With the announcement of the Cleveland Indians changing their name I figured I'd post this since I love the song and always wondered.
I always thought Gord was indicting the Indians baseball organization in a song that is otherwise a punch to the face of white Canada and our institutionalized racism towards our Indigenous population, without directly naming the team. World Container. I did some searching and couldn't really find any other major musical or political references to Cleveland involving indie smash.
I would think that lyric means be an indie (independent) band smash (success)
Don't think Gord would use the word indie to mean indian.
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I would think that lyric means be an indie (independent) band smash (success)
Don't think Gord would use the word indie to mean indian.
But how does that context fit then? He's punching everyone in the nose with our treatment of Indigenous peoples the entire song with no positive breaks or lyrics and mentions a place that has a derogatory team name towards Indigenous peoples.
It would be weird in the context of that song to bemoan everything about white culture with a random reference to Canadian Indigenous that they can go to Cleveland and make a smash music Indie hit.
I maintain that it was clever lyric writing that was referencing the team, and yes I do believe Gord would use the word Indie to reference Indian if the context is sarcasm towards what the white world thinks of Indigenous people (he's done that many times), mixed with his clever, slightly mysterious writing. (Basically, you can be on baseball team attire as a caricature as they smash home runs).
But how does that context fit then? He's punching everyone in the nose with our treatment of Indigenous peoples the entire song and mentions a place that has a derogatory team name towards Indigenous peoples.
It would be weird in the context of that song to bemoan everything about white culture with a random reference to Canadian Indigenous that they can go to Cleveland and make a smash music Indie hit.
I maintain that it was clever lyric writing that was referencing the team, and yes I do believe Gord would use the word Indie to reference Indian if the context is sarcasm towards what the white world thinks of Indians, mixed with his clever, slightly mysterious writing. (Basically you can be on on baseball team attire as a caricature as they smash home runs.
Could be. I don't know what he's talking about in the song and I'm not sure if it even has to do with our treatment of indigenous people. There are people that think he's talking about the holocaust.
And a reference to a nazi that ended up living in Cleveland.
Could be. I don't know what he's talking about in the song and I'm not sure if it even has to do with our treatment of indigenous people. There are people that think he's talking about the holocaust.
And a reference to a nazi that ended up living in Cleveland.
Who knows. That's some of the appeal of The Hip.
Oh cool, hadn't heard that before and yes that is absolutely the appeal of the Hip. With all the **** music out there that tries to be edgy and political, but you know exactly what they're saying and it's the same as every band/artist around them (OMG it's left vs right in the US and we HAVE to change that!!!!), it's so cool to have songs that fans can listen to and get two different meanings from.
Oh cool, hadn't heard that before and yes that is absolutely the appeal of the Hip. With all the **** music out there that tries to be edgy and political, but you know exactly what they're saying and it's the same as every band/artist around them (OMG it's left vs right in the US and we HAVE to change that!!!!), it's so cool to have songs that fans can listen to and get two different meanings from.
He was so talented and I love the way he portrayed how he saw the world. I’ve often said he could write a deeply insightful song based on a cloud he liked. Hell, one of my favourite songs by them the hook is about smoking out a hornets nest.
I really like a lot of songs on World Container (album), so many great lyrics.
He was so talented and I love the way he portrayed how he saw the world. I’ve often said he could write a deeply insightful song based on a cloud he liked. Hell, one of my favourite songs by them the hook is about smoking out a hornets nest.
I really like a lot of songs on World Container (album), so many great lyrics.
You bet. Yer Not The Ocean is one of my all time faves.
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You bet. Yer Not The Ocean is one of my all time faves.
I love that song. That entire album is highly underrated IMO. There's some great material on there: Lonely End of the Rink, Luv Sic, The Drop Off, Family Band, Kids Don't Get It, Last Night I Dreamed You Didn't Love Me... all terrific songs.
What a band. I miss them.
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I love that song. That entire album is highly underrated IMO. There's some great material on there: Lonely End of the Rink, Luv Sic, The Drop Off, Family Band, Kids Don't Get It, Last Night I Dreamed You Didn't Love Me... all terrific songs.
What a band. I miss them.
Yeah it’s a odd album in that the single is my least favourite track on it.
Luv Sic is one of my all time favourites, love the passion in his voice. And all the others you mentioned, so good.
