Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Gord Downie: Toronto Mike'd #387
Episode Date: October 17, 2018Mike is joined by Jamie Dew and Tyler Campbell on the anniversary of Gord Downie's passing....
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We'll be right back. No!
Yes!
Yes!
No! No!
No! No!
No! Thank you.
It's October 17th, 2018.
And one year ago today, we lost Gord Downie.
And I wanted to open this episode with that clip of Gord,
the very last concert, the last concert ever by my favorite band, the Tragically Hip, August 20th, 2016. In the middle of Grace 2, as you heard right there, Gord starts these
guttural screams. This is the moment. When I think back on that concert, and there were many,
many moments in that final concert that I watched from Inganish, Nova Scotia with my daughter. That's
the moment for me, that scream, it was this release.
Gord was dying. This was the
last time he was ever going to play with the Tragically Hip.
And there was that release. We all watched it
live and even listening to it now,
I have chills. So I wanted to open with that and I'm joined, I have a couple of guests here because
for this episode, we're just going to talk about the Tragically Hip, talk about Gord Downie
and play, kick out some Gord Downie jams, if you will,
and kind of share some memories
and talk about why we love that band
and why we love Gord Downie.
So firstly, anyone who's listened
to a Kick Out the Jams episode of Toronto Mic'd
may have visited the Google spreadsheet
where every jam ever kicked out by anybody
is just beautifully
archived there with great detail. You can even see like there's almanac there. So you can see
who kicked out the most jams from the 1960s, who kicked out the most jams from the 1990s,
probably Bingo Bob, but let's find out all of that detail. Who kicked out, how many jams are
from Canadian artists like the Tragically out? How many jams are from Canadian
artists like the Tragically Hip? How many are from, you know, American artists or whatnot?
So much fascinating detail, including all 100 of Dave Hodge's jams, which this is a massive effort,
this kick out the jam spreadsheet. And I want to take full credit for it. I want to say I,
spreadsheet and I want to take full credit for it. I want to say I this is value add I do just for you the listener but in fact a dude named Tyler Campbell is responsible for that spreadsheet.
Tyler is here with me right now making his Toronto Mike debut. Is that right? This is my Toronto Mike
debut and I'm so happy to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Tyler, the Kick Out of the Jam spreadsheet man,
thanks so much for being here
on the one-year anniversary of Gord's passing.
Thank you.
It is my pleasure.
And also, I have another guest.
Look at this.
This is why I bought three microphones,
okay, for moments like this.
But there's an interesting story.
Tyler, we can tell this story together, okay?
Yes.
You and I have been
looking for like a project
to do together.
Yeah.
Like, and we don't,
I don't think,
I don't think we're going
to do like a standalone
series of podcasts,
but I think we're going
to do like a series
in the Toronto Mike
universe,
if that makes sense.
Yeah.
Like Russian dolls here,
right?
Right?
So we are both massive hip fans.
Yes, we are.
So initially, our idea, we had this good idea.
We met at Great Lakes Brewery.
We had a pint and we were brainstorming.
This is, I don't know, early in the summer?
It was May.
It was around the long weekend, I believe,
because I'd pitched you over Twitter.
I thought, you know, we got to do this
because, you know, I had looked around.
I had done an exhaustive search to see,
is there another podcast that's talking about the Tragically Hip?
And there was not.
So I was like, perfect.
This is our opportunity.
We're going to own this space
and we're going to dive deep on the Tragically Hip.
And you and I are going to host
the definitive Tragically Hip podcast.
In fact, our idea was
an episode, each episode
is devoted to a different
Tragically Hip album.
What a unique concept. Right.
And even the Gord Downie solos. That's right. Why not?
In fact, let's share this now.
We had some big
guests that were going to join us for this. We did.
We had Steven Brunt lined up for the Coke Machine
Glow. We sure did. Right? We have
some big names. There were other names. Mark
Hebbshire was in, right? Yeah. Which one did he want? Do you remember?
He was going to do... Up to Here, wasn't it?
He was going to do Up to Here. That's right. Right, right, right. Yeah. But we had
some famous hip
fans. I was in
discussions with Ron McLean. Yeah. I can tell you
that right now. Yeah. But famous hip fans,
we were discussing, which album do you want?
And we had this idea.
I remember thinking,
okay, we'll set the stage
by talking about
the calendar year
in which it was released,
what was going on,
what was the world like,
like these were the hit songs,
these were the popular movies.
Who else would have this idea?
I mean, this is...
No, it was so...
Honestly, we thought it was
like this most unique,
wonderful thing.
And then we...
You know, I was really busy
launching TMDS.
And then I said,
hey, I remember saying to you, do you mind if we do this in September? Yeah. I just need a bit of time. Sure, whatever. And then I said, hey, I remember saying to you,
do you mind if we do this in September?
I just need a bit of time.
Sure, whatever.
Fine.
So you actually started doing lots of work on this
and meticulous notes, I remember,
and a shared Google spreadsheet,
because that's how we roll.
And at some point, I think, I'm trying to think when,
but at some point, maybe it was through Twitter,
a guy named Jamie Du, that's a great name, right? Jamie Du, right? So a guy named Jamie Du said,
hey, would you mind listening to our podcast and tell me what you think? And he said, it's called
Fully and Completely. And I remember you and I DMing that, hey, there's another guy with this
same idea, but he's doing it already.
Yeah, I was heartbroken.
Right. And then at the TMLX2, the second Toronto Mike Lister experience, I met Jamie.
So we're going to talk about Jamie like he's not sitting right beside me.
I met Jamie, a nice guy.
And then at some point shortly thereafter, I said, I got to make time to listen to an episode of Fully and Completely to hopefully discover that it's terrible and they need us to do it properly.
This is going to sound like, I don't know, some internal mic on his laptop.
It's going to sound terrible.
He's going to just, it's going to be awful.
That was the hope, right?
Yeah.
So I'm like, I'm going to tune into this Jamieie guy's podcast fully and completely uh to find out and
then i would tell you by dm oh it's terrible we need to do this yeah let's do it so i tune in
i remember messaging you i got bad news it sounds good like it's a good podcast like it sounded it
sounded uh it was good audio quality and uh this guy jamie was joined by a guy named greg
and it sounded really good.
And I liked that they were doing the same thing about the calendar year it was released.
And they had some interesting notes on it.
And they were kicking out the songs from the album like we were going to do. And then I remember saying to you, someone like a Torontonian who I've met and like is already doing this right.
We should do something else.
So without further ado, that's the biggest intro ever.
Jamie Du from Fully and Completely is here with us.
So hi, Jamie.
One half of Fully and Completely in the house.
So you're not fully and completely.
You're saying...
No, it's partial.
Partial and incomplete today.
I'm missing my cohort, Greg LeGrow.
And Greg couldn't make it because Greg is working for a living.
He does, yes.
This podcast does not
feed our families at this point.
Shocking.
Very few podcasts in this country are feeding
any families, unless maybe you have a
family of mice or something. I don't know.
A family of ducks in High Park
you can maybe feed your family.
Thanks so much for coming all the way from East York.
That's right.
Yeah.
And just like an East Yorker,
I made a tactical error on the TTC and ended up...
I don't even know where I was.
I was without a passport.
You were somewhere in Etobicoke.
That's right.
Lost in the wild of Etobicoke.
Yes.
And Jamie, tell us how, if somebody wanted to sample your fine podcast, just let them
know right off the top where they should go.
Well, I would say you could go to fullyincompletely.ca.
That's got pretty much everything we do on there.
If you're a Twitter purist, I suppose, and you don't like to go to the World Wide Web at all, you can go to at fully podcast.
And basically anywhere you find podcasts, you can search for fully and completely and you'll find the podcast there as well.
How did you know to reach out to me in the first place?
The timing is all ridiculous to me.
Did you listen to Toronto Mic'd and then hear I was a hip fan or something like that like is it that simple i am a first time guest long time listener
um you know mike zeisberger used the same expression i think when he was on last week
first time long time yeah yeah i would say um no i've been listening to you for some time
i'm trying to think of the first time the first episode that
would have really grabbed me oh i want to know the answer to this question is it on a spreadsheet
somewhere it's gotta be right um it's been three or four years anyway or i would say like it's been
a it's been a long time some people tell me they started listening with the strombo episode i get
that sometimes well i did 103 Once I found one that I really
enjoyed, I remember going back
and grabbing all the ones,
you know, guests that I wanted to hear about,
right? Alan Cross, I think, was
like 66 or something.
It wouldn't have been that early.
But no, thanks for listening
firstly. And by the way, I should tell people
I did come over. I biked all
the way to East York to do your podcast on Sunday.
But where I...
I will release an episode into the wild
15 minutes after the guest leaves.
You have a different approach. You like
to caress it and
keep it to yourself for a little while. So when
will my episode see the
light of day? I believe it's Monday, November the
7th, I believe. It's a long way from now.
Yeah. Well, because we have one
coming out,
we have one coming out
this coming Monday.
So that will be
Battle of the Nudes.
And we're going chronological, right?
Of course.
So Battle of the Nudes
and then it'll be
in between Evolution
right after that.
So whatever the date is,
it might be closer
to the end of October.
I'm just not sure of the date.
My phone is dead
and I have no calendar. Oh, that's okay. I'm just not sure of the dates. My phone is dead and I have no calendar.
Oh, that's okay.
I was just impressed that you're so organized
that you would be able to kind of,
you have a whole like schedule.
I don't have a schedule of release.
Like I'm more of a as it happens guy.
Greg and I have it,
but we haven't released it to anybody else yet
just in case there's a week
that we can't get one out or whatever.
But so far, so good.
So far, we released our first episode, just so you guys know, The Long Weekend in May.
So that's the timing, eh?
That's weird, eh?
It was exactly the same time.
Unbelievable.
So we recorded that episode.
I'll tell you how slow on the mark we were.
You talk about holding it and caressing it.
November the 15th of 2017 is when we recorded.
So why did you hold it so long?
You just wanted to...
We wanted to have a bunch banked
and we didn't have four in the bank
until March.
