04-10-2004, 03:44 PM
im not sure if anyone has seen this for a while or remembers it, but heres the transcript of the interview from The National on CBC
Title: Gord Downie's Book of Poetry
PETER MANSBRIDGE: Tragically Hip is one of the most popular Canadian bands ever and he is its charismatic front man. His name is Gord Downie. After years of writing best selling songs, he's trying something new. Downie has published his first book of poetry. It's called "Coke Machine Glow". Here to tell us all about it is The National's senior arts correspondent Laurie Brown. And this book is really selling well. What does that say about poetry?
LAURIE BROWN: Well, it says that Gord Downie can sell 18,000 books of poetry and that's reminiscent of the 60's when poetry was quite a big thing in Canada. He's selling like a Leonard Cohen book would've at that time. Now the only contemporary book that sort of outsold Gord Downie's is Michael Ondaatje's last book of poetry. So he's in very good company. But you've got to remember that Gord Downie also just put out his first solo record and marketing marvels, they packaged these two things together, the book and the CD together, so 10,000 copies went like that with the CD. But still, it's a remarkable book.
MANSBRIDGE: Now they tell me that in the book there are some of the lyrics of his music as well as the poetry. Now what happens when you compare the lyrics and the poetry?
BROWN: Well Downie says that he constructs the song lyrics very differently than a poem. He, like a song lyric has to do battle. It has to go into war. It has to cut through crowds, P.A., withstand the road and so that's what he does when he's writing a song lyric. Now the poems in this book are very different. They're very intimate, very personal and they tell you a lot more about Gord Downie, the man, much more than his songs do.
GORD DOWNIE: We're not hobbyists or dabblers anymore. We're hardcore, hardcore. We're hard core. There's a kid in the street, one up in bed, one on the hip, one on the floor. We might be one again but not like before. We're hardcore, hardcore. We're hard core.
(SINGING)
BROWN: Gord Downie has always delivered words with a beat to back him up. Strip that away and the song smith turns poet. Has writing a book of poetry changed the way that you think about words? Like the number of words that you use or do you think now in single words instead of phrases, and the sound of the word instead of an image? Has it changed anything about that?
DOWNIE: Yeah. Yeah, like I mean I feel like I've gone to school, you know, which is, you know, what I fully intended to do. I want to be a better writer. I want to tell my kids a few things. I want to show them me writing, you know. I want to tell my parents a few things. I want to tell the people I work with some things. My dad always used to say just after the presence, well, it's as far away now as it'll ever be. I'm thinking about that as the stewardess cracks the public address system. For those sitting in economy, there's no music for you today.
(SINGING)
BROWN: In print, Downie is much more personal. He's writing about his family, his friends, his wife and children while Tragically Hip lyrics are always mysterious. In the poems, Downie's reaching for clarity. He got some help.
DOWNIE: I keep reading about how poetry is sort of judged, a higher standard is applied to poetry than song lyrics and I suppose that's true, I mean, because I had an editor and I've never had an editor. I don't know any rock bands or lyricists, lyricists who have editors and perhaps that means that there, that they operate at a higher standard. It requires no help or, or no one cares enough, or maybe record companies have no money in the budget to bring an editor in on this project. So you have to kind of figure it out for yourself.
BROWN: When you see lyrics printed on a page next to a poem printed on a page, can you make comparisons and see the different styles?
DOWNIE: Oh, a poem seems to be able to go in a line. You can, and you can end up in a place that's very different from where you began. And that's okay. I don't pretend to understand the difference. I just know that it takes sort of like well, if you've ever ice skated or roller bladed, they seem very similar but when you step on roller blades after ice skating, it's like you don't know how to do it. And I find the difference is about like that.
AL PURDY: Of course, other things are also marvelous. Sunsets happen as the atmospheric conditions are right.
BROWN: Downie's been thinking a lot about poets and how they work over the last couple of years. How do you manage to keep your feet firmly on the ground with your head in the heavens? He found inspiration in the late Al Purdy.
PURDY: The woman screamed. The grain of sand will fall and the other side of the yellow bowl, a thousand miles away...
BROWN: What do you like about Al Purdy?
DOWNIE: Well, I like that he was tall and I liked the sound of his voice. And I liked the way when he wrote poetry, that it made you feel like you could do it.
