Repetune - The Songs of our Heads

Oasis - Live Forever

Writing by richard on Saturday, 6 of October , 2007 at 8:08 am

Considered early on as Beatles rip-offs, the Gallaghers, turn to another rock band of note, The Rolling Stones, with Live Forever. The lyric “May the good Lord shine a light on you,” from Shine a Light, became

Maybe I don’t really want to know.

which opens the song. In an issue of Blender, Creation Records boss refers to this as “the single greatest moment” he has experienced with the band.

The song uses the word maybe only about a dozen times, but the general rhyming scheme of the lyrics makes it seem like much more. With lyrics that are sung essentially the same, words like rain, lately, and pain recall the word maybe. If living forever is the goal, and we are unable to achieve it, don’t we often look back on our lives with maybes? Perhaps if we had maybe done something different, we could live on a little bit longer?

The song is interesting in structure in there are no real separations between verses and refrains aside from the line

You and I are gonna live forever

.
And every verse starts with the same set of lines

Maybe
I don’t really wanna know
How your garden grows
‘Cause I just wanna fly

The vocals of the song consist of the same few notes over and over. This again, recalls the similarity in pronunciation of lyrics and in a sense, this simplicity, ensures the song could live forever. Upon relistening to the song, the song never needs to end. It ends simply because Oasis choose it to end.

As the song ends, Liam says the phrase

Gonna live forever

four times. Each repetition seems to have an additional strain on it, as if trying to ensure the song lives a little bit longer. And again, the repetitions could keep going and going, and in my head, they usually do.

The songs generally positive outlook is always comforting, especially when the song enters my head when I am not feeling especially great. In particular, the lyric

We’ll see things they’ll never see

reminds me of every time I am with some of my best friends. We find ourselves able to laugh at particular things which no one else can possibly understand. In that sense, my friends and I see things no one else will ever see.

Since death and taxes are the only two certainties in life, it helps to have a song that shows up when needed most. This song spins positives in my head and keeps me going regardless. I am not sure if this song is one that constantly repeats in my head, as opposed to a song that only shows up when needed. But aside from providing a positive outlook, the song also makes the world my bitch for four minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Not quite forever, but often just enough.

Comments (1)

Category: Oasis

What is a repetune?

It has happened to us all. For any reason, and sometimes for no reason at all, some obscure song we have heard but try to avoid manages to sneak itself into our head. It does nothing but repeat in our head over and over until one day, we realize it is gone. Then it only comes back again. These are those songs. These are repetunes.