The Tragically Hip Podcast Series

A song this beloved, played live only 31 times? The panel unpacks the mystery, the mischief, and the cat at the centre of 'The Darkest One'.
Episode Summary
The wheel landed on a big one. This week, The Tragically Hip On Shuffle pulls 'The Darkest One' - track three and the third single from "In Violet Light" (June 11th, 2002), and number 30 on the Tragically Hip Top 40 countdown. jD gathers Kirk from Chino, Sean from Toronto, and Duxoop from Toledo around the table to debate, discuss, and dissect it.
The tale of the tape raises the episode's central puzzle: first played live December 31st, 2001, last played August 1st, 2003, and just 31 performances all-time. Why did a single this strong vanish from the setlists? The panel has theories - Gord Downie's punishing high notes, his one-of-a-kind delivery timing, and the karaoke bravery both would demand.
There's a listen to a formidable live version from Vancouver, September 20th, 2002, a close read of the lyrics (a darling sky, not a darkening one - and the moment as a wild place), and Duck Soup's honest, funny, and disarming answer to the question the song keeps asking: who's the darkest one in your friend group?
Then it's off to the music video - the Trailer Park Boys, Don Cherry, vintage KFC buckets, and one great cat let in from the rain. The panel ranks the song on the album, mourns Hockey Night in Canada, debates a "Fully Completely" box set, and jD floats a Hip Club conspiracy theory about those suspiciously excellent bonus tracks.
 The Panel
Sean from Toronto - repping The Hip from the West Coast, where he saw them at the Commodore on the World Container tour. This week's cheerfully unrepentant heel on 'All Tore Up’.
Duxoop from Toledo - honorary Canuck (the Duck Canuck), karaoke stalwart, and the self-confessed darkest one in his friend group.
Kirk from Chino - Discovering Downie alum, guitarist with The Daryls, and currently in the studio recording his first solo album, "From the Kirkyard", with producer Joey Delgado. Find him at Kirk Lane Music.
 Timestamps
- 00:00 - Welcome and panel introductions
- 03:14 - First hit: favourite Hip summer jams
- 06:05 - The tale of the tape: 'The Darkest One' by the numbers
- 09:37 - High notes, weird timing, and the karaoke problem
- 11:20 - Poll check: "In Violet Light" gets its flowers
- 13:44 - Listening party: 'The Darkest One' live in Vancouver, 2002
- 18:54 - First thoughts around the table
- 25:35 - The lyrics: every friend group has one
- 32:16 - The video: Trailer Park Boys, Don Cherry, and a great cat
- 37:50 - Final thoughts and album rankings
- 46:24 - Did it break through south of the border?
- 53:16 - Spin the wheel: next week's song revealed
- 55:11 - Plugs
 Resources & References
- Setlist and play-count data: hat tip to Hipbase and setlist.fm
- Live recording courtesy of The Tragically Hip Archive
- The Hugh Padgham stories come from This Is Our Life by Michael Barclay
- Bands plugged this week: The Fabulously Rich (Pacific Northwest), Gift Shop (Vancouver), the Knights of Molino (San Francisco), The Daryls, and the Delgado Brothers
- Related listening: Discovering Downie, wherever you get your podcasts
 Join In
The randomness is the feature, and the community is the point. [Join the community Facebook group](https://community.tthpods.com) to catch the next live stream, vote in the polls, and share your take in the chat. Want more from the network between episodes? [Subscribe to Yer Letter](https://subscribe.tthpods.com), the monthly newsletter from jD.
 Closing
Huge thanks to Kirk from Chino, Sean from Toronto, and Duxoop from Toledo for pinch-hitting on short notice and bringing the goods - from Salt Lake City name-drops to dentures that laugh. The takeaway this week: the wild are strong, the strong are the darkest ones, and every friend group has one. So there's that.
Next week, the wheel says 'Every Time You Go' - a deep cut from "Up to Here". Get after it.
 Connect
Facebook group: [community.tthpods.com](https://community.tthpods.com) | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: jd@tthpods.com
TheTragicallyHip TheHip GordDownie InVioletLight TTHOnShuffle InGordWeTrust

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Meta description (155 characters): The Tragically Hip On Shuffle unpacks 'The Darkest One' from In Violet Light - Gord Downie's high notes, the Trailer Park Boys video, and one great cat.

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The shuffle lands on *'Bobcaygeon'* - a love song built on a race riot, and the track one fan ties to losing Gord Downie.
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"This is the song I think of when I think about coming to terms with the fact that Gord Downie was going to die."
Dave from Montreal
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Episode Summary
The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream is back after a week off, and the shuffle lands on *'Bobcaygeon'*, the acoustic-leaning centrepiece of "Phantom Power" and one of the most beloved songs in the entire **Tragically Hip** catalogue. The panel - **Chris from Seattle**, **Greg from the Kootenays**, and **Dave from Montreal** - takes it apart from every angle.
They dig into the constellation imagery, the buried 1933 Christie Pitts riot the lyric nods to, the much-debated "Aryan twang" line, and the way **Gord Downie** humanizes a cop caught in the middle of it all. First impressions split the room between love at first listen and slow-burn grower. From there the conversation moves through the song's placement between *'Save the Planet'* and *'Thompson Girl'*, Steve Berlin's organ work, and how *'Bobcaygeon'* became, for more than one fan in the room, the song tied to coming to terms with **Gord Downie's** passing.
Along the way: an icebreaker on favourite live Hip performances, a featured live cut from Austin City Limits, poll results that surprise nobody, and a look ahead to the next shuffle. A real conversation about how a quiet song carries this much weight.
Tale of the Tape
- Song: *'Bobcaygeon'*, from "Phantom Power" (released July 14, 1998), the album's fourth single
- TTHTop40 Countdown ranking: #14
- First played live: May 10, 1997 - a full year before the record dropped
- Last played live: August 20, 2016
- Played as a show opener once, and as an encore 115 times
- Featured live cut: Austin City Limits, September 15, 2006
- Listener poll: 91% Love It, 7% Like It, 1% Tolerate It
The Panel
**Chris from Seattle** returns for his second appearance - the panel's lone American and a working musician. His band Loud Flowers just put out two EPs, the Litho EP and the Earwig EP, recorded in part at Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard's Seattle studio.
**Greg from the Kootenays** has caught The Hip somewhere north of 25 times and brings a scholar's eye. He has published academic work on the band, including the article "Ambiguously Hip: The Tragically Hip and Canadian Nationalism."
**Dave from Montreal** is a writer, journalist, and tour guide who has covered The Hip for years. He runs non-touristy Montreal tours with Spade and Palacio.
