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"Roll With It" is a song by British rock band Oasis written by their lead guitarist Noel Gallagher. It was released 14 August 1995 as the second single from their second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory, reaching #2 in the UK Singles Chart (see 1995 in British music).

"Roll With It" received a great deal of attention when Food Records, the label of chief Britpop rivals Blur, moved the original release date of single "Country House" to clash with it, sparking what came to be known as "The Battle of Britpop". The British media had already reported an intense rivalry between the two bands and this clash of releases was seen as a battle for the number one spot. The media sensation was spurred on by verbal attacks from the respective camps (in particular Noel and Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn and Alex James), that extended beyond the music industry to the point where the two bands were regularly mentioned on the evening news. In particular, public imagination was sparked by the contrast between the gritty, working class Oasis and the artsy, middle class Blur. In the end, Blur's "Country House" single sold 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 copies of "Roll with It". The singles charted at number 1 and number 2 respectively however many believe Blur won tactically selling their single for £1.99 compared to Oasis £3.99 single price.

In the week of its release, Damon Albarn was asked what he thought of the song. He dubbed the band as "Quoasis" and sang "Down, down, deeper and down" in reference of the song's likeness to Status Quo's 1975 hit Down Down [1]. At this time in their careers Oasis were often criticised for 'borrowing' samples from 60s and 70s bands; this was one such song containing 'borrowed' music.

The song is like several other songs, such as "Supersonic", in that preaches the importance of being yourself. Due to its combination of a catchy tune and positive lyrics, the song ranks amongst Oasis' most popular songs and is a standard at their live performances. Noel Gallagher does not like the song at all however, and described it in a 2005 interview as "appalling".

Trivia

The song was featured on All-Star Family Fortunes aired 23rd December 2006.

In the live performance on the Familiar to Millions DVD, Liam Gallagher changes the lyrics from "don't let anybody get in your way" to "don't let any fucker get in your way".

The cover photograph was taken at the beach in Weston-super-Mare. The five television sets the band members are looking at are shown on the inner sleeve, and feature Ian Botham (watched by Guigsy), Noel Gallagher from the "Cigarettes & Alcohol" music video, snooker player Alex Higgins (after winning the World Snooker Championship in 1981), Peter Sellers in a scene from The Party, and the Who's Keith Moon.

Click here to watch the music video, or here for a live performance.

Source: Wikipedia

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