I still can’t bring myself to watch the final concert and documentary on my PVR or listen to his final album. I don’t know why exactly. It’s not that I’m worried about being sad, I...just don’t want to deal with it. Getting to both Calgary shows was just such a perfect ending. I don’t want to think of the Hip after that moment. Just the 25 years up to it. WTF hey.
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I loved the final show in Kingston. In that moment watching it live I knew it was it. It hurts but it was such a fantastic send off. I just can’t get enough of watching gord deliver his last lyrics and the look on his face as he knows they/he pulled it off. It’s remarkable.
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I've only watched the final concert once, live on the night it aired. I have the bluray, but I still haven't watched it a 2nd time. Not sure if I ever will to be honest. That glorious version of "Grace, Too" just absolutely destroyed me.
The documentary is very good. There are sad moments for sure, but I found it to be mostly a celebration of what Gord and the band accomplished during that final tour, and the insane amount of preparation that went into it due to his condition. Poor guy couldn't remember song titles or lyrics, so they used teleprompters on stage and the band would help with giving him cues so he knew when to come in. Pretty amazing how they managed to pull it off. You also get to know the guys as people a little bit with some good stories about the formation of the band in the early days and how they all met.
Gord's new album is beautiful. Easily one of the most intimate, unique, and emotional records I've ever heard. I highly recommend checking it out, even if it might be a little painful. Trust me, it's worth it.
And we still haven't even heard the last of his work. Apparently he still has 2 more solo albums in the can: a rumored concept album about a train derailment that he recorded with Bob Rock, and another one he made with Dale Morningstar/Dinner is Ruined. He was also working on some new/unreleased material with the Hip just before he passed, which I hope will eventually see the light of day.
Last edited by direwolf; 10-26-2018 at 11:12 PM.
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It's absolutely worth watching the final concert. Is it sad at times? Sure. But I think you're depriving yourself if you just have it sitting there.
__________________
But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
I still can’t bring myself to watch the final concert and documentary on my PVR or listen to his final album. I don’t know why exactly. It’s not that I’m worried about being sad, I...just don’t want to deal with it. Getting to both Calgary shows was just such a perfect ending. I don’t want to think of the Hip after that moment. Just the 25 years up to it. WTF hey.
I totally get it. I went to the last show in Edmonton and despite the heavy emotional energy pulsing through the arena it still felt fun and celebratory.
The Kingston show on CBC was FAR more intimate. They follow the band backstage and every angle is right there, up close and personal. I was noticeably more emotional watching that than I was live, but it was still an amazing and cathartic experience in its own way.
I watch the concert occasionally, and I've seen the documentary maybe twice. They Kingston concert didn't taint the Edmonton show for me, but I get wanting to hold on to that perfect decrescendo.
__________________ "It's a great day for hockey."
-'Badger' Bob Johnson (1931-1991)
"I see as much misery out of them moving to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm." -Dr. Amos "Doc" Cochran
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Fully & Completely with Greg & Jamie is not your typical music podcast. Ordinary was never an option given its ingredients. First of all, the podcast examines one of the most engaging and enigmatic bands in Canadian history, The Tragically Hip.
The boys sit down to talk Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics. Pick up the new record, Here Come the Wolves at your local record shop or here: https://apple.co/35aJ295
My kids have a rule when we are in the car, they take turns picking songs on the radio.
My boy is old school 80's/70's music, my girl is contemporary music. Car rides are spend bouncing between 107 and Virgin. Once one of their songs is picked the other can pick a song, by flipping stations.
That being said they have an agreement (which they came up with on their own) that if they tune to a station and a Hip song it playing you don't change the station and that song is allowed to play out no questions asked and no "loss of turn".
It makes me happy every time it happens.
It is another part of my life that is/has been sound tracked by the Hip. Every time I hear Fully Completely I am a 22 yr old soldier overseas hating my life, but loving the memory.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Corporal Jean-Marc H. BECHARD, 6 Aug 1993
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
Just ignore me...I'm in a mood today.
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Bruce McCulloch (of Kids in the Hall fame) did a touching tribute to Gord Downie last night at the Secret Path Live benefit concert in Toronto. Here's the transcript:
I met Gord 25 years ago in Toronto’s Withrow Park. I was walking my poodle. He was there playing hacky sack with guys all over six feet tall like him. I poodled up. Half-jokingly I said, “Hack in,” like I’d seen cool kids do. He booted it expertly to me. I missed badly. So badly, I think I pulled my neck. I said, “Hack out,” and moonwalked off. Gord laughed, and that was the start of our friendship.