Resources, Links & References
- "Phantom Power" (1998) - the album *'Bobcaygeon'* calls home
- Featured live version: Austin City Limits, September 15, 2006
- Setlist and live-performance data sourced from Hipbase and setlist.fm
- Live recordings via The Tragically Hip Archive
- Band history reference: This Is Our Life by Michael Barclay
- Greg's article: "Ambiguously Hip: The Tragically Hip and Canadian Nationalism"
- Chris's band: Loud Flowers - the Litho EP and the Earwig EP
- Dave Kaufman's Montreal tours with Spade and Palacio - Instagram @davekaufman1, Bluesky @davekaufman
- Related listening: Discovering Downie
Support the Show
Editing is hard, and the coffee runs dry. If The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream keeps your battery charged, you can drop a caribou in the tip jar at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40. Tips, always - never an ask.
Big thanks to **Chris from Seattle** for coming back and bringing the musician's ear, to **Greg from the Kootenays** for the scholarship and the 25-shows-deep perspective, and to **Dave from Montreal** for going somewhere heavy and honest with this one. *'Bobcaygeon'* is a slow jam about something dark and ominous under the surface, and this panel found every layer of it. Next shuffle is *'The Darkest One'* on July 8 - no show on Canada Day, so mark the calendar.
- Explore the full discography, lyrics, credits, and mapped live shows at The Hip Compendium: compendium.tthpods.com
The network home: home.tthpods.com
Facebook: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: jd@tthpods.com
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Fully & Completely: Redux Man Machine Poem
The last record. "Man Machine Poem" arrived in June 2016 wrapped in the worst news imaginable - and somehow it was still everything.
Episode Summary: jD and Greg LeGros sit under a pear tree - bees and all - for the final entry in Fully & Completely's full Tragically Hip discography run.
The album in question is "Man Machine Poem", the Hip's fourteenth and last studio record, released June 17th, 2016.
Produced by Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin, it arrived weeks after the band announced Gord Downie's glioblastoma diagnosis - though almost everything on it was written before that news broke.
What jD and Greg dig into here is not just a final album. It's a listen to a band that sounds revitalized. That sounds, somehow, free. Track by track they work through all ten songs - 'Man', 'In a World Possessed by the Human Mind', 'What Blue', 'In Sarnia', 'Here, in the Dark', 'Great Soul', 'Tired as Fuck', 'Hot Mic', 'Ocean Next', and 'Machine' - unpacking the lyrical weight, the production choices, the thematic through lines, and the heartbreak of knowing this was the last one.
There's also conversation about the musical landscape of 2016 - "Blackstar", "Blonde", "A Moon Shaped Pool", "We Got It from Here" - and the news, announced in the episode, that a new Gord Downie solo double album was coming.
A heavy, funny, essential listen. “This is the most complete and well-written and natural sounding that they’ve sounded since ‘Phantom Power’. You could not ask for more.” - Greg LeGros
What They Covered Track 1 - 'Man' • Psychedelic opener. Gord's vocal sounds ageless. jD hears the melody of 'Machine' hiding in the first 30 seconds - a bookend hiding in plain sight. Track 2 - 'In a World Possessed by the Human Mind' • Written about Laura Downie's illness. Greg reads it three ways simultaneously - personal, political, about the post-truth media cycle. 'Exciting over fair.' It lands every time. Track 3 - 'What Blue' • Greg cracks the code mid-episode: those eyes in the grey of everything falling apart. A marriage ending, quietly, inside a great song. Track 4 - 'In Sarnia' Fully & Completely: Redux Man Machine Poem tthpods.com 2 • Originally titled 'Insomnia'. Greg's go-to on the album. jD calls the guitar intro and vocal entry 'spectacular.' A love song to sleeplessness, or to a city, or to both. Track 5 - 'Here, in the Dark' • Seasonal affective disorder as a rock song. The last lyric - 'Me, I'm as happy as my least-happy kid' - hits like a gut punch. Both of them feel it. Track 6 - 'Great Soul' • Jammy and psychedelic and soaring. Greg reads the lyric run - 'I want to enchant you, I want you to enchant my days' - like a poem, and it sounds stunning that way. Track 7 - 'Tired as Fuck' • The campfire song that isn't. Tragic and hopeful at the same time. Greg's favourite line on the whole record: 'Tired as fuck, I want to stop so much, I almost don't want to stop.' Track 8 - 'Hot Mic' • Big, ballsy, stompy. Possible commentary on celebrity, patriotism, or Canada overhearing the wreck next door. Probably all three. Track 9 - 'Ocean Next' • Sounds recorded underwater. Feels like moving. Transition and mournfulness, wrapped in something that sounds straight off 'Day for Night'. Track 10 - 'Machine' • The album closes funky and light. The groove catches you off guard after everything that came before. 'I'm a real machine. It follows.' A stadium-sized song that most people only heard in arenas. Stadium-sized, Greg says. He's right. Also In This Episode
The context of 2016: jD and Greg run through the musical landscape - David Bowie's "Blackstar", Frank Ocean's "Blonde", Beyoncé's "Lemonade", Radiohead's "A Moon Shaped Pool", A Tribe Called Quest's "We Got It from Here". A year of established artists making career-best work.
The Hip fit right in. Greg's daughter was born in January 2016. He heard the news about Gord standing in a coffee shop with her in a stroller. He heard 'Tired as Fuck' that same afternoon. "A mixture of emotions" doesn't cover it.
Album lore: the record was almost called "Dougie Stardust". When David Bowie passed away, they changed the title. The original cover would have stayed the same. jD notes he cannot imagine this collection of songs under that name.
Gord Downie solo news: announced during the recording of this episode - a new double album, "Away Is Mine", ten songs in electric and acoustic versions. Josh Finlayson asked for the acoustic takes as a memento. Gord was recording this in July 2017 - three months before he passed. "Getting the shit done for us. Colossal output."
Fully & Completely: Redux Man Machine Poem tthpods.com 3 Sports: 2016 Stanley Cup (Penguins over Sharks, Metallica sang the anthem), Grey Cup upset (Ottawa over Calgary in OT), Kyle Lowry at Momofuku, salt-and-vinegar chips, a bootleg DVD incident that nearly ended a marriage before it started.
SEO Keywords (Platform Use) Primary: The Tragically Hip, Gord Downie, Man Machine Poem album, Tragically Hip Podcast, The Tragically Hip Podcast Series, Canadian rock podcast Secondary: Fully & Completely Redux, Man Machine Poem review, Tragically Hip discography, Gord Downie legacy, Tragically Hip 2016 album, Kevin Drew, Dave Hamelin Long-tail: Man Machine Poem track by track, Tired as Fuck Tragically Hip, In Sarnia Tragically Hip, what is Man Machine Poem about, Gord Downie final album Away Is Mine
(Platform Format) Fully & Completely: Redux - Man Machine Poem
Meta description (150–160 characters): jD and Greg LeGros go track by track through 'Man Machine Poem' - the Tragically Hip's final album, released June 2016, produced by Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin.
