The Tragically Hip: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/arts/music/tragically-hip-gord-downie-final-show.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&moduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-3&module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0

think this nyt story, along with the new yorker piece quoted in it, are a pretty good explainer for people outside of Canada.

new one's actually good!

Yeah, I listened to the last two this morning. I was pretty impressed. I even thought of Eno and Berlin-era Bowie at times.

Is there a Hip album that encapsulates their project well? I've only heard stray early singles, and I respect Downie as a lyricist, but I haven't found a punctum in their music yet.

day for night. lot of classics on that record but it's also a sustained dark mood

a lot of people would say fully completely but day for night is the deeper, more interesting picture imo

the poppiest and most accessible intro to the hip would prob be phantom power

Thanks!

the poppiest and most accessible intro to the hip would prob be phantom power

Is this poppier than Fully Completely, with its six singles and diamond certification? I mostly either pull out FC for a 90s hit machine or Music @ Work for more engrossing art-rock. Day for Night is good, though. "Nautical Disaster" is classic.

Is this poppier than Fully Completely, with its six singles and diamond certification?

imo in terms of being way more melodic and catchy, yeah!

does anyone know a Gordon outside of Canada who goes by Gord

Lots of Gordons in Scotland, never met a Gord.

is gord not a diminutive outside of canada?

anyway, thoughts on the hip...

i have a lot of musician friends who don't like them. i'm going to guess that in their younger years, the hip left a bad taste in the mouths of one or two of them. these days, these same guys just have no opinions on them. i have no strong opinions on them.

i watched the last three songs of the concert and the discussion that followed (on cbc). the only thing that 'resonated' with me was that their music was playing in the background in some key points in my life. i rarely listened to the radio, except citr (a campus/university radio station), because as someone who participated more in the underground music scene, mainstream radio just didn't do anything for me.

my ex wife actually really liked these guys in the early 90s. she listened to a lot of tracks from up to here. that and a handful of other songs remind me of particular moments and events in my life. some of them are really simple, like walking with her to iga and hearing them being played there, to more joyous or darker events. she also liked the handful of pop rock acts that were usually mentioned in the same breath. when i heard about gord's diagnosis i actually texted her and teared up, i guess because of the memories of our relationship and their music playing in the background.

in my very small circle of musician friends, there was a feeling that the hip's music wasn't as nuanced and it mostly catered to radio listeners and bar-goers. it was a little too 'local-sounding' (almost as bad as the notorious 'vancouver rock' label). in retrospect, i think that's a bit pretentious. but vancouver in the 90s had a totally different feel. at least in my circle, feeling proud of local talent or canadiana made us feel a little too small-townish, which said more about us, but we were interested in the cool, artsy american bands. i guess this is what happens when you really are a small town in the 90s. incidentally, a lot of us loved sloan, specifically twice removed, which had a more artsier image -- a band a few hip fans disliked.

there's no doubt national identity in western canada is quite different than in the rest of canada. we probably have more in common with our fellow cascadians than with calgarians, so this definitely has something to do with it. most of my friends are recent immigrants to canada (first or second generation canadians), so for us, a national identity means something very different than loving hockey and listening to the same popular bands. in fact, i have quite a few friends who hate hockey. but they still have a soft spot for team canada when they win gold in the olypmics. it's a love-hate relationship that's difficult to explain. some friends hate rock, and only listen to rap and grew up talking in american slang. what unites us is probably difficult to articulate, especially in just a few sentences, so i just won't even try. these are obvious subcultures, and it's sometimes not cool to talk about them when a larger cultural force is uniting the country. but you know what, these subcultures feel united as well and have no problems with the larger cultural forces in the country, so it's okay. there's room for everybody.

anyway, canada is a complex and diverse place, each province with its own identity. but that's what makes it a pretty cool place i think. and it's pretty awesome that a band was able to unite so many different types of people from all over the country. the band are breaking up for unfortunate reasons, but their music will always be a part of a specific time in my life that i will always remember as bittersweet, weirdly enough much like the band's 'end'

Every actual person here is Canadian, including the Milwaukee Brewers guy!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gord_(given_name)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tragically-hip-cbc-broadcast-ratings-1.3730276

story says that over 11 million people watched or listened to the broadcast through various media. which would be around a third of the population of the country

I believe that figure only measures the number of streams online or on TV. So, e.g., a couple of hundred people watching in a bar counts as only 1 stream. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual viewership was closer to half the country.

Aw:

http://globalnews.ca/news/2896740/the-tragically-hip-in-kingston-who-was-the-couple-seen-making-out-during-bobcaygeon/

Speaking of said song/town/etc

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/bobcaygeon-belts-out-tragically-hip-moment/

Never met a Gord myself but am sad to hear the guy has a glioblastoma. I had a friend die from that a year ago, it takes no prisoners.