There are a lot of allusions to being an unknown band on that album as well, most notable being Family band. They also repeat lyrics in a couple of songs “what’s gripping the city ain’t hitting the town”
To me I think it would be more of a nod to being an small time band in a big music scene. Dissecting lyrics have never been my thing but I would definitely lean towards Gord not using Indie as indigenous slander.
Yeah it’s a odd album in that the single is my least favourite track on it.
Luv Sic is one of my all time favourites, love the passion in his voice. And all the others you mentioned, so good.
As a goalie I always loved Lonely End of the Rink
Seeing them live on this tour was interesting as Gord really poured out his emotion singing these songs. You can really hear how much passion he is laying out on the album and it was about ten fold in concert. A lot of people didn’t like it as they felt he was just screaming too much through that era. That screaming didn’t stop until they toured fully completely again and what most people don’t realize about the final four was that his cancer forced him to go back to a more subdued stage presence to focus on the music again. Months earlier he couldn’t even remember the lyrics. The final shows in YYC were the lowest key I’d had ever seen him perform but he really crushed the music. It was remarkable to witness considering the hindsight we have now.
I still think the nod he gives in the Kingston show after finishing Ahead by a Century might be the most satisfying thing I’ve ever seen. The “we did it, I did it” release is just so beautiful. Go watch it again if you do know what I’m referencing.
Seeing them live on this tour was interesting as Gord really poured out his emotion singing these songs. You can really hear how much passion he is laying out on the album and it was about ten fold in concert. A lot of people didn’t like it as they felt he was just screaming too much through that era. That screaming didn’t stop until they toured fully completely again.
Personally I thought his singing was great on the World Container tour, as well as the '09 tour for We Are the Same. He was also very good on his 2010 solo tour in support of The Grand Bounce. The screaming/vocal problems started around 2011 and continued up until the Fully anniversary tour as you mentioned. The fans thought it was weird since he still sounded terrific on the studio albums.
The recent biography "the Never-Ending Present" touches on this time period a bit, but doesn't really go into too much detail on the screaming thing. I do know that there was some friction within the band around that time regarding Gord's solo career and his desire to branch out from the Hip creatively.
When they did the final tour in 2016, his voice was much better and like you said, he really seemed to concentrate hard on the music and his singing in particular. When I saw them in Vancouver I thought it was the best he'd sounded in years.
On a related note, what do you guys think about Gord's new solo record that just came out? I like it, but I prefer the acoustic version of the album (disc 2). I think those songs work much better stripped down with just Gord and Josh Finlayson's guitar. Cool trivia: that's Gord's son playing drums on the electric versions.
Word is he still has at least a couple more solo albums in the can, as well as bunch of unreleased Hip material that could see the light of day in the near future.
The Hip have a tik tok "page" and theres a couple posts, the latest is Robbie Baker playing ahead by a century and asking people to duet with him. That song is so good. They guy from the Trews i think sang with him. I miss seeing the Hip play live.
I don't want to swing my thang around here too much, but in '93 I lifted Feist onto the top of the mosh pit at a Smalls show in Mac Hall.
I remember chatting with her a couple of times at the Repulik back in the days when she was fronting local band Placebo in the mid-90s. Fast forward a few years later, and boom— she’s famous.
I remember chatting with her a couple of times at the Repulik back in the days when she was fronting local band Placebo in the mid-90s. Fast forward a few years later, and boom— she’s famous.
Hah, I still have my Placebo Don't Drink the Bathwater CD I bought at one of her shows. They were great live in the black lounge.
The musicians are all in their late twenties, flush with the success of a debut album that has gone Platinum and earned them a JUNO Award for Most Promising Group of The Year. They have the jinx of a second album to disprove, and now have the resources to accomplish this. “We were excited,” says Rob Baker. “It seemed like an incredible follow-up to Memphis and the first record. We felt as if our career was taking off and we were firing on all cylinders creatively. We went in guns ablaze. It was also an interesting time in music because a lot of diverse things were happening. We had written a lot of songs and done a lot of touring over the preceding five years.”
As the songs come, they are tinkered with and then evaluated for their worth, their positions sometimes ceded to other tracks that slowly bring an album called Road Apples (1991) to life. With no shortage of material, a trickier problem emerges: what do they leave behind on the studio floor?
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