• Listen to the full episode at home.tthpods.com
• Subscribe to Yer Letter - the monthly newsletter from jD - at subscribe.tthpods.com
• Join the community at community.tthpods.com
Closing "Man Machine Poem" arrived in the worst possible context and still managed to be exactly what it needed to be.
jD and Greg land there, eventually, after all the bees and all the detours and all the gut-punch lyrics. The final Hip album deserved a final Fully & Completely episode that matched its weight. This one does. Fully & Completely is part of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series. Subscribe, share, rate, and review at home.tthpods.com. Email: jd@tthpods.com

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The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Thirty-Four – Tyler from Etobicoke

Hey, it’s jD, and this week I’m joined by Tyler from Etobicoke — a Hip historian with a well-worn cassette copy of Road Apples and a tale or two from the Phantom Power tour in upstate New York (plus a Barry Manilow origin story we didn’t see coming).
Tyler’s Hipstory is a slow burn that turned into a full-blown obsession somewhere between Cheapies Records, a GO bus, and a shitty hotel in Albany. We trace his path from summer school soundtracks and Tom Petty tapes to finally seeing The Hip live in ’98 — and we get into the bittersweet reality of missing out on shows you wish you’d seen while still holding deep reverence for the ones you did.
This week’s song gives us the perfect excuse to dive into We Are the Same, the “Bob Rock era,” and what it means to wrestle with a band’s evolution — especially when that band means as much to you as this one. Tyler brings a literary, layered read to a song that’s not just long in runtime but rich in emotional nuance. If you’ve ever tried to parse your way through The Depression Suite or wanted to scream “don’t you want to see how it ends?” into the void, this one’s for you.
We talk fandom gaps, rediscovery, studio tensions, and Gord’s poetic range — and somewhere along the way, we start to unpack how music helps us process the messiness of growing older. Also: Opiated love, Rochester weirdness, and one surreal morning-after sighting of The Watchmen at a budget hotel breakfast.
🎙️ Next week: It’s Greg from Toronto — a Fully & Completely co-host and long-time Hip podcaster who knows his shit and never skimps on a good anecdote. Don’t miss it.

💬 Pull Quote

“The first CD I ever bought was Road Apples… and I didn’t even have a CD player yet. I just knew I wanted that to be the first one I played when I did.”

👤 About Our Guest

Tyler from Etobicoke is a regular voice on the Toronto Mike podcast’s quarterly FOTM Cast and a lifelong music nerd with a soft spot for The Hip and a sense of humor that lands somewhere between dad joke and deep cut. He’s been to half a dozen Hip shows, including a fateful night in Albany where Gord stopped the encore mid-song to protect the crowd — “Enough tomfoolery,” he said, and walked off. Legendary.

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📧 Send your Hipstory: tthtop40@gmail.com
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This countdown is raising $25K for the ALS Society of Canada in memory of our friend Matt Rona. Every donation helps. Support the cause and join the community at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40.

Transcript follows below.

The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
2025-05-23, 6:28 PM
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:00] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is
the second track and fifth single from the 1992 masterpiece, Fully Completely. Bill from Kingston,
we are talking about looking for a place to happen. What are your initial thoughts about this song?
A little late to the party, falling in love with this track. It wasn't the week it was released. It might
have been years later. Where, and this is the beautiful thing about the Hips catalog, you know,
good luck picking your 10 favorite hip songs. Right. Problem with that is it changes, constantly
changes. There are new songs that you, you know, I'm on a pigeon camera kick right now. And to
me, it's one of the greatest songs they've ever done. But it didn't really register the first time I heard
it. It wasn't until years later. And this is the beautiful thing about their catalog. Like I said, is you
catch moments of brilliance in every song.
[0:56] Music.
[1:04] Hey, it's JD here, and I'm ready to go. The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown is now underway.
Week over week, we're going to count down the 40 essential tracks by the hip that you selected
with your very own top 20 ballots. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a Pentium III-
powered Malarkey Wagon. You should also meet Malachi, the Malarkey Wagon's newest feature,
AI. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in every week to find out.
So there's that. This week I'm joined by the Tragically Hip superfan, Tyler from Etobicoke. How the
hell are you doing on this haptastic day, mister? I am doing well. It is good to be with you. Thank
you for having me on. Thank you for doing this. You do all the heavy lifting here. This is a breeze
for me. I love these podcasts. I am ready to lift some heavy things. All right. Enormous things, in
fact. Enormous things. Oh, perfect. Well, let's start at the start. Take me through your Tragically Hip
origin story or your hip story. Sure. Yeah. So I think the first song I ever heard by the hip was New
Orleans is Sinking. I think it was being played on much music. I was at my friend Dave Froder's
house in Stony Creek, Ontario. Beautiful Stony Creek, Ontario.
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[2:31] And I remember him being very excited about it and watching it with him and thinking, yeah,
that's cool. But it didn't really stick with me. I didn't immediately run to Sam's and pick up up to
here. I was just like, yeah, that's a cool song. And then I just kind of forgot about it. Um, it didn't, the
hip didn't really connect with me until the summer of 1991. Uh, I was, uh, attending summer school,
my, my everlasting shame, uh, cause I failed grade 12 math. I was not a good math student. Uh,
and so I was taking the go bus in from Burlington every day to attend Scott Park high school, right
by Iverwind stadium, the, the, the year departed Iverwind stadium. Scott Park's not there anymore
It's been leveled Probably for the best.
[3:21] And one day after Summer school I was downtown Hamilton And I was in Cheapies Records
and Tape Also I remember Cheapies The Dear Departed Cheapies Yeah And I bought I bought two
albums I believe One of which was Into the Great Wide Open By Tom Petty, And the other was
Road Apples On cassette Oh boy.
[3:46] Yeah uh and so i remember sitting on the go bus and popping in road apples and just being
absolutely riveted um and i listened to the the petty album a fair bit but i listened to road apples
every morning on the way in every afternoon on the way home i could not get enough of it uh and
from that on i was i was hooked so what prompted you to make that purchase i honestly don't
remember um okay i i i don't know if it was a whim or if if i'd been talking about it with my friends
but whatever it was um i i grabbed it and i never looked back yeah it was the first cd i ever bought
is that right yeah and i didn't even have a cd player yet i knew i knew i was i knew i was getting one
and i knew what i wanted to christen the cd player with and it was the tragic that's that's an
excellent choice uh my i'm i'm sad to say that the first cda i ever owned was a compilation uh i
believe it was a columbia records compilation called hard and heavy which had uh among other
things uh frankenstein by the edward winter group it had uh uh i think ted nugent there's a ted
nugent song on there might have been cat scratch fever um so that was the first cd i didn't buy it i
think somebody gave it to me with the cd player that i got for Christmas that year. Nice. Uh, yeah.
Oh yeah. A classic.
[5:10] Columbia house bringing back memories. Yes. So where do, where do we go from there?
You, you spend a summer with road apples, uh, definitely a great summertime companion. Um,
where do we go from there as we roll into the fall and grade 13, presumably? Yeah. Yeah. I was, I
was actually going into grade 13. Uh, and you know, Road Apple stuck with me.
