PunBB

But if some of your dimmer friends ask, and you don't feel like going through it; I've compiled all the references in Gord's solo work:

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People

Bailey, Garnett "Ace"
"Steeplechase" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

The Chancellor
"Chancellor" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

Chekhov, Anton
"Christmastime In Toronto" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Comfort, Charles
"Willow Logic" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Klebanov, Ilya
"Pascal's Submarine" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Pascal, Blaise
"Pascal's Submarine" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Places

Fenway Park
"Yer Possessed" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

Lofty Pines Motel
"Lofty Pines" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

Mimico Creek
"Willow Logic" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Monterey, California
"Who By Rote" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Toronto's Rosedale
"Nothing But Heartache In Your Social Life" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

Vancouver, B.C.
"Vancouver Divorce" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

Things and Events

Bull Moose
"Blackflies" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

Calgary Stampede
"Steeplechase" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Il Palio horse race
"Steeplechase" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Kursk submarine disaster
"Pascal's Submarine" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

The Last Spike
"Vancouver Divorce" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

San Francisco anti-smoking ad
"SF Song" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

September 11, 2001
"Steeplechase" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

Tim Horton's
"Vancouver Divorce" Coke Machine Glow (2001)

TTC streetcars
"Christmastime In Toronto" Battle Of The Nudes (2003)

I also finally found a decent shot of the "shot" which inspired Pascal's Submarine:

"...As Tylik began to scream at Klebanov, she was poked with a syringe and dramatically collapsed. The images were beamed around the world, and as Gord explains below, it was this image which inspired "Pascal's Submarine:"

"I placed the now familiar photograph of a Russian mother, Nadezhda Tylik, screaming at deputy prime minister Klebanov on my bulletin board..."

You never cease to amaze me Dame your dedication to the Hip and all things Hip related is amazing! Although sometimes I get the feeling your sitting in some dark small room in front of your computer with a long beard, the same clothes you were wearing for the last 2 months, empty pizza boxes and empty bottles of JD all around :lol: Kind of like Enstein when he was working on an experiment or a theorem, he would wear his underwear until it wore off and not shower for weeks. Or when Mr. Burns opened his Casino and went batty, LOL :lol:

Just kidding pal :wink: Its great what your doing and Im behind you all the way. I think its time someone documented this band and put pen to paper, its definitely a story that must be told sometime down the line. Im hoping some of the band members keep memoirs or journals.

Keep up the great work Dame :thumb:

Another reference for you, although I'm not sure where you'd classify it...
"... my Cinnamon women" from Figment has to be a reference to Neils 'Cinamon Girl'.
Just a thought.

D

the Doctorb Wrote:Another reference for you, although I'm not sure where you'd classify it...
"... my Cinnamon women" from Figment has to be a reference to Neils 'Cinamon Girl'.
Just a thought.

D

I thought about that one, when I ran it by a friend (who's a huge Neil fan, not a Hip fan) she said "women aren't girls... it's different, too much of a stretch."

Well, I'm all about the stretch, baby! Plus, you're a Hip fan, and you noticed it too, so I'll bet we aren't the only ones.

Stephen Dame Wrote:

the Doctorb Wrote:Another reference for you, although I'm not sure where you'd classify it...
"... my Cinnamon women" from Figment has to be a reference to Neils 'Cinamon Girl'.
Just a thought.

D

I thought about that one, when I ran it by a friend (who's a huge Neil fan, not a Hip fan) she said "women aren't girls... it's different, too much of a stretch."

Well, I'm all about the stretch, baby! Plus, you're a Hip fan, and you noticed it too, so I'll bet we aren't the only ones.

Yeah, and Gord has been known to play a Neil song or two in his day :thumb:

Doc

I would debate Steeplechase as being about or influenced by 9/11. Thematically maybe there are some similarities, and of course there's the whole Ace Bailey thing (which could be the combination you're drawing and I'm just missing it). But Steeplechase existed as a rant as early as 2000 (if not sooner -- see the Shepard's Bush Empire webcast show during "Grace Too" perhaps), and was performed on the 2001 summer tour.

