Bits and pieces of rock music

The album is entitled Don’t Believe the Truth and it has a cut named Lyla. Wasn’t there also a song of the same title by a group called Derek and the Dominoes way back in the early ’70s? There was. That name though was spelled "Layla" and Derek was really Eric Clapton who composed the song for Patty Boyd who was then married to Beatle George Harrison, one of Clapton’s close friends.

So this one is a different Lyla, but it could have come from Harrison or Clapton or any of the Brit pop idols from 30 years back. Lyla and the other songs in this new album by Oasis seem to have been taken from bits and pieces of tunes from the rock music of long ago. This is true with Turn Up the Sun, where I hear The Byrds or with The Who in Love Like a Bomb. I am sure you will hear others throughout from the Stones to the Animals to T. Rex and the Faces. Of course, there is also a lot of the Beatles in the whole album. What else would an Oasis album be but Beatlesque?

Come to think of it, some six or seven albums since they made their debut, it can be said that the brothers Gallagher, Noel and Liam have indeed perfected their derivative style of rock music. They have become so good that they have made what are outright copies from other acts their very own. This is pretty much similar to what happened with rock and roll. It originated as hillbilly pounding in the US but gained elegant swagger after the Brits got their hands on the music. Oasis ably holds up that tradition.

And that means taking the best out of the rock hits of the ’60s and ’70s, and mixing them up. Oasis is doing that very well. Now Don’t Believe the Truth is not its best. What’s the Story Morning Glory is still difficult to top. But it is beautiful and lyrical and I simply adore finding opportunities to use those words to describe a rock album. Take note. Affirming the Beatlesque reputation of the band is the presence of Zak Starkey who plays drums along with Terry Kirkbride. Zak is the son of Ringo Starr who is Richard Starkey in real life. This means a direct descendant of the Beatles is with Oasis. Other members of the group are Gem Archer on guitar and Andy Bell on bass.

Don’t Believe the Truth also contains Mucky Fingers, The Importance of Being Idle, The Meaning of Soul, Guess God Thinks I’m Abel, Part of the Queue, Keep the Dream Alive, A Bell Will Ring and Let There Be Love. The limited edition CD comes with a bonus DVD that is made up of exclusive band interviews, a track by track insight into the making of the album and the video of the single release Lyla.

The Offspring’s Greatest Hits

More than 20 years after The Offspring took grunge music up to new levels, the popular group from Orange County, USA, has finally released a greatest hits collection. Made up of high school classmates Dexter Holland on vocals and guitars, Greg K on bass and Noodles on lead guitar, The Offspring fused punk and pop to produce its own type of grunge. Judging from the contents of this CD, it also managed to prove that fads do last if delivered intelligently with a youthful sense of fun.

Included and presented in the order of their release are the group’s hit singles, Can’t Repeat, Come Out and Play (Keep ’em Separated), Self-Esteem, Gotta Get Away, All I Want, Gone Away, Pretty Fly (For a White Guy), Why Don’t You Get a Job, The Kids Aren’t Alright, Original Prankster, Want You Bad, Defy You, Hit That, (Can’t Get My) Head Around You, and as a bonus, the Wiseguys remix of The Kids Aren’t Alright.

Read somewhere that the US edition of this album also comes with a bonus DVD of interviews and what not. Unfortunately, the one we get here does not but it still serves as an excellent introduction of The Offspring to today’s batch of rockers and should evoke nostalgia for a time when OC did mean Orange County.