PURDY: All day long, like a wedge of silver, the moon is tempered and forged in yellow fire.
DOWNIE: I feel like, like I know this guy. I gave the book to my brother as a Christmas present and wrote in the front, we know this man. And I think that most people that read him feel that same way. You know, and I've never really closed a book before after reading something and gone I love you, you know. And I do that a lot more because of him I think. And he'd probably like kick me in the nuts if I told him that. (DEEP VOICE) What are you saying to me?
(LAUGHTER)
DOWNIE: I have to do my little imitation wherever I go. Here we are on the highway. Here we are on the road. Here we are in the parking lots, pink Coke machine glow. Here we are in the bedroom. Here we are in the bed. Here we are beside each other after everything we've said. On records I, you know, take great pride and even joke about it but you know, to try and use a word that I'm almost positive has never been used in rock 'n' roll just, and it gives me, you know, it's ticklish. But then, you know, even that to what end? You know, what am I trying to accomplish? But I'm just trying to think of indefatigably cool. That's the song I'm working on now. Even if I am or was indefatigably cool.
MANSBRIDGE: He might be able to say it, can he sing it? What have the reviews been like on this?
BROWN: Well they haven't been great. But think about what he's done, really. I think he's done quite a brave thing. What he's done is taken a university course in a very public way. If his career, if his life hadn't been sideswiped by the success of the Tragically Hip, he would've gone to school. He would've studied this. But by getting a publishing deal, he's been able to use editors as teachers and learn more about words which is something he loves.
MANSBRIDGE: Meanwhile, with all this solo activity by Gord Downie, what does it do to the Tragically Hip?
BROWN: I think it actually makes the Tragically Hip better because now Downie says he's a better writer because of this. He's also gone and done some musical things that wouldn't fit with the really heavy beat of the Tragically Hip and now they're back in Kingston together. They're writing and working on a new record. All is well.
MANSBRIDGE: Okay. All is well with you too, Laurie Brown. Thanks very much.
BROWN: Thanks.
MANSBRIDGE: Still ahead on The National, this story.
JUNE BLAIR: They would purposely leave pornography in the towers strewn all over.
MANSBRIDGE: A look at the rough ride given to some of the first women to work at a prison for men.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Title: Gord Downie's Book of Poetry
PETER MANSBRIDGE: Tragically Hip is one of the most popular Canadian bands ever and he is its charismatic front man. His name is Gord Downie. After years of writing best selling songs, he's trying something new. Downie has published his first book of poetry. It's called "Coke Machine Glow". Here to tell us all about it is The National's senior arts correspondent Laurie Brown. And this book is really selling well. What does that say about poetry?
LAURIE BROWN: Well, it says that Gord Downie can sell 18,000 books of poetry and that's reminiscent of the 60's when poetry was quite a big thing in Canada. He's selling like a Leonard Cohen book would've at that time. Now the only contemporary book that sort of outsold Gord Downie's is Michael Ondaatje's last book of poetry. So he's in very good company. But you've got to remember that Gord Downie also just put out his first solo record and marketing marvels, they packaged these two things together, the book and the CD together, so 10,000 copies went like that with the CD. But still, it's a remarkable book.
MANSBRIDGE: Now they tell me that in the book there are some of the lyrics of his music as well as the poetry. Now what happens when you compare the lyrics and the poetry?
BROWN: Well Downie says that he constructs the song lyrics very differently than a poem. He, like a song lyric has to do battle. It has to go into war. It has to cut through crowds, P.A., withstand the road and so that's what he does when he's writing a song lyric. Now the poems in this book are very different. They're very intimate, very personal and they tell you a lot more about Gord Downie, the man, much more than his songs do.
GORD DOWNIE: We're not hobbyists or dabblers anymore. We're hardcore, hardcore. We're hard core. There's a kid in the street, one up in bed, one on the hip, one on the floor. We might be one again but not like before. We're hardcore, hardcore. We're hard core.
(SINGING)
BROWN: Gord Downie has always delivered words with a beat to back him up. Strip that away and the song smith turns poet. Has writing a book of poetry changed the way that you think about words? Like the number of words that you use or do you think now in single words instead of phrases, and the sound of the word instead of an image? Has it changed anything about that?
