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In a trailer for Introduce Yerself, he noted that every song was about a single person.

The album was scheduled for release on October 27th.ĭownie kept storytelling at the center of both records. Downie recorded the latter album, produced by Drew, across two four-day sessions in January 2016 and February 2017, with much of the final product assembled from first takes. Last year, he released a solo project, Secret Path, and announced the 23-track double-LP, Introduce Yerself last month. In 2005, the band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.įollowing the release of Man Machine Poem and the Tragically Hip’s final concert, Downie continued to work. He was also a dedicated activist, focusing on environmental issues and the disenfranchisement of Canada’s indigenous community. Outside his work with the band, Downie released five solo albums – his first, Coke Machine Glow, arrived in 2001 – and collaborated with an array of artists including Buck 65, Fucked Up, Dallas Green, Alexisonfire and the Sadies.

“Bobcaygeon,” meanwhile, is a summer sing-along named for a sleepy town in East-Central Ontario, though the lyrics also grapple with the 1933 Christie Pits riot, during which Toronto’s Jewish community clashed with so-called Swastika clubs. “Fifty Mission Cap,” for instance, recounts the story of Toronto Maple Leafs hero Bill Barilko, who died in a plane crash months after winning the Stanley Cup. These tales would often spawn new Hip songs – “Nautical Disaster” and “Ahead by a Century” were both borne out of “New Orleans Is Sinking” – while some live versions, such as “Highway Girl,” proved more popular than the studio recordings.ĭownie’s lyrics were often packed with references to Canadian totems and history, though he approached both with an appreciation for lore and a cautionary eye towards reality. During their live shows, Downie would notably ad-lib lengthy stories in the middle of songs. Throughout the Nineties and into the Aughts, the Tragically Hip and Downie developed and expanded their sound. The gig notably came together thanks to the efforts of fellow Kingston, Ontario native Dan Aykroyd, who introduced the group despite John Goodman hosting that night’s show. moment came in 1995 when - after notching their third straight Canadian Number One album with Day for Night – they played Saturday Night Live. They picked up their first Juno award – Most Promising Group of the Year – in 1990.Īs their popularity in Canada grew, the Tragically Hip seemed primed to cross over in America, especially during alternative rock’s Nineties heyday. Their self-titled debut EP arrived in 1987 while their first LP, Up to Here, followed in 1989. They’re five Canadian guys who go up on stage and they look like their audience. I think that’s all part of what appeals to Canadian fans. “There can be a certain darkness in the lyrics, in some ways that reminded me of reading and listening to Leonard Cohen or Robertson Davies. “Gord Downie is definitely in the tradition of great Canadian poets,” Dickinson told the National Post in 2016. The group gigged around Canada throughout the Eighties and eventually earned a record contract after then-MCA president Bruce Dickinson caught them live in Toronto. We’re still trying to figure out what makes us Canadian, and we have one of the loudest neighbors in the world, so this band helped a country, and Gord helped people lyrically, slowly start to try to define themselves.”ĭownie formed the Tragically Hip in 1984 alongside childhood friends Bobby Baker, Paul Langlois, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay. Speaking with The New York Times around the band’s final show, Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew summed up the Tragically Hip’s influence: “We’re a country that hasn’t really embraced its history just yet. In 2013, the band was featured on a set of postage stamps and in July, they received the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest honors. But the band’s greatest accomplishment may be transcending their status as a key Canadian cultural touchstone to an integral part of the country’s identity. The band also earned 16 Juno Awards – the most ever for a band and the fourth-most ever for an artist – picking up their last two in April for Group of the Year and Rock Album of the Year for Man Machine Poem. Over three decades, the Tragically Hip released 14 studio albums, the majority of which topped the Canadian album charts and were eventually certified Platinum (their first three LPs all went Diamond).