Throwback 1997 || Oasis: "Magic Pie"

...and with this fine LP Oasis were publicly cast upon the ash heap, forevermore to be seen and not heard.  I kept stumbling across video links to the new Noel Gallagher solo song in my RSS feed today, and since it's no more post-worthy than brother Liam's Beady Eye phone in I instead alighted to my youth, a time when I worked in the music department at Hastings and Be Here Now was one of the few legit rock albums in our playbin (couldn't offend the blue hairs shopping for books a couple of aisles over with thumping techno or JSBX, after all... though one day a particularly iconoclastic night manager allowed - nay, insisted - that I play the album of death metal Metallica covers that I'd just gotten via special order.  Watching all those customers walk around trying to pretend like absolutely nothing was wrong or out of the ordinary was a pretty amazing experience, and one which I still refer to in job interviews to this day).


And I mean to tell you, this fucker was LOUD.  We're talking iPod loud but before shitty engineers started jacking up the levels across the board to make their recordings sound "better" in a pair of crackerjack ear buds.  I usually had to physically walk back to the music desk, unlock the stereo cabinet - couldn't have customers obtaining access to the in-store playlist; they might actually get it right - and turn the volume knob down about 35%.  I am a slow walker from way back.

It was never clear to me why "Magic Pie" was not one of the great Oasis hits.  It's epic as all fuck, which is basically the only thing the Gallagher brothers ever wanted out of life, and it's got a big, sweeping chorus that makes you want to stick your dick in the freezer and cold cock your mama.  The chorus is so grand, in fact, that you don't even mind that it's repeated ad nauseum for the last two minutes of the song.  Somehow, that actually makes it better.  You had to patiently wait for them to build up to that chorus... the chorus is the part you really want to hear... two minutes on swole is the perfect reward.

This was back when Oasis actually knew how to reward their fans.  These days they just want to make sure you have one of their American Apparel tees.