Canadians pay tribute to Hip’s Gord Downie
Tragically Hip singer and songwriter recalled for ‘this presence that all great people have’
The last conversation Vancouver producer Bob Rock had with Gord Downie was brief.
“It was a quick conversation, because he was going to see Tom Petty,” said Rock, of their last chat in July.
“He was so excited about seeing Tom Petty, he could barely even talk to me. He was going to a rock show with his family, and he was excited about that.
“He was so excited about seeing Tom Petty, and now both of them are gone.”
Downie died Oct. 17 after a twoyear battle with cancer. Petty died Oct. 2.
Rock was amazed by how “fearless” the Tragically Hip singer was in the face of death.
“He had this great (attitude) — like he was never bummed out,” said Rock. “Every time I called him he always had about four projects going on.”
Rock produced two Tragically Hip albums, World Container (2006) and We Are The Same (2009). He became instant friends with Downie when the singer flew to Rock’s home on Maui to check him out.
“He flew here to talk to me about working with them, and we just had the greatest day,” said Rock.
“I had said hello to him before that, but I didn’t really know the guy. Right away, our conversation lasted. We went to a little restaurant on the north shore and we just talked about music and our kids and our families and hockey and everything.
“He was just this all-around great guy. You know how when you’re in a room with somebody great, they have a certain presence? Well, he had that presence. He lit up a room. He had this presence that all great people have.”
Rock recorded the Hip live in the studio, to capture the spark they got playing off each other.
“When they played together they had a sound that was unique,” he said.
What really made the band special though was Downie, and his lyrics.
“In a funny way words were his music,” said Rock.
“Does that make any sense? As a musician the way I play guitar, it’s kind of my instrument, it’s my music.
“The lyric, the little turns (were his music). The perspective was just astounding. Sometimes it takes you a bit to get it, but once you do ...
“He’s a poet. Great poetry is not necessarily a great song — you can get away with bad poetry within a rock ’n’ roll record, because of what rock ’n’ roll is.
“But with him it was deep. It was deep, it was poetic. You could put all his lyrics in a book, and it would be a poetry book.” Downie had a thirst for knowledge. “He was an intellectual person,” said Rock.
“Read books like all day. On the road he just went through books.”
He was also driven. Rock notes that Downie has a new album coming out in a couple of weeks that he recorded with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene.
“I think he recorded like 27 songs,” said Rock. “He had to get it done. His poetry was so important to him — it was his life’s work.”