Me too -- had a friend hang on for about 18 months with it, until earlier this year.

IIRC 18 months is the life expectancy, so "hang on" is the right expression to use. My friend made it three years, which was a miracle.

At one point I made a little list of various famous people who had it and how long they lasted, it was usually about seven eight nine months.

i feel like they made a LITTLE dent here in the states early on and then they kinda disappeared from view until now. and they do kinda seem like something that could have been more popular in the u.s. but i don't know how extensive their touring was. that's the live or die answer to popularity in the states. rush had to tour relentlessly in the states for years in order for their smash album to be the smash that it was.

reading the early sections of this thread is a little bit alternate universe for me. but obviously there are huge bands all over the world who are huge in their homeland but non-existent elsewhere. we have phish here...

Just speaking for myself, I've always been a bit torn on how to rep for them artistically because it's hard to point to brilliant singles or unassailable albums that will paint a representative picture of "what is good". It's more like a cumulative appreciation that's built up over the years, and much credit to Gord himself, it's his lyrics and delivery, so many super memorable turns of phrase.

I'm working through their albums, especially the ones I haven't listened to in their entirety before. I really like both Up to Here and Trouble at the Henhouse. I skipped through "Trickle Down" from the former but otherwise it's a p satisfying mix of classic bluesy hard rock and 80s REM. I like the guitar tones and Downie's delivery of the melodies on the latter. Day for Night might actually be my least favourite so far. Too many of the songs don't really stand out or go anywhere for me, although "Nautical Disaster" is one of their best songs imo. I like "Scared" too.

Unlikely sentence alert, but I'm really thankful now that Nickelback arrived on the Canadian music scene. The subsequent siphoning off of obnoxious fans really did the Hip a huge, long term favour.

day for night takes a while, even though i guess i was recommending it as an intro upthread lol

gord's lyrics are probably never better than they are on that record, e.g.

interesting and sophisticated
refusing to be celebrated
it's a monumental big screen kiss
it's so deep it's meaningless

TPoH's Moe Berg has a nice write-up on his site.

so i was a witness to an accident last week, and the guy that got hit got back to me via email to thank me... he's a Gord!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuHj20v2oKs

gord's putting out a new double album in october, produced and occasionally co-written by kevin drew, called introduce yerself. if it's anything like secret path it should be lovely and crushing

Gord Downie has passed.

http://www.thehip.com/news/statement/

Fuck...

RIP

Damn, RIP.

RIP

RIP

I've still never listened to a Tragically Hip album. They were entirely a radio and MuchMusic band for me, which I'm guessing is true for most Canadians. It was only last year when they were getting so much attention that it dawned on me how much they were in the ether.

Their final concert last year was an extraordinary Canadian moment.

OTM.

Was just listening to Phantom Power on my last long drive.

god i am so crushed

Good story on the new album:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/arts/music/gord-downie-tragically-hip-dead-final-album.html

It's amazing how much great music this man managed to make, in this last phase of his life. (I particularly like Secret Path)

RIP.

Their final concert last year was an extraordinary Canadian moment.

Even as someone who felt completely alienated from the event and the Hip phenomenon more broadly, this is pretty clear, though the way Trudeau used Downie as a prop to make it seem like his government was going to take indigenous issues seriously is a bit sickening in retrospect

RIP

For me, one of the most mesmerizing things about Gord Downie was the many references -- real or alleged -- in his lyrics. There were times when I liked them more than the music itself, and I would read up on where he might've gotten an idea for some of them. It has made me ponder more about his music and how he approached music-making. His death is such a great loss to the music world. It has also motivated me to listen to his solo work, which I admittedly never listened to much.

I would like to share this web-site that has briefly catalogued some of his lyrics' meaning http://www.hipmuseum.com/directory.html

Rest in peace, Mr. Downie.

Per the description here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Time_Running

The documentary film based around last year's tour will be on Netflix at the end of November (exception being Canada itself, where it will be on Crave TV).

oh good i've been wanting to watch that

i love the hip museum website, it has been my favorite thing on the internet for like.... 15 years now? anyway i hope you enjoy his solo work, sound of space; battle of nudes is one of my favorite albums of all time and my favorite thing he ever did and is also home to my favorite guitar tones

BradNelson, it's funny you should mention it. I was just telling someone that I am kind of a "tone nerd." I'll make sure to listen to Battle of Nudes tonight. Thank you.

of course! it brings me so much joy to be able to recommend that album to anyone

armed with skill and it's FRUSTRATION
and grace
too

erroneous apostrophe ruining previous post sorry

So many good lyrics, so many great turns of phrase, man, RIP Gord. :(