[potsie]

That this thing flopped reinforces a suspicion I've had for some time, which is that everyone is kind of "Hipped out." The country went through a cathartic grieving process during the MMP tour. We had a collective experience of gratitude and closure. The will for more is just not there. Witness the very muted recognition of the first anniversary of Gord's passing - people just didn't feel the need to go over it all again.

I don't think this is insensitive, necessarily...there is only so much catharsis folks need, and the national goodbye was so spectacular that anything further is bound to have a bathetic quality. It will be interesting to see, however, if there ever comes a larger-scale "reassessment" of the Hip and their legacy at some point, or whether the entire phenomenon basically closed with the final show and then the mourning over Gord's demise. If the latter, then the Hip basically become sealed forever in time as the phenomenon of a particular generation (the 1990s), of only tangential interest to the future, and 2-3 classic hits on classic rock/oldies radio being the primary legacy.

All that being said: I was curious to see how the Hip's work would transpose into ballet. So I'm disappointed. This failure may also deter other artists from taking chances and messing with the Hip's catalogue; and this will further seal their work into 1990s amber, alas.

Interesting thoughts. Makes me think of the reassessment of Motley Crue over the past month with the release of "The Dirt" on Netflix. I was a huge Crue fan in the 80's but they haven't recorded a radio-worthy song since 1991. It took a biopic to stunt the fade to being an anachronism and thrust them back into the cultural spotlight.

It's hard to imagine an event that would get the Hip back in the forefront of people's minds. It likely won't happen with a new album. This would end up being of only transient interest to anyone other than hardcore fans, short of that album containing some the greatest songs they've ever recorded (here's hoping!). However, something on film could do it. A documentary detailing their career is needed and would be of interest to music fans in general, but a movie would have far greater reach across the country. I'm just not convinced that there is enough off stage drama to flesh out a biopic, other than the obvious final two years of Gord's life. The Hip smoking weed and drinking Molson Canadian on screen isn't as "glamourous" as the Crue snorting coke and downing Jack Daniels. Unless there is an untold story buried in there somewhere.

[SRK]

The being "hipped out" thing is real. I remember last year when Robby and...Johnny (?) showed up at yonge and dundas for that choir choir choir thing (which is in and of itself somewhat cringeworthy), and my immediate thought was "Oh. Oh no. Please no." I'd be much happier seeing them do some solo things, or maybe a book a la the remaining beastie boys, but aside from a new MMP2 or outtakes/b-sides album, I'm fine with everyone leaving the Hip thing behind for the foreseeable future.

[direwolf74]

Just to piggyback on some of the thoughts in this thread:

I think the summer of 2016 was the perfect bookend to the band's career. The tour was a raging success, the entire country fell in love with them again, their catalogue stormed back up the charts for several weeks, the entire music community celebrated them and covered their songs, and even younger generations got to experience a bit of Hip mania for the first time. I remember being in line at Tim Horton's the morning after the first Vancouver show and being amazed when I spotted a group of teenagers proudly wearing Hip shirts from the night before. I was floored. Not to mention the millions of people around the world who tuned in for their final show. It really was the ultimate fairy tale ending for the Hip.

That being said, there are a few things I'd still like to see:

1. A full-length rockumentary on the band's entire career, with particular focus on their 90s heydey. It's kinda sad that the general public will most remember Gord as a frail, sick man at the end of his life, with the shiny suits, Jaws t-shirt, and needing 6 teleprompters on stage. I think some people forget what a formidable force of nature this guy was during the height of the band's success. At his peak, he was arguably the most unique and exciting frontman in rock. What he accomplished post-cancer is extraordianary, no question. But I think the younger, crazy rock n' roll frontman version of Gord deserves to be remembered and celebrated as well.

2. A rarities/unreleased/b-sides album needs to happen. They could do it as cheaply as they want, I don't care. Just release it online for download/streaming and skip the vinyl...whatever. But I need this. WE (the hardcore fans) need this.