But otherwise, yeah, a bunch of shit we already know Great work as always!

Cheers

Pat

hotmetal401 Wrote:I would debate Steeplechase as being about or influenced by 9/11. Thematically maybe there are some similarities, and of course there's the whole Ace Bailey thing (which could be the combination you're drawing and I'm just missing it). But Steeplechase existed as a rant as early as 2000 (if not sooner -- see the Shepard's Bush Empire webcast show during "Grace Too" perhaps), and was performed on the 2001 summer tour.

But otherwise, yeah, a bunch of shit we already know Great work as always!

Cheers

Pat

I think the Ace Bailey content and the sound of the building roar (Gord remarked about the 'jet engine' noise here in Ottawa) qualifies it as a 9/11 reference. You're right about it's roots though, both of those things were added after 2001, and after the original lyrics were experimented with of course. But it was Gord's little ad-lib that clinched it for me.

I have no idea where to find it, but I remember reading an interview with Gord after BOTN was released in which he commented on Steeplechase. In it he said that Steeplechase was written in honor of Ace Bailey and it refered to 9/11. As Dame mentioned, the chaotic sounds in the song are the destruction that happened on that day.

Pat, it is interesting that this song was a previous rant. I didn't know that. But I think most of us know that many of Gord's rants show up in his later lyrics.

Steeplechase was more than a rant.
He performed it in concert for the Coke Machine Glow "tour"
That was before 9/11.
Here is a setlist from August, one month before the Twin Towers.
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Tthip Wrote:Steeplechase was more than a rant.
He performed it in concert for the Coke Machine Glow "tour"
That was before 9/11.
Here is a setlist from August, one month before the Twin Towers.
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Right. But again, I'm refering to the audible, building roar added to the album version of the song (which, as we know, was written before Sept of '01 about a "crash:" both literal and figurative of 'complex creatures' as Gord says.) after 9/11.

My thoughts were that the horses crashing after the humans have lost control was the obvious inspiration for the song, and when 9/11 happened and someone close to Gord's godfather was lost, it took on a dual meaning: hence the studio add-on and Bailey clip.

For some reference on my reading of the song, here's what I cobbled together for the site. Again, the beauty of Gord's writing style is that it allows each listener to find their own message, but I stand by what I wrote, evidence seems to fit quite well:

Steeplechase references

"...It's a sound coming down of an entirely different race
It's a sound coming down like Il Palio
Sent splayed and sprawling into a cafe in an explosion of table legs and trays
It's the sound coming down like a chuckwagon when it strays
A little too far from the stampede days
And slams into the butterfly chase
That's the sound coming down."

Gord calls this tune "a simple song about complex creatures." A complex issue, that of the hijacked airliners of September 11, may also be represented in the songs rumbling "sound" and eventual explosion. The song ends with a 1970's audio clip of Bruins player Garnett "Ace" Bailey scoring a goal and giving a post game interview. Bailey was killed on 9/11, a passenger aboard one of the doomed jet liners. As we know, Downie's godfather is Bruin's president and former coach Harry Sinden. Bailey was still working in the NHL in 2001, and certainly would have known Sinden, and perhaps met Gord. The idea of horses crashing after humans have lost control was around in "steeplechase" rants before 9/11. After 2001, and the loss of someone close to Gord's family, the song may have taken on a dual meaning: hence the studio roar and Bailey clip.

The "Il Palio" referenced in the song is a nod to the annual Il Palio horse race held each year in Italy. Riders race their horses through a crowded and cramped piazza in the middle of the Italian neighborhood. Some horses have riders, others don't, and the race is notoriously quick and violent. Crashes are an expected and regular occurrence. The race is an ancient tradition designed to honour the Virgin Mary.

Of course, "steeplechases" themselves are European horse races which involve obstacles, water hazards and uneven terrain.

Stampede days bring some of that horse drawn pageantry to Canada, attracting cowboys and horse lovers by the carriage load to Calgary each year. The chuckwagon races are a major draw during the Calgary Stampede.