ODE TO THE TRAGICALLY HIP
‘Definition of a real band’
If I were asked to pull together a list of things that I think represent Canada, it would look like this: The flag, the beaver (not the Bieber), hockey, denim-on-denim, Hinterland Who’s Who and The Tragically Hip.
To those who may argue the last one, I say this: Two of the five guys in the band are named Gord. What’s more Canadian than that?
“The Hip were always part of being and living in Canada — you were just aware of them,” former Hip producer Bob Rock said recently as we hung out in the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver and talked about the band. “Really, when you listen to their songs, the things that stood out were they always had such a great feel and then there’s Gord (Downie’s) view of Canada and the world. As I got to know them, all that stuff came into focus.”
What is clearly in focus right now is lead singer Downie’s diagnosis of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. The Hip are about to embark on their last tour ever, which begins July 22 in Victoria and stops in Calgary Aug. 1 and 3 , before a final goodbye in their hometown of Kingston, Ont., on Aug. 20.
News of Downie’s illness in late May led to a collective Canadian, “Oh no.”
Let’s face it, folks, 2016 sucks. We’ve lost a lot of legends. Sports greats Gordie Howe and Muhammad Ali are gone, as are comedian Garry Shandling and actor Alan Rickman. But it seems the musical world has taken the biggest hit. We’ve said goodbye to Merle Haggard, David Bowie and Prince. We also bid farewell to the band Spirit of the West (SOTW), as lead singer John Mann’s early-onset Alzheimer’s has forced him off the stage. And now we have to say goodbye to The Tragically Hip, too.
Sad news all around. But aside from SOTW, I didn’t know any of the others personally. However, I do know the guys in the Tragically Hip. Now, I don’t know them on the annual Christmas-card-levelknow-them, but, over the past 20 years or so, I have had dinners, been in recording studios, backstage at shows and on a tour bus or two with the band.
My husband, Paul Hyde (Payola$, Rock & Hyde), first introduced me, a huge Hip fan, to Downie at the Railway Club two decades ago. Downie told me he liked my purple-velvet coat (a nod to Prince) and I told him I loved the band and I loved his writing, and proceeded goofily to list off some of my favourite lyrics. (FYI: “You held my hand and we walked home the long way. You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr,” and “Where the walls are lined all yellow, grey and sinister. Hung with pictures of our parents’ prime ministers.”) Downie smiled and said thanks, and then changed the subject. I cringed a bit. But damn it I was, I am, a huge Hip fan.
Thanks to one of life’s lucky connections I got to know Downie and bandmates Robbie Baker, Paul Langlois, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay more when Rock, my husband’s former musical partner, was hired to produce The Hip.
“Looking back at the work I did with them, I’m proud of it,” said Rock, who produced 2006’s World Container and We Are the Same a few years later. He also has an unreleased project he did with Downie.
While the band was here in 2005 working on World Container, Hyde and I spent time at the studio and watched them work. Watched them craft songs. We enjoyed some downtime as well. I remember the first dinner with Downie, during which I excused myself from the table, went to the bathroom and called my brother in Kelowna.
“You’ll never guess who I’m having dinner with,” I told him, before softly screaming: “It’s Gord Downie!”
I admit, it was great to impress my Hip-fan older brother.
While Downie stands out as a writer, he is at the front of a band whose sound screams solidarity. When they lock in, you can feel the groove take over and pull you in. Hyde describes it as “trance-like.”
“Personalities in bands, well, it’s kind of like a marriage in ways, if you can imagine being married to four other people,” said Rock, who has worked with the likes of Metallica, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, among many other A-listers. “There are a lot of personalities, there is a lot going on, but as soon as they get in a room and play, it’s like the Rolling Stones. When they play together, nobody can do that. It’s the same with The Hip. I learned that, as individuals, they all have their styles. But when they play together, there is just this sound. When they make that sound in groove that they have and (Downie) does what he does, interprets that feel, then it is magical.
“That’s what is beautiful about them — and him in particular. He’s just f---ing good.”
How good does Rock think Downie is?
“To me, what Gord is going to be remembered by is another level, deeper level of songwriting. There are the great ones, of course: Leonard Cohen and Neil (Young), and Gordon (Lightfoot) and Joni Mitchell. They’re great Canadian songwriters. Great songwriters. He’s one of them. He is one of the greats.”
Craig Northey of the band Odds goes back to 1992 with the Hip. He’s toured with them and he’s played hockey with them. He and Baker produced two albums with the side-project band called Strippers Union. Like Rock, Northey appreciates the Hip sound and the connectedness that is the bedrock of the band.
“They’re always in the moment. There is no clock punching. Attention and surrender to the groove is paramount, and any musician can tell you it is the hardest thing to maintain,” Northey said. “Each one of them is part of a massive electric jigsaw puzzle. When they’re all standing there and hit a note, the picture glows neon and you feel it vibrate your lower regions.
They’re the definition of a real band and to experience that live is always a treat. I never tire of it.
“It’s music for people to enjoy being together,” Northey said. “So many people have followed along as the Hip have evolved and grown. The band’s evolution marks their own evolution. Not too many bands grow with you.”
During our conversation, Rock makes it clear Downie is still with us, and that he was doing well when he saw him a few months ago. But there is no way around it: The Man Machine Poem tour is the band’s swan song.
“They will be remembered as one of the greats,” said Rock, adding, “They do make me happy to be Canadian.”
Me, too.
There are a lot of personalities, there is a lot going on, but as soon as they get in a room and play, it’s like the Rolling Stones. When they play together, nobody can do that. It’s the same with The Hip.