1987, I still recall a fellow university student bursting into the newsroom for the school paper waiving an LP and declaring: “You gotta hear this!” It wasn’t quite as dramatic as “Stop the presses!” but a fitting introduction nonetheless for The Tragically Hip, a band whose songs have become a prominent part of the soundtrack of many Canadians’ lives.
Classics like: “Blow at High Dough,” “New Orleans is Sinking,” “Little Bones,” “Wheat Kings,” “So Hard Done By,” “Ahead by a Century” (video below), and so many more – songs that give rare voice to uniquely Canadian subjects, like hockey, the CBC, polar bears, Churchill and Bobcaygeon, even the tragedies of Bill Barilko and David Milgaard.
When the band performed “Grace Too” and “Nautical Disaster” on Saturday Night Live in 1995, much of the country tuned in with pride to watch.
Which is to say, the Kingston, Ont., quintet, considered by many to be Canada’s best-ever rock group, needs little introduction. Moreover, with the wounds of beloved frontman Gord Downie’s untimely death due to brain cancer in 2017 still raw, “The Hip” command a prominent place in this country’s musical – and social – landscape.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Mohr, for example, ice-danced to “Long Time Running” at the Olympics in 2018, and the Alberta Ballet even created a performance based on the words of Gord Downie.
In 2019, Ontario introduced the Poet Laureate of Ontario Act in memory of Downie to promote the arts and literacy in Ontario, raise the profile of poets in the province, and act as an ambassador for Ontario poetry and literature.
And just last week, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) announced that the 15-time JUNO Award winners and Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees will receive the 2021 Humanitarian Award Presented by Music Canada during the 50th annual JUNO Awards in June.
Citing not only the band’s “timeless music” but “philanthropic pursuits (that) have touched millions of lives across the globe and across generations,” the award recognizes outstanding Canadian artists or industry leaders “whose humanitarian contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada and beyond.”
Indeed, from the early days of their career, the band has been at the forefront of fundraising and social awareness efforts, playing host to many benefit concerts over the years in support of causes close to their heart. This included more than a million dollars raised for The Canadian Cancer Society and the Sunnybrook Foundation during the band’s final 15-show tour before Downie’s death.
Most recently, remaining members of the band – Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair, and Johnny Fay – donated over $50,000 to the music industry charity, Unison Benevolent Fund, through the sale of their “Courage Masks.”
But it’s the music that has set the foundation of it all. We had an inkling back in 1987, but we sure know now – and for that, and everything else, here’s a 1999 performance from Abbotsford, BC, our heartfelt homage to The Hip:
Lyrics
First thing we’d climb a tree and maybe then we’d talk
Or sit silently and listen to our thoughts
With 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 (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century
Stare in the morning shroud and then the day began
I tilted your cloud, you tilted my hand
Rain falls in real time and rain fell through the night
No dress rehearsal, this is our life
But that’s when the hornet stung me
And I had a serious dream
With revenge and doubt
Tonight we smoke them out
You are ahead by a century (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century
You are ahead by a century (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century (this is our life)
You are ahead by a century
And disappointing you is getting me down