[5:32] The next album I got obviously was Fully Completely, which was the next one that came out. I
didn't get that. That was the first hip album I had on CD. My good friend Derek Ma gave that to me
for Christmas in 92, I guess. Um, and the thing, the thing that I, that I regret constantly is that I
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didn't see them live until 98. Um, I was not for whatever reason, I was not a big concert goer in my
sort of late teens, early twenties. Um, it just, I just didn't go to concerts and I, and I don't for the life
of me understand why. Cause I, I, I love concerts. I, I love them then. Uh, it just didn't, it didn't occur
to me that it was a thing I could do. Like I was an only child, so I didn't have like the, the influence
of a, of a sibling to say like, check out this music or sort of this show. Um, so it was kind of my own
weird winding journey where I, I was sort of listening to my parents' music for the longest time. Like
the first concert I ever went to was actually Barry Manilow. Get out of here. Oh, actually you said
that in the chat the other day, didn't you? I did. Yeah. I was a huge Barry Manilow fan when I was
six years old. I would like bring in Barry Manilow songs to show and tell and like lip sync to them.
And it was, I should have been. Amazing. I should have been severely bullied as a child, but
somehow I wasn't. But that voice, that voice kept the bullies at bay. Oh yeah, exactly. Exactly.
[7:00] Yeah. So I, I, I didn't get a chance to see them until the Phantom Power Tour in 1998. Great
record to see them on. Oh, it was, it was a fantastic tour. But, you know, I so I I cruised through
many albums and, you know, I bought them the day they came out, day for night, Trouble at the
Hen House, bought them, absorbed them immediately.
[7:22] But it wasn't until 98 when I was working, I was in a relationship and a good friend of mine
said, hey, the hip are playing in Albany, New York. So what do you think? We we take a road trip
down there. Um, we got two other couples together. Uh, we got a shitty hotel in Albany that I recall
being right next to the expressway. Like the cars were inches from the hotel room. Uh, and we saw
them at, uh, the palace, I believe it was Thanksgiving weekend of 1998, uh, in Albany, New York.
And it was a fantastic show. Uh, it was like a small ish theater. Like maybe, maybe if, you know,
maybe a thousand seats, not, uh, not huge. Huge um and you know probably 80 to 90 percent
canadians who had made the the trip down as as were uh many of those sort of new york state
shows right um but it was fantastic i i recall uh, the gourd stopped the show right before the encore
because somebody was crowd surfing and whacked their head on the edge of the stage.
[8:32] So that was that. He was a great, he was a great lighthouse for that, for that front heroes of
people. He always was looking out for them. Yeah, he really was. And, and yeah, he just was like,
okay, that's enough. Tomfoolery. Good night, everybody. Uh, which I think probably the right call. I
remember it being clearly, they did not do an encore. Damn. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was, I think they
played 18 or 19 songs. I mean, I still loved it and felt like I, I got my money's worth. Um, but yeah, it
was kind of a, kind of a shitty ending to a, to a great show. Any highlights you remember other than
that low light?
[9:11] Um, just, I mean, obviously just seeing the band in person was just mind, mind blowing for me
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having, you know, listened to them for seven, seven years at that point, uh, them having been in my
ears for, for that long and that consistently. Um you know and see like the the big songs like poets
and and fireworks and and bob cajun were just you know they just sounded they were really at their
peak i think on that tour um and it was it was a real experience for me the the watchman were the
the opening band uh and they were fantastic as well um they they actually stayed at the same hotel
as us so we saw them at breakfast the next morning, which was exciting. That's so wild. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. They stayed at the shitty hotel. I'm sure the hip had slightly better accommodations in
Albany. Yeah. I would hope so. I mean, Albany being the crown jewel of New York State. Oh, it's
beautiful, especially in the fall. Are you being sincere? No, I'm not being sincere. Okay. Fair
enough. I mean, Albany is, I have nothing bad to say about Albany. If anyone is listening from
Albany, I have no beef with your town. It's a lovely place. That's right. Mimico will not be facing off
against Albany anytime soon. That's right. That's right. Yes.
[10:33] So where do we go from there? Once you see them live, does that break a floodgate and
you start to see them live? A little bit. So yes, yes and no. So I saw them six times total. That's a
great number. Yeah. It's pretty good. I mean, I, I curse myself for not having seen them at least
twice that many times. Um, you know, I saw them after that, uh, Albany show, I saw them again.
Uh, it was the same, it was still the Phantom Power Tour, uh, at the ACC in Toronto, uh, in February
of 99. So it was the first.
[11:03] The weekend that the ACC opened, there were two hip shows. Wow. Yeah. And then I think
the Leafs played maybe the next night or something like that. I can't remember if I'm getting that
right, if the Leafs played first and then there were hip shows or if it was vice versa, but it was the,
they were the first shows at the ACC. They were definitely the first concert at the ACC. Yeah. I don't
know. Yeah. I don't know like you, whether or not it was, uh, before or after the Leafs game, but
they were definitely the first band to play. Yeah. Yeah. That's special. So that was, yeah, that was
great. That was great. Um, and then I saw them again on the music at work tour. I saw them in
Rochester, New York. Uh, again, it was like this weird little. Massey, but they played Massey in
Toronto for that. Yeah. I never saw them at Massey. Um, I, we were at this weird little, it was almost
felt like a high school auditorium in Rochester. Uh, it was a very strange venue. Um, but it was a
great show. You love your upstate New York venues. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It was the same
friend, actually, who had suggested the Albany show. He just liked taking road trips to New York, I
guess.
[12:09] And then also on that tour, I saw them in Hamilton at Copts Coliseum. And I remember that
show being extremely happy that they played Opiated from Up to Here, because I always loved
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that song. I don't know that I ever heard them play that. I'll have to look it up on my set list. I don't
think they played it that often, but that was definitely a highlight of that show. Oh, I love that song.
yeah so do I so do I um and then after that cop show which was I believe spring of 2000, I didn't
see them again until 2015 oh on the day for night tour yeah uh the fully completely the fully
completely tour that's right that's right I said for night but I meant fully yeah um and I don't again I
don't know why it's not like I fell out of love with the band uh you know I went through some stuff
like I had a kid in there so that kind of uh kept me off concerts for a while, Um, I, I got divorced in
there. So that also kind of kept me off concerts for a while. Um, but, uh, yeah, no, there, I, I just, I, I
didn't see them. I think there was a time kind of maybe following we are the same in, in that sort of
late 20s.
[13:20] 2000s period where it's not that I didn't love the band, but I was certainly kind of exploring
other musical options and, um, they were just kind of there for me. They weren't something I was
like, yeah, like I got to go see them. Um, and again, I, you know, I do regret that because I think I
missed, missed out on some, some excellent shows. Uh, but that's, you know, it's just the way it
goes. Were you still buying records on the day they came out during that? I was, I bought every,
every single one of them, um, the day they came out. Um, see, I don't know that I did. I don't know
that I did after in violet light, uh, in between evolution. I did not for sure. Yeah. Um, yeah, I won't
bore anybody with my, with my thing, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty sure it was, it was all the way
until, uh, Greg turned me on to now for plan a probably five years after it came out. Oh, really? So
had you, had you sort of parted ways with the hip entirely during that period? Similar to you. It was
a fallow period. Like it was just, you know, it was like, I listened to things here and there, but in no
way was it the same as in my, in my early thirties and twenties and high school for that matter.
