Is it? I can't hear it...what bit?

Some times I get the feeling the only reason Oasis' covered "Heroes" was to avoid any copyright issues regarding "Stand By Me" borrowing heavily from "All The Young Dudes". Maybe Bowie and his people were like, if you cover one of my songs and slap it on your highly anticipated comeback single in the summer of 1997 so we can collect some royalties from it, then we are all good on any potential "borrowing". Just a theory. We all know Noel loves Bowie so it could easily be totally BS on my part. Granted it is a shitty cover of an amazing song.

Ok this is probably complete bollocks. It's wild, crazy fan speculation, but I'm gonna post it anyway. It's gonna take a bit of a stretch of the imagination. You have been warned.

Has anyone ever noticed some similarities between 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and the unreleased track 'Razorbarb'?

Here are the lyrics to 'Razorbarb':

Razorbarb

Verse 1:
Let me take a little piece of your mind,
We'll sit down here together feelin' fine,
I'll show you things that you have never seen,
I'll give you places you've never been,
Make yourself at home,
But Please don't lower the tone!

Verse 2:
I've lost my way so I'll take you there,
Lets talk about me and the clothes I wear,
Well smoke the pipe and talk of peace,
Then you can stab my back and do as you please,
Take it as it comes,
Your not here to have any fun!

Probable Chorus:
Razorbarb what's that you say?
All your life you've done it your way,
Razorbarb what's that you do?
Do you hate me?
Well I hate you!

Let me draw your attention to some elements. Some look reasonable, some probably look a tad retarded. I'll proceed:

Verse 1 Extracts & Melody of Verses:
Opening line of 'Razorbarb':
Let me take a little peace of your mind, [10 syllables]
Opening line of 'DLBIA':
Slip inside the eye of your mind, [8]

'Razorbarb':
I’ll show you things that you’ve never seen, [9]
I’ll give you places you’ve never been, [9]
'DLBIA':
You said that you’d never been, [7]
All the things that you’d seen, [7]

Okay, these all seem pretty reasonable observations, which certainly show a good correlation. Oh, and before anyone says "they can't be the same, because they have a different amount of syllables", that's rubbish. The melody can still work, just a little more clunky. Song's can take some time to work out and changes will occur. If you listen to the first performed version of 'DLBIA' there are numerous minor lyrical changes to the released version. Proven example. 'Blue' & 'Morning Glory'. Noel even sings it on some interview on Youtube to prove the melody:

Lived my life in blue, [5]
Nothin' anyone can do, [6]
I do not see you, [5]
Coz I lived my life in blue. [7]

All your dreams are made, [5]
When your chained to the mirror and the razorblade, [12]
Todays the day that, [4]
All the world will see, [5]

Compared to that, the lyrics I've pointed out are pretty alright.

I also feel that the 'DLBIA' melody can fit in many parts of the verses in certain places. But the full verses, definitely not. Not without some rearrangement.

The Chorus Melody
I think it fits pretty well if we take the 'Blue' to 'Morning Glory' approach.

Razorbarb:
Razorbarb what's that you say? [7]
All your life you've done it your way, [8]
DLBIA:
So Sally can wait, [5]
She knows it's too late, as she's walking on by, [11]
Razorbarb:
Razorbarb what's that you do? [7]
Do you hate me? [4]
Well I hate you! [4]
DLBIA:
My soul slides away, [5]
But don't look back in anger, [7]
I heard you say. [4]

And that's it. Imagine if that was genuinely the final verses original lyrics. Fuck me. There are few examples of Noel rewriting tunes from that period, imagine if this was one of them.

Before anyone points out Noel wrote this a week or so before he played it live, 'like he said he did', I'd also like to point out that Noel claims to have written the entirety of 'Supersonic' during trying to record 'Bring It On Down', despite having songs named 'My Friend Says', 'Helicopter Doctor' and 'Alkerseltzer' in his notebook. Noel probably combined parts of previous songs that day. Likewise, my theory is that this is possibly a precursor song to 'DLBIA'. The end.  

