The Tragically Hip: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

True: Fell asleep one Saturday night in 1995. Came to just as the Hip were playing their first song on the show. Was in a fog. Getting my senses together. Had never heard them before. Immediately enchanted. Went out the next day, Sunday, and bought Day for Night, the album they were touring/promoting. Have loved them ever since. Gord Downie is my favorite vocalist/lyricist.

also it is extremely funny to me that in the first post on this thread sund4r called fully completely "fumbling towards ecstasy"

Not going to defend my 14-year-old posts for very long but I meant Fumbling Towards Ecstasy! Girls were always singing along to that Sarah McLachlan album as well as "Wheat Kings" by the Tragically HIp.

Anyway, I actually never bothered to actually look into entire Hip albums on my own until the late 00s, probably because it never seemed necessary, but they had a pretty solid catalogue, I grew to realise. Music @ Work was p cool. This is sad news; best wishes to Downie.

lol i was wondering if it was intentional. i also love that mclachlan album

There was a character on Oz that looked to me like Gord Downie (the lawyer, I think, who bites the head off another inmate's penis). He/they also resembled certain portraits of Beethoven.

I was thinking that "Fireworks" would be in the running for my favourite song ever by a band I spent years hating. Their early records struck me as so affected--you can see some of that in the SNL clip, although it works in the context of that song. "Fireworks" just roared (and chimed) past all that. The whole Bobby Orr verse is brilliant, and "I never saw someone say that before" reminds me of Bo Diddley singing "You should've heard just what I seen."

― clemenza, Wednesday, May 25, 2016 5:46 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya the first songs i heard by the hip were off their first album and they seem affected because, as performers, they were still searching for an image and style and trying to appear comfortable with them

up to here (their first album) is a totally different album from phantom power (where fireworks is on), and it's a band with 9 years of performance experience. gord's intonation and style became much more natural and he had already matured as a performer

and fireworks is about as canadian as they get i would say?

idk I feel like there are a lot of contenders

As I wrote upthread, I must be one of the few British people who like this band. This Canadian girl I loved made me a mix CD with "Bobcaygeon" on it and I've been playing that song, "Wheat Kings" and "Fireworks" on repeat all day and remembering how much I loved her.

this is a very good article by the way

http://www.tsn.ca/fully-completely-1.494972

personal stakes
will get raised and get raised
till your story gets compelling
if you lacked the sense
or were willfully dense
is forever in the telling
the surface is green
and the dark interweaves
in a lonely iridescence
it's terribly deep
and the cold is complete
and it only lacks your presence
and nothing else

and fireworks is about as canadian as they get i would say?

For me, although I guess they had many other songs just as Canada-specific. I played it for my class today (hitting mute for the obscenity), but first I had to set the context by playing a YouTube clip of Henderson's goal. Not one student out of 25 knew about the goal or the series. They're 12, and about three-quarters of my class is Indian or Pakistani. I said, "Look, you just have to know about this to be truly Canadian." What was nice, though, was that when I asked "What does he mean by 'We all squeezed the stick and we all pulled the trigger'?", one guy was able to explain that.

Was just listening to "Music at Work" (the song) which holds a special resonance after working in a Toronto Office that did indeed pipe in 97.3 EZ Rock "My music at work" for many of the years that I was there -

"Everything is bleak
It's the middle of the night
You're all alone
And the dummies might be right
You feel like a jerk
My music at work"

GOT THAT RIGHT

Is it just me or does Gord deliberately ape Morrissey with those lalalas?

The Bruce McCulloch directed video is perfect too.

im not familiar with that song/video, will check it out later.

obviously ticket scalping sucks in general but there's something especially awful about these final hip shows selling out in minutes and tickets going for thousands on the resell market.

ya gord kind of does that moz thing

matt murphy did something slightly similar on a few tracks as well

Yeah, part of me would love to go to one of the shows, but it is a weird thing. All of these big musical deaths lately, and the way people share their tributes.. so much of it seems like it's things we should remember to say while they are still with us.

But then this situation here - is Gord one of the first who is actually experiencing his own public eulogizing? god that must be strange.

It happened to Wilko Johnson as well. Miraculously, he recovered.

https://www.facebook.com/dcappe/videos/vb.501784800/10154260232384801/?type=2&theater

that was nice

thanks

Are people angry at scalpers or at Ticketmaster and whatnot for what's going on? I can see being really angry at the ticket services--if people are buying tickets in bulk and reselling, you would think that would be controllable. (I don't know how you can prevent people who only buy two or four seats from reselling.) Getting angry at professional scalpers, though...This is what they do. Do people think they're going to suddenly be guided by morality and conscience because of the situation? That would seem to be a line of work with as much of a conscience as the banks or oil companies.

new one is their weirdest album since music@work

xp. I think it just puts into stark relief and focus how crappy a set-up the whole concert ticket buying system is because it's literally depriving people of a chance to see their favourite band for the last time before the lead singer passes away from a terminal illness unless they have a ton of money laying around.

also im sure, if they wanted to, ticket-sellers could make tickets non-transferable, that would end scalping.

I got two tickets to their Sunday Toronto show /bragging2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX-PqWQsgfE

;_;

wow. their guitarist still has the exact same hair he had in 1992!

I trust everyone (Canadian) will be doing their patriotic duty and watching the final show live on the CBC this Saturday?

i'm going to the thing! first ever Hip show, too.

not sure

might watch a bit of it

xp. good answer.

not xp. bad answer tut tut

hey the last bit will be the best bit

which is what i plan on watching

maybe

Starting...

Wasn't expecting him to shred his throat so much from the start. Don't know how he'll make it through the whole thing.

that is the way he sings live

or at least that was my experience in seeing them

Really going for it on this one.

Makes sense, Brad.

Watching cbc with goodwill even tho these guys mostly bored me

Idly wondering if they'll mention baton Rouge when they inevitably play "New Orleans is Sinking"

they're playing "fireworks"! my favorite song about nuclear terror and falling in love with someone who doesn't care about hockey

jeez I love gord so much

Doh was so busy I forgot this was on just tuned in now

this show is incredible

I'm really glad they're doing "Nautical Disaster" for a second encore!

"Locked in the Trunk of a Car" to start the third encore!

I actually kind of like that they're still going after the climactic screaming in "Grace, Too".

There must be something in my eye

I feel v alienated from my countrymen tonight

wld love to see NoMeansNo or Propagandhi get even 1/1000 the love when their day comes tho

I will be totally verklempt at the last Blue Rodero show, tho