Live forever
Live Forever is a song by the British Britpop rock band Oasis and written by Noel Gallagher . It was the third single from their debut album Definitely Maybe and was released on August 8, 1994 before it was released.
Emergence
The song was composed in 1991 in a Manchester warehouse where Gallagher was transferred after injuring his right foot in an accident at work. While he was playing a few chords on the guitar there, the Rolling Stones song Shine a Light was playing . He noticed that the melody in its chorus matched his chords and changed the lyrics to "Maybe I don't really want to know". After a while, in which the song only consisted of this one line, Gallagher was angry about an interview with Kurt Cobain in which the latter mentioned the song I hate myself and I want to die . Gallagher was upset that a rock star who had everything Gallagher wanted for himself would whine and die. But he told himself that he loved himself and wanted to live forever. That inspired the rest of the text. He had intended to write a song that had a similar depth and romance to Wild Horses (also from the Rolling Stones). He later said about the song: “ It's a song of pride, it's a song about youth, it's a song about knowing who you are. ”(German:“ It's a song of pride, it's a song about youth, it's a song about knowing who you are. ”) According to Liam Gallagher , the song is just about living forever. It's his favorite Oasis song.
Reception and commercial success
Before the single was released, Oasis had already played the song at concerts for a good year. The song was featured in reports of these performances that it was deemed overdue for release. The commercial success of the single also had a positive effect on the sales of the debut album. The single reached its peak in the UK Top 40 when it entered number 10 . This made Live Forever the first Oasis single to hit the UK Top 10.
Alan McGee, the operator of the Creation Records label, convinced the song that Oasis could become the greatest band in the world. He describes the moment he heard the song for the first time as “ It was probably the single greatest moment I've ever experienced with them. ”(German:“ It was probably the one greatest moment I've ever experienced with you. ”) At the time the single was released, the NME trusted the Gallaghers to make the world dance on their fingers, and was surprised that they did such a beautiful song has succeeded. The All Music Guide described the song as the one that showed that the band really had something. The song line “You and I are gonna live forever”, which is a kind of substitute chorus in the song, was seen as particularly remarkable. Gallagher said in the commentary on Live Forever on the DVD for Definitely Maybe that the line “We see things they'll never see” is the most important line of text for him, because it relates to the familiarity of old friends who talked about jokes and Laughing stories that nobody else understands.
Live Forever was voted the band's best song in a vote on the Oasis official website . In a poll by Q magazine , Live Forever was voted the best song of all time in 2006. Pitchfork Media described the song in 2006 as " the group's best-ever track " and praised its fearless optimism. In 2007, the song also took first place in a poll by NME and British radio station XFM asking for the greatest indie anthems of all time. When asked what was to come after Live Forever , Gallagher later said that it was I don't think the song is that good and I think he could do better.
In New Zealand the single reached number 43. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland Live Forever did not reach the single charts. After the success of the single Wonderwall from the follow-up album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? a year later the song reached number 10 on Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and even number 2 on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks.
Data
Live Forever was recorded at Clear Studios in Manchester . Producers were the band Oasis as well as Mark Coyle and Owen Morris. The radio edit lasts 3:43 minutes, while the album version of Definitely Maybe is a little longer at 4:37 minutes.
occupation
The band Oasis at the time of recording consisted of Liam Gallagher (vocals), Noel Gallagher (lead guitar), Paul Arthurs (guitar), Paul McGuigan (bass) and Tony McCarroll (drums).
Track list
British CD single
- Live forever
- Up in the Sky (Acoustic)
- Cloudburst
- Supersonic (Live)
European CD single
- Live Forever (Radio Edit)
- Live forever
- Up in the Sky (Acoustic)
- Cloudburst
- Supersonic (Live)
Pop culture allusions
The house on the single's cover is 251 Menlove Avenue, the home of John Lennon when he was a child. Although the song was inspired by the Rolling Stones, the references to the Beatles and Lennon were more clearly perceived by the public and singer Liam Gallagher was even referred to as a replacement Lennon.
The Live Forever video shows drummer Tony McCarroll being buried alive by the other band members. Less than a year later, the band and their drummer went their separate ways. Some of the UK versions of the promo video were filmed in the Strawberry Fields Memorial, the space in New York's Central Park dedicated to Lennon. A produced for the American market video that Nick Egan turned, showing the band as it sits in an office in which images of Lennon, Cobain, Sid Vicious , Jim Morrison , Brian Jones , Jimi Hendrix , Marc Bolan and Bobby Moore at hanging on the wall.
In the piece Im Taxi weeping from their debut album Du und wieviel von dein Freunde , Kettcar refer to the Oasis song with the line “The day we tattooed 'We're gonna live forever' on our thighs”. The members of Sugarplum Fairy took a sample of Live Forever as an opportunity to start the band.
Web links
- Live Forever at Allmusic (English)
- Official music video on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Dick Carruthers (director): Definitely Maybe (DVD) , Sony, 2004
- ↑ 50 Greatest Guitar Solos - # 14 Oasis ('Live Forever'). New Musical Express (NME), accessed May 8, 2013 .
- ↑ a b c d Greg Milner: The Greatest Songs Ever! Live forever. In: Blender . 2007, archived from the original on October 13, 2007 ; accessed on May 8, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Sold On Song: Live Forever on bbc.co.uk (English)
- ↑ Guide Entry for Oasis - 'Definitely Maybe' in h2g2 (English)
- ↑ Trivia & Quotes on tv.com (English)
- ^ Harris, John (2004). Britpop !: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock , Da Capo Press, p. 177, ISBN 0-306-81367-X
- ↑ Biography & profile at musicline.de
- ↑ Live Forever in the Official UK Charts (English)
- ^ A b Keith Cameron: Oasis: Live Forever " , NME, August 6, 1994. (English)
- ↑ a b Ned Raggett: Review of Live Forever on allmusic.com (English)
- ↑ Review of Stop The Clocks ( Memento from April 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on Pitchfork Media (English)
- ↑ http://www.nme.com/news/nme/28097 May 3, 2007
- ^ Anthony Barnes: The greatest song in the history of the world. Maybe in: The Independent, August 27, 2006 (English)
- ↑ OASIS - LIVE FOREVER (SONG) on charts.org.nz
- ↑ Artist Chart History - Oasis ( Memento from October 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at billboard.com (English)
- ↑ Review of Live Forever on allmusic.com (English)
- ↑ Thomas Groß, Andreas Merkel: Proletarian soap opera in: Die Zeit, No. 28, 2002.
- ↑ Lyrics: IM TAXI WEINEN on kettcar-musik.de
- ↑ biography on laut.de