Stand By Me

I’m going to geek out on music this week.

I’ll make sure to tie my thoughts back to health and life by time I get to the end.

On July 4th, in Cardiff, Oasis began the first day of their reunion tour.

I have loved that band since 1995 when I first heard the song, Wonderwall.

That song in particular came from their sophomore album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

While many Oasis fans will tell you their debut album, Definitely Maybe, was their best, the sophomore album was my gateway and it will probably always inch out to be my favorite over the debut.

I would go on to see them live for the Morning Glory tour when they played a high school auditorium for their Cleveland stop.

After that tour, I had the fortune of seeing them live three more times:

-When they toured for Be Here Now and played in Akron

-For the Tour Of Brotherly Love supporting their album Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants in Cuyahoga Falls featuring two other famous “brother” bands: The Black Crowes and Spacehog

-And my final show to see them was in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium for the Don’t Believe The Truth tour.

They broke up three years later in the middle of a tour for their last album, Dig Out Your Soul.

For me, Oasis was MY Beatles.

While they never saw the popularity in the U.S. that they did in the U.K., their unapologetic love for the Fab Four plus enough doses of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and even a little bit of Sex Pistols, they were this larger than life presence who commanded the stage every time they played.

Fortunately, the brothers would continue to make music: Noel with his side project, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Liam with his side project Beady Eye which would disband after two albums and launch his solo career.

Much like I did with Oasis, I had the opportunity to see Noel live on four separate occasions and he was amazing every time.

I did not have the opportunity to see Liam perform live outside of his time with Oasis but there is one memory from his side projects I’ll never forget.

When Beady Eye released their first album, my father was dying from cancer. Their song The Roller was the last song my father heard before he left this world. Dad loved Oasis as well and I can’t think of a better way for him to say goodbye to this life than with a song he enjoyed.

After Oasis split, there were always rumblings about the brothers reuniting but the acrimony between the two was thick enough to slice with a knife.

Much like the Fogerty brothers from Creedence Clearwater Revival, so much time had passed with the two brothers barely saying a kind word to or about each other, that it seemed they would never be able to bridge the gap and pull the band back together.

That is, until last year.

There were little nuggets from videos, that after a 15 year split, they might finally be able to come to terms with each other and tour again.

Try as I might, I waited in queue for tickets but it just wasn’t meant to be. I couldn’t snag them before they sold out and was not willing to pay scalper prices.

So, my best chance to “see” them will simply be through clips on YouTube burying the hatchet and filling stadiums again.

Let me not fail to mention, the brothers Gallagher are going to make a TON of money from this tour. Estimates are saying upwards of $200 million each by time everything is said and done. (Continued below)

I would love for them to record a new album.

I would love for them to rekindle their love of being together and tour again beyond 2025.

As of now, those things aren’t likely to happen.

Noel has said that he genuinely feels bad for the people who missed out because they broke up mid-tour in 2009 and they wanted to “make it up to the fans.”

Either way, when the clips started showing up from the July 4th performance, I got a little bit teary eyed.

Sometimes, you can convince yourself that some things will never come to fruition and when they do, you don’t know how to process it.

Oasis is one of those bands that got me through a lot of tough times and, like a lot of good music, you never forget that feeling.

What does any of this have to do with health or how you live your life?

I’ve seen a lot of people in my life walk away from bad situations. Sometimes, people step away from toxic personalities in their life. Depending on whose perspective you buy into, it sounds like that had something to do with how Oasis split.

And often, we feed into toxicity with toxic behavior of our own.

We speak ill of others, we hold grudges and sometimes those negative emotions fester inside of us as well.

As the adage goes, hurt people hurt people.

I’ve been one of those myself.

And sometimes, it’s that toxic influence that eats us up from the inside and keeps us from living lives of fulfillment and happiness.

We can’t be grateful because we’re too busy being angry.

Don’t read what I’m not writing. Some toxic influences need to stay in the rearview because, as much as I’d like to hope otherwise, some people are not willing or able to process their own problems. They just bleed on to everything and everyone else.

But watching those clips of Oasis after being apart for all those years, being a fan who basically lost all faith they’d ever come together again, it gave me hope.

In a world that often seems chaotic, frustrating, divided and discouraging, there’s music to shine a light.

For a fan like me, seeing images like the ones below, they aren’t just surreal, they open up a door that says, maybe we can put those bad things behind us, maybe we can heal our wounds, maybe we can forgive each other, maybe we just needed time to mature and settle our differences.

Maybe I’m just being a romantic.

And maybe I just miss my Dad.

He would have loved seeing this reunion too.

Whether you love Oasis, hate them, or you’ve never even listened to them, makes little difference. What I hope for you is that you have music in your life that reaches in to your soul and transports you.

In spirit of the title of this post, here’s their hit single of the same name.