Armed with will and determination, and grace too.
For the Canadians reading this, you recognize the lyric. For the rest of the world reading this, sorry but this is going to be about a slice of Canadiana and it's very possible you have never heard of the Hip before. That's okay. For all the Canadians here, like my parents generation remembering where they were when Paul Henderson scored the goal in 1972, our generation and perhaps all generations in this country remember where they were when they saw the Tragically Hip's final concert broadcast live on CBC last August. Twelve million people tuned in on TV alone with millions more watching in together in parks and arenas. It's been rumoured that the unofficial count for that last show was over 15 million Canadians.
The Tragically Hip is Canada's band. They never really made it big outside of our country. But they are loved here. They sing about Canada. They tell stories about our history and they are part of the fabric of this land. There's a mysticism to them and most of us here adore them, myself included.
In March of 2016, Gord Downie, the one of a kind poet/singer/song writer lead singer of the band was diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer. He went through months of chemo and lost a lot of his memory. He has been given no more than 5 years to live. Upon his road to recovery, he told his band mates that he wanted to do one final tour across Canada. He had to learn all the lyrics to their songs again. He had to have a neurologist tour with them. He was thin and frail looking and he had to have a teleprompter up on stage with him so that he didn't get lost singing the songs.
But on he and the band went. And they performed their hearts out. Every night. On stage. Victoria. Winnipeg. Edmonton. London. Ottawa. Toronto. And finally in Kingston, their home town. The Prime Minister was there. The whole country shut down for one night. We all needed to say goodbye to the band that we spent 30 years with. Blow at High Dough. Nautical Disaster. Thugs. Cordelia. 38 Yeas Old. Locked in the Trunk of a Car. Poets. Don't Wake Daddy and Grace Too. Over the tour they performed songs from every album. They had 90 songs with them and weren't sure if they could even do them all. I've been to 7 Hip concerts, and I've never seen them perform Thugs or Cordelia. But they did on this tour.
The Hip means something to all of us (the fans of the group). They sing about our life, our country, our hometowns. They talk about growing up here and they talk about hockey and Niagara Falls and Bob Caygeon and they regale us with the famous stories that are part of the very bloodline of this country. Wheat Kings tells the story of a man wrongly convicted of a murder. He goes free 20 years later and no one really cares because no one is interested in something you didn't do.
I first began my love affair with the Hip in the late 80's. When I heard Grace Too for the first time, I got chills. I'd never heard a band like them, never heard music like this. Gord was famous for going off on rants and sometimes incoherent tangents in concert. When ten of us journeyed to Detroit to see them live and record one of their albums, they opened with Grace Too and during the opening, Gord just turns to his band mates and says, "Did you see that? Did you see that? OH MY GOD LOOK OUT! BIG FFREAKIN BEAR!" I'm not sure if it was part of the act or if in his drug induced state he really thought he saw a bear but it just fit with the concert. The Hip are originals and there will never be another band like them. EVER.
Tonight while watching the documentary at the theater with about 75 others in attendance, my eyes weren't dry from beginning till end. It chronicled their journey together, their love for one another and it ended with the band walking off stage arm in arm. Gord doesn't have a lot of time left. But they gave us, the fans, the patriots of this country, one last time to hear them, to feel their love and their energy, to feel the warmth and vibrancy that they instil in all of us.
When Gord was on stage yelling out the final lyrics to Grace Too, he became overwhelmed with emotion. "HIP! HERE! NOW!" He was telling us that he was here and at least for the time being, he wasn't going away.
The concert documentary is one of the most powerful things I've ever been privy too. I spoke with others on the way out of the theater and everyone was wiping away the tears. The Hip kind of defined what it meant to all of us to be Canadian. My life is richer because of them and I'm so delighted and thankful that I got to see them 7 times over my lifetime.
I'm not sure how much time Gord had left. But if this truly was the last concert that they all did together, what a way to go out. Thank you Gord for enriching my life and thank you Tragically Hip for enriching all of our lives. Your music and words will love on forever.