DOWNIE: Yeah. Yeah, like I mean I feel like I've gone to school, you know, which is, you know, what I fully intended to do. I want to be a better writer. I want to tell my kids a few things. I want to show them me writing, you know. I want to tell my parents a few things. I want to tell the people I work with some things. My dad always used to say just after the presence, well, it's as far away now as it'll ever be. I'm thinking about that as the stewardess cracks the public address system. For those sitting in economy, there's no music for you today.
(SINGING)
BROWN: In print, Downie is much more personal. He's writing about his family, his friends, his wife and children while Tragically Hip lyrics are always mysterious. In the poems, Downie's reaching for clarity. He got some help.
DOWNIE: I keep reading about how poetry is sort of judged, a higher standard is applied to poetry than song lyrics and I suppose that's true, I mean, because I had an editor and I've never had an editor. I don't know any rock bands or lyricists, lyricists who have editors and perhaps that means that there, that they operate at a higher standard. It requires no help or, or no one cares enough, or maybe record companies have no money in the budget to bring an editor in on this project. So you have to kind of figure it out for yourself.
BROWN: When you see lyrics printed on a page next to a poem printed on a page, can you make comparisons and see the different styles?
DOWNIE: Oh, a poem seems to be able to go in a line. You can, and you can end up in a place that's very different from where you began. And that's okay. I don't pretend to understand the difference. I just know that it takes sort of like well, if you've ever ice skated or roller bladed, they seem very similar but when you step on roller blades after ice skating, it's like you don't know how to do it. And I find the difference is about like that.
AL PURDY: Of course, other things are also marvelous. Sunsets happen as the atmospheric conditions are right.
BROWN: Downie's been thinking a lot about poets and how they work over the last couple of years. How do you manage to keep your feet firmly on the ground with your head in the heavens? He found inspiration in the late Al Purdy.
PURDY: The woman screamed. The grain of sand will fall and the other side of the yellow bowl, a thousand miles away...
BROWN: What do you like about Al Purdy?
DOWNIE: Well, I like that he was tall and I liked the sound of his voice. And I liked the way when he wrote poetry, that it made you feel like you could do it.
PURDY: All day long, like a wedge of silver, the moon is tempered and forged in yellow fire.
DOWNIE: I feel like, like I know this guy. I gave the book to my brother as a Christmas present and wrote in the front, we know this man. And I think that most people that read him feel that same way. You know, and I've never really closed a book before after reading something and gone I love you, you know. And I do that a lot more because of him I think. And he'd probably like kick me in the nuts if I told him that. (DEEP VOICE) What are you saying to me?
(LAUGHTER)
DOWNIE: I have to do my little imitation wherever I go. Here we are on the highway. Here we are on the road. Here we are in the parking lots, pink Coke machine glow. Here we are in the bedroom. Here we are in the bed. Here we are beside each other after everything we've said. On records I, you know, take great pride and even joke about it but you know, to try and use a word that I'm almost positive has never been used in rock 'n' roll just, and it gives me, you know, it's ticklish. But then, you know, even that to what end? You know, what am I trying to accomplish? But I'm just trying to think of indefatigably cool. That's the song I'm working on now. Even if I am or was indefatigably cool.
MANSBRIDGE: He might be able to say it, can he sing it? What have the reviews been like on this?
BROWN: Well they haven't been great. But think about what he's done, really. I think he's done quite a brave thing. What he's done is taken a university course in a very public way. If his career, if his life hadn't been sideswiped by the success of the Tragically Hip, he would've gone to school. He would've studied this. But by getting a publishing deal, he's been able to use editors as teachers and learn more about words which is something he loves.
MANSBRIDGE: Meanwhile, with all this solo activity by Gord Downie, what does it do to the Tragically Hip?
BROWN: I think it actually makes the Tragically Hip better because now Downie says he's a better writer because of this. He's also gone and done some musical things that wouldn't fit with the really heavy beat of the Tragically Hip and now they're back in Kingston together. They're writing and working on a new record. All is well.
MANSBRIDGE: Okay. All is well with you too, Laurie Brown. Thanks very much.
BROWN: Thanks.
MANSBRIDGE: Still ahead on The National, this story.
JUNE BLAIR: They would purposely leave pornography in the towers strewn all over.
MANSBRIDGE: A look at the rough ride given to some of the first women to work at a prison for men.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)