But how often...
Do you release it every week?
We release it every other week.
So you didn't need to bank any
because you had two weeks
to do a new one.
Like the only way...
There's no reason to...
You don't have to bank.
What am I doing
telling this fine gentleman
how to do his podcast?
No, you be you.
I think it's working for you.
So far, so good.
Yeah.
No, and again, it was good enough
that Tyler and I, we completely changed our course.
So should we share some idea
that we're kind of working on now?
Sure, yeah, yeah.
Do you want to go ahead?
Yeah, well, after the crushing blow
of our hip show dying on the vine, and I will say, well, after the crushing blow of our hip show dying on the vine.
And I will say, Jamie, that I had originally planned not to listen to the episodes because I didn't want your show to affect our show.
But then once Mike said, it's actually really good, I dove in and listened to all of them.
And it's a great show.
Like, it's exactly the show that I wanted to do, but you're doing it so well.
And, you know, kudos to you.
That means so much.
It really is so great
to get good feedback, right?
It's a good thing.
I said these kind words on his show.
Good. They need to be said.
I am very complimentary to you, Mr.
Dew. I like your last name,
too. I just like to say it.
It just rolls off the tongue, right? Jamie Dew.
But to get to your question,
Mike, the idea that we're talking about
is going deep on Kick Out the Jams
because we have, I think you have 55 or 56,
at last count.
You would know.
I would know.
Episodes in the bank.
And so that's like 500 and change,
550 songs that have been kicked out.
So there's lots of data there to mine
and lots of interesting patterns and trends.
So we're going to record an episode every once in a while and talk about what's happening in Kick Out the Jam land.
That's not too meta, right?
Although I like meta.
Yeah, I think it's very meta.
That's okay.
That's very cool.
We're going to have an episode about episodes that are like a subset of a subset.
That's right.
And we're going to discuss that analytically. So by the way, if anybody right now wants to see this amazing Kick Out the Jam spreadsheet,
the fastest way to get there is to go to torontomike.com.
I have a link at the very top that I think it's K-O-T-J, which K-O-T-J stands for Kick Out the Jams.
I like to say everything short form.
If you click that, the very top, there'll be a big button that says kick out the jam spreadsheet.
So that's one, like the fastest route, I think.
I'd also be happy to read out the full URL
if anyone's interested in that.
I love those Google URLs, absolutely.
I think the other day,
I don't know who I was talking to on this program,
but somebody, I started talking about a website.
I started with www.
And I was like, why am I saying www?
When was the last time you said www?
Can I make a confession?
When I plugged my website a minute ago,
I purposely didn't say www at the beginning.
I left it out because you had said that.
Okay, do you remember what episode that was?
I think it was Zeisberger.
Yeah, Zeisberger, okay.
And I heard myself saying www.
I didn't want to get made fun of.
No, I mean mean that dates you,
right? Because we used to say that.
It's been a long time. You had to type it in.
HTTP. That's right.
That's right.
I'm old enough to remember that
when Major League Baseball had their first website
that it was www.
Major League Baseball. You had to type in
the whole thing rather than MLB.
Because there was a law firm that had MLB.
I remember this exactly.
A law firm had MLB.com.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A similar thing happened with Nissan.
Is it Nissan?
I think Nissan.
I think Nissan.com was owned by some independent guy
who refused to sell it no matter what they threw at it.
So they had to use NissanMotors.com or something there's a some interesting uh stories like that when people
were scooping up their domain names and stuff but back to the tragically hip i want to know
when i played that two minutes of gourd screaming during grace 2 in the final show from kingston
may i ask what was like how did did you have any of feelings like when you were just listening to that in the headphones?
How did you feel?
I've got all the feelings today.
I can't lie to you.
I've been listening to Battle of the Nudes today.
I listened to Coke Machine Glow.
And then on the way here, I started to listen to Introduce Yourself.
And there is something.
You used the word guttural, I think, when you were describing it. And it is something you use the word guttural, I think when you were describing it,
and it is very guttural. It is very, um, you know, from the heart and impassioned and boy,
oh boy, you know, they never said that this was the last tour, you know, um, but we all knew it. And we all knew that was the last show.
And we all knew this was his last performance with this band,
singing this catalog of songs.
But nothing could prepare you for that.
And I think when he was screaming, that was all of us screaming too.
That was all of us sort of pre-morning, I suppose.
We didn't realize he was going to go as quickly as he did,
but boy, oh boy, that was a real raw nerve kind of performance
and a real raw nerve kind of night.
Yeah, it was heart-wrenching.
I was a mess watching that show,
and I still, when I see clips of it
or hear what you played off the top, uh, when I see clips of it or, um, you know,
hear what you, what you played off the top, uh, it still, uh, brings back a lot of those emotions,
which is crazy because, you know, he's not a person that I knew or a person that I spent any
time with, but at the same time he was because he was the soundtrack for so much of my life,
starting from when I was probably 16 or 17 years old, uh, all the way through, you know,
my adulthood and everything that has happened in that. Uh, through, you know, my adulthood and everything that has
happened in that. So, you know, he did feel like someone that you knew, even though you didn't know
him. That, you just touched on something there where, like, I mean, I've mourned the loss of
many celebrities. Like, I mean, I remember I was a big Nirvana fan, and then Kurt Cobain was gone
at 27. And all, you know, there's lots of examples like this. John Candy passed away,
and all these celebrity deaths,
people I'd never met that affected me.
But I never cried.
I never wept for somebody I hadn't met
until Gord passed.
And I record it,
and if you're listening to this,
you must have a level of interest
in the Tragically Hip.
Well, I would urge you to,
I tweeted it out today from at Toronto Mike on Twitter. Maybe I'll share interest in the Tragically Hip. Well, I would urge you to, I tweeted it out today
from at Toronto Mike on Twitter.
Maybe I'll share it in the comments
of this entry about this
on torontomike.com about this episode.
But I went to this studio
where I'm sitting right now
just shortly after I learned Gord had passed
and I recorded completely unscripted,
like from the heart.
It's about 25 minutes long
where I played some hip songs
and I talked about them.
And I mean, I was openly weeping.
Like I was so emotional
and I had never openly wept
for a celebrity death before.
But Gord was different.
Like I felt like I had lost a member of my family.
And I talked to a lot
of people. And I've been reminded by
my wife that it's only...
Now, we can have an argument
about it, but generally speaking, we're talking about
white
English Canada. I think the demographics
in this room kind of speak to
your point. Do you know we're all born in the same
calendar year, too? Oh, wow.
All three of us. And that's a complete coincidence.
So there you go.
So,
but in white English,
because I did,
I was on a big road trip
when Gord did the final show
in Kingston
when the hip did that show.
And so I spent some time
in Quebec shortly thereafter
and it wasn't the same thing there.
Like they weren't talking
about the show from Kingston.
And my wife uh who was a
filipino descent and a lot of her most of her facebook friends were uh also a filipino descent
because of his family she's a very big family and they weren't talking about it but meanwhile
if you look at uh white english canada it's all we were talking about like it's so interesting
that if you just want to talk about...
And there's exceptions.
Of course there's exceptions.
But white English Canada mourned the loss of Gordon
as the loss of a family member, a very close friend.
It's almost universal.
It's kind of amazing.
I mean, our prime minister was at the concert, right?
The theater that they played in,
the arena they played in that last show,
I think is about 12,000 seats.
It's not a big place.
To have the leader of
this country, you know,
prime seats, by the way.
He had some pretty sweet seats.
He knew somebody.
To be there, and then what did they say?
It's like one third of Canada?
Something like that.
Basically watched this thing.
And that's not including all the little parks and the big parks and the bars and all these
places that had this thing on.
It was like nothing we'd ever seen.
And you're right.
It really is only a portion of this country.
I mean, a lot.
I mean, you know, Canada is a very fascinating country
and how it's spread out.
And a good, I don't know if it's a third,
it might be a third of this country is in Quebec,
French Canadian.
And they were passively interested, I want to say.
So you remove a third there,
and then it's kind of the way this resonated.
And it's kind of ideal,
like how the Olympic schedule
almost had this amazing gap in it,
like where the CBC could break from Olympics
and Ron McLean could kind of introduce this.
And I'm trying to think, was it two hours?
About a two-hour block or something like that?
I can't remember.
It's the first time ever that they did three encores.
And this is a whole separate discussion, how he had the strength to do that considering we've all seen the documentary yeah i think yeah which is like i'm tim thompson
was there and he was telling me because tim thompson was working on a montage uh at boundless
on uh on twitter and he told he was at the kingston show and he was working on some montage
stuff for the for the tragically hip and he was telling me and montage stuff for the, for the Tragically Hip. And he was telling me, and he said, when you see this doc, you'll learn. But he said, it's amazing Gord did
what he did considering what he was dealing with health-wise, like unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Yeah. It was just a Herculean effort. And, uh, you know, he was dragging himself out there every
night and kind of laying his soul out on the line for everyone. And, uh, and I mean, I'm sure part of it was, you know, it was, it was energizing for him as well to kind of get his soul out on the line for everyone. And I mean, I'm sure part of it was, you know,
it was energizing for him as well
to kind of get the love back from the crowd.
And he would do that sort of solo goodbye every night
where he'd come back out and kind of wave to everyone.
And it was, you know, I think a real opportunity for him,
obviously, to say goodbye and thank you for all the years.
But yeah, the trauma that he went through to even get through his first surgery was unbelievable.
Oh, when you see him relearning the songs.
And I mean, my seats for the show that I saw in Toronto were behind the stage.
And to see the number of teleprompters.
Six, I think.
My understanding was he's always had at least one or two.
I think he says that in the documentary.
Never used them really, right?
He could just improvise.
But there were occasional times where you would see him actually,
you know, looking at these things.
And it was heartbreaking.
Like it was very heartbreaking to know what he was putting in.
