C3X World Tour, Special Event: The Hippening
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WELCOME TO THE K-ROCK CENTER IN KINGSTON, ONTARIO
A C3X SPECIAL EVENT
THE HIPPENING: SONGS BY THE TRAGICALLY HIP
A TRIBUTE TO GORD DOWNIE
FEBRUARY 6TH, 1964 – OCTOBER 17, 2017
Gordon Edgar Downie was one of the most riveting and mystifying performers in rock’n’roll history.
Video clips don’t do justice to the energy in the room generated by a performer who communicated more with a flick of the finger than anyone else’s high kicks. This was apparent to all who watched his final farewell during the CBC’s broadcast of The Tragically Hip’s final concert at the K-Rock Center in Kingston, Ontario, the band’s beloved hometown. This was merely six months after he had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor.
Downie was born on Feb. 6, 1964, in Amherstview, Ont., just slightly west of Kingston, to Lorna and Edgar, a travelling salesman turned real estate developer. Gord was the fourth of five children: older siblings Mike, Charlyn and Paula, and younger brother Patrick. Gord played goalie for Amherstview’s hockey team, which won a provincial B-level championship. His godfather was Harry Sinden, who was then a real-estate developer with Edgar, and who would go on to become the Stanley Cup-winning coach of the Boston Bruins and lead Team Canada to victory in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union.
No matter how opaque or directly critical of Canadian history he may have been, Downie faced a sea of literal flag-waving at almost every single show—especially at shows not on Canadian soil. He took it in stride: if part of his poetry’s appeal was that he rarely telegraphed direct meaning, he had to accept the fact that fans were going to read whatever they wanted into what he said.
Downie passed away on the night of Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, with his children and family by his side, according to a statement released by the band.
Keeping the content Canadian since 2017!
SomeOldGuys: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/someoldguys
MrPrezident: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/MrPrezident“..To boldly clap, in a room full of nothing.”
Fully Completely was the Hip’s third album, and it’s not just that almost every song on this album still holds up today (they absolutely do) or that it’s considered the Hip’s breakthrough record (it was certified diamond in 2007). It is the quintessential Hip record: excitingly jagged jolts in arrangements and melodies, Downie’s distinctive voice – physical and lyrical – creating an endlessly weird and wonderful whiplash of emotional performance.
This marked the first album that Gord would write the entirety of the lyrics, now refusing to sing anything not written by his own hand. Known for letting his dark, self-deprecating sense of humor loose, “We’ll Go Too” relays a confined, trapped sense of hopelessness with its theme of “no redeeming social value”, according to Gord.
Recorded in London, England, and rather than capture the sound of the well-seasoned live performance of the band all at once, the album was built instrument by instrument over a period of weeks. The results of the techniques they learned during this recording would prove to be the turning point in the band’s popularity, however mainstream success in the USA did not happen as hoped – MCA USA stopped promotion of the album quickly. Fully Completely remains the only album the band released in Japan. The album was an unquestionable smashing success in Canada and is considered one of the top Canadian Rock albums ever written.
“..Outside there’s hectic action, the ice is covering the trees.”
This song was inspired by the great Ice Storm of early 1998. Gord explained “You know it’s taking on a certain epic of pioneer spirit. We weren’t actually holed up in the house as the ice ravaged the countryside, ‘we’ve gotta make this record – ice storm be damned.’ It put everything on hold in the entire North Eastern quarter of Canada for about five days and beyond. It crippled Quebec hydro power, a huge storm of huge magnitude. I was in Toronto, which never gets touched by weather of any sort, and the guys were in Kingston battling it out in their own individual ways as everyone was. Dealing with things from generator theft, to all manner of paranoia. Ya know… ‘Escape From New York’ material.
We came together and had to do a song, ‘Something On.’ And ya know, I guess the feel of a guitar neck is pretty nice after five days of …. that.”
The opening lyric “Your imagination’s having puppies” is a reference to having no power to your electronics while you lack the ability to create.