3. With all that live material they have sitting in their vaults, they could easily release some of those shows for download, or maybe just put together some kind of digital box set. I'm pretty sure I speak for all of us here when I say "shut up and take my money!"

[potsie]

That being said, there are still a few things I'd still like to see:

1. A full-length rockumentary on the band's entire career, with particular focus on their 90s heydey. It's kinda sad that the general public will most remember Gord as a frail, sick man at the end of his life, with the shiny suits, Jaws t-shirt, and needing 6 teleprompters on stage. I think some people forget what a formidable force of nature this guy was during the height of the band's success. At his peak, he was arguably the most unique and exciting frontman in rock. What he accomplished post-cancer is extraordianary, no question. But I think the younger, crazy rock n' roll frontman version of Gord deserves to be remembered and celebrated as well.

I'll take whatever the Hip are willing to give me, but this ^^^ needs to happen. Surely there has to be some documentary filmmaker, Canadian or not, that is contemplating taking this on. If the documentary was only going to be 2 hours (my greedy preference would be a 2 part documentary, 4 hours of running time) then I'd prefer the bulk of it not be spent on the MMP time frame since that has already covered on film. I rather the documentary focus on the late 80's rise and the 90's peak.

[edgoffin]

As much as I would sit though hours of a documentary, I wonder if there's really enough of a story that would make it interesting to the casual fan or non-fan to make it a worthwhile financial investment. If I was an investor in a project and looking for the "hook" on the band's story, it has already been told with Long Time Running and the two Secret Path docs. That is an incredible story -- lead singer with terminal cancer goes on tour to say goodbye to a country then commits final time to a bring an injustice to light. Otherwise, setting aside my love for the band, their history is pretty pedestrian and not that unique from any other band. High school buddies get together recruit some friends, play some covers and find their own sound, go on tour, gain popularity, put out albums and keep touring.

What I would like:
* There were some great documentaries around the band. I recall one CBC piece about the Old Fort Henry show. Package those up with the ARA doc. Plus, expand the ARA doc -- there must be loads of footage that exists that was shot for that.
* Video and audio release of the Misty Moon show
* Release some more live boots across all eras

[potsie]

As much as I would sit though hours of a documentary, I wonder if there's really enough of a story that would make it interesting to the casual fan or non-fan to make it a worthwhile financial investment. If I was an investor in a project and looking for the "hook" on the band's story, it has already been told with Long Time Running and the two Secret Path docs. That is an incredible story -- lead singer with terminal cancer goes on tour to say goodbye to a country then commits final time to a bring an injustice to light. Otherwise, setting aside my love for the band, their history is pretty pedestrian and not that unique from any other band. High school buddies get together recruit some friends, play some covers and find their own sound, go on tour, gain popularity, put out albums and keep touring.

What I would like:
* There were some great documentaries around the band. I recall one CBC piece about the Old Fort Henry show. Package those up with the ARA doc. Plus, expand the ARA doc -- there must be loads of footage that exists that was shot for that.
* Video and audio release of the Misty Moon show
* Release some more live boots across all eras

The CBC piece you are referring to is Full Fledged Vanity, still available on Youtube, albeit low quality.

Agree that their off stage history was fairly vanilla for everything but the last two years of their career. A filmmaker would have to want to take this on for the love of the music. I still believe that the Hip had enough of a cultural impact in the 1990's that that alone makes them a worthy subject for a documentary.

[edgoffin]

* There were some great documentaries around the band. I recall one CBC piece about the Old Fort Henry show. Package those up with the ARA doc. Plus, expand the ARA doc -- there must be loads of footage that exists that was shot for that.

Thinking back on this...hours of more footage just around the guy who was in charge of the outhouses for ARA. Full documentary about his time on tour, and what happened to him afterwards. Sort of similar, Black Crowes had a guy who was primarily in charge on onstage incense before the show. Always wondered what happened to him after the band broke up.