I recall the Toronto show that I was at, which
was the last one in Bob Cajun. There's the, you
know, that night in Toronto, he dropped the
line, like he totally forgot it. And yeah. And
you know, the crowd obviously filled in and
you know, nothing was missed. But you know, to
miss a moment like that, you could, you know that, the frame of mind that he was in
was just incredible.
Any chance he pulls that
old gem where you purposely missed
the line to let the crowd carry the line?
It could have been.
By design. I'm giving it out there.
You were at the last show in Toronto.
Jamie, which show?
Second to last.
So me too. We were at the same time.
I was at the second to last.
Chris Brown, he's upstairs. Toronto. I was, yeah. And Jamie, which show? Second to last. So me too. We were at the same time. Oh, wow. I was at the second to last. Oh, was she? Yeah.
Chris Brown, he's upstairs. He's a big hip fan too. He was at both of those shows.
Oh, wow. So we're all linked up.
We're all linked up here.
I will tell you, I don't have many regrets
in life, really.
But
when it comes to the Tragically Hip, it's
only money. I don't know why I didn't try and go to Kingston.
I don't know.
Like in hindsight, it's like, why didn't I go?
Yeah.
Man.
Yeah.
Even just to be in Kingston, I'm sure.
That's right.
Yeah.
Would have been incredible.
My excuse is I was in Nova Scotia on a very scheduled family road trip.
Well, there you go.
Babe, we got to get to Kingston for August 20.
But, oh, man.
And can I ask you guys about your experience watching that last show,
that August 20th, 2016 show from Kingston?
Like, where were you?
Who are you with kind of deal?
For me, we were in my living room.
I had just got a brand new TV and I didn't get it for that event.
But it was serendipitous that I had got this television,
and we invited some friends over,
and we made it like a party.
It was a celebration for us as well,
and there were tears shed for sure.
There was a lot of alcohol consumed,
and we just enjoyed the shit out of it,
just enjoyed the shit out of that. Just enjoyed the shit out of that show.
What about you, Tyler?
Yeah, I was at my parents' house in Burlington
and watching from there
and was watching by myself
and it was just heartbreaking.
I was a mess.
And I've shared this story before,
but yeah,
I'm in Inganish
and there's six of us there.
My wife was really tired
because,
you know,
we were,
she was really tired
and she didn't have the same,
I took her,
no,
yeah,
I did take her to a hip concert.
It didn't stick.
Like,
I tried this with my first wife too, by the way. I took her to a hip concert. It didn't stick. I tried this with my first wife too, by the way.
I took her to a hip concert.
It didn't stick.
So I often went with my brothers or myself or whatever.
By the way, quickly,
how many times have you guys seen the hip live?
For me, it's 18 or 19.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
It was only six for me.
Don't you qualify that with only.
Six wonderful times.
They were great.
Because I will now say it was only 12, I think, for me.
Just imagine that. Seeing a man
a band more than twice
is significant,
I think. You know, like when you think of the time...
You have to really like a band to see them more than
twice. Actually, I would say to see
a band more than one time. Like you'll see a lot of bands
once that you're lukewarm on and stuff, but you
have to really enjoy
a band to actually you know
pay to see them more than one time i would argue so i mean you saw him 19 times right so that's
19 yeah yeah which is amazing uh but then you'll meet somebody who you know traveled the country
with the band and we'll say i saw him 19 times on that one tour right they call me junior yeah
oh that's really cute that's really cute you're's really cute. You're 19 times there, Jamie.
Right. But again, it's not only six, Tyler,
because you caught him six times.
I did.
They're a great live show.
For sure.
And I remember the...
So yeah, I'm in Inganish with my...
Yeah, so my wife went to bed.
There were two very little people with us
who had their bedtime already.
So they were already in bed.
So that's half of the six of us.
Half of them are sleeping.
That leaves me
my son james and my uh daughter michelle my son james who i again i tried very hard to get him
into the tragically it didn't stick with him either and frank ocean of all people that night
released a new album okay and my son my son downloaded the new ocean album put on his
headphones and had his own little experience in the other room, okay,
during the final hip jump of all time.
So, okay, James, that's fine.
Michelle and I have always been very close,
but she sensed,
she knew this meant something to daddy.
Like we're very, very close
and she wasn't going anywhere.
Like, and I can feel it coming out
because I cry even thinking about this,
but she was there and daddy
was crying she was crying and it was quite it was very emotional the whole thing again i could cry
now one year after gourd passed away and i've never cried for another celebrity death ever but
i could cry with you right now man uh that's the um the effect and do you ever like Do you have any theories?
Why? Why did this band resonate with us
three 40-something-year-old
white English Canadians?
Why did this band resonate so much with us?
Why are they special?
There's a lot of great rock bands
out of this country.
It's a great question because we really do produce
a lot of really great
music in this country.
Certainly, south of the border border they do as well.
And we're perpetually bombarded with that sort of pop cultural wave.
For me, I felt like they were mine.
And even though my best friend at the time and my other best friend at the time both really loved them as well,
secretly, I guess I thought, I'm the biggest fan.
I'm the biggest fan.
They're mine.
My first experience seeing them live was on the Roadside Attraction Tour in 93.
It was my 19th birthday.
I got obliterated.
I passed out.
But I woke up just as they were coming on the stage.
It was like magical.
I slept for the entire Midnight Oil performance,
which is terrible of me.
But as soon as they walked on the stage,
suddenly I had the fortitude to stand up
and to experience it.
There's certainly something about the um the lyric
you know and the fact that this guy just seems smarter than the rest of us as well
we we appreciate that in canada we appreciate intellect and he seemed very intellectual
and we love that i think that that's that's for me a big part of it. Yeah, I would agree with that.
I think I had similar feelings that they were mine.
My friends, when I was in high school,
I don't think any of them were really into the hip.
And it wasn't really until I started working
when I sort of met people that were hip fans as big as me.
So I didn't see them live until the Phantom Power Tour.
Good tour to see them. Oh, it was great. until the Phantom Power Tour. Good tour to see them.
Oh, it was great.
I went to Albany, New York to see them.
Wow.
And the Watchmen opened for them,
and it was just a great show in a small venue,
probably 2,000 people.
I've seen the Watchmen open for the hip.
Yeah, Watchmen are great.
Watchmen are a great band.
Yeah.
But it was just, you know, and you're right.
Like, Gord was this intellectual poet at the front of a really good bar band, you know, which, you know, is the cliche that everyone says.
But it's true because, you know, they were a tight band, really good, really good songs with these crazy lyrics, some of them referencing Canadian places and things, some of them not.
Canadian places and things.
Some of them not.
But it was just... I don't know if it was the age
that we were at the time.
It's hitting us right as we're young people
becoming adults.
It was a possession.
There's something to that.
Since we're all the same age,
we're all teenagers when Up To Here
comes out.
That's right.
I kick up the jams
a lot. What's your favorite music?
The music I loved when I was a teenager.
You know what I mean? So, 89, right?
89 for Up to Here, I believe.
My memory's right. So, 89, Up to Here.
I remember listening. I used to listen to a lot of Q107 at the time
and hearing Blow It High Doe and I'm like, what's that?
And then New Orleans is Sinking
is the next single or whatever and you're like, holy smokes!
And you're listening to the disco and of a sudden you great jams on there from 38
years old boots all this stuff in there uh love that album and you're 15 you're 15 years old
and that's an album you love when you're 15 and then you know the rest is history because
they don't let up right it just gets just gets better. Road Apples blows your mind. And then Fully Completely,
that'd be a good name for a podcast.
But Gord was our national poet.
And it was a combination of this bluesy rock,
this great band, you're right,
you call it a bar band,
but it's just a great, great tight band.
But then this front man
that's with this crazy charisma
and this poetic
uh like he was he was like uh he had this sort of leonard cohen uh poet-esque but he had this
front man swagger and he had a little bit of the michael stipe thing going on uh you know again
for the millionth time you can't tell an amer i i was with an american yesterday on toronto mike
his name is jamar he came from chicago he's brand new here. And he doesn't know who Gord Downie is.
And I was so disappointed when we had that conversation. I was like, oh, I wanted him
to be like, yeah, I totally know the hip. That was part of my indoctrination joining
job or something.
Right, right, right, right, right. But like I'm thinking, right away I'm thinking, I don't
know how to describe Gord to this man. I don, because I don't know, is it take one part, Michael Stipe,
throw in a little Bruce Springsteen, and then some Bob Dylan.
Jim Morrison maybe even, right?
Yeah, very difficult, right?
But he was ours.
This is what you said, Jamie.
I always felt like the Americans didn't buy in,
sort of like my wife and my son James.
They didn't, it wasn't their cup of tea.
They didn't kind of
buy in, which meant that the Tragic Leap was ours. Uniquely Canadian. We could go on forever and
ever, but David Milgaard and Tom Thompson is paddling by, and Bill Borilko and Bob Cajun,
and the references are many. And it really feels good that it's better for us
if you don't understand.
Oh, that is well placed.
Oh, man.
Maybe we should do that podcast, Tyler.
Maybe we should.
That is really, really a nice mine of a lyric
to explain this band.
Wow.
Shortly after Gord died,
there's a music critic in the States
named Stephen Hyden
who does a podcast called Celebration Rock.
And he did an episode about the Tragically Hip.
And he had Stuart Berman,
who's a Canadian writer for Pitchfork,
on with him as well
sort of to try to explain the hip.
But he said,
he spent a lot of time
digging into the hips catalog
and listened to all their stuff.
And he said,
I can't believe what a great band this is. And I can't believe, you know, that they didn't connect in the U.S. And the conversation, you know, I encourage everyone to listen to it. But the conversation was really about the fact that they just didn't get the right promotion at the right time by the record companies.
record companies. And, you know, I think that's probably the case for a lot of bands who just,
you know, for whatever reason, just don't make it. And that's not to say that the hip didn't make it because they were incredibly successful. I think Moe Berg the other day said that the hip
were very successful in the States. You know, they would sell out 2,000 seat theaters across
the country. A lot of them were Canadians, but they sold it out. I love the way he put it though.
He's just like, how can you compare success in the United States
to being as giant as they were here?
They were just enormous.
