of the band would have slotted right into the middle. ‘Fade In-Out’ from Be Here Now would have certainly made it, despite Noel’s slandering of the record, as would a handful of songs from the sometimes forgotten Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.
The sloppy release campaign for the 2000 album may have showcased a band on the decline, but the music had glimpses of the opposite. ‘Gas Panic’ might just be Liam Gallagher’s greatest vocal performance to this day, and of course, my chosen walk-on song, ‘Fuckin’ In The Bushes’ is a daring and raucous instrumental track that showed their experimental capability.
Perhaps its oversight in the public consciousness was driven by the band themselves, who by ‘00 were living amidst the haze of their own hedonism and had been driven away from the simple process of creating music that was meaningful to them.
Of the time, a date which he couldn’t exactly remember, Noel said, “That was the one where I felt the pressure more than anything, because I’d sit down for the first time in… When did that come out? ‘98? No ‘99. I’d sat down for the first time in five years with no songs and needed to create something. And I got a bit bogged down in trying to reinvent something they didn’t need reinventing. But all the lyrics to that album are amazing.”
Nevertheless, despite the pressure and the somewhat half-baked approach, the band delivered moments that confirmed their position at the top of music royalty. Despite not making my predicted setlist, Noel agreed with my song picks from the album as he named the standout moments of Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.
“I think that there’s some real proper pieces of music on that, like ‘Fuckin’ In The Bushes’, ‘Gas Panic’, ‘Go Let It Out’, ‘Roll It Over’, ‘Where Did It All Go Wrong’, and ‘Little James’. But it was kind of… You know, we were all coming out of the party. And it was like recording an album with a serious hangover. That was the one where I felt it.”
The hangover was clearly seen when the band took to the stage in the millennium and performed these songs to a live audience. Largely speaking, they were strung out, sloppy and preoccupied with off-stage drama to do these songs justice. However, there was one guiding light of a performance which you can watch below.