Yeah. Like I was.
[14:33] Yeah. And I think part of that is just, you know, the, the age and stage thing. Like when
you're in your late teens, early twenties, you've got all the time in the world to, to go deep on, on
music and, and bands that you love. And then as you get into your late twenties, early thirties, you
start having, you know, career responsibilities family responsibilities and and the time you have to
spend on kind of digging deep on music is is those times are few and far between, Now, there's an
interesting confluence that has been revealed through the docu-series, and that is that the band
themselves weren't that impressed or blown away by their output during that period. So you get that
combined with the fact that the main cohort of their fans being Gen Xers were all going through that
period at that time, give or take. And it did lead to an incredibly fallow period. Now, I know there are
diehard hit fans that didn't waver and continued to see them and saw them hundreds of times, but
that was not me, unfortunately. And yeah, I, like you, have regret.
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[15:37] Yeah, no, exactly. But, you know, we all have to make choices and I don't regret the choices
I made, but I do wish I had seen them a few more times in that period. And it's not like I don't like
those albums. I like them very much. Um, but yeah, it was just the, the, the, the way the, the, the
universe was, was working and speaking to me at that time. It just, uh, just wasn't happening. Tyler,
I, I, I think for me, it was a wonderful, it was a wonderful mistake that I made and, you know, quote
Gord, why search for perfection when you're making successful mistakes? Uh, and, and my
successful mistakes were, you know, not listening to several records in the catalog at the time of,
but the benefit of that is in my forties, I've got to explore all this music that I wasn't overly familiar
with. And I've done that with, with you all through these podcasts. So it's been a lot of fun. Yeah,
no, I mean, I, I think, I think we've all benefited from that. Um, certainly from, from hearing you and,
and, and the various co-hosts that you've had on your, on your podcasts, uh, it's allowed us to kind
of look back.
[16:47] And maybe find some things that we didn't find the first time around, uh, and, and, and kind
of re-examine our, our love of the early stuff too. So that's, uh, that's been really exciting for me.
Oh, thanks. Yeah. Yeah. So, um.
[17:03] So do you have like a go-to record at this point? Is there something that you'll put on like
record-wise? It really varies. And I, and I still kind of go through periods where, yeah, I go through
periods where I don't listen to the hip at all. And then I come back to them and I listen exclusively to
the hip for a couple months at a time. It's kind of feast or famine that way. There are really, you
know, probably five or six records that, that I would put on. On a regular basis day for night is
probably the one that I, that I go to the most just because I love so many of the songs on that
album. And it really, for me, kind of holds together as a, as a full statement, like an end to end, no
skip classic album.
[17:51] And it takes you back too, right? Oh yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like I was in university when that
came out. There was just so much exciting stuff going on in my life. Uh and it was really yeah it
really does take you back to to being 20 years old again um, but but yeah i could i could definitely
make a case for at least half a dozen other albums and even the ones that don't make that case uh
you know i still put on fairly regularly so it's they have a really spectacular catalog with you know i
don't think there's a dud in it you know Even the EP, it's not something that I go back to often, but
there are some really special songs on that as well. So they're a unique band in that way that you
don't look at an album and say, oh man, that was a real dud.
[18:42] No, I agree. Like even when I first listened to, we are the same, I thought it was very beige.
And now I listened to it and I'm like, what was I thinking? What was I thinking? This album is rich.
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[18:55] This album is, you know, but again, then watching the documentary and you hear that it's not
even really like a band album, you know?
[19:03] Um, yeah, that's troubling to me a little bit. it is it is it really it really kind of makes me
reconsider those albums and again not in a negative way but it just helped me kind of understand
why they sounded the way they did and and kind of what the why those songs came out in the way
they did um you know but i i for me there's kind of a stopping period and i think one of the guys in
the band i can't remember who even said it in the documentary that phantom power is kind of the
end of the classic hip period right like yeah everything from from the ep up to phantom power is is
kind of in that in that range and then that's right music it works still has elements of classic hip but
they have started to go in a different direction it's around the same time as gorge's writing is writing
his solo stuff so he's exploring some new areas um they bring in kate fenner and chris brown who
as we learned from the documentary the band was not thrilled about um not that they they don't like
kate and chris but it just changed the dynamic of the band um and then every album from then on
is really a departure from from that original sound and i think a departure from the album previous
there aren't really many through lines that that connect those those last albums maybe the the bob
rock albums are a little bit more connected uh just sonically um but it's it's really interesting to to go
back and look at those later period albums to see kind of where the band was at.
[20:31] What their relationship was with Gord, what their relationship was with each other. And it's a
really interesting exercise, especially now that we have seen the documentary and have the insight
that the band provided us with to show us that maybe things weren't that great with the band. That
was so crushing watching that because our whole lives we've grown up that these guys, they throw
around the word brothers. And, and it's the perfect term really, because I guess I was just taking it
in the positive sense the whole time, but with family, we do have conflict and, you know, um, and it's
okay. You work through that conflict and you become stronger at home.
[21:19] Yeah. And I mean, I, I think as the documentary showed the, their bond was strong enough
that they were able to work through that stuff and, and kind of have it out. And, you know, Gord,
Gord was, it's so funny because Gord on his own, his solo stuff, which I love, um, Gord would
probably have, well, maybe not a hard time filling the horseshoe, but he would have a hard time
filling Massey hall, let's say with, with just with a solo tour. Uh, whereas the band could fill the
Rogers center, like Taylor Swift style, you know, like the, the. How about Rogers stadium though?
Could they, could they sell out that? I bet they could if, if, you know, assuming it gets built, uh, we'll,
we'll see.
[22:04] Um, but where was I going with that? I guess, you know, we saw that the, the band dynamic
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and Gord was kind of off on an island, um, because he was exploring his own stuff. He was working
with other musicians, uh, and the rest of the guys in the band were like, well, Hey, what about us?
You know, what, aren't we a band? Aren't we still doing this? Um, and, and it's, it really is
something very, um, fascinating to, to look back and, and again, see those albums through that
lens. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, definitely agree. Well, should we look at the song of the week through a
different lens? Let's do it. All right. We'll be back right after this to talk about this week's song. Hey,
this is Paul Langlois from the Tragically Hip saying hello. Now on with the countdown. 34.
[22:53] Music.
[32:23] That's right, today we're revealing a standout on The Hipp's 11th studio long play, We Are
the Same. Today's song is the absolutely gorgeous, The Depression Suite. Tyler from Etobicoke,
what are your initial thoughts about this song when you first heard it?
[32:44] Yeah, so, I mean, this album, We Are the Same, is such an interesting part of their catalog.
