Be Here Now(Song meanings)
<D'You Know What I Mean?>
"I was going to make up some profound statement in the chorus but I couldn′t come up with anything that fitted. then I just thought 'All my people right here, right now. D′You know what I mean? Yeah, Yeah - very vague, very ambiguous. Look in the mirror and wink while you sing it and it′s quite saucy. The Morse code in the background was inspired by The Beatles′ Strawberry fields. If anyone can tell me what it means please let me know."
<My Big Mouth>
"Even I'm not interested in what I've got to say half the time. But 'I aint never spoke to God, and I ain′t never been to heaven′ - that′s about fans who think you′re on the phone to John Lennon and you have all the answers."
<Magic Pie>
"I sang this one and of course me and Liam had a row about it, but it's his favourite track now. The first line 'An extraordinary guy can never have an ordinary day' comes from him asking me 'How come you never get into any of the situations I get into?'. And I borrowed something from Tony Blair′s speech at the last Labour conference - 'There are but a thousand days preparing for a thousand years.'"
<Stand By Me>
"It starts 'Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday.' When I first moved to London me mam kept ringing up and asking if I was eating properly. So I tried to cook a Sunday Roast and puked up for two days with food poisoning. It was back to Pot Noodles after that. `There is one thing I can never give you, my heart will never be your home′. That′s about the private space you have to keep. The place where I go to write my stuff. Meg was fairly upset by that."
<I Hope, I Think, I Know>
"I liked the demo but it′s too pop for me now. It reminds me of the Busscocks but I think its going to be like Hey Now on Morning Glory - the one nobody mentions."
<The Girl in the Dirty Shirt>
"Meg is the girl in the dirty shirt. We were doing a gig in Brighton just before me and Meg were going out. She was at the hotel ironing a dirty shirt because she hadn′t brought enough clothes with her. I know it sounds a bit soft. Liam will read this and say, `You wanker!′ becuase he thinks all the songs are about him. He even thinks Wonderwall is about him."
<Fade In/Out>
"The first part of the song is from the Mustique demo with Johnny Depp playing slide guitar. I like it because it′s the first blues I've done and Liam does the best singing I′ve heard from him. I said, 'Pretend you′re a black man from Memphis.' He′s not got very good rhythm and we made him stamp his foot all the way through it. He couldn′t sing for a week after."
<Don't Go Away>
"This is about me mam. A week before Meg and me went to Mustique me mam was in hospital. They thought it was cancer, though it wasn′t and she′s fine. It′s a very sad song about not wanting to loose someone you′re close to. I never had that lyrics until the day we recorded it. `Me and you, what′s going on? All we seem to know is how to show the feelings that are wrong.′ It′s after a row. Quite bleak."
<Be Here Now>
"Wrote it on the beach near Mick Jagger′s house in Mustique. The opening is played on a toy piano belonging to one of Jagger's kids. Anyway, nicked the piano - I can′t help it, I′m from Burnage. Mick can have it back if he wants. Later, Owen Morris told me one of the greatest drum loops was the opening to Honky Tonk Women. We played it and it was the same signature as the piano."
<All Around the World>
"I wrote this one ages ago, before Whatever. It was twelve minutes long and we couldn′t afford to record it, but now we can get away with a 36-piece orchestra. The longer the better as far as I′m concerned. I know what people will say, but fuck ′em basically. The lyrics are teeny-bop. I suppose it's wanting to emulate your idols or whatever. I just wanted to write a big, massive, orchestral, sprawling, fuckin′ rock opera. So...I just sat down and decided I was going to write a fuckin′ 11-minute song, and I wrote it. It′s somewhere between Hey Jude and All You Need Is Love. Yeah - real flag-waver."
<It's Gettin' Better Now!>
"I wrote this one jamming on the stage with the band in America. A really happy tune even though there was alot of bad going down. Because we get connected with The Beatles all the time I thought I′d write a Rolling Stones song. You can almost see Keith and Ronnie with some fags in their mouths giving it some."
<All Around the World (reprise)>
"I was running out of guitar lines so I faded it in with backwards guitars. The feet clumping at the end belong to Brian Cannon, the sleeve designer. The door slamming has never been done before. We got a Penny Lane piccolo trumpet in because a guy in the brass section stood up and said 'You should have a piccolo trumpet on that - and I′ve got one.'"