Do you remember the Canada Day
that they played three dates in one day?
Yeah, yeah.
Unbelievable.
Yeah, I mean, they weren't REM in the States,
but who is, right?
That's right, yeah.
They were still a very successful band,
and they had a significant following.
Now we're going to play some music.
What better way is there to pay tribute to Gord Downie
in the Tragically Hip than by kicking out some jams?
And we're going to do this.
So Jamie, can you set the stage here?
You sent me a list of 10 mostly hip songs,
but some Gord Downie solo.
But is this you and Greg that came up with this list just to
set the yeah basically greg and i each had a list of 10 and then we married those lists together
and tried to um form a bit of a continuity a bit of a a bit of a narrative you know for what we're
discussing on our show and describing on our show, but also being aware of the chronology.
We didn't want to pick five songs from Fully Completely
or five songs from Day for Night or anything like that.
So you're going to hear this list, dear listener,
and there are going to be myriad of songs that you're like,
how could they not put that song on the list?
And the answer is we just don't have enough time.
I don't know how many songs are
in the hip catalog but we could have made a list that long i suspect we're gonna kick out these
jams and jamie you're gonna tell us like why you and greg love this song but of course tyler you
and i are also going to contribute because a lot of these songs are our favorites too and then
after we kick out these 10 jams from Jamie and Greg,
Tyler, you've got a jam you want to kick out
and we'll close with that
and then I'll play something really special
on the way out.
Just want to give props
to my second favorite band of all time,
which is Pearl Jam,
because the night that Gord was performing in Kingston,
the final hip show that we're talking about,
August 20, 2016,
I've seen the clip on YouTube of Eddie Vedder performing in Kingston, the final hip show that we're talking about, August 20, 2016.
I've seen the clip on YouTube of Eddie Vedder
giving love in a special shout-out.
I think they were at Wrigley Field.
Which is amazing in itself.
It's in the documentary, even.
That's right. So it's just amazing
that my second favorite lead
singer was giving love
to my first favorite lead singer on that
very special night. So
I thought that was pretty cool. But are you guys ready for some Gord Downie?
Yes.
Oh, boy. 12 men broke loose in 73
From Mill Haven, Maximum Security
12 pictures lined up across the front page
Seems the mountains had a summertime long wait
The cheap, dull people had nothing to feed
The last thing they want to do is hang around here
Most of Camden Town's long French names But one of the dozenings have a long French name
But one of the dozen was a hometown shame
Same pattern on the table, same clock on the wall
Been one seat empty 18 years in all
Freezing slow time away from the world
He's 38 years old.
Okay. 38 years old. Okay, so to me, this was a song that we discussed on the podcast
as, you know, really the beginning of Gord's storytelling
and taking something that is true
and spinning it in such a way as to tell a different story.
There was a prison break at Melhaven. It didn't happen in
73. It happened in 72, but it didn't rhyme.
So he changed it. He took that poetic license and made that small change.
And he's got a brother named Mike, but this isn't who
he's referring to. This is just a really rich
and elaborate story. this is probably as close
as you get to gore being very literal um while telling a story most most things from this point
on are like notebook type you know there's uh little clips and pieces and fragments of a story
but this we get a complete story there's a a beginning, a middle, and an end. And then musically, this song.
Greg talks about that snare snap, you know, after all that acoustic as we get into it.
And that just kicks it right off.
You've got beautiful slide guitar.
This is just a wonderful song by a wonderful band.
And I don't know what more you can say, but I want to hear what you guys have to say.
Yeah, I mean, it's an incredible song.
As you said, it's really a testament to Gord's storytelling ability.
And it's really kind of a hint of what's to come for the band.
Up to here is full of a lot of kind of straight-ahead rock songs.
But 38 Years Old and a couple of the others are really much more kind of intricate tales
that there's a lot more going on
than kind of just what's at the surface in the lyrics.
And it's just an incredible song.
It sounds great in the headphones.
I mean, the production on the album
is really clear and crisp.
And, you know, it's definitely one
that I go back to a lot.
It's a personal favorite for me from up to here.
And a great jam.
But I never saw it live.
It was one of those songs that Gord and the band, they never played it.
And I remember reading somewhere it had something to do possibly with the fact that he referenced his older brother, Mike, who he really had a brother, Mike.
And that wasn't a true story about Mike.
And then that maybe that had
something to do with it i don't know that was something i read somewhere but i want to say
that when i saw the hip at fort york uh there i was at fort york it's a beautiful venue anyways
and the hip were great and i had my bill barilko jersey on as i often did at these shows and uh
they played 38 years old and then i got home that night and I remember Googling this,
like, how long has it been?
I was so excited.
I said, I heard 38 years old live.
It had been 22 years.
22 years since the Hippin played 38 years.
Yeah, isn't that crazy?
That is awesome that you got to see it.
Yeah, and in that aforementioned 26 minute thing I did off the cuff that day that Gord passed away,
I play some 38 years old
and I tell that story in that one.
So yeah, I really do. I'm really glad
you chose 38 years old. That's
fantastic that you did that.
It's also dark. It's ominous
as well, right? It really shows
this is what we
are and this is where we're going. guitar solo Zoo Lion Sober's up
Starts to scream and chow
Little does her humpback
On a warm smoothed out
Man of collard wine
So tender and nice
She hated it here
Oh she couldn't care less Prison yard stairs
And flirty leaf tattoos
Cannibals are saving
All the bones for soon
Even with my fingers
Sucking houseships
My parasite don't deserve no better than this
Ha ha ha
The golden rim
Motoring
Soft water and a colored TV The Luxury. The luxury. The luxury.
Okay, so one of the things we do on our show is we pick a song each from every episode,
and we're building out a playlist.
This is a Greg jam, and he chose this song.
He's got a band background.
He's been in a band, and there's something about life on the road and that feeling of missing home and you
know this band at this time had probably been on the road god I don't even know
how long they just went out and toured and toured and toured and that's how
they got so goddamn good and you know they probably spent many nights at the you know
the uh titular golden rim motor in but there's something so again dark about this song as well
and he's singing it from a different place than we've heard him sing before as well there's
we've we've used the word twice already now but there's a gutturalness to this song and then the lyric some of the lyric in the
song are sucking holes of ship melancholy wine soaked tenderness there's these beautiful snippets
that just paint this gorgeous picture and that's the luxury it's a great great song man coming back
to these songs and hearing them again like you know every
i'll go through cycles where i don't listen to the hip that much and then you know maybe six or
eight months later i'll start back in and go back to the beginning and listen to these songs and it
just blows me away how good these songs are they're just so well written and well played and
well sung it's just amazing the luxury road apples was kind of the way in to the hip for me i missed
up to here i knew of new orleans is sinking but it didnles was kind of the way in to the hip for me. I missed up to here.
I knew of New Orleans is sinking, but it didn't really kind of register with me.
Summer of 1991.
I'll take you back.
Hamilton, Ontario.
Young man has failed grade 12 math.
My shame.
My everlasting shame.
So I had to go to summer school.
I lived in Burlington, so I had to take the go bus in. Um, and, uh, one day I went to cheapies record and tapes, uh, and, uh, bought, uh,
wrote apples on cassette. Uh, and it was my companion every day on the bus back and forth to, uh, from Burlington to, uh, to summer school. And, uh, and I listened to that album every day
and those songs stick with me and take me back to that time
every time I hear them.
And The Luxury was one of the
early favorites for me.
And I remember thinking,
man, it sounds like The Doors,
like this sort of bluesy,
bass-driven song.
Roadhouse blues.
Yeah, yeah.
I hear it.
I hear it.
Yeah, and the sort of gritty lyrics
and, you know,
who is this guy,
and, you know,
why is he at this terrible motel?
But it's such a great song that really kind of captures them in a moment where, again, they're evolving as a band.
They're still that kind of straight ahead rock band, but, you know, there's always something going on that's interesting with the lyrics.
And can I say, I don't think it gets talked about much.
I think you guys have talked about it
a little bit on the show,
but Gord Sinclair is such a fucking good bassist.
Holy shit.
Like that groove is just so tight
and it drives the song forward
and it's, I love it.
You can just see him,
you can see him standing on the stage
just with his eyes closed,
just grooving away.
It does, it delivers.
And Road Apples is the unsung hero
in the Tragically Hip catalog, I always say,
because I feel like it gets a bit overlooked
because up to here is kind of this big breakthrough
and then you have Fully Completely,
which was just a monster album
full of big mainstream hits or whatever.
So it's easy to kind of,
it's easy to overlook Road Apples,
but I mean, Cordelia, Fiddler's Green,
Long Time Running,
forget the monster lead single, Little B bones like there's so much going on there that's just so so fantastic that
they also didn't give road apples a lot of time to breathe i mean they released up to here in 89
they released road apples in 91 and then fully was 92 yeah so it was like geez i i can't imagine
not letting that record
sit for,
you know,
at least two years.
It had enough singles on it
that it could have.
But boy.
Yeah,
for sure.
And speaking of
monster singles. Watch the band
Through a bunch of dancers
Quickly
Follow the unknown
With something
More familiar
Quickly
Something familiar
Could it
My world
Think of me doesn't matter
Sleepwalk
Almost enough to make you a Bruins fan, almost.
I can picture him now.
He's the godson of Harry Sinden, don't forget.
That's right.
That's why it's excusable, I suppose.
But courage, man.
Talk to me about courage, Gene.
So this is, Greg has said on the show before,
that this is Gord's statement.
This is a statement of who we are going to be from now on.
Forget about the amazing production.
They went to England to have this record,
and it was Chris Tangerine, who I can never say his last name.
Sangarides.
Sangarides.
Thank you so much.
On the show, I would just butcher it.
Chris Tangerine.
Yeah.
He produced a lot of heavy metal bands and things like that,
but he has an amazing track record.
He produced this record, and he produced the hell out of it.
There is sounds and movements in this record
that just are simply amazing,
but to me, it's this right here.
