The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay

The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - Printable Version

+- PunBB (https://punbb.in)
+-- Forum: General Discussion - Hipbase.com (https://punbb.in/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Tragically Hip Discussion (https://punbb.in/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Thread: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay (/showthread.php?tid=16797)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - direwolf74 - 06-07-2018

Killer Whale Tank Wrote:Forgive me if this has already been discussed, but one thing that seems fairly clear from the book is that Gord Downie was somewhat estranged from the band from M@W onward. That quote where an observer notes that, leading up to MMP, Gord admitted to the rest that he'd been a "total dick for a while now" seemed pretty striking to me, given that previous chapters discussed the band's antagonism to Gord bringing new elements to the table for the M@W tour, striking out for his solo career, and so on.

My impression is that after M@W Gord basically approached the Hip as a job, one he did with commitment, but without terrific joy or enthusiasm. His real joy was in subverting or at least dancing around the expectations created by Hipdom itself through his solo work and other ventures. This might contribute to explaining the bizarre "Screamo Gord" phase, which I always suspected had to do with some kind of frustration, either with the Hip or their fans or the crowd's preference for oldies or for the playlists - whatever. I think the clash between GD's experimental nature, his 'arty' streak, and the essential musical conservatism of the others taken as a unit - really their greatest strength in the early days - eventually became an ongoing sore-point that undercut the unity of the band. That's my impression anyhow.

I think tensions within the band reached their peak in 2000/'01 when Gord was first branching out as a solo artist. But I got the sense that they essentially patched things up by the IBE/WC era. I remember Gord doing a lot of press for WC, and to me he appeared quite excited and content at that time, and he seemed really proud of the music they were making with Bob Rock.

"Screamo Gord" didn't rear its ugly head until around 2011 and then thankfully it disappeared by the time they did the FC reissue tour in 2014. It's still a complete mystery to me why he did the screaming stuff, and the book only mentions it briefly. As evidenced by his work in the studio at the time, his singing was obviously still top notch. Another thing I noticed during the Screamo years was that he only did that stuff during Hip shows. When I saw him live on the Grand Bounce tour with the Country of Miracles and later with the Sadies, he sounded amazing.

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - Killer Whale Tank - 06-07-2018

I think you're right that 2001 was as close as they came to the breaking point. But the idea that Gord had to apologize to his bandmates prior to the last album for treating them badly was suggestive of other serious lows over their last 15 years; and indeed, you can kind of infer from the book that things were not generally easy between GD and some of the other guys for much of that span. (Or maybe I'm "reading in" too much, who knows).

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - potsie - 06-08-2018

The interpersonal band dynamic is an interesting one that I hope will be explored in a band member's autobiography. I was thinking about this idea of tension within the band and recalled a very interesting comment from Rob Baker in the only press interview done around the MMP release date. He said on Sirius XM that the MMP 'shadow' album contained songs that were deemed "too personal or too awkward" for inclusion on MMP. Music itself rarely has a personal feel to it so he has to be talking about Gord's lyrics. Did the band judge Gord's lyrics to be "too personal"? Certainly he's written personal songs before (Fiddler's Green, Toronto #4, half of NFPA) that the band has recorded. Or did Gord himself feel that way? I'd love to know who felt them to be too personal because if it was the band, that could certainly have been another source of tension.

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - Killer Whale Tank - 06-08-2018

Unfortunately I tend to be skeptical that we'll get an honest dissection of the band's dynamics from any of the Hip themselves. They seem to have stuck by a code - a refusal to air dirty laundry in public - that mitigates against that sort of disclosure. But maybe with the passing of time that 'party line' mindest will soften. Rob's remark about lacing his memoir with 'tall tales' isn't too reassuring though.

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - direwolf74 - 06-08-2018

Killer Whale Tank Wrote:Rob's remark about lacing his memoir with 'tall tales' isn't too reassuring though.

Yea, I kind of bristled when he said that. Fans aren't interested in bulls**t. They want the real honest story, warts and all. I would guess we'll probably see a documentary bio on the band's story long before Rob's book ever sees the light of day. Long Time Running was great, but I'd like to see something that highlights the band's humble beginnings, early bar band days, and their ascension to Canadian rock royalty, along with an emphasis on Gord's legendary live performances during the band's heydey. That guy was arguably the greatest frontman in rock, and I think that part of his life deserves just as much attention as his accomplishments post-diagnosis.

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - Killer Whale Tank - 06-09-2018

Downie was a great Canadian artist and deserves the sort of fine-grained, complex treatment that any serious biography or filmmaker would make of a compelling artist (as opposed to a Rock Star, a species that often invites superficial treatment). There's a certain advantage in focusing strictly on GD, in that it would give us a very specific lens from which to understand his relationship to the band, and would invite input from people who knew Gord and yet were on the margins of the Hip 'party line.' The disadvantage, of course, is that it further consolidates the unfair notion that the Hip were sidemen for Gord. But there is a case for GD getting distinct treatment.

I agree completely that fans aren't interested in 'tall tales.' That was a big problem with Buck 65's memoir, which explicitly blended nonsense with actual experience. There's a cheat involved here: no one is really all that interested in reading *fiction* by rock stars (who are unlikely to be top-notch authors in any case); what we're interested in is a personal view of their life and work; and the act of smuggling in a whole bunch of BS under the cover of a 'memoir' ultimately tricks us into buying the former under the pretense of the latter. Daniel Lanois's memoir at least delivered the goods - its failing being his attempts at 'lyrical' prose, which fall flat as a sole, because, again, these guys aren't serious prose writers.

Dylan's memoir was a fascinating thing, however. First, its authorial voice was sufficiently distinctive and compelling as to stand on its own as an interesting read. Second, he seems to have written something that - where it deviates from literal truth - operates on a *metaphorical* level to communicate the experiential reality of what was going on. Bob just doesn't operate on a level of descriptive fact, in his music or anywhere else; rather he communicates what it *felt like* to be him during period X or Y of his career. That's very different from Buck 65 just mashing up true and randomly false anecdotes. And the construction of the book is terrific, inasmuch as he deliberately circles around his period of explosive impact in the mid-60s - showing us how he coalesced into being that artist, and how he deal with the later ramifications of it, while remaining totally and tantalisingly silent about the thing itself. As admirable as all that is, it's not a template that other rock stars are likely to be able to live up to, any more than they can rival his songwriting.

In short, if you're a rocker, just tell your story, please. That's enough for everybody.

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - Tthip - 07-12-2018

Audio book is out now. Narrated by George Stroumboulopoulos

<a class="postlink" href="https://mobile.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=George+Stroumboulopoulos&ref=a_pd_Bios-M_c1_narrator_1&pf_rd_p=aa3522d4-5aad-4ef5-b5ef-5e53b9d3f5d7&pf_rd_r=T62NWSRK2XAQ8SQAQC5V&">https://mