Sunday 10 December 2017

Oasis must have listened to The Creation's 1967 single, "How Does It Feel?" - a lot!


I was trawling YouTube for lost classics of the Sixties the...

...other day (as one does when the brain has ceased functioning), and was surprised to hear what sounded like a blueprint for almost every Oasis track ever recorded. It was so ridiculously Oasis-like that I even checked whether the Britpop band had covered it. The answer appears to be no. As The Ride, another English band, covered it in 1994, the original version was presumably in the ether at that time. And there was I thinking that Oasis had forged a career purely by ripping off the Beatles! Before casting aspersions, though, I probably should point out that The Creation's 1966 single, "Making Time" (which I'm sure I know from somewhere) suggests the band had spent a lot of time listening to The Who - although, confusingly, Pete Townsend later cited them as an influence, so maybe The Who borrowed The Creation's sound?:

The Creation were an English band who began life as The Mark Four in 1963. Their most successful single reached No. 36 in the UK, and No. 8 in Germany in 1966:

If that rings a bell, it's because an obscure German group had a hit with  it in 1978:

Ronnie Wood joined as lead guitarist in 1968 - but the band split later that year. Two former members eventually got together and wrote this pleasing pop ditty for Rockpile, who had a (very) minor hit with it in 1980:
Apart from Pete Townsend, Paul Weller and the Sex Pistols have cited the band as an influence - and it's thought Jimmy Page knicked his trick of playing the guitar with a violin bow from them. Funny how some pop musicians just aren't meant to gain traction. The Creation reformed in the mid-'80s, and are still touring. I hope they're in demand.


4 comments:

  1. Fascinating stuff. Oasis's penchant for rip...channelling their deep knowledge of 1960 British pop is well attested in the old joke: "Do you like Oasis?". "Yes but I preferred them the first time around when they were called the Swinging Blue Jeans.".

    "Making Time" sounds a bit like "Can't Explain" by the Who. The link is probably Shel Talmy who produced both. The drummer has definitely been to Moon School. But the influence which the one exerted over the other is more likely to have been the other way round. Can't Explain was a hit in 1964 whereas Making Time came out in 1966. Good tune though and instantly familiar., as you say.

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    1. I have to admit that I quite liked Oasis, no matter how derivative their work is - as long as I didn't have to see them, hear them speak, or read about them. (Mind you, Noel Gallagher's recent advice to Remainers to "f***ing get over Brexit" was refreshingly forthright.)

      I'd really like to see a BBC4 documentary on No-Hit Wonders or Unsung Heroes - i.e. those pop musicians who produced music that didn't sell, but went on to influence later, more successful acts - and do the same for writers, artists and film-makers. It might attract an audience, given that, for every commercially successful person, there must be 10,000 of us who didn't make the grade (deservedly, in the overwhelming majority of cases).

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  2. Looking through your list of bands I noticed a group called "Rockpile" and wondered if they were influenced by the great Marty "Fats" Murdoch number "Rocking Round the Rockpile" from 1956 [with the Harry James Orchestra and Jayne Mansfield supplying additional sound effects]?

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  3. And Oasis are signed to....Creation Records!

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