For anything important
Any of us do
And never human Any of us do Another human
Tragedy
Consistent
The necessity
Of living with it
The consequences
Under pressure
Under pressure
Courage
My world
This is a band
that has gotten so good
at their craft,
so good at what they do,
they can build a bridge
out of narrative
from a Hugh McLennan book
and make it build
into such a way
that you just,
like,
watching you two
while we were listening to that,
it just makes you
want to jump up
and,
I mean,
I'm embarrassed
or ashamed to say,
just like pump your fist
in the air.
It's such a cathartic moment.
It is so cathartic.
And that is narrative from a book that there is no rhyme.
There is no structure to it.
It's a paragraph.
And he just rattles it off in such a way that makes it feel like it was born to be in that melody.
And man, oh man, that is high fucking art.
Yeah, I frankly can't add
much to that that's it's such a great tune and it was it always was really the
sort of the high point of any hip show when when they play courage you know the
crowd would just go bananas and it's you know it's such a great song and from a
great album and it's it was interesting I think it was in the documentary,
or it might have been an article that I read.
I can't remember.
It doesn't matter.
Steve Berlin from Los Lobos,
who produced Phantom Power
and I think maybe Music at Work as well,
talked about how he didn't like the production on this album.
He found it very cold because they weren't all together.
They were in separate rooms.
And I never considered that.
I hadn't really heard that
before. Obviously,
he would know.
But I still
don't have a problem with the way
that this is produced. It just sounds good.
It sounds so good in the headphones.
And it's such a great jam.
It's great. And much love to
Sarah Pauly for
Oh, that was so good.
From the Suite Hereafter.
Wasn't that good?
That's right.
Which still gives me chills
when I listen to her version
from the Suite Hereafter.
Yeah, that was really, really great.
I think Fully 2 is such a great exclamation point
on that portion of their career.
It's like we talked about the bar band aspect.
And this is straight ahead rock and roll.
This is everything that, you know,
they've been for now three records.
And it's just really well done.
But from here on out, they become a different band.
And I'm going to say this is probably
the commercial high point, right, of the Tragically Hip.
It's got to be, doesn't it?
I know I don't even need to go to Wikipedia
to tell you that
Fully Completely must be the biggest selling
hip album
in the catalog. I had this dream where I relished the fray
And the screaming filled my head all day
I had all day It was as though
I'd been spit here
Settled in
Into the pocket
Of a lighthouse
On some rocky socket
Off the coast of France, dear
An afternoon for a thousand men
Died in the water, here
And five hundred more are crashing madly
As parasites mine
In your blood
Now it's in a light bulb
Designed for
Like waves crashing against the rocks
This song keeps coming and coming.
There is no natural place to fade down an article disaster.
I don't even know what to say about this song.
This is a song that I know exactly where I was the first time I heard this song.
I was listening to Kumbaya, 1993.
My friend had it on cassette
she had recorded it for Much Music
on a cassette, she had driven home to Waterford
I was still living in Waterford
and we sat in the parking lot of the restaurant that I worked at
and she put it on
and Gord introduced New Orleans is Sinking
this way, no Canadian band
no Canadian musician
would be complete without a song about a nautical disaster
this song is called Nautical Disaster.
And then just like that, a bit in courage,
he proceeds to tell this story that doesn't have a rhyme structure.
It doesn't have verses.
There's no chorus.
There's no bridge.
But like you said, Mike, it is relentless as waves crashing. verses. There's no chorus. There's no bridge.
But like you said, Mike, it is relentless as waves crashing.
It is ferocious.
It is relentless. And he talks
about parasites.
My God.
Yeah.
This is probably my
favorite hip song of all time.
It's such an incredible
story that he tells in such a unique way.
No band sounds like the hip.
I think getting back to what we were talking about before,
about why these guys are so special, nobody sounds like these guys.
People say, well, they kind of sound like R.E.M.,
or you can kind of get some little hints of The Doors or other bands,
but nobody sounds like these guys, and nobody puts out a song like this that has no chorus and no rhyming.
It's such an emotional, guttural story about a shipwreck
and people drowning, and the imagery is so violent,
and being kicked off the
pant leg uh and it's it's so evocative of uh you know a very dark scene which he he always does so
well uh and it's uh it's just a really incredible song have you noticed that there's no uh criticism
in this show this is all it's all love for gordonord and the hip and that's the way it should be
because this is just really
special music.
When they played this at the
show you were at, Jamie, the second
Toronto show, they played this
and
it's funny how you hear lyrics
differently when you know Gord's
sick and Gord is
dying. A lot of lyrics
resonated differently than they ever had before but uh and we're headed for home like this whole
and we're headed home like in my mind i'm so i went solo to the show i never asked you guys if
you went with anybody uh i wanted to take like i wanted to take my son or somebody but i could
only get one ticket so i went myself which i'm kind of glad i did because i was kind of uh it was so bittersweet like they sounded like my favorite band and they
were rocking they sounded great but at the same time you know it's the last time i knew it was
the last time i was going to see my favorite band and it's so bittersweet but uh that uh and we're
headed for home like when i when he said that i was crying because in my mind it's it's all about
they're going to kingston like this was all about their journey across the country, which would
resolve in Kingston, their
hometown, where they would say
goodbye on August 20. So that's
how I heard that lyric on that night.
Anyway. You're very good at this, Mike.
So are you, Jamie.
And Tyler's no slouch either.
Ah, you know. I always think
of the live
album when he does his little commentary and he talks about Peter O'Toole as the curmudgeonly lighthouse keeper and Jodie Foster in the role of Susan.
I would love to see that movie. guitar solo
Sled dogs after dinner
Close their eyes on the howling waves
Kurt Cobain reincarnated
His eyes and licks his face
Then they drift past strips of Serengeti
And the gates of sleepy hollow too
You can pause and wonder
They paused and wondered
Yeah, paused in wonder too.
Don't wake
daddy.
Don't wake daddy The Tragically Hip
Starting with Day for Night
Became a different kind of band
They
They ditched the
The cans of beer
By the way this is a delicious Great Lakes beer
That I'm drinking right now
They ditched the cans of beer and suddenly there were people smoking joints at their concert.
And to me, maybe it was just me.
Maybe that's when I started smoking pot.
I don't know.
But their music started to be more textural and more spaced out.
more textural and more spaced out.
And when Trouble at the Hen House came out,
it was a radically different record than we had heard.
And it started that move away.
You talked about Fully being the commercial high point.
This is the record, I think, that started steering some fans away from the band and kept some people as diehards. From a Gord perspective though, this song is just really cool
because you've got that reference to Kurt Cobain off the top. And in doing research for Fully and
Completely, I found out that there is a lyric in a kurt cobain song
where he talks about uh it's pennyroyal tea he talks about living in a in a leonard cohen
afterlife sighing sighing forever or something along those lines so gourd some people might
think it's sacrilegious that gourd has anthropomorphized him into a sled dog,
sighing and licking his face.
But there's this peace where he's getting to sigh.
He's in peace.
He's in the place that he wants to be.
And the fact that you're looking at second sources for lyrics in a song makes your head explode.
Yeah, for sure. The Trouble at the Hen House is a,
I've always had a weird relationship with that album because when it came out, I was kind of,
I was kind of disappointed in it at first. You know, there's some great songs on it that grab
you right away, like Gift Shop and Ahead by a Century, obviously. But the back half of that
is so trippy. You know. It's so different from anything that
they've done. And you're right. They are, at this point, evolving into a very different
band, and they're losing a lot of those original core, the guys who go hip, hip, hip at every
concert. And they're becoming really what they are and what Gord, and I assume the rest
of the band, wants them to be. Their own thing. it take us or leave us this is who we are and and this song um you know the i
think the lyric that always stands out for me uh being a father is uh you teach your children some
fashion sense and they fashion some of their own um you know because gourd's at this point a father
i think as well maybe maybe not maybe it's a little early for that. But at least he's considering it.
And he's evolving as a person.
His fan base are evolving as people.
And they're starting to have kids.
And you're coming to grips with the fact that you don't have control over this stuff.
Your kids are going to be who they're going to be.
They're their own people.
And this song really kind of shows that maturity
that Gord has as a lyricist
and that the band is growing into.
We're all dads here.
All three of us are dads
and I can't tell you how many Saturday or Sunday mornings
I've said, don't wake daddy.
I've dropped that line.
And a quick thing, we never talked about this earlier,
but it's something, you know,
you mentioned, yeah,
this is a very glowing, positive episode.
We're fans and we're not trying to hide it here.
But you know that fantastic Sloan song,
another great Canadian band,
but it's not the band I hate,
it's their fans.
As a hip fan who was going to a lot of shows,
I always made sure if it was, for example,
it was at Molson Park or Downsview Park,
wherever it was, I made sure I was sitting,
not sitting, never sit for a hip show,
but I was standing on the opposite side of the beer tent.
Because honestly, the hip is a band where it's not,
I love the band,
but I really didn't love the hip fans.
You know what I mean?
These were the frat boys would come out,
and you mentioned the hip.
This is what triggered it with me.
Hip, hip, hip, hip.
But there was a whole frat boy fan base
that really wasn't there for the poetry.
You know what I mean?
Play the hits.
I think that's when Sloan sang,
it's not the band I hate, it's their fans.
Yeah.
Coax Me.
That's what that's from.
Twice Removed.
Fantastic Canadian album.
Great album.
Amazing record.
Maybe we should do, Tyler, we'll do a Sloan podcast.
Oh, shit, there you go.
That would be amazing.
All right, I'd be into that.
You know, I'm friends of Chris Murphy.
You are, yeah.
You know a lot of people, Mike.
I know a few.
I know a few.
But anyway, Don't Wake Daddy, fantastic.
I just want to say one more thing about the fans.
I was at the 94 Canada Day show in Barrie, Molson Park.
And during Spirit of the West went up,
and then Daniel Lanois went up.
Oh, poor Daniel Lanois.
And when Daniel Lanois went up after Spirit of the West,
people were throwing things at the stage.
Oh, yeah.
Because he was just out there doing his Daniel Lanois thing.
Yeah.