You know, we talked about the Bob Rock albums a little bit in the previous segment. And, you
know, sonically, it's a very, you can hear the hallmarks of Bob Rock if you've heard any other Bob
Rock albums that he's produced. There are certain hallmarks that you can hear the way the drums
are tuned, the way the mix is done, where the focus is at any particular time. Uh and so those out
those two albums um world container and and we are the same really kind of stick out a little bit in
the catalog as being separate from everything else and kind of their own little chapter um we are
the same as probably my favorite late period album um there are just so many songs on it that that
stand out for me and i think part of it is the the lyrics that that gourd's writing at that time they're
very personal they're very introspective uh and they really kind of resonate with me i'm i'm very
much a lyrics guy when i listen to music and and those, songs those lyrics really connected with me
the the first time i i heard the album and i think yeah and and the depression suite for for me is just
such a beautifully crafted.
[34:12] Multi-part story.
[34:15] That has probably the broadest scope of any Tragically Hip song. And we'll get into some of
the intricacies of that in a minute. But the first time I heard it, I think it really, It really almost, it
startled me because it was so different from anything else the band had done to that point. And
since really, there's nothing else like it in the catalog.
[34:41] And so I remember hearing it and I remember thinking, man, that is, I wasn't sure if I liked it,
but it really caught my ear as something very, very different. Yeah yeah i i think so too um just it's
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the longest song in the catalog yeah so right right away it stands out just you know before you even
put the needle on the record you're looking at the liner notes and you're like wow nine minutes or
eight minutes and change this is uh this is substantial i wonder what is contained within and then
you lift the lid and you get all those, uh, uh, for lack of a better word, goodies. What do you think of,
um, those segments in the song, the way it's broken down and, uh, you know, that good stuff. Yeah,
no, it's again, very, uh, very unique composition of the song and, and, you know, reading about it,
um, Bob Rock had suggested they take three different songs that, that were sort of on the table for
the album and combine them into one. And according to Gord, Paul Langlois had suggested these
particular song to be used. And there's three songs that make up the sweet. So the first part is
called The Rock. The second part is called New Orleans World, which again, Gord loves going
back to New Orleans.
[36:07] And the third part is called Don't You Want to See How It Ends. Oh, my fire alarm is going
off. Sorry. Oh, good timing. Give it one second. I don't know how long it's going to go off for.
[36:19] That never happens. Do you remember where you were? Yeah, I do. Okay. You're talking
about The Rock. Yeah. In New Orleans. In New Orleans. Yeah. Yeah. Breakdowns. Okay, it
stopped. So. Okay. I don't know what that was. Yeah, weird. Okay. Should I just start that part over?
If you would, please. Sure. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so. According to Gord, Paul Langlois had suggested
these particular songs be the ones that they combine into this one song. The Rock is the song that
they used for the first part. The second song was New Orleans World, which again Kurt loves going
back. It's New Orleans references. The third part is Don't You Want to See How It Ends. And.
[37:11] There is a through line that connects these songs. If Paul Langlois was thinking lyrically that
these were the three songs that should fit together, he made an excellent choice. I agree.
[37:24] Yeah. Lyrically, again, this album feels very, very intimate and introspective. Again, we know
now that the band is going through some real struggles. I'm not sure how tuned into those struggles
Gord was at the time, though, because he and Bob Rock seemed like they were sort of off on their
own island doing their own thing. Literally, they're on Maui, right? Well, yeah, exactly.
[37:48] And the rest of the band was kind of sitting there going, okay, what's going on with this
album? So, you know, Gord's lyrics are very personal, very introspective. Uh and and gourd has
also said that that bob rock he i think he he viewed bob rock almost as like a coach or a guru of of
sorts um you know i think bob rock really pushed gourd uh lyrically i think he pushed him as a
musician and a vocalist um but but again you know so i think those things really helped gourd and i
i think they really i think the album benefits from it um but obviously the the band, uh, felt the impact
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of that, uh, that isolation. Um, the interesting thing also is that they only ever played it, uh, in
concert on that. We are the same tour in 2009. Uh, so I think they played it like 82 times, but only in
2009, never again. Um, wild. Yeah. Yeah. You would think a song like this would have made its way
back into the catalog, at least even for the, the, um, the farewell tour, but, uh, yeah, Only, only in
2009. Wow. Um, so I wonder, I wonder.
[39:05] It just makes you wonder, the alternate universe where, you know, glioblastoma isn't a thing,
and Gord is still around, it just makes you wonder how many of these songs would have become
live staples or live classics, you know, over the years that it takes to marinate, you know?
[39:26] Yeah i i agree with you um and i think this is this is one that that would have made its way
back around um just because i think there is a segment of the fan base that that really, gravitates to
this song and and and sees it as something special i think there are a lot of hip fans that probably
hate this song because it's very very different from anything else that uh that the hip has has done
uh and it's also very long and some people just don't like long songs which fair enough well it could
come off as indulgent i suppose but it's so earnest that it it's hot yeah exactly exactly the the the
way that that gourd kind of spins this tale of i think it's a tale of depression i mean the the title says
it but um the scale of the song is really i think what sticks with me um it's it's such a grand sweeping
tale that i i i couldn't help but be drawn into it yeah you do become i mean it's long enough that it
envelops you like a blanket uh you can wrap yourself in it and really get caught up in the lyrics i
know as somebody who struggles with mental health um i found myself listening to it and being a
lyrics guy as well uh listening to it and really um really digging in on those lyrics and having them uh
resonate in my bones you know.
[40:50] Yeah. And it's a song that I go back to if I'm, if I'm having kind of a hard time, um, you know, I
like to not necessarily wallow in it, but I like to hear songs that are kind of speaking to me and how
I'm feeling in that moment. And, and this is certainly one that I go to when, uh, when I'm not feeling
my best.
[41:09] Oh wow yeah i can i can see that there's an emotional through line in the song as well that it
almost would take you through a spectrum of emotions through the song like from feeling sad and
melancholy to ultimately being sort of you know the the final chorus don't you want to see how it
ends is somewhat uplifting the way it's the way it's sung right that's exactly how i see it too I think
it's a tale of depression in three acts. I think it examines the feelings of depression through the lens
of some very common human reactions to the experience of depression. I think it starts at a place
of avoidance. It moves to a place of kind of stoicism and quiet reflection. And then it ends on kind of
a note of hope and a little bit of a glimmer of light for the future. Um, which is, which is why by the
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end of it, I feel, I, I feel good about things again because, uh, you know, it's, it's, I've been able to
kind of sit in my negative feelings for a while. And then by the end kind of draws out the hopeful
side. Oh, that's lovely. I think that's absolutely fucking great. Yeah.
