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Oasis · S3 E5
Champagne Supernova
Seven minutes of psychedelia to close the album. Paul Weller on guitar. Nobody knows what it means, and nobody cares.
The back of a tour bus somewhere in Germany, November 1994. Noel picks up an acoustic guitar and plays the band a seven-minute song from start to finish that nobody in the room understands, and nobody wants him to stop.
Oasis, Champagne Supernova (1996). Seven minutes of psychedelia that closes (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Nobody knows what it means. Nobody has ever cared.
Champagne Supernova, Oasis (1995)
The song builds from a gentle acoustic opening into a massive, layered wall of guitars that takes nearly two minutes to arrive, then doesn't let go for the next five. Paul Weller plays lead guitar and adds backing vocals, turning the track into a collaboration between two generations of British songwriting. Owen Morris mixed it as wide and spacious as anything Oasis ever recorded, giving every instrument room to breathe. Listen for the way the song seems to end before the final guitar solo pulls it back for one more crescendo, an album closer that refuses to close.
Sources
Songfacts
Radio X
The Modfather
Paul Weller is already a legend twice over: first with The Jam, then with the Style Council. When he shows up at Rockfield to play on 'Champagne Supernova,' it's a passing of the torch from one generation of British guitar music to the next. Weller also recommended Alan White as the band's new drummer. The Modfather and Oasis are now officially family.
Sources
Champagne Supernova, Wikipedia
Songfacts
“I haven't got a clue what it's about. But it means something different to everyone who hears it, so I'm alright with that.”
— Noel Gallagher, NME, on the meaning of Champagne Supernova
TAP TO REVEAL: Where does 'slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball' come from?
The Closer
Champagne Supernova is the last track on (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, and it does something no other Oasis song attempts. It goes somewhere that has no fixed address, no clear narrative, and no resolution. Noel described it as 'probably as psychedelic as I'll ever get.' For an album full of anthems that say exactly what they mean, the closer is the one that says nothing and everything at once.
Sources
Radio X
NME
Which legendary British musician plays guitar on Champagne Supernova?
Hey Now!, Oasis (1995)
A Morning Glory deep cut that charges forward with the confidence of a band that knows every song on the album is going to land. Where Champagne Supernova floats, 'Hey Now!' punches. It's the side of the album that gets overlooked when people only talk about the singles, and it's proof the deep cuts are just as strong.
Hey Now!, Oasis (1995)
'I took a walk with my fame down memory lane, I never did find my way back.' A Morning Glory deep cut that lives in the shadow of Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger but hits just as hard when you find it.
Champagne Supernova: The File
Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger, Champagne Supernova, and eight more tracks that are just as strong. On October 2, 1995, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? arrives, and it will sell 22 million copies worldwide.
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