Oasis What's The Story Morning Glory

Great B-sides: The Masterplan by Oasis

Remember the 1990s, when physical albums sold by the truckload? Manchester band Oasis had their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, sell more than 22 million copies, and this volume of sales allowed them to lavish even their b-sides with loving care. It wouldn’t surprise me if ‘The Masterplan’ had a bigger budget than that of entire albums in the streaming age; there’s an amazing amount of effort for a b-side, with an orchestra and a very Beatles-esque backwards guitar solo. It’s a showcase for Oasis’ songwriter Noel Gallagher – he sings lead vocals and plays bass in addition to his usual duties in the band.

Creation Records boss Alan McGee told Noel ‘The Masterplan’ was “too good” to be relegated to the B-side of a single. Noel was reported to have replied, “Well, I don’t write shit songs!” At the time, Noel was perhaps justified, as he was pumping out a lot of serviceable material for Oasis’ first two albums, but ‘The Masterplan’ would have made for a very strong album track. While it features several of the band’s weaknesses – a five and a half minute running time and a sound palette that was overly reliant on The Beatles’ mid-1960s triumphs – it’s clearly one of the band’s best songs.

It was later included, along with three other early b-sides, on Oasis’ 2006 compilation Stop The Clocks, whereupon it was given a lavish promotional video.

Take the time to make some sense
Of what you want to say
And cast your words away upon the waves

And sail them home with acquiesce
On a ship of hope today
And as they land upon the shore
Tell them not to fear no more
Say it loud, and sing it proud today

And then dance if you wanna dance
Please brother take a chance
You know they’re gonna go
Which way they wanna go
All we know is that we don’t
Know how it’s gonna be
Please brother let it be
Life on the other hand
Won’t make us understand
We’re all part of the masterplan

Say it loud and sing it proud today

I’m not saying right is wrong
It’s up to us to make
The best of all the things
That come our way

‘Cause everything that’s been has passed
The answer’s in the looking glass
There’s four and twenty million doors
On life’s endless corridor
Say it loud and sing it proud today

We’ll dance if they wanna dance
Please brother take a chance
You know they’re gonna go
Which way they wanna go
All we know is that we don’t
Know how it’s gonna be
Please brother let it be
Life on the other hand
Won’t make you understand
We’re all part of the masterplan

24 Comments

    • To be honest, it’s one I’ve only listened to for the purposes of this blog series – I was aware that Oasis had a well-regarded outtakes set, so I checked out the title track. One of those bands where they have a glut of strong material early, and then their early outtakes outshine their later albums.

      • I didn’t get into them until later on but I liked what I’ve heard. I’ve only heard the first couple of albums and that has been a while.
        After you featured them I started to search them out.

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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.

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