[42:23] So is there anything else you want to say about the depression? Sweet Tyler. Well, yeah,
there are a few things I'd like to say about it. Please, please do. You know, yeah, I wanted to dig in
a little bit on those three topics because I think, I think they're really important to, to examine. Um,
so act one for me, the rock, um, it's again about avoidance. It's someone, the narrator is kind of
paralyzed, feeling paralyzed by their depression and just kind of wants to avoid everything. You
know, they're, they're burying their head in the, in the pillow. Um, they're finding some comfort in
being kind of locked away in their, in their bed. Um, and he's hearing some sounds in the
environment that to him feel like empathy, like, you know, are you going through something? He,
the, the sound of the siren, the sound of the, of, of the, the, the bustle outside, what he's hearing
from that is, are you going through something? And so he's, he's feeling like the world, even though
he's feeling kind of isolated and depressed and wanting to avoid everything and everyone. He's
feeling some empathy from his environment and it causes him to maybe sort of reach out to
someone else in his life, a loved one to ask them the same question. Are you going through
something?
[43:38] Whoa. Yeah. Okay. I like that. I like that idea of the, of the sounds representing the question.
Are you going through something? I think that's a really astute observation, Tyler from Etobicoke.
Nice. Thank you. See, this is me, uh, this is me going back to my English student roots and, uh,
you know, let's, let's do a really close read on this poem and tell me, you know, tell me what it's
about. Let's write an essay about it. Um, so this is, this was kind of the exercise I went through. Um,
so that takes us to act two. Yeah, Act 2, New Orleans World. So again, Gord has gone back to New
Orleans so many times. Obviously, New Orleans is sinking. If New Orleans is beat, the band, they
didn't start out in New Orleans, but they recorded some of their early work there. And it's clearly an
important place for Gord. It's a place with a lot of mystique, a lot of history. But he's also put the
narrator of this section in a very boring setting. And the way I read the lyrics, it seems like he's a
worker in a windowless casino or some kind of environment like that. Like it's very boring, very
sterile.
[44:51] But as he's going through this job, he's dreaming. He's thinking about what else is there in
the world? What else is there out there for him? Uh and i think what that thing is for this this
narrator is being a songwriter and the the question that he poses to himself you know what it i think
it's the song or the question that that every dreamer asks themselves is what if this song means
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nothing like what if i do this what if i follow my dream and it has zero impact what if nobody cares or
nobody listens so it's he's going about his work-a-day job and dreaming, but at the same time
thinking, well, maybe I shouldn't because maybe it'll just end up being nothing. That sounds
remarkably similar to somebody who might be procrastinating and. Absolutely. And I mean that
deep procrastination that comes with depression and anxiety. I don't necessarily mean, oh, I should
do this later. But, uh, you know, the, the narrator of this song is really, um, that, that's really
powerful to, to, to think of them as putting something off that they're dreaming about.
[46:06] Because it might not mean anything. Exactly. Yeah. It's, it's kind of the fear of success and
the fear of failure all wrapped up in one. And, and you're exactly right. Like, I think anyone who has
struggled with those feelings of depression or procrastination has gone through that thinking, well,
you know, I could do this, but what would be the point? You know, what, what if I do this? What if I
invest all this emotional energy in it? And it's, it just falls flat in its face.
[46:34] Okay we're good now because you finished the thought i don't know why this is normally this
is on wednesdays oh really i don't yeah they do what the last wednesday of the month but this is
not even close to that okay it just went once again i don't know what's happening so this takes this
this was at the end of act two oh that's the end of act three now okay yeah so let's go let's go to, uh,
the, the final act act three, where I'm really curious to see how you put this together because
there's a couple of phrases in this and this one that throw me right off the trail. Yeah. There, there is
some, uh, some ambiguity, let's say in, in lyrics in this final section. Uh, and I, I spent a long time
thinking about it and, and trying to, to make sense of it. And I have a theory, but there's some of it
that's just like over my head and I can't even get into Gord's psyche for this stuff. But I think in this
third act, our narrator, and I'm not sure if this is the same narrator through all three pieces or if it's
three different people. I don't think it matters that much. I think it's three vignettes that could be
connected, certainly connected emotionally. But our narrator in this third act is a frontiersman. And
it seems like he's in Fort McMurray, or as he refers to it, Florida without the ocean.
[48:03] And he's pondering the Canadian dream, moving somewhere that's full of promise,
establishing himself, being the man on the moon, finding his little slice of heaven. Um, but it's a
struggle between settling for that or continuing to push for, for something more. Um, and the
question that he repeats over and over is, don't you want to see how it ends? Which to me feels like
he's asking himself, shouldn't I keep going? Shouldn't I keep pushing and not settle for this?
Shouldn't, isn't there more than this? And for me, this part of the song is about that feeling of when
you're coming out of a feeling of depression and you find a little bit of hope, a glimmer of light in a
choice. And you're able to find the courage to bet on yourself and to feel comfortable in your ability
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to move forward. And I think it's a really powerful message. And it's something, again, that when I'm
feeling down and I listen to this song, this is what kind of pulls me out and says, yeah, you know
what, I can do this. I can push myself forward. I don't have to be stuck here in this mire. I have the
ability to move past this.
[49:20] I really appreciate the optimism in your reading of that final. Because it could be, you know,
you could read it very, um, sadly, I suppose, you know, like it could be like that this person is, you
know, ready to take their life by suicide, uh, ready to die by suicide. And, you know, they're having
that inner monologue. Don't you want to see how it ends? But I really liked the optimism in, in your
telling of it, because it does tie into that feeling that we all have when we listen to the song of
hopefulness yeah and i think i think the first several times that i listened to it that that negative
reading of you know i think maybe he's considering killing himself um is how i saw it but the more i i
kind of listen to it and and look deeper into the lyrics i think it is a message of of optimism and and
hope um you know And I was looking also for literary inspiration for this part of the song because of
the three segments, this feels the most literary. And as we know, Gord drew a lot of inspiration from
literature and poetry.
[50:34] He makes a reference to Farley Mowat, Lost in the Barrens. And he talks about Athabasca.
And Athabasca is a place in Alberta. It's south of Fort McMurray, but there's Lake Athabasca. Uh,
and it's, it's been used in, uh, writing in particular by a Canadian poet named Robert service. Uh,
and he has a poem called the man from Athabasca. Uh, and he doesn't, Gord sometimes would,
would draw almost verbatim from poetry. He doesn't do that here, but there is the, the last verse of
the man from Athabasca kind of speaks to, I think what Gord's going for here. So I'll just, I'll read
that last verse. For I've had my fill of fighting, and I've seen a nation scattered, and an army swung
to slaughter, and a river red with gore, and a city all a smolder, and, as if it really mattered, for the
lake is yonder dreaming, and my cabin's on the shore, and the dogs are leaping madly, and the
wife is singing gladly, and I'll rest in Athabasca, and I'll leave it nevermore.
[51:39] So i think you know i don't know if he was if that was on gord's mind when he wrote this it
certainly wouldn't surprise me but i think for the narrator the idea of athabasca is settling as it is in
in that poem these people were literally and that when i say these people i mean people who were
sort of original pioneers and settlers out west but even the people now who who have gone into
Fort McMurray to, to kind of work in the, in the oil fields. You know, these people are literally
settlers. Um, and he's pondering the cost of staying in place versus seeing how it ends and pushing
forward. Um, so I, you know, again, I don't know if there's, there's a connection to that poem, but,
but I found something kind of very, um, you know, the, the, the settling side of things in that poem
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versus the, the pushing forward that Gord speaks of. Yeah i like the gordian read of that that is uh
that is uh very well done thank you gordian read.
