lilbones Wrote:I'd like to say as being one of my two favorite songs by the band along with Little Bones, now knowing the meaning behind it has made Nautical Disaster even more a pleasure than beforehand. I always loved the song but could never quite figure out what it was about and never did research towards it. SO thanks to all who contributed to that, you've made my night. This calls for a spin of Day For night.
-eric
I love telling that story, even non-Hip fans are enchanted by the tale behind "Nautical."
It's even helped a couple buddies through rough break-ups of their own, and my own common law marriage bust up to be honest! Nothing beats the therapy of SCREAM'N: "ANYWAY, SUSAN!" from a car going too fast on a winding road.
And Joanie, you weren't halucinating. A good friend of mine is a big-time neo-con, and was, and still is, pretty pissed at Gord for that Harper crack. :lol:
are we family when it's over if not when
sisters, brothers, wolf wolf lover
and the boy who stamped too many ants?
are we family?
ron Wrote:are we family when it's over if not when
sisters, brothers, wolf wolf lover
and the boy who stamped too many ants?
are we family?
If a song can't save us...
You got it man.
and then of course there's the dorsel fin
closing in that you can't outswim
he said "it's not him that I gotta outswim"
he said, "just you"
you said, "just you"
I like to think that the second just you should have a question mark after it. As if to say, just me? What do you mean? And then the person who gets outswam is shark dinner! Too late...
All of the above plus (there are too many):
"I'd been carvin' you
to see what form you'd take.
you were hiding in ivory,
I just wanted to free your shape"
"If its a lie, terrorists made me say it"
"cause it was in Bobcaygeon where I saw the constellations
reveal themselves one star at a time."
"Being drawn along by it
carried under carried away
by its long-term membership."
Of course Nautical Disaster deserves another special mention 'cause it gave me bigtime goosebumps when I first played it. Still gives me goosebumps.
I love the dorsal-fin part of Heart of the Melt (even if it's an old joke, usually about a bear rather than a shark), but my favorite remains:
Fully entrenched, you're leaning back now,
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
down at the beach.
It's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through the blood out to it to play.
Special place in my heart for the refrain from the Double Suicide rant:
"Are you really the Messiah?" Yes, I am.
And for my favorite live, pre-song Gord Sequitur:
"I write poems like a spider spins webs -- to justify my existence."
From one of the circa 90 Ontario Place Forum shows in the middle of New Orleans:
"The one greatest gift for a man set adrift is to find the shortest way back to shore. The life you compose is the beauty you chose. Coincidence. And nothing more."
Does anyone know where this comes from?
Still get shivers every time I hear it and this one line right here has been a huge influence on my life.
"My memory is muddy whats this river that I'm in?"
For any of you who have worked guiding Canoe or Rafting trips you know what I mean.
Cordelia: "Angst on the Planks. Spitting from a bridge. Just to see how far down it really is."
Every time I skydive I think of this.
Next: "The smarter it gets the further its gonna go when you blow at high dough" Come on guys - give some credit to the roots!
The whole Lyric from Toronto #4.
Check back for more Gems later.
"spitting from a bridge, just to see how far down it really is."
Exactly what I was thinking when I was skydiving.
Actually forgot that until you mentioned it.
hello everybody, i'm brand new here, first post.
i don't even know why i decided to grab some tragically hip one day. i think i just noticed i loved every song of theirs i happened to hear on the radio. anyways, i grabbed Phantom Power and gave it a listen. i can tell you the exact moment i became a fan:
i pulled the car on over, to give you a ride
but there's nothing uglier than a man hittin' his stride
a couple others that i didn't see mentioned:
we live to survive our paradoxes
sled dogs after dinner
close their eyes on their howling ways
kurt cobain, reincarnated
sighs and licks his face
anyway Susan
if you like, our conversation
is as faint a sound
in my memory
as those fingernails
scratching on my hull
this one was mentioned, but i have a different take on it. i never considered it was a break up song, but it definitely fits. but i think it would make more sense if it was him leaving her, because the song, told in first person, has him on the boat leaving everyone behind to drown. if he had been dumped, i think he'd be the one drowning while she got away. anyways, independant of all that, i see it as this Susan phoned him to talk about or confess something. what Gord is saying is that he'll keep it a secret between them, or he'll forget it ever happened like in that old joke "be sure to forget this meeting ever happened." "what meeting?" ;P basically the memory of what she told him will slip away like the memory of a dream.
