The Oasis song Noel Gallagher compared to The Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan
In a famous interview with Pete Doherty, before anybody had heard of The Libertines, he stands in line, queueing for the new Oasis album while eating a croissant. When asked what he thinks of the band, Doherty offers the interviewer, “I subscribe to the Umberto Eco view that Noel Gallagher’s a poet and Liam’s a town crier.” While there are many ways to describe Oasis, that may be the best one yet, and this song that Noel himself compares to Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground personifies that perfectly.
Oasis’ recent nomination for a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been controversial, as is the case with many of their nominees. Liam Gallagher himself has dismissed the organisation saying, “As much as I love Mariah Carey and all that, I want to say: do me a favour and fuck off.” Many music fans have said the same feelings about them, possibly because they come after the initial wave of British Invasion rock bands who tend to receive hype, but regardless of your opinion, there is no denying they have significantly left their stamp on rock music.
They could create poetic-sounding tunes using strange influences, resulting in a mix of songs that remain just as infectious today as the day they were released. With Noel’s ability as a songwriter and Liam’s ability as a frontman, the two were a force to be reckoned with, acting as the extreme of one another that merged in perfect harmony. Granted, those differences eventually led to the band’s split, but before that…
After days on end, sitting in dressing rooms, waiting to do interviews, and going on stage, Noel pulled a song from the recesses of boredom. That song was ‘Mucky Fingers’. He said: “[That was] the result of one too many nights in the dressing room, brainwashing Gem with The Velvet Underground and then thinking, ‘Fuck it! Dylan rules!’”
The song is compared to Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground in the same way that the lyricism of Oasis, plus their raw energy spurred on by Liam and the rest of the band, were compared to poets and town criers. Noel eludes to this when he describes the song by saying, “Imagine Bob Dylan singing [The Velvet Underground’s] ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’, with that kind of frantic drumbeat all the way through.”
The song formed a part of the band’s 2005 album, Don’t Believe the Truth. The album was one of the fastest-selling records ever released in the UK and went triple platinum in one week. ‘Mucky Fingers’ isn’t one of the songs fans remember the most fondly from the album, but its execution perfectly optimises what made Oasis so great.
The song highlights how well the band could draw inspiration from mundane places and give energy to a style of music that no other band has ever been able to do. It is an exciting listen and one of Oasis’s better songs throughout their discography.
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