We became friends, first awkwardly, then profoundly. I later moved to Los Angeles, so we became men of letters and e-mails.
A few years ago I sent him a book I’d written to get a quote for the back cover. He said he was leaving the next morning and would be off the grid for two weeks. I replied, joking: “Not to worry, I bet Jim Cuddy would like to do it.”
Back came, “No, I am the ferocious reader of the musical elite. I will read your book tonight.” Which he did. My whole book.
He was struck by a line I had written in it: “The love you are given will pour right through you if you don’t know who you are.”
He put it into a song on his next record and wrote me a long, long letter, talking about the world, family, how people are important to other people without really knowing it. Love. I should have suspected then what I later knew. Gord was sick.
I found out. Then, when it was made public, I wrote him simply “God is a prick.” Back came, “Yes he is. And he probably doesn’t exist.”
You can’t just say, “It sucks you have cancer.” Cryptic is good. Funny is better. When the Tragically Hip announced they were going on tour, I wrote him: “Sir, your tour is clearly a ploy to make money.” But as I reread my sent e-mail, I realized I had misspelled “ploy” – I spelled it “plough,” as in, “Clearly a plough to make money.” Great, he’s got brain cancer and now he’s got to figure out my non-sequitur. But before I could send him my reparative e-mail, this came back:
“I will indeed try to plough some farmland as we move across Canada doing shows.” Then he signed it, “Gord Downie, friend of the farmer.” And he was. And of everyone.
Then one night, I had to tell him how much he meant to me, without freaking him out. So I sent this:
“I think about you so much. We are a part of ‘the river.’ A tradition that goes back further than the blues. We get up and tell our stories to people. Hoping to catch them, hoping to touch them. We just keep moving. Part of those who came before us and those who will came after. So, in a way, we will always be there.”
Back came: “Whenever I’ve been on ‘the river’ with you, all I’ve done – been able to do – is smile. Let’s just keep moving. Hello and love to everyone you will ever touch. Signed, Gord Downie, friend of the farmer.”
What is it like when one of your best friends dies who’s everybody’s best friend?
I was in Halifax directing and someone on the crew said, “So, Gord Downie died, eh.” Instinctively, I grabbed my sunglasses for what I knew was coming.
I went outside for air and collapsed on the ground. I was on the ocean. Halifax harbour. I looked to my left – Canada. His Canada. To the right, also his Canada. Our Canada. I thought: “I’m moving back home.” And I did. Then, from beneath my sunglasses, I felt it – wet on my face. Not just tears. I believe it was his love leaving my body. Flowing into a river that will never end.
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My kids have a rule when we are in the car, they take turns picking songs on the radio.
My boy is old school 80's/70's music, my girl is contemporary music. Car rides are spend bouncing between 107 and Virgin. Once one of their songs is picked the other can pick a song, by flipping stations.
That being said they have an agreement (which they came up with on their own) that if they tune to a station and a Hip song it playing you don't change the station and that song is allowed to play out no questions asked and no "loss of turn".
It makes me happy every time it happens.
It is another part of my life that is/has been sound tracked by the Hip. Every time I hear Fully Completely I am a 22 yr old soldier overseas hating my life, but loving the memory.
Did you see them in Lahr? in 93? Amazing concert in the Mess.
Please tell me we eventually get unreleased Hip songs.
__________________
But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
Please tell me we eventually get unreleased Hip songs.
The band recently reunited with their former manager Jake Gold, who along with the surviving band members are currently going through their archives and deciding on what to release. Sounds like the first project might be a Road Apples 30th anniversary reissue w/ unreleased bonus tracks.
They also have mountains of unreleased live stuff sitting in their vault. From what I know, they've been recording the majority of their live shows since about 1995, so there's a ton of material there just waiting to be set free.
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The band recently reunited with their former manager Jake Gold, who along with the surviving band members are currently going through their archives and deciding on what to release. Sounds like the first project might be a Road Apples 30th anniversary reissue w/ unreleased bonus tracks.
They also have mountains of unreleased live stuff sitting in their vault. From what I know, they've been recording the majority of their live shows since about 1995, so there's a ton of material there just waiting to be set free.
I played the #### out of Road Apples yesterday.
__________________
Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
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.
Quote:
There's a world container with your name on it
And a billion ways to go berserk
When the country quits on you it must be dinner
And the Himmler on this one is there's no dessert
(He's the one who couldn't imagine all the people living life in peace)
Good News! You get to vanish Go to Cleveland, be an indie smash
The good news is now you're smaller
The bad news is you can be smaller than that
Last edited by jayswin; 12-13-2020 at 08:05 PM.
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