maybe, maybe not. i'd like to know who the "he" is that "said it's out there most days and nights".
either it'll move me
or it'll move right through me
fully
completely
and finally:
they don't know how old i am
they found armor in my belly
from the sixteenth century
conquistador, i think
they don't know how old i am
they found armor in my belly
passion out of machine-revving tension
lashing out at machine-revving tension
and brushing by the machine-revving tension
anyone know the story behind this one?
wow, that turned out a lot longer than intended. :mrgreen: sorry bout that.
"Illuminate The Obvious"
"Me I'm dirty all the time. In a quite becoming squalor" (Blonde Solid)
"Bring on a brand new Rennaissance cause I think I'm ready. Well I been shakin all night long, but my hands are steady."
Now Im not sure how many of you Hipheads out there ever served in the Forces, let alone fought in armed combat, but Tiger The Lion takes on a whole new meaning under these circumstances. "This is Tiger the Lion, Give me the Knuckles of Frisco. If there's danger in the language gentleman, there will be no further use of the two way radio"
Maybe we could start a thread about the strangest circumstances you associate with a Hip song.
"I guess it was Algonquin Park. It was so cold and winter-dark"
"Till we're talking in whispers again"
"John Cage had come to feel that art in our time is far less important than our daily lives"
"Fear no art and you'll fear no evil."
and of course now and forever: "Be alright till we get back again"
"You see I stepped out of the wilderness all squint-eyed and confused. But even babies raised by wolves they know exactly when theyve been used"
Shit its fun spitting this stuff out.
Where are yall?
dirtyepic Wrote:hello everybody, i'm brand new here, first post.
Welcome!
dirtyepic Wrote:anyway Susan
if you like, our conversation
is as faint a sound
in my memory
as those fingernails
scratching on my hull
this one was mentioned, but i have a different take on it. i never considered it was a break up song, but it definitely fits. but i think it would make more sense if it was him leaving her, because the song, told in first person, has him on the boat leaving everyone behind to drown. if he had been dumped, i think he'd be the one drowning while she got away. anyways, independant of all that, i see it as this Susan phoned him to talk about or confess something. what Gord is saying is that he'll keep it a secret between them, or he'll forget it ever happened like in that old joke "be sure to forget this meeting ever happened." "what meeting?" ;P basically the memory of what she told him will slip away like the memory of a dream.
Makes sense to me. :thumb:
dirtyepic Wrote:they don't know how old i am
they found armor in my belly
from the sixteenth century
conquistador, i think
they don't know how old i am
they found armor in my belly
passion out of machine-revving tension
lashing out at machine-revving tension
and brushing by the machine-revving tension
anyone know the story behind this one?
In another thread, someone threw out the idea that it was a shark, which I always thought it was. I can't find the thread but someone will inevitably reply with the link after reading this....
i think i actually came across that one today. never thought about it like that, but it does fit.
Nah, I think it's a barracuda (sp?). The reason is because of Gord's terrific liner notes to 'Fully Completely' where he talks about how, when thanking people, he suffers 'the obscene silence of a broken-down system,' and then remarks: 'maybe if I was a barracuda, ya know a compulsive killer that destroys more than I eat?' I always figured that was connected to the line.
But a shark would do, too.
I love that whole intro.
Ever notice how interest Downie is in predators? From 'The Bear' to Gus, to 'Sharks' and a multitude of other references.
There are so many.
Do I plug it in? Or do I stick it in it?
We don't go to hell Memories of us do
it's so deep it's meaningless
I could pay you to remind me of my baby by the hour
p.s. Thanks for all the background on the songs.