3 Undeniable Deep Cuts From Oasis’ 1994 Debut ‘Definitely Maybe’

Oasis was famous for telling people they were the biggest band in the world. And though their 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe, sounds like a punk album, these punks were after the stadium. However, the Manchester band, led by brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, had much more than swagger and funny quotes. They had anthems—even among the non-singles.

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For this list, I hope to introduce you to lesser-known cuts from Definitely Maybe. You already know “Live Forever”, “Supersonic”, and “Cigarettes & Alcohol”, but the selected tracks here are well worth knowing alongside their bigger brothers.

“Columbia”

Even in the early Oasis days, Noel was confident. And why wouldn’t he be? He entered 1994 with a batch of songs that would make up Definitely Maybe, the soon-to-be record-breaking debut. “Columbia” features a droning guitar riff over which Liam sings a kind of cloudy and obvious lullaby: “There we were, now here we are. All this confusion, nothing’s the same to me.”

It’s what one might say while deep in a hallucination. Still, Britpop was just getting going, and like this epic jam, no one planned for it to end or to come down anytime soon.

“Bring It On Down”

Creation Records boss Alan McGee wanted “Bring It On Down” to be the first Oasis single. But the band wasn’t satisfied with what they’d recorded, so the story goes, Noel called an audible. With everyone else away at lunch, he quickly wrote “Supersonic”, which became the first single instead.

“Bring It On Down” distills the power and chaos of a live Oasis gig. That’s how McGee wanted to present his new artist. But in its place, the public got “Supersonic” and the biggest British rock band of its generation.

“Married With Children”

For the first 10 tracks on Definitely Maybe, there isn’t much of a break from the distorted garage rock and “madferit” punk. In a change of pace, the album closer, an acoustic ditty called “Married With Children”, was recorded in producer Mark Coyle’s bedroom. It’s a peek inside daily squabbles between romantic roommates. It also offers a glimpse of what an Oasis song sounds like in demo form.

The bluesy tune fittingly shares its title with the American sitcom, which is about the dysfunctional family life of Al Bundy, a disgruntled women’s shoes salesman. If Bundy had been trying to write songs, his wife Peggy might have echoed Liam: “Your music’s shit, it keeps me up all night, up all night.”

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