‘Champagne Supernova’ is a song by English rock band Oasis, written by Noel Gallagher. It is the closing track on the band's second studio album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), and was released as the sixth and final single from the album in Australia and New Zealand on 13 May 1996 by Helter Skelter. Paul Weller appears as a guest guitarist and backing vocalist on the track. A music video for the song, directed by Nigel Dick, was released in 1996. The single was not released in the UK. The song was released in the United States as a radio single, becoming the band's second No. 1 single on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, becoming the band's third top 40 single on that chart. The song is included on the band's greatest hits album Stop the Clocks and on the US release of Time Flies... 1994–2009. Supernova SN 2003fg was nicknamed "Champagne Supernova" after the song.
Noel Gallagher said in 2005 that he had still not made up his mind as to what the song actually is about, having previously told an NME interviewer in 1995: “It means different things when I'm in different moods. When I'm in a bad mood, being caught beneath a landslide is like being suffocated. The song is a bit of an epic. It's about when you're young and you see people in groups and you think about what they did for you and they did nothing. As a kid, you always believed the Sex Pistols were going to conquer the world and kill everybody in the process. Bands like the Clash just petered out. Punk rock was supposed to be the revolution but what did it do? Fuck all. The Manchester thing was going to be the greatest movement on earth but it was fuck all. When we started, we decided we weren't going to do anything for anybody, we just thought we'd leave a bunch of great songs. But some of the words are about nothing. One is about Bracket the Butler, who used to be on Camberwick Green or Trumpton or something. He used to take about 20 minutes to go down the hall. And then I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with "hall" apart from "cannonball" so I wrote, "Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball." And people were like, "Wow, man." There's also the line, "Where were you while we were getting high?" because that's what we always say to each other. But the number of people who've started clubs called Champagne Supernova is fucking unbelievable. And the album isn't even released yet.
In a 2009 interview, Gallagher told the following anecdote: “This writer, he was going on about the lyrics to ‘Champagne Supernova’, and he actually said to me, "You know, the one thing that's stopping it being a classic is the ridiculous lyrics." And I went, "What do you mean by that?" And he said, "Well, Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball — what's that mean?" And I went, "I don't know. But are you telling me, when you've got 60,000 people singing it, they don't know what it means? It means something different to every one of them."
Steve Baltin from Cash Box declared the song as "another guaranteed smash at all of the same outlets that took 'Wonderwall' to the top of the charts. A melodic power ballad, 'Champagne Supernova' overflows with the songwriting talents of Noel Gallagher. Oasis is proving time and time again that there isn't another rock act out there that can touch the group as a singles band." David Stubbs from Melody Maker wrote, "'Champagne Supernova' has been touted as Oasis' 'Day in the Life' with chords trailing through the water like a gondola to Avalon and the reproachful refrain, Where were you when we were getting high?." John Robinson from NME named it "a slightly peculiar epic", adding, "'Champagne Supernova' is basically 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' with a lifestyle of faster cars, better mini-bars, accompanied by the less-than-sober sense of disorientation that has seeped into this album.
Label – Helter Skelter
Songwriter – Noel Gallagher
Producers – Owen Morris, Noel Gallagher
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]How many special people change?
How many lives are living strange?
Where were you while we were gettin' high?
Slowly walking down the hall
Faster than a cannonball
Where were you while we were gettin' high?
[Chorus]
Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova, a champagne supernova in the sky
[Verse 2]
Wake up the dawn and ask her why
A dreamer dreams she never dies
Wipe that tear away now from your eye
Slowly walking down the hall
Faster than a cannonball
Where were you while we were gettin' high?
[Chorus]
Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova, a champagne supernova
[Post-Chorus]
'Cause people believe
That they're gonna get away for the summer
But you and I, we live and die
The world's still spinnin' 'round, we don't know why
Why? Why? Why? Why?
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 3]
How many special people change?
How many lives are livin' strange?
Where were you while we were gettin' high?
Slowly walking down the hall
Faster than a cannonball
Where were you while we were gettin' high?
[Chorus]
Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky
Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova, a champagne supernova
[Post-Chorus]
'Cause people believe
That they're gonna get away for the summer
But you and I, we live and die
The world's still spinnin' 'round, we don't know why
Why? Why? Why? Why?
[Guitar Solo]
[Outro]
How many special people change?
How many lives are living strange?
Where were you while we were getting high?
We were gettin' high
We were gettin' high
We were getting high
We were gettin' high
We were gettin' high
We were getting high
We were getting high
We were gettin' high
We were gettin' high