“.. Come in, come in, come in, come in, from thin and wicked prairie wind, come in.”
“In Violet Light” brought a few changes to the Hip’s traditional soundscape. Part of the album was recorded in the Bahamas under producer Hugh Padgham (Phil Collins, Paul McCartney) whose influence is apparent throughout the album in dreamy, phasing guitar riffs, but the trademark sound of the Hip still rings loudly from start to finish. They absorb their surroundings without getting lost, making this album a natural fit for Hip loyalists.
Released in 2000, Music @ Work was an eclectic collection of musical genres, but remained one of the Hip’s heavier works, and for that reason it earned the band its 12th Juno award, this time for Best Rock Album. During a time when bands like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were falling out of style, The Tragically Hip achieved great success in Canada with chunky guitar tones and abstract lyricism, and earning platinum status twice over before the years’s end.
“…in a sink full of Ganges I’d remain.”
The Ganges river, ‘the nectar of immortality,’ a central religious and cultural icon for Hindus across the world. The river takes its name from the godess Ganga Ma who is said to have poured herself from the heavens onto the ashes of fallen Hindus to raise their spirits into the afterlife. However, years of poor stewardship and neglect has left the Ganges as one of the most polluted rivers on earth.
Author’s Notes:
I started working on this pack many weeks before C3X was even a thing, this has been long planned out by yours truly. I really wanted to update all the legacy customs, as you may know they were some of my earliest works and had some rough edges. That along with some new material for the October anniversary. I have several more songs of theirs in various stages of production, this is not the last you’ll see of their catalogue from this author. Thanks to all the other Hip fans on this site for your support, and if you haven’t heard them you should probably start with “Grace, Too”.
Keeping the content Canadian since 2017!
SomeOldGuys: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/someoldguys
MrPrezident: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/MrPrezidentBeen listening to them all day, wearing my MMP tour shirt, and then I swing by here and there’s THIS.
Thank you thank you thank you,
Fantastic write-up. Downloaded all the updated customs and the new ones, too, but now I have to make room for them… oh, what to delete?… The blood of discarded customs is on your hands once again, Prez.
Great work. Thanks for your efforts, as always.
Thanks for bringing TTH to RB. I can’t believe they never made it into the games.
That being said, are you working on New Orleans is Sinking? By far my favorite tune from them.
I get asked this question a lot
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” /> Short answer no. Long answer, that song was charted for RBN, but never made it into the store. I don’t know the specifics, who charted it, or anything about its time in RBN testing. I would guess that something went wrong somewhere. What does this have to do with anything? I have no idea. Ok I admit, I have played the chart, but I’m not going to give it out so please do not ask me to. That’s bolded and underlined, don’t make me bust out the all caps. Anyhow… It’s a fine chart. It doesn’t really feel right to do my own version after someone put in the hours on it already.
More importantly though, I am just really not in love with that song any longer, if you hear the Hip on the radio its a 1 in 3 chance its New Orleans is Sinking, I think I’ve heard it 10000 times. I don’t know that I could sit through another 40 listens in a row, its worn out on me.
Probably not the answer you’re hoping for.
Good news though I have three other songs in the early stages! All of them are not that song.
Thanks for the support.
Keeping the content Canadian since 2017!
SomeOldGuys: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/someoldguys
MrPrezident: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/MrPrezidentMore importantly though, I am just really not in love with that song any longer, if you hear the Hip on the radio its a 1 in 3 chance its New Orleans is Sinking, I think I’ve heard it 10000 times. I don’t know that I could sit through another 40 listens in a row, its worn out on me.
Probably not the answer you’re hoping for.
Good news though I have three other songs in the early stages! All of them are not that song.
Thanks for the support.
Well dang, There go my dreams of getting a rendition of the Killer Whale Tank version any time soon.
Can’t wait to see which songs you’re doing next. Love to see some slower stuff, like Scared and 38 Years Old and of course Wheat Kings, and both Road Apples and Day For Night could use some more love, but really there isn’t a Hip song I wouldn’t play the hell out of, so.
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