Cigarettes & Alcohol

"Cigarettes & Alcohol"
Single by Oasis
from the album Definitely Maybe
B-side "I Am the Walrus" (live)
"Listen Up"
"Fade Away"
Released 10 October 1994
Format CD, 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, cassette
Recorded Clear Studios, Manchester, 1994
Genre Alternative rock, Britpop, hard rock
Length 4:48
Label Creation
Writer(s) Noel Gallagher
Producer(s) Oasis, Mark Coyle & Owen Morris
Oasis singles chronology
"Live Forever"
(1994)		 "Cigarettes & Alcohol"
(1994)		 "Whatever"
(1994)
Definitely Maybe track listing

"Cigarettes & Alcohol" is a song by English rock band Oasis, written by Noel Gallagher. It was released as the fourth single from their debut album Definitely Maybe, and their second to enter the UK top ten in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 7 (three places higher than "Live Forever"), eventually spending 35 weeks on the charts, re-entering the Top 75 on several occasions until 1997.

Background

Whereas earlier singles "Supersonic" and "Shakermaker" had used psychedelic imagery, and "Live Forever" used softer chords and tender lyrics, "Cigarettes & Alcohol" was the first single to demonstrate the rougher musical attitude that Oasis appeared to be promoting. The song proclaims the inherent appeal of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs as a remedy to the banality and seemingly futile nature of the working class life. Lyrics such as "Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for?" taps into the common sentiment of western disenchantment that was particularly common in the mid-1990s.

Upon first hearing the song, the man who discovered the band, Alan McGee, claimed that the song was one of the greatest social statements anyone had made in the past 25 years.

The song was the second case in which Oasis was accused of plagiarism, the first being the song "Shakermaker". The main riff of the song is purportedly "borrowed" from "Get It On" by T. Rex[1] and "Little Queenie" by Chuck Berry, and bears a similarity to the opening of Humble Pie's cover of "C'mon Everybody".

B-sides

The song was released with three B-sides: a cover version of The Beatles' "I Am The Walrus"; "Listen Up", a six-minute slow rocker musically similar to Supersonic; and the popular, slightly punk-styled "Fade Away", whose wistful lyrics are about the destruction of "the dreams we have as children" (this phrase was used as the title of Noel Gallagher's first live solo album). All these songs appeared on the compilation The Masterplan. An acoustic version of "Fade Away" was released on The Help Album charity compilation, and subsequently on the band's 1998 single "Don't Go Away".

Contrary to the track listing and clarified on subsequent releases (including The Masterplan), "I Am The Walrus" was not actually recorded at the Glasgow Cathouse, but at a conference for Sony music executives - the Gleaneagles Hotel Sony Seminar - who had gathered to hear Creation Records' new signings. Noel Gallagher stated[2] that the band loved this particular live recording but were mortified to learn that it was made during a rehearsal at a corporate event. The band instead picked a venue from their tour schedule at which they had performed a similar-sounding version, and added crowd noise taken from a Faces bootleg CD, in a bid to make it seem like an authentic tour recording.

Track listings

  1. "Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:48
  2. "I Am the Walrus" (Live Glasgow Cathouse June '94) – 8:15
  3. "Listen Up" – 6:39
  4. "Fade Away" – 4:13
  1. "Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:48
  2. "I Am the Walrus" (Live Glasgow Cathouse June '94) – 8:15
  1. "Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:48
  2. "I Am the Walrus" (Live Glasgow Cathouse June '94) – 8:15
  3. "Fade Away" – 4:13
  1. "Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:50
  2. "I Am the Walrus" (Live Glasgow Cathouse June '94) – 8:15

Charts

Chart (1994–97) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 7

Personnel

External links

References

  1. ↑ Oasis: Biography Allmusic. Retrieved on 2013-11-04. Note: "Get It On" was originally titled "Bang a Gong", but was later retitled to its current name. The biography states the title as "Bang a Gong" rather than "Get It On", but they are, in fact, the same exact song.
  2. ↑ "The Masterplan". Oasis Recording Information. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
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