I can’t describe the feeling I got when I opened the package and saw the image above. I haven’t seen this 12" single in over 10 years, but it immediately took me to a place. Not where I bought it. Not even to when I got it signed by Noel & Liam Gallagher. It took me to Amsterdam.
In 1998, I traveled to the Netherlands with my then-girlfriend. We enjoyed a terrific week — stayed with friends, ate delicious food, and legitimately enjoyed spending time together — something that would happen less and less as the years went on. After only a few days, Amsterdam felt like a second home. Near the end of the trip, we decided to spend a day in Paris. We spent hours walking the streets, visiting the traditional tourist sites (Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, etc. and barely made it back to Gare du Nord for the train back to Holland. The high-speed train took us to Paris that morning in a little over four hours. Our train back to Amsterdam was leaving at 10PM. Allowing for the same amount of travel time, we should’ve been back around 2:30AM. Something was lost in translation when we bought the tickets, though. We weren’t on the high-speed train. We were on a standard train. A slow train. Unfortunately for my lungs, it was also a smoking train. The trip back took almost seven hours. We disembarked in Amsterdam, tired, hungry and smelling of nicotine. We staggered out of the station and saw…nothing. The streets were empty. The sun was peeking over the horizon. While my girlfriend moaned about the long walk back to our friend’s flat, a single lyric went through my head:
Stepped off the train all alone at dawn/Back into the hole where I was born….
I’m not one of those guys that walks around with a soundtrack in my head 24/7, but the opening line to D’You Know What I Mean will always remind me of Europe. Oasis will always remind me of one of the best times of my life. And seeing the cover of this single brought back a flood of memories.
I want to thank Eric Foust, a huge Oasis fan, for selling it back to me. His story is amazing and I look forward to sharing it here soon. The great thing about this project so far is finding that the records I cherished in the ‘90s have been equally treasured by true fans — not just run-of-the-mill vinyl junkies, but people who have a passion for the music and want to share that passion with anyone who wants to listen. These are not people who horde records. (And yes, I’ll tell my stories about meeting Oasis in a future post)
I said earlier that I couldn’t describe the feeling when I opened the package and laid eyes on this record again. I’m not a nostalgia junkie who’s constantly looking at the past, but this has me excited. This is the first step on a long road — one that may not end with every record I’ve ever owned. But as I search the globe, it will not only get me closer to who I was, but hopefully allow me to learn more about who I can be.
P.S. In the next week, I should have another “single girl” back in my collection to speak about.