Yes "Street Fighting Man" is a truly horrendous recording job. Heroes just sounds rushed when Oasis did it. On a side note, ever read up on How they recorded Bowies version of Heroes? Particularly with the microphones? Pure brilliance by Tony Viaconti.

Actually, the main reason why Stay Young was left off was because Noel wrote Magic Pie, claimed it was "one of his best", and put it on the album, instead of Stay Young. I don't think having same-sounding songs on the same album would mean leaving one off, but who knows? 

Actually I think this is very plausible. Like I said earlier in another thread.



Part of Noel's creative genius is that he is a master imitator. He's very open about using the work of other artists for inspiration. Supersonic solo (My Sweet Lord), Live Forever (Shine a Light), Cigarettes & Alcohol riff (Get It On), DLBIA opening (Imagine). For some reason he gets shy when it's him stealing from himself - which ironically I think he does even more often.

There are obvious examples (Wonderwall and DYNWIM using the same chord progressions) and not so obvious ones (many Oasis songs have almost identical outros).

Check out this video. I'm not the only one who thinks Noel wrote a large chunk of his discography before he was even in Oasis, certainly before he had a record deal. In my opinion he always felt a need to create and express himself through music but the songs were originally just for himself. Thing is, when his music became public through Oasis he needed interesting origin stories so he just made them up as he went along. (e.g- Wonderwall was written about Meg Matthews or Acquiesce was written on a train ride).

Just to clarify, I don't think Noel already had everything written 100% when he joined Oasis. Obviously he only would have had bits and pieces of songs at various levels of completion. And of course like you I realize this could all be bollocks but I find this question fascinating so why not theorize?

Always liked that song from Slade, don't hear much of a similarity tho. Always thought Underneath the Sky sounded like the unplugged version of Layla, the chord structure that is, not so much the melody.

Oh and an very small update on my 'Razorbarb - Don't Look Back In Anger Theory'.

Noel originally wrote the opening line of 'DLBIA' as 'Take me to the eye of your mind':



This is even closer to the opening line of 'Razorbarb':

'Let me take a little piece of your mind'

Edit: Just realised, maybe he accidentally started writing the second verse first? Or maybe not? Hmm

Don't know when they were written but you are correct, the first performance didn't contain the second verse but instead repeated the first verse, however lyrical changes were very minor, with lots of small words (stuff like 'in', 'the', 'coz') being included. If you check the first performance on YouTube you'll see.

Cheers! I must say though that I reckon 'Morning Glory' wasn't a combination of both 'Blue' and 'The Mirror And The Razor Blade', but rather 'Blue' was rewritten as 'The Mirror And The Razorblade' and then rewritten as 'Morning Glory'.

I say this because the melody to 'Blue', is the same as the melody of the first verse of both 'TM&TRB' and 'MG'.

'Blue'
Lived my life in blue,
Nothin' anyone can do,
I do not see you, Coz I lived my life
in blue.

'The Mirror And The Razorblade'
The mirror and the razorblade,
If you live 'round here it's where your dreams are made,
There's no beach no bucket no spade,
For me.

'Morning Glory'
All your dreams are made,
When your chained to the mirror and the razorblade,
Todays the day that all the world
will see.

One slightly confusing thing though is that on 1 of the piece of paper in his notebook it lists both 'Blue' and 'The Mirror And The Razorblade'. Perhaps he just decided to list 2 songs with the same melody, just to keep note of an alternative?* Or maybe he had another song with the title Blue? Perhaps an alternative title to 'Being A Blue' (AKA 'Acquiesce').  

*Perhaps this explains why 'Blue'/'In Blue' is often written as 'Blue 1+2' or 'In Blue 1+2'. Maybe 1+2 means 2 alternatives, the other being an undeveloped 'The Mirror And The Razorblade'. This is pure speculation though.