For the Canadians reading this, you recognize the lyric. For the rest of the world reading this, sorry but this is going to be about a slice of Canadiana and it's very possible you have never heard of the Hip before. That's okay. For all the Canadians here, like my parents generation remembering where they were when Paul Henderson scored the goal in 1972, our generation and perhaps all generations in this country remember where they were when they saw the Tragically Hip's final concert broadcast live on CBC last August. Twelve million people tuned in on TV alone with millions more watching in together in parks and arenas. It's been rumoured that the unofficial count for that last show was over 15 million Canadians.
The Tragically Hip is Canada's band. They never really made it big outside of our country. But they are loved here. They sing about Canada. They tell stories about our history and they are part of the fabric of this land. There's a mysticism to them and most of us here adore them, myself included.
In March of 2016, Gord Downie, the one of a kind poet/singer/song writer lead singer of the band was diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer. He went through months of chemo and lost a lot of his memory. He has been given no more than 5 years to live. Upon his road to recovery, he told his band mates that he wanted to do one final tour across Canada. He had to learn all the lyrics to their songs again. He had to have a neurologist tour with them. He was thin and frail looking and he had to have a teleprompter up on stage with him so that he didn't get lost singing the songs.
But on he and the band went. And they performed their hearts out. Every night. On stage. Victoria. Winnipeg. Edmonton. London. Ottawa. Toronto. And finally in Kingston, their home town. The Prime Minister was there. The whole country shut down for one night. We all needed to say goodbye to the band that we spent 30 years with. Blow at High Dough. Nautical Disaster. Thugs. Cordelia. 38 Yeas Old. Locked in the Trunk of a Car. Poets. Don't Wake Daddy and Grace Too. Over the tour they performed songs from every album. They had 90 songs with them and weren't sure if they could even do them all. I've been to 7 Hip concerts, and I've never seen them perform Thugs or Cordelia. But they did on this tour.
The Hip means something to all of us (the fans of the group). They sing about our life, our country, our hometowns. They talk about growing up here and they talk about hockey and Niagara Falls and Bob Caygeon and they regale us with the famous stories that are part of the very bloodline of this country. Wheat Kings tells the story of a man wrongly convicted of a murder. He goes free 20 years later and no one really cares because no one is interested in something you didn't do.
I first began my love affair with the Hip in the late 80's. When I heard Grace Too for the first time, I got chills. I'd never heard a band like them, never heard music like this. Gord was famous for going off on rants and sometimes incoherent tangents in concert. When ten of us journeyed to Detroit to see them live and record one of their albums, they opened with Grace Too and during the opening, Gord just turns to his band mates and says, "Did you see that? Did you see that? OH MY GOD LOOK OUT! BIG FFREAKIN BEAR!" I'm not sure if it was part of the act or if in his drug induced state he really thought he saw a bear but it just fit with the concert. The Hip are originals and there will never be another band like them. EVER.
Tonight while watching the documentary at the theater with about 75 others in attendance, my eyes weren't dry from beginning till end. It chronicled their journey together, their love for one another and it ended with the band walking off stage arm in arm. Gord doesn't have a lot of time left. But they gave us, the fans, the patriots of this country, one last time to hear them, to feel their love and their energy, to feel the warmth and vibrancy that they instil in all of us.
When Gord was on stage yelling out the final lyrics to Grace Too, he became overwhelmed with emotion. "HIP! HERE! NOW!" He was telling us that he was here and at least for the time being, he wasn't going away.
The concert documentary is one of the most powerful things I've ever been privy too. I spoke with others on the way out of the theater and everyone was wiping away the tears. The Hip kind of defined what it meant to all of us to be Canadian. My life is richer because of them and I'm so delighted and thankful that I got to see them 7 times over my lifetime.
I'm not sure how much time Gord had left. But if this truly was the last concert that they all did together, what a way to go out. Thank you Gord for enriching my life and thank you Tragically Hip for enriching all of our lives. Your music and words will love on forever.