[52:41] Anything else about um the depression suite this this gem of a fucking song uh Uh, it, and by
all rights, it shouldn't be, it comes from this record that is, you know, in some ways, uh, divisive
among the Tragically It fans.
[53:04] Um, it's, it's Bob rock. It's got, you know, gang vocals. It's got strings. It's got, there's just a
lot of stuff that should make it not work. And yet it works beautifully. It does. It does. Yeah. I love the
song very much. Um, and I think, and we talk about the Bob rock sound. I don't even really
particularly like the Bob rock sound. It, to me, it sounds a little over engineered, uh, it does. It
seems sterile sometimes. Yeah. Sterile. Um, so I, you know, we can't do this, but it would be
interesting to hear what this album would have sounded like with a different producer. Um, but
obviously that, that opens up a whole other can of worms of would we even have gotten in the song
with another producer and probably not. I wish they had worked with Steve Berlin for the remaining,
remaining part of their career, because it seems like he really understood them and got a lot out of
them. I, I agree. I agree.
[54:00] Um, and yeah, you, you, you mentioned the, the gang vocals and, and one of the things in
the documentary again, that, that, uh, they talked about was the fact that Gordon Bob are off doing
their thing on Maui. Uh, and then they brought in, uh, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair to do vocals,
I think on two or three songs. And I assume this was one of them because you can hear them on
the third act doing just, I think, personally, some of their most beautiful background vocals. Just
really gorgeous, those ah-ahs in the chords.
[54:36] Um but you know clearly they were going through something uh because you know they
they were not sure what what their involvement in the album was really going to be beyond you
know just playing on the songs it certainly was less than than it would have been on on any of their
previous albums so well St. Clair's disdain is palpable in the dark when he says I've never been I've
never been fired from a job until now and it's from my own fucking band exactly yeah oh yeah yeah
but uh yeah so i don't know if it's my favorite hip salt uh there are certainly others that i probably go
to more often or would would mention before i mentioned this one but it's up there uh and it's
probably the one that i've spent the most time thinking about trying to to kind of peel apart and
understand, And it's really just the scope of it. It's such a different, grand, unique set of stories or
vignettes that just, I think, tie together so beautifully. So it's one that I will always love. Well put.
Tyler from Etobicoke, do you have anything you would like to plug?
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[55:48] Do I have anything I'd like to plug? Not really. Oh, you know, a quarterly podcast. Yeah,
quarterly. I appear on the Toronto Mike podcast with my good friend Cam Gordon and Toronto
Mike. And we we do a thing called FOTM cast, which is a look back at the previous quarter of
shows of the Toronto Mike podcast. So if you are a listener of Toronto, my podcast, I recommend
that you check out FOTM cast. If you're not, uh, I would probably not start with FOTM cast because
it's, uh, it's pretty meta and you probably will listen to five minutes of it and say, what the hell is this?
So, uh, anyway, yeah. Quarterly, uh, check it out. Thanks so much, Tyler. And that's what I've got
for you today on this, the seventh episode of the tragically hip top 40 countdown as usual subscribe
share rate and review the podcast tell your friends let them in on the fun thanks for stopping by pick
up your shit.
[56:53] Thanks for listening to the tragically hip top 40 countdown to email us send an email to tth
top 40 at gmail.com we're social find us on all the socials at tth top 40.
[57:22] Podcasts and such.
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One night in El Paso, the cops go into the crowd - and somehow, 32 years later, we're still unpacking what that means.
This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream, the shuffle landed on 'Yawning or Snarling' from "Day for Night" - and it pulled 76% Love It in the community poll. Add in the Like Its and you're sitting at 95%. Not bad for track four on a record that doesn't exactly hand you easy entry points.
jD was joined by the most international panel the show has ever assembled: Andy from St. Thomas, Glynn from Melbourne, and Thomas from Oxford - who tuned in at 1 a.m. on his birthday, which is exactly the kind of dedication this community runs on.
The conversation went deep. Bass as MVP. The panning of that slide guitar in headphones. The way Gord built entire worlds by changing two words between verses - glaring to throbbing, day to night - and what that does to the light in El Paso, literally and otherwise. Glynn brought a photographer's eye to 'the bladder of light' and the science of bat sonar. Thomas picked up his guitar mid-episode to demonstrate what makes those interplaying guitar parts so quietly unusual. Andy connected the border tension of early 90s El Paso to the cop-into-crowd imagery and made it land differently than it did before. And the chat surfaced a connection between this bass line and REM's 'Undertow' that is frankly hard to unhear.
Oh, and the wheel spin at the end? Next week we're talking 'Bobcaygeon.' At the start of summer. So there's that.
About the Panelists
Andy from St. Thomas is a Tragically Hip fan whose entry into 'Yawning or Snarling' was sonic first - the vibe of "Day for Night" as a full atmospheric world - before digging into the lyric's snapshots of border tension and hollow men making purchases.
Glynn from Melbourne is a travel photographer and educator who leads international photo tours through his company Creative Photo Workshops (creativephotoworkshops.com.au). His visual brain is genuinely one of the great instruments for decoding a Gord Downie lyric. He came to 'Yawning or Snarling' bass-first, and he left having delivered the definitive explanation of Club 101 in El Paso. Find him on Instagram and Facebook.
Thomas from Oxford has a YouTube channel (Tommy KL) and a SoundCloud under his name, Thomas De Bock, featuring three Hip covers - including a recording of 'Cordelia' that predates the pandemic. He also plays guitar, and he used it. His breakdown of the interplay between the guitars - and why the slightly-off notes are the whole point - is the kind of thing that makes you want to listen to the song again the second it's done.
Tale of the Tape: 'Yawning or Snarling'
Album: "Day for Night" (released September 19, 1994)
Track: 4
Times played live: 56
First played: July 1, 1994 - Molson Park, Barrie
Last played: August 1, 2016 - Calgary (Man Machine Poem Tour, twice as encore)
Resources & References
Setlist data sourced from Hipbase - the essential Tragically Hip discography and setlist resource
Live recording: Brussels, 1994 (Live from the Vault, Vol. 4) - sourced from The Tragically Hip Archive. Hat tip to the archivists who record, preserve, and seed these recordings. That work matters.
Bass stem isolation performed by jD using stem separation tools - with a hat tip to Craig for the tutorial
Listen & Connect
New episodes drop every Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern. Find the full show at home.tthpods.com. Join the community at community.tthpods.com. Subscribe to Yer Letter at subscribe.tthpods.com. Email jD directly at jd@tthpods.com.
Follow on Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
Next week: 'Bobcaygeon.' The wheel has spoken. See you Wednesday.

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