CD - CRESCD 256
01: D'You Know What I Mean?
02: Stay Young
03: Angel Child (Demo)
04: Heroes
7"- CRE 256
01: D'You Know What I Mean?
02: Stay Young
12" - CRE 256T
01: D'You Know What I Mean?
02: Stay Young
03: Angel Child (demo)
Cassette CRECS 256
01: D'You Know What I Mean?
02: Stay Young
Release Date: July 7th 1997
Highest UK Singles Chart Position: 1
D'You Know What I Mean? is a song by Oasis. It was the first single from their third album Be Here Now. It reached number one in the UK singles chart, the third Oasis song to do so. The song was written by Noel Gallagher.
At the time D'You Know What I Mean was released, Oasis were at the height of their fame, and as a result, the single, along with the album, was highly anticipated. Upon its release it was critically and commercially successful.
The guitar chords on both the verse and the chorus are similar to the chords used for the Oasis single Wonderwall (F#m7/A/Esus4/Bsus4).
The song also shows more of Noel's influences. References include Bob Dylan ("Blood on the tracks and they must be mine"), and The Beatles ("Fool on the hill and I feel fine"), and even their own earlier work ("Don't Look Back In Anger "). The song also features a drum loop from N.W.A.
The Morse code in the background translates to include such sayings as "bugger all", "pork pies" and "Strawberry Fields Forever." Oasis never performed this song after the end of the Be Here Now tour in 1998.
B-Sides
One of the B-sides, Stay Young, has become a fan favourite, so much so that fans voted it onto the B-sides collection The Masterplan - It was one of only two B-sides from the Be Here Now period which made the album.
Interview
In a 1997 interview promoting Be Here Now, Noel Gallagher had the following to say about the first single: "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, that'll do. Look in the mirror and wink while you're singing it and it's quite saucy. And I fucking love that line, 'Coming in a mess, going out in style'. We were a bunch of scruffs from Manchester and we're going out in a Rolls Royce."
In another 1997 interview, this time on BBC, Noel Gallagher said: "I cant believe I wrote it, it's going to blow people away."
"The morse code in the background was inspired by Strawberry Fields. We got hold of a code book and tried to tap out 'Bugger All' to follow that line 'Don't look back cos you know what you might see'. But if anyone can tell me what we really said, please let me know. Profound lagerisms..."
Seven Ages of Rock
In an interview with the BBC for their documentary Seven Ages Of Rock, Gallagher said of the song, "Its eight and a half minutes, the first single, the drums haven't f**kin' come in for two minutes- its all feedback!". He also says that he expected someone to ask them to edit the introduction to the song down, but such was their status in Britain, nobody did. They even performed the song on Top Of The Pops, still playing most of the lengthy introduction.
The performance on Top Of The Pops ended with a stage invasion by surrounding fans- the second of three stage invasions in the whole history of the show (the first was Nirvana and the last Symposium).
Cover information
The single cover photograph, by Michael Spencer Jones and directed by Brian Cannon of Microdot, was taken in front of the Blind Steps, a staircase in Wigan so called because they run past the Blind Workshop, which can be seen to the left of the shot. The steps can still be found on Darlington Street. The shoot was shrouded in secrecy to protect mass media coverage, but newspaper The Wigan Evening Post got exclusive rights to cover the event and subsequently sold the photos to the Daily Mirror. At a lunchtime break, Liam Gallagher and sleeve designer Brian Cannon enjoyed a pint of beer in the nearby Crispin Arms pub by Birkett Bank.
Music video
The music video is filmed at Beckton Gas Works in London with many military helicopters and a strange landscape of concrete slabs and torn down buildings. Liam Gallagher is wearing a snorkel parka and sports a unique pair of sunglasses.
The British Army supplied the helicopters for free that were used for Oasis' 'D'You Know What I Mean?' video.