And Gord began the show.
I managed to find the show on tape now.
He starts the show,
and it's just like my memory remembered,
which is good,
because I've had electroshock therapy.
And I will tell you that he comes out on the stage,
and he basically kicks off the show
by saying this song is dedicated to the assholes
that would throw shit
at a Canadian icon like Daniel LeBlanc.
And two songs later, maybe it's even in that first intro,
he says, you guys all think it's Canada Day.
It's Friday.
So there's something about that group of fans as well
that while we all appreciate the Canadian iconography
that we get in the songs.
It's not on a nationalistic type level.
It's not Canada or bus.
We don't want to be the same as the US.
And I don't want to say that.
I'm sure you've got US listeners.
But we don't want to be quite the same as the US
in terms of our patriotism.
It's different.
Just like this band is different.
They're talking about Canada,
but they're not talking about it in a way
that there's bald eagles screaming in the background
dropping french fries on large audiences.
All of Toronto Mike's American listeners
are transplanted Canadians.
So don't worry. oil. of the breather We can skip to the practical part
We can skip
to the time
of neither
When we're together
even when we're apart
I'll tell you a story
about the lake fever
We can skip
to the coito fury.
You didn't say yes or no neither.
You whispered hurry.
Hurry.
Hurry. Lake Fever The late fever
This is for Music at Work
and Music at Work was a radical shift again
away from what we heard the Tragically Hip doing.
Suddenly we were introduced to electronics
in the Tragically Hip.
Very strange.
Something else we need to point out, there is some amazing background vocal work in this song from Paul Langlois. And it doesn't start with
this song, obviously. He has been an integral part of, you know, Gord's work from the beginning.
The melodies they create, the harmonies they share are just really things of beauty and early on
There was a lot of court Sinclair in there as well
But he's just got such an interesting tone
It's it's really far. You can hear it right now Hurray Hurray But to me, the real reason I chose this song
is doing background work
for the Fully and Completely podcast.
There's a great resource called hitmuseum.com
and if you don't go there as a hit band,
shame on you because it's a wonderful resource called hitmuseum.com and if you don't go there as a hip fan shame on you because it's a wonderful
resource and it's put together by
like somebody
who is just absolutely meticulous and I'm
ashamed to say that I don't know their name right now
okay is it the same I
swore by a resource called museum
after dark that's the one okay Stephen
Dane yeah who by the way unsung hero
in hip fandom because
forever and I wrote him a note when he got he did something that was Okay, Stephen Dame. Yeah. Who, by the way, unsung hero in hip fandom because forever,
and I wrote him a note when he got,
he did something that was picked up by the CBC or something,
and I wrote him a note, like, it's about time I'm reading about
Stephen Dame's work in the mainstream media because Stephen Dame,
that museum after dark, hipmuseum.com, is a tremendous resource.
It is unbelievable the work that is in that website.
And one of the things I learned about this song, to me, this song
when I picked up music at work
was a cottage song. It was
Lake Fever. It was a
boy and a girl, and you know, speaking of
their coital fury, and
you know, they were getting together, and
it was wonderful. But then
I learned about a cholera outbreak
that happened along Lake Ontario in the early 1900s or late 1800s.
And that's what this song is really about.
There was a literal lake fever.
And the protagonists of this song are basically that young couple that we talked about a moment ago walking along.
And the guy doesn't know what to do with himself and so he wants to regale the young lady with a story about a lake fever and she's just
like yeah just hurry just hurry just tell the story tell the story and he's like hey listen
i'll tell the story or we can just jump jump right into the sex or or whatever this is a rock song. This is a rock and roll song. And it's that kind of layer is there
for you to uncover should you choose to uncover it. If you want to enjoy it at face value,
have at her. But if you want to dig a little deeper, it's there for you.
That's incredible. I had no idea that that I heard it. I heard you talk about it on, on the podcast and that, that blew me away. Um, and that there's just the, the, the depth of, uh, references and, uh, um, interpretation
that you can, you can, uh, you can delve into with Gord's lyrics are just incredible. Um, you know,
I don't know if there are university courses on it, but there should be, uh, cause you know,
it reminds me, I was an English major and it reminds me of the kinds of things that we would have to do, you know, just diving in and, you
know, what are, what is he really saying here? And what does this mean? Um, which is not something
you typically get out of a rock band and their lyrics, you know, it's, it's so, it's so deep
and, and you're right, you can take it at face value and it's a great song and the lyrics are
cool because, you know, until you had mentioned that on the podcast, I had never, uh, I'd never
considered that. I hadn't read that before.
But it's, again, testament to Gord
and the way that he writes.
And yeah, another favorite for sure.
And it's funny, Tyler.
Earlier you said Trouble at the Hen House
is the one that you initially didn't love or whatever.
Music at Work is the one I didn't initially love.
Oh, yeah. Me too.
Because I didn't like the video for Music at Work, one I didn't initially love. I didn't like the video
for Music at Work, the lead single.
I found it to be silly.
I felt too silly. And the song felt
kind of... I was a real big hip fan
and I, you know, first day picked up
my Music at Work.
The song still, I don't love that song.
To me, it's kind of hokey.
I love it now.
I still can't get into it.
I kick out the jam to kick out.
That's the hip song you're picking?
Okay.
Yeah, Norm Wilner.
That's right.
Norm's a great guy.
We can't say negative things about Norm.
But this is an album where I didn't love it initially.
And it didn't feel like there were enough catchy... I don't know.
This one took a while for me to embrace.
As a grower, not a while for me to embrace.
As a grower,
not a shower.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
Oh, and now we're going to leave the hip
for a moment
because we've been playing
these are all
tragically hip songs
until now. What the hell is this?
Said it's hard to fucking mirror it What the hell is this?
Said it's hard just fucking mirroring Where did we go wrong?
If not here, where do we belong?
In a shot of sun, of an airplane far above us Not here, where do we belong?
In the shoddest sun of an airplane far above us In the glint of the foot burnishment, oh, dove us
In a lightest sign of one kind or another
In the gleaming eye have a fighter or a lover
This is Vancouver Divorce.
So on Gord's first solo work, which is called Coke Machine Glow,
and it was released simultaneous with a book called Coke Machine Glow,
a book of poems, this is a standout for sure.
There are several songs on this record
that would fit beautifully on any Tragically Hip record
from a consistency standpoint.
But there's something about this song that Greg chose
that really is elevated from some of the other work.
The way Gord crafts the lyric in this song
to ask a question
and then offer three or four solutions to that question,
which is happening right now,
is just beautiful.
Remember, Tyler,
Steven Brunt
wanted to do Coke Machine Glow.
He did.
He did.
That's how much,
and when he kicked out the jams,
he picked out a different jam
from Coke Machine Glow.
Yeah, he picked Chancellor.
How many,
how many,
right,
how many hip fans do you think
didn't bother to pick up
the solo work because they just wanted a hip hop? I think people were confounded by this album. I think they didn't bother to pick up the solo work?
They just wanted a hip-hop.
I think people were confounded by this album.
I think they didn't know what to make of it because it was not the hip.
It was Gord doing something completely different.
And this is a real...
I don't know if you guys read Michael Barkley's book.
And the name of it is...
Oh, Never Ending Present, which is the name of the song on this album as well.
Talking about the band and where they're at at this point
and kind of Gord doing this without really talking to the band,
and it created some friction that the band was like,
well, what are we doing then?
What does this mean for us?
How are we moving forward?
And so I think nobody really knew what to make of this.
The band didn't know what to make of it.
The hip fans didn't know what to make of it.
But, oh my God, this is a Canadian classic.
This is up there with any of Neil Young's best.
This is up there with any of the hip's best.
This is up there with any of Gordon Lightfoot's.
Some high praise, Tyler.
This is an amazing album that does not get the praise that it deserves.
And this song is so, to your point, Jamie,
the lyrics, the way that he kind of builds a dialogue with himself
asking these questions and what does this mean.
This song is so beautiful and the album is full of these beautiful songs.
And I guess we'll never know
what Stephen Brunt thinks of this album, Mike.
I'll have a private call with him.
Okay, good.
But no, this is such a great pick.
Yeah, you know, I've got to say,
you two are doing a great job.
I would love to just play hip songs
and listen to you guys talk about them.
Let's just do this
for the next two or three days.
There's sleeping bags
over there.
Yeah, exactly.
Now, maybe this is part one
in a series.
Who knows?
Who knows?
You never know.
Backdoor pilots,
they call that.
That's right. guitar solo When the color of the night
All the smoke for one night
Gives way to shaky movements
Improvisational skills
A forest of whispering speakers
Let's swear that we will
Get with the times
Current health to stay
Let's get friendship right
get life day to day
forget
your skate street
full of countervailing
walls
it's the first I've ever seen
proceeding
on a need to know
face so
floating in
And as to almost make it glow
For a good life
Things might have to weaken
And find somewhere to go
Go somewhere we need
Find somewhere to grow
Go somewhere I need
What a fucking gorgeous song this is, eh?
Oh my god.
It's a good life if you don't weaken.
Greg and I talked early on
about a color palette with the Tragically Hip.
Day for Night is blue. Trouble at the henna house is red and Fanta power is yellow and that forms
sort of the palette that becomes the tragically hip from that point onward
with one exception and that's this record, which is In Violet Light.
And you can sort of take that play on words.
There's a new color to the palette.
This is the band, I think, fully realized.
This is what we get from here on out
with the Tragically Hip.
They are an amazing rock and roll band.
They are doing things with layers and textures
in this song that is just wonderful.
But today is Gord's Day,
and the lyric in this song is gorgeous.
And with context, the context that we have now
of his sickness and him leaving,
there is something to this song that is transcendent.
The idea of a forest of, oh man, I can't even, I can't even, I've got goosebumps.
The idea of a sickness, a shaky, you know, giving way to shaky movement
and the force of whispering speakers,
people potentially talking about
you behind your back,
the way you're appearing sick
when, you know, to your face
they're saying you're healthy.