[SRK]

Given their....normal (?) existence as a band up to 2016, the only way into a story I could picture for a filmmaker would be something analogous to the Kenny Omega documentary that was on TSN the other night. "Pro wrestler SUPER famous in japan, can walk down Main street in his hometown of Winnipeg and no one knows who he is." So, something like "band who 1/3 of the entire county of Canada watched their last show, could walk down 5th avenue in NYC and not even be noticed."

And we've seen/heard that story enough, so yeah...I don't really see a documentary working, as much as we might enjoy it.

[direwolf74]

I still believe that the Hip had enough of a cultural impact in the 1990's that that alone makes them a worthy subject for a documentary.

This exactly. Alan Cross talked a bit about this during his interview on the Fully & Completely podcast a while back, saying that we'll likely never see another homegrown band reach that level of mass popularity ever again. The way in which people are exposed to music these days (streaming/youtube) is just too fractured and spread out now, and that kind of collective experience just doesn't happen anymore-- where millions of people rally around a specific band or artist at the same time. In the States it was Nirvana. In Canada it was the Hip. They captured the spirit of an entire generation of Canadian rock fans in a way that no other band had done before or since. To me that makes a pretty good hook for a documentary.

When you think back to how insanely popular the Hip were in the 90s, it's pretty remarkable. In this country they were thought of on the same level as their U.S. peers at the time (R.E.M., Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Chili Peppers, etc..). From what I can recall, they were the only Canadian band big enough to justify midnight sales for their albums on release day. Not to mention the manic energy of their live shows was unmatched by anyone at the time.

[andrew sharpe]

This exactly. Alan Cross talked a bit about this during his interview on the Fully & Completely podcast a while back, saying that we'll likely never see another homegrown band reach that level of mass popularity ever again. The way in which people are exposed to music these days (streaming/youtube) is just too fractured and spread out now, and that kind of collective experience just doesn't happen anymore-- where millions of people rally around a specific band or artist at the same time. In the States it was Nirvana. In Canada it was the Hip. They captured the spirit of an entire generation of Canadian rock fans in a way that no other band had done before or since. To me that makes a pretty good hook for a documentary.

When you think back to how insanely popular the Hip were in the 90s, it's pretty remarkable. In this country they were thought of on the same level as their U.S. peers at the time (R.E.M., Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Chili Peppers, etc..). From what I can recall, they were the only Canadian band big enough to justify midnight sales for their albums on release day. Not to mention the manic energy of their live shows was unmatched by anyone at the time.

I think you're compartmentalizing your own experience. Either that or I don't understand your point. Many Canadian performers have achieved much higher levels of mass popularity since the Hip. Sure, the Hip were the band for our generation, but I think suggesting this is unique is untrue. Every generation has its superstars, and the current generation has plenty of Canadian representatives, some way more popular than the Hip ever were.

As for the larger point of this thread, I think the uproar over the final tour proves there will always be a market for the Hip. Not necessarily best selling, but there's definitely enough hard cores to sustain the band for another thirty years. If they put out a live show on Netflix it would get more than enough streams to justify the release. The issue may be if the profitability of the band is setup around a machine that needs to be a best seller. But if they're willing to slip into the realm of "cult favourite", I think they'd do fine.

As to whether or not the band sees value in extending the life of the music (ala Chris Chelios), or they prefer to go out on top (ala Ray Bourque)...only time will tell.

[direwolf74]

I think you're compartmentalizing your own experience. Either that or I don't understand your point. Many Canadian performers have achieved much higher levels of mass popularity since the Hip. Sure, the Hip were the band for our generation, but I think suggesting this is unique is untrue. Every generation has its superstars, and the current generation has plenty of Canadian representatives, some way more popular than the Hip ever were.

Yes, there are plenty of popular Canadian acts these days, no question. But I'm talking more about cultural impact. The Hip were able to tap into the Canadian psyche in a way that no other band or artist has done since. They became a massively popular homegrown band at a time when this country's music scene was just coming of age, and they essentially (and somewhat reluctantly) became the godfathers of that entire scene. That was basically my point-- that their story and their cultural impact was unique and unquestionably worthy of a documentary.