Can't believe I missed this thread the other day.
To our American friends who don't know who Gord Downie or the Tragically Hip are, there was a piece in the New York Times yesterday about him and had this:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by NYT
"The place of honor that Mr. Downie occupies in Canada's national imagination has no parallel in the United States. Imagine Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Micheal Stipe combined into one sensitive, oblique poet-philosopher, and you're getting close"
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/a...nal-album.html
I myself an a fairly recent convert to The Hip (my brother is a much bigger fan), only getting into them in the last five or so years.
Last year, I was very conflicted about going to the Camaro 50th celebration in Michigan. I only went when I had confirmation on what the schedule was. I bring this up because the 50th was August 19-20, the Hip's final show was the evening of the 20th. I was not going to miss watching that concert on CBC. But things were supposed to end around noon and the concert wasn't until 8:30 so I'd have plenty of time to get pulled aside at the border, stuck in traffic on the 401 (and of course, you don't fcuk with the 401, as Gord once said) and
still have time to spare.
As for that concert, for those that are wondering what the big deal is. As others said, it was the last show, in their home town no less, on the tour that was (correctly) assumed to be the last tour of Gord & the Tragically hip due to Gord's recent diagnosis. It was one of the most watched things ever in Canadian history. I think the official figure is around 1 in 3, but I think that might be just TV and online streaming not counting everyone who filled town squares and arenas and theatres for public viewings around the country.
Side note with me at the 50th ... the entire drive there and back, the only things I listened to were 3 albums: Road Apples, Fully Completely, and Up To Here. And while I was down there, I would insert as many Tragically Hip lyrics into conversations as I could.
When one of the other mods spotted me and asked how things were going, I simply told him that I was just 'Looking for a place to happen, making stops along the way'.
When we had problems with the check-in system, one of the other helpers asked what we were going to do. I said that we were going to tackle it with 'skill and determination, and grace, too.'
Before I went back over the border on Saturday, I stopped for gas even though I had a nearly full tank. The attended seemed a tad confused as to why I was buying so little gas (and not using it as an excuse to get smokes or snacks either). I just told him that I was Canadian and I figured that I would 'put 10 bucks in just to get the tank topped off'. There were a few others too that I forget.
Oh, and for anyone that cares ... as a tribute to Gord this Sunday our local rock station 97.7 htz-fm is going to be broadcasting the Hip's entire catalogue, in order. Starting with their first EP at 9am and continuing on until probably around midnight. You can stream them live at
http://www.iheartradio.ca/977htzfm