And I don't know
that any of that is what this song is about
or if it is just a forget your skates dream but
with with the context of his death that's how i take it now and it makes me
very sad that we're never going to get to hear this man uh create anything new
hear this man uh free anything new yeah this uh this is probably it's up there with nautical disaster is maybe my favorite hip song of all time and it's um it it it really kind of grew on me
um you know when i first heard it i was like oh that's that's kind of nice but i sort of left it
but um over the years as uh you know as as I've aged and has, you know, my appreciation for music has aged.
It's just such an incredible, beautiful song with lots of, you know, thoughts about, you know, mortality and humanity.
And it, you know, there's a number, you know's all kinds of different ways
you can interpret the lyrics of the song.
But my God, it's gorgeous.
And I could listen to it over and over and over again.
And like you mentioned, the nautical disaster,
in the same vein, this song washes over you.
That's right, yeah.
You're right.
This album, I loved this album.
I still love this album.
But man, you're still kind of at, I loved this album. I still love this album, but man,
like you're still,
you're kind of at the tail end of CD.
Like I was talking to you,
Jamie,
the other day about In Between Evolution.
Like that might be like the very end of me buying CDs.
Okay.
That was 2004.
Does anyone know offhand what year In Violet Light was?
02?
It was 02.
Okay.
So like I'm still buying discs,
but only now I'm only buying discs from my favorite bands.
Yeah, I think this was probably the only album I bought that year.
I was still buying the new Sloan and stuff like that too.
But man, did I ever love this song
and that lyric you dropped there,
In the Forest of Whispering Speakers.
In fact, on TorontoMic.com at this time i changed
the header and i still have it somewhere in my flickr account but in the forest of whispering
speakers was like in the header that's how much i loved that lyric and uh what a song that just
means more today than ever i would say but uh But first thing we climb a tree and maybe then we'd talk Or sit silently
And listen to our thoughts
Illusions of someday
Cast in a golden light
No dress rehearsal
This is our life.
And that's where the hornet stung me.
And I had a feverish dream.
With revenge and doubt
Tonight we smoke them out
You are ahead by a century
You are ahead by a century
You are ahead by a century ahead by a century
this is another
song that I remember exactly where I was the first time
I heard it they did it
in the middle of
a song
New Orleans Sinking or 100 Meridian
and the lyric was very different. The lyric was very
crude. I said it on the show. I don't
know if I should say it on here because there's a couple
swears that are
brutal swears. He already swore in a
Vancouver divorce. Yeah, but these are
bad swears. Lay it on us, Jamie.
So basically the lyric was
Oh my gosh.
Sorry. You've done the trigger warning.
Yes, I have. The kids, they're turning it down.
Fast forward 15 seconds.
First thing, we climb a tree, and maybe then we talk.
I touch your cunt.
You touch my cock.
Then maybe marriage.
Then maybe man and wife.
No dress rehearsal.
This is our life.
Smartest move they ever made was changing that lyric.
Can you imagine?
It would not have been a single.
It'd be big in England maybe.
This song made the list for the simple reason
that this is the last song that we got to hear
this band play that night in Kingston.
And
I don't know what I can say
about this song that hasn't already been said.
It's a beautiful song.
It's got some great Paul Langeois backup vocals.
It's got a wonderful lyric.
And good God, it's beautiful.
Okay, so this has been a podcast that's all about praise and love.
And I absolutely want to continue that and we will
but I'm going to come at you guys
with a really controversial opinion
this is not
my favorite hip song it's not even close
it's not even in the top 30
wow it's okay it's just
okay for me however
and I think part of it is just my
again my complicated and long
standing relationship with Trouble at the Hen House.
It just, it never, I never connected with it for whatever reason.
I don't know.
Who knows?
But I would skip it if it came up in mixes.
Like it was that intense for me.
That's like me and Pearl Jam's Jeremy.
I skipped, always skipped Jeremy.
And, you know, it might be the Jeremy thing, where it got so played,
and it was everywhere for a while.
And I'm not disputing that it's a great song,
because it is a great song.
But for me, it just never really clicked.
In retrospect now,
because it was the last song that they played,
I sort of have a different view of it.
I have a different appreciation for it.
And I like it, and I don't skip it.
And it's important.
But this speaks
to the subjectivity
of music.
For sure.
It's just like your jams.
I always say that.
Your jams are your jams.
If you love that,
I don't know,
New Kids on the Block song,
it's all good, brother.
Which one?
That's our new podcast.
Well, Hangin' Tough.
There you go.
Actually,
my wife liked them
and they're on tour like
with a bunch of like with tiffany and debbie gibson like there's a whole mixtape tour the
mixtape tour that's exactly right and then uh i remember but there was a on the bill is uh
naughty by nature and i was like i like naughty by nature like do they belong in that bill
they're on that bill but or i digress i digress so uh to take it back to the hip a couple
of points on head by a century uh which one is i loved it the first time i heard it and i believe
it was during the humble and fred show like i think it was listening to humble and fred on 102.1
and and they played the new hip song and i think that's the first time i heard it but i loved it
instantly i loved it actually and um when i saw them live for the last time that's one of those
lyrics that was screaming at me,
was,
it's no dress rehearsal,
this is our life.
Like that whole,
when a man is dying,
that lyric has so much more weight to it.
Like,
oh my goodness.
And what else would I say about this song,
except,
okay,
in 1999,
on December 31st,
1999,
I saw the hip at the Air Canada Center.
And I think they built,
I hope this is the right show,
but they built it.
They had no opening band.
They were just going to play an extra long set or something like that.
An evening with the Tragically Hip
or something like that.
And of course, that's midnight
where we were going to change to 2000,
which was a whole big deal unto itself.
And we all did a countdown at the ACC.
And then right after we got to zero
and we all went,
yay, it's 2000 now,
they broke into a head by a century. And it was so cool perfect yeah it was perfect and uh one of my favorite uh
tragically hip shows uh and this this is okay not our final song of the podcast because we're
gonna kick out a jam of yours tyler uh before we say goodbye but um Jamie, this final jam you chose
means a whole deal, a whole lot to me.
I'm not saying you picked it to make my day.
I know you picked it because you love this song
and we're going to hear why you love it.
But I got a lot to say about this.
But let's, and I'm not even,
by the way, I will fade down in this song
and talk about it.
But this is actually a song where
I don't want to fade down this song. Maybe we should talk about it off the top and talk about it. But this is actually a song where I don't want to fade down this song.
Maybe we should talk about it off the top and let it breathe.
This is a
perfect song for this day.
So maybe
we'll let this go in its entirety
and then we'll all have a little chat about it
before we kick out another jam for Tyler
and say goodbye.
I've heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord, but you don't
really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift, the baffled king composing Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Your faith was strong
But you needed proof
You saw her
Bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight
Overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
You say I took the name in vain.
I don't even know the name.
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
But if I did, well really, what's it to ya?
It's a blaze of light in every word It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken
Hallelujah
I did my best It wasn't much
I couldn't feel
So I tried to touch
I've told the truth
I didn't come
To fool you
And even though
it all went wrong
I'll stand before
the Lord of song
with nothing on my tongue
but hallelujah
hallelujah
hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Leonard Cohen's song performed by Gord Downie for the movie St. Ralph.
And I showed you guys this earlier. This disc in my hand, this CD in my hand is the unreleased soundtrack to St. Ralph. And I've never said this name before on anything I've done purposely.
I'm going to say the name now.
Shortly after Gord passed away, I did that 26-minute thing I told you about,
and then the very next morning, I did another seven-minute thing
just about Hallelujah.
But I want to say, bless you, Andrew Lockington.
Andrew Lockington composed the music for St. Ralph,
and he was like my St. Andrew. When I went on a very
thorough hunt for a studio version of this song, I had it ripped from the DVD, right, which you can
hear in the background, the race. There's a big race around the bay in Hamilton, I think. But this
was a song I had to have in my collection, and it wasn't released anywhere.
Gord didn't want it out there.
It wasn't on the soundtrack.
It never saw the light of day.
I don't think it's ever, even to this moment,
I don't think it's ever had an official release
in any format anywhere ever,
but I have in my hand this soundtrack,
so obviously we're listening to it.
I ripped that from this CD,
and I got chills listening to it there.
I have some insight into when they recorded this,
Gord was watching the footage of the race
and there's a hitch in Gord's voice
where he breaks down crying.
This was an extremely personal and emotional song
for Gord Downie.
And to listen to it today on the anniversary of his death,
I'm glad we didn't fade that sucker down.
That's all I'm going to say.
It's sacrilegious to say
that the Jeff Buckley version of this song
isn't the definitive version of Hallelujah.
But guess what?
Buckley has been dethroned.
This version, you know,
Gord takes the torch from another interesting canadian singer songwriter
poet leonard cohen and you know thrusts it all off this is absolutely stunning work the the
production in the beginning with him sounding like he's absolutely all alone.
There is the acoustic guitar there, but the vocal isolation is really, really wonderful.
And then we get that big lift and they change something with his voice.
Maybe he's singing into a different mic at that point.
I don't know, but it's
just different. Maybe it's the hitch that you were
talking about.
This song, I just
found it in
the last 12 months. We can share that
little tidbit too. You sent me the list
of your 10 songs and then you said to me,
this is a Twitter DM or something, you said
let me know if you don't have
the Hallelujah song and I'll send it to you. Because you know how rare and obscure this is then twitter dm or something you said uh let me know if you don't have the hallelujah song and i'll send it to you right because you know how uh rare and obscure this is right and then
i had that moment of like a big smile on my face and i linked you to like i have a whole category
on toronto mic.com about this goes back years but uh documenting my search for gore downey's
hallelujah like this was and i've been like i've been blogging since 02 and I've been podcasting for six years now.
So there's a lot of like moments I can point to
of like interesting things that happened along the way, right?
But if I were coming up with my top 10 or whatever,
the Hallelujah hunt is right up there.
Like in terms of like,
where you're just looking for this rare, obscure thing
that means so much to you.
But at the end of the day,
there's a FedEx package arrives at the home
and you peel it open.
