Songfacts Morning Glory by Oasis

"Morning Glory" is a song by the English rock band Oasis, written by Noel Gallagher and released on the band's second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? in September 18, 1995. It was given a commercial single release only in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, and it was also a radio single in the United States and Canada. In North America, it was the first song of the album to receive significant airplay, although primarily at alternative rock radio stations, as "Some Might Say" and "Roll with It" had not achieved as such.

This song is about someone who is addicted to methamphetamines or cocaine, and how you really don’t have a great chance of a good future when you are addicted. The basic point of the song is that these users need “wake up” and realize that they are ruining their lives and their futures.

Noel Gallagher wrote the lyrics. Here’s some analysis:

“All your dreams are made when you’re chained to the mirror and the razor blade” - Mirrors and razor blades are often used to chop up cocaine for snorting.

“Tomorrow never knows what it doesn’t know too soon” - When people are addicted to cocaine or meth, usually they live day to day by just keeping the drug in their system and constantly using it. This line is a tribute to The Beatles song “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

A morning glory is a kind of flower. Its blossoms open early in the morning and close by noon. Morning Glory also refers to a waking up with an erection in the morning, the joke being he’s asking his penis, “What’s the story?”

According to Noel in a 2005 interview, the song was originally titled “Blue.” The lyrics were something along the lines of: “I live my life in blue… there’s nothing anyone can do,” which Noel could only decree to be “F–king awful.”

Morning Glory is also a term for a horse that runs well, but doesn’t finish strong in races. Like the flower, they bloom early and fade fast.

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory was named Best British Album of the past 30 Years in a special category created to celebrate the 30th Brits ceremony. Oasis singer Liam Gallagher accepted the award with no sign of brother Noel, and threw the statuette straight into the crowd.

Apart from being title of Oasis’s 1995 album, the phrase ‘What’s Your Story, Morning Glory’ also pops up on Bobby Gentry’s 1968 song “Morning Glory” (“Good Morning, Morning Glory/Good Morning, what’s your story?”) and Gordon Lightfoot’s 1986 song also of the same name (“Morning glory, what’s the story? Will it ever end?”).

Music video

The song's accompanying video is directed by Jake Scott. The band is performing in an industrial apartment, suggested by the opening shots of the video to be the Balfron Tower (not to be mistaken with Trellick Tower), as the building's tenants (including a man with a baby, a young boy, an old man and a female cyclist, an elderly woman with a hair dryer, a middle-aged woman in a house coat, a mafia boss and two bodyguards, an Indian couple, a drug addict, another elderly woman, and young woman and her mother) take offence to the loud noise of the band's playing and come up to knock on the door and look in the mail slot. The video concludes with all the tenants gathering around the door, beating on it and yelling, just as the band finishes playing and packs up their instruments.

It was popularized in the 1963 film Bye Bye Birdie, where young ladies use it as a greeting when they pick up the phone, hoping for some good gossip:

“What’s the story, morning glory? What’s the tale, nightingale?”

“What’s the story, morning glory? What’s the word, hummingbird?”

According to Melissa Lim, who spent time with Noel Gallagher after one of his meltdowns in 1994, he got the phrase from her, as she used it when she answered the phone.

The album cover was shot in the morning sun on Berwick Street, Soho, London. The two people you can see are London DJ Sean Rowley (facing the camera) and album sleeve designer Brian Cannon. Co- producer Owen Morris can also be seen in the background, on the left footpath, holding the album’s master tape in front of his face.

Brian Cannon initially got the artwork gig because Noel Gallagher liked his trainers. He also played keyboards on this track.

?? All posters “Oasis” can be found here: Pictorem , Urban arts , Displate , elephantstock , Juniqe ??