The 500 - #378 - (What's The Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 378
Album Title: (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Artist: Oasis
Genre: Rock, Brit Pop
Recorded: Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales
Released: October, 1995
My age at release: 30
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify: Champagne Supernova

Oasis exploded on the North American music scene during the spring and summer of 1996. My room-mates in Teachers' College were fans and this album was in regular rotation during the five months we spent together in our residence at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. If it wasn't playing on the communal stereo in the living room, it could be heard coming from one of the bedrooms on the second floor of our townhouse.

One of the few pictures I have of my roommates Craig (seated) and
Brendan in our townhouse. Also pictured, my other roommate Randy's dog Shaft.

At first, I wasn't a fan of the band. However, slowly but surely, the album won me over. My room-mate Brendan was teaching me guitar and together we worked on the song  Wonderwall from this record. I suppose my initial animus stemmed from a letter I had received 12 months earlier. More on that later, but first a little background on the band and this album.

One of the few pictures I have of me in Teacher's College.
Hard at work in my dorm room on my "state of the art" computer.

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? is the second studio release from Manchester, England, rock band Oasis. The five-piece band included Paul Arthurs on guitar, Tony McCarroll on drums, Paul McGuigan on bass. However, the band are best known because of the Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, who feuded publicly and courted controversy for more than 15 years.

The Gallagher Brothers Liam and Noel (with guitar)

The group formed in 1991 and were originally called The Rain. Their first release as Oasis, Definitely Maybe, was a commercial and critical success. McCarroll was fired from the band over creative and personal differences and replaced by Alan White, who would remain with them for the next four records.

Album Cover for Definitely Maybe

Following a financially successful, but perilously hedonistic world tour, the band returned to the studio to release (What's The Story) Morning Glory? in 1995. It was another stepping stone toward Oasis becoming one of the best selling groups of all time, with over 75 million records sold.

It was around this time that I learned of them. I had been corresponding with Scott, a friend from high school, who had moved to England to pursue his career in music. It was a time before email and the two of us were communicating through handwritten letters. 

When I last wrote, I had asked about the bands that were popular across the pond.  Scott told me about Blur, Elastica and Portishead, but it was a line about a band called Oasis that grabbed my attention. I found the letter a few months ago while cleaning my office and snapped a picture in anticipation of this post. 

It reads: "Oasis. Northern Mancunian shite. These boys rip off everybody and are infuriatingly arrogant to boot. Death would be too good for Liam Gallagher. Don't bother with this lot."

Please don't judge Scott too harshly. He was a talented singer-songwriter-guitarist and passionate about his own art. He also suffered from the curable condition of being a twenty- something. 

Scott's scathing review certainly coloured my opinion of the band as they became popular in Canada. At the start, I simply ignored them, choosing to listen to other artists. But, in Teachers' College, there was no escaping their sound and, eventually, I became a fan. Sure, they were arrogant -- but there was no denying their talent as musicians and songwriters.

Unfortunately, I have lost touch with all the people in this story - Scott, Craig, Randy and even Brendan, with whom I lived for another six months after Teachers' College. The old letter from Scott was a nice reminder of a past I had forgotten and I thought a lot about my old pals as I wrote this post. Friends who now seem like ghosts from a life someone else lived. 

Hearing (What's The Story) Morning Glory? in its entirety took me back too and I was particularly moved by this opening lyric from Don't Look Back In Anger:

"Slip inside the eye of your mind,
Don't you know you might find
A better place to play.
You said that you'd never been,
But all the things you've seen, 
Slowly fade away."

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and calling students stupid.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

If you are a fan of any of the following ... 

• cinematography (especially long, complex takes), 
• stand-up comedy, 
• eclectic music (particularly show-tunes & 50's hits), 
• New York City, 
• Late 50's fashion, 
• sharp, tight writing, or 
• rich, complex characters

...this is the show for you. 

It follows suddenly separated housewife Miriam "Midge" Maisel as she discovers a hidden talent for stand-up comedy in the burgeoning Greenwich village art movement of the late 1950's. 
The supporting cast are probably my favourite part.

• The caustic rapid-fire wit of Alex Borstein's Suzie Meyer's (Midge's hostile manager).
• Kevin Pollack - a stereotypical 1950's Jewish businessman who breaks with his character for a powerfully touching and important "father/son moment" in Season 2. 
• The anxiety-fueled comedic angst of Tony Shalhoub as Midge's brilliant but out-of-touch father - Abe Weissman.

Near the end of that season, Abe is under tremendous stress. The organized, idyllic world he has carefully curated for himself is under assault from all sides and he is in a crisis spiral. 

He walks into his advanced mathematics classroom at Columbia University to find it nearly empty. It seems his recent, erratic behaviour has led to a student exodus. Exasperated by the absence of his star pupil - Truman - he goes off on an epic rant. I tried to find it on YouTube, but the text will have to suffice.

"Let the record show that there are no men in Abraham Weissman's differential equations course. Just a sad collection of fatuous, imbecilic, puerile, blithering milksops. 

Why are all of you still here?!

I have one more math problem for you.

  (All of You) + X =Competence

Solve for X?

Do you want to know what X is?

It's competence - because none of you have any! 

You're all incompetent. You'll never work in any field that has the word "advanced" in front of it. You'll simply be overqualified dishwasher repairmen. I keep telling you that and you keep coming back - well, don't. Get Out!"

Here's the thing

I had a few of those teachers. Now, granted, they were not quite as eloquent as Abe...but I was absolutely in classrooms where one, or all of us, were dressed-down and called stupid.

A couple reflections

• It was a bit frightening when I was younger - but I feel that I rolled with it. Granted, I grew up in a world where any adult could verbally, or even physically, correct me. Once, as a child in Britain, I was caught stealing penny candies in a "sweet shop" by a complete stranger brought who pulled me to my grandfather...by the ear. I got in trouble. He got thanked.
• Verbal explosions like this were almost comical when I was in high school - we all silently "high-fived" each other with our eyes because we had made Mr. or Mrs. (Blank) snap. 
• Most importantly, Almost every time it happened - we kind of deserved it. Well, if not deserved... we had provoked it. Objectively, we were being "stupid" because 
• we were not paying attention to clear instructions or 
• we were not investing sincerely in the work or 
• we were doing something that we had been warned about repeatedly or
• we were being...kids.

As an educator, I have experienced the same frustrations that my teachers must have felt. Obviously, because I still have a job, I don't "yell at" or belittle my young charges. 

I don't know of any educator who would suggest a return to the Weissman method. But, I have heard some say the pendulum has swung too far toward indulgence and we are coddling our children - without preparing them for the so called Real World.

Is there a middle ground?

I'm not sure. I do know that their Real World will be the life that they create and I am confident that they are resilient - just like I was. My ear and my pride have both recovered. Besides, there is nothing wrong with being a good dishwasher repairman.