And there's this CD in there
that you know you can't buy.
And you can't buy it on Amazon
and you can't buy it at Walmart
and you can't buy it at HMV or wherever.
This is like something you have
that every other hip fan in the country
wants and would love to have. And there you are holding it and you have that every other hip fan in the country wants and would love to have.
And there you are holding it and you have that moment.
Yeah, so yeah, I did have a copy of Hallelujah.
I think for me, the thing that sticks out about that version of Hallelujah is...
What year was that, by the way? Do you know?
Hallelujah is... What year was that, by the way? Do you know?
I will look and see.
My old man eyes
can find out. Because off the top of my head,
I can't remember.
Oh, 2005.
Okay, so
where I was going with that is that I think
what that song
highlights is sort of
the later period of Gord's career, the way that his vocals evolved.
You know, originally he was very, he had kind of like a bleeding, bleating, like a goat.
A friend of mine who hated the hip said, he sounds like a fucking goat. I can't stand his voice.
And he had that, like, you know, if you listen to Up to Here, there's that sort of weird sort of tremolo effect, tremolo, tremolo, tremolo, that he kind of, it kind of evolved out of his voice over the years.
And his range expanded and he was singing higher notes.
He was reaching a little further.
He was pushing his voice.
higher notes. He was, he was reaching a little further. He was pushing his voice. Um, and,
and that song is a really interesting example of, of how his range changed over the years.
Um, and putting aside, you know, the fact that it's, you know, a really beautiful rendition of an incredible song, um, that, you know, is, is kind of incredible to me that it didn't
see the light of day, uh, but, uh, you know But, you know, a really poignant thing to hear on this day.
And that filmmaker, Michael McGovern, I believe is his name,
but he put out that, I'm trying to remember the name of it,
One Night or, no, One Week.
Oh, One Week.
One Week, right.
I love that movie.
Gord has a cameo in it.
Gord's in it, yeah.
And that's the same filmmaker.
Wow, that's the same filmmaker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, M. Greiner is in that movie. Gord has a cameo in it. That's the same filmmaker.
M. Greiner is in that movie.
M. Greiner is in that movie.
Joel Plaskett.
It's a busker, right?
I had M. Greiner.
I was lucky enough to have Ron.
We were talking about that before we knew Gord was sick.
This conversation happened.
That guy not only does great work,
but always seems to get Gord involved, which is amazing.
Yeah, that's really cool.
For me, I found the song at just the right time.
For sure, for sure.
Now, Tyler.
Hello.
We're going to kick out a song for you and chat about that before we say goodbye. We've been through so much. Love over money.
We failed and we fell out and we got back up.
Love over money.
We played them no one and no one plus one.
Love over money.
We defended the husband of the Queen of England.
Yeah, love.
What little
we shared
Love
broken
and repaired
Love
deeply
misunderstood
Love
That's
how we got good
love over money so yeah i wanted to uh to just play one song from uh introduce yourself
which which is just uh such an amazing document of gord's final year, I guess.
Each song is kind of a message to someone important to him.
Some of them are obvious, like this song, which is about the band.
Some of them are not.
But each one is a very personal goodbye for him.
And this song is really quite remarkable for me
because it gives us kind of a peek into the dynamics of the band
that we never really saw over the years.
There was never any sort of view into, you know,
are these guys getting along? Are they okay?
Is everything, you know, what's it like being in the studio?
Or, you know, do they get along? Are they friends?
Is everything okay?
Because, you know, there aren't many bands that stay together for 30 years with the same personnel.
Like there's usually someone who drops out
and someone who comes in later, the new guy.
But they stayed together for 30 years with no changes.
So what's it like inside a band like this?
And I mentioned it before, but in The NeverEnding Present,
the book that came out,
there's definitely some rifts that developed over the years.
And there's a part in the book where Gord comes back to the band
not long after Coke Machine Glow came out and said,
look, I was an asshole.
I'm really sorry that I didn't talk to you guys about what I wanted to do. Um, and you know, how do we,
how do we go forward from here? Um, and that, that this song is just, just a really poignant look
into what it's like for five people to be together as a business, as family, as friends,
together as a business, as family, as friends, uh, for such a long period of time. Um, the, uh,
the lyric that I really love is, uh, we deafened the husband of the queen of England, which is a reference to, uh, in 2002, uh, the, the hip played a show for the queen and it was her golden Jubilee.
And there was a concert at Roy Thompson Hall.
And they played poets in It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken.
And I imagine they deafened Prince Philip on poets.
But I can just imagine, like,
what are they thinking playing these songs for the queen
who is looking at them like,
what am I listening to?
What is this?
Why are you here?
But, you know,
he's referencing things
that we saw, but also things that we
didn't see. And, you know,
it's kind of a nice counterpoint to songs like
Escape Is At Hand and The Luxury
where you see the
toll that life on the road takes.
And this song is
like, you know, we missed
deaths, we missed births,
we missed time
with our families
but you guys were my family
and I love you
and this is what we did
and we chose this life
and the decisions we made
maybe didn't make us
the kind of money
that we could have made
but we still did okay
but the love that I had
for you guys
was paramount.
On In Between Evolution,
we just talked about this, right?
Not only is there a song called We Are Family,
appropriately enough, but that song
One Night in Copenhagen, where you kind of,
yes, there was strife in the band, right?
There was strains on the band,
and some say close to even breaking up,
and then they don't, they come together,
they are family, and it's, yeah, you're right,
that dynamic is fascinating because
even my other favorite band, Pearl Jam,
they've changed that drummer a dozen times
right now. Everyone else is still intact
though, but that's rare. Everyone else is still
healthy and intact, except
for the drummers.
A series of bizarre gardening accidents.
Oh, did you...
Sorry, did you want to say, Jamie, anything about love over money
before we kind
of...
I think you summed it up beautifully.
He does.
He tends to do that.
That was really great.
If you haven't listened to Introduce Yourself yet...
Oh, God, it's so good.
Do, like, do it.
Today would be the perfect day to go to your record store.
To introduce yourself.
To introduce yourself.
And speaking of Pearl Jam, Jeff Ament,
who wore the Gord fucking Downey shirt
at that show in,
I don't know,
it was in Europe somewhere.
It was in Europe, yeah.
There was a Rolling Stone article
where he talked about
some of his favorite albums
of last year
and he mentioned this album.
He loved this album.
On that note,
so we're going to take a photo afterwards,
but two of us,
Jamie,
you and I are wearing,
not only are we wearing hip t-shirts,
but they both have F-bombs in them. And to these jams right so there is an f-bomb
in vancouver divorce but i noticed for example because we just revisited in between evolution
lots of f-bombs like i see it feels like the hips right but the the first part of the hip career
there's very little swear words like it's very rare to hear i remember it was very rare to hear
a swear word like there weren't a lot of F-bombs in the early part
of the hip career.
And then later,
as it progressed,
he became more liberal
with dropping the F-bomb.
And then, of course,
finally put it in the title
of a song with the shirt
I'm wearing today,
which is Tired As Fuck,
which we got to hear
on that last show in Kingston.
They played Tired As Fuck
on the new album.
I'm wearing a white T-shirt, so I'm just going to write fuck on it.
I'll go get you the Jaws shirt from upstairs.
So gentlemen, before I have a special little clip,
I'll play us off here.
But any final thoughts as we say goodbye on this episode?
Who wants to start?
Jamie?
Oh, Tyler.
Sure, I'll go.
Why not?
Yeah, I guess I would just say, you know,
first of all, thank you to Gord and to the band.
We don't talk about the band enough, I think.
You know, Gord, you know, I don't think it was his choice.
But, you know, as the front man of a band,
you kind of get that attention by default.
But this was a very good, very tight group of musicians who played incredibly well for 30 years.
So I would say thank you to those five guys for providing us with so much great music and so many great memories over our lifetimes.
many great memories over our lifetimes. You know, it's been a year since Gord passed and his impact has not diminished. The work that he did over his last year with Secret Path and with the,
you know, calling attention to the residential school situation, you know, unfortunately our
government doesn't seem to have done a whole lot to carry his legacy forward just yet.
Hopefully that will change.
But he was an amazing person.
And he's very missed in this climate, which is kind of dark and not full of a whole lot of hope.
But Gord provided us with a lot of that.
So thank you to him and thank you to the band.
provided us with a lot of that.
So thank you to him and thank you to the band.
I can't imagine a better way to spend the first part of this day than to spend it with two giant Tragically Hit fans.
We can all say now that they're ours.
They're not just mine.
They're ours.
And the fact that we got to share some music
and share some stories,
it really means a tremendous amount to me.
So, Mike, you do great work here.
You do great work with the Kick Out the Jams spreadsheet.
But it's been nice meeting you in person.
We talked on social.
And I hope we can go have a beer afterwards
and continue this conversation.
And I'm just deeply moved by the stories that we shared today,
and I can't believe we're never going to get to hear anything new
because I think you're right. The climate that's going on
right now, there's one person that
would have some really interesting takes on
and he would craft them
into just wonderful
rock and roll songs.
Thank you, Jamie
Dew from Fully and Completely
the podcast. That's right.
So thanks so much for
making the trek.
Sorry, you got on the wrong bus.
Tyler Campbell, you know,
I love those brainstorming sessions we'll have
and it'll be something like,
it'll always end like,
let's meet at Great Lakes
and have a pint and talk about this
and then I'll bike over to Great Lakes Brewery
and we'll solve all the world's problems and then we'll find out Jamie's already solved the problem.
Son of a bitch.
We have to solve a different problem.
You son of a bitch.
But thanks so much for doing this and I'll just close with three words.
I miss Gord.
Thank you.
You're wonderful.
Thank you for that. Applaus Thank you. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE I would say You've been told
You'll work me against my friends
And you'll get
Left out in the car
It just ain't my state Left out in the car Seen the state
It's been a long, long time
It's been a long, long time coming
It's been a long, long, long time running
Swim with the wind
Swim with the wind It's well worth the wait. It's well worth the wait.
It's well worth the wait.