There Will Never Be Another Gord Downie

If you ask any red-blooded Canadian what their favourite Hip song is, you will likely get an answer. If you don’t get an answer, you will get an acknowledgement of the band, the Tragically Hip, and if you don’t get that, you will get an acknowledgement of their lead singer, Gord Downie.

Gord Downie was born in Amherstview, Ontario, and raised in Kingston, Ontario. He was the lead singer and lyricist for The Tragically Hip from 1984 to 2017, the year of his death. He was also a writer and a poet, releasing a book of poetry in 2001.

I heard the Tragically Hip’s music before I knew who they were. Their music was always on somewhere when I was growing up – on tv, on the radio, and blasted in cars that would whizz by my house. I remember the moment that I truly listened to the Hip. It was on the drive home late at night when the song, My Music @ Work, came on the radio. I was on Deerfoot Trail (Highway 2) in Calgary, where I grew up, and I cranked that song all the way home. I loved the sound of Gord’s voice, and the lyrics and wordplay were beautiful poetry to me.

I was struck by Gord’s ability to tell stories, Canadian stories. Prior to moving to Toronto, I had no idea that Bobcaygeon was a real place! I also didn’t know that Hugh MacLennan was an author, or that Saskatoon is known as the ‘Paris of the Prairies’, or that Bill Barilko’s last goal did indeed win the Leafs the cup.

The Hip would go on to make seven more albums and Gord would continue to leap out at us on radios and TVs across the country, he was our constant presence. When the Hip made Gord’s terminal brain tumour diagnosis public, Canada rallied behind them. The Hip organized a final tour and Gord, with his very limited time, began a project to draw attention to the realities of Canada’s residential school system – yet another example of the person that he was!

Our nation mourned when Gord died shortly after the Hip’s epic final performance in Kingston. We mourned his music, we mourned the man and we mourned the loss of one of Canada’s greatest storytellers. Although this could be pages long, below are some of my favourite lines from the Hip’s extensive music catalogue in honour of the anniversary of Gord’s death this month.

We are a better nation because of Gord Downie. There will never be another one like him again.

38 Years Old

Twelve men broke loose in seventy three
From Millhaven Maximum Security
Twelve pictures lined up across the front page
Seems the Mounties had a summertime war to wage

Courage (For Hugh Maclennan)

There’s no simple
Explanation
For anything important
Any of us do
And, yeah, the human
Tragedy
Consists in
The necessity
Of living with
The consequences
Under pressure
Under pressure

Wheat Kings

Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat kings have all treasures buried
And all you hear are the rusty breezes
Pushing around the weathervane Jesus

Bobcaygeon

I went back to bed this morning
And as I’m pulling down the blind
Yeah, the sky was dull, and hypothetical
And falling one cloud at a time

New Orleans Is Sinking

I had my hands in the river, my feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above and said, Hey, man, thanks

Fifty-Mission Cap

Bill Barilko disappeared that summer (in nineteen fifty one)
He was on a fishing trip (in a plane)
The last goal he ever scored (in over time)
Won the Leafs the cup

Poets

Don’t tell me what the poets are doing
Those Himalayas of the mind
Don’t tell me what the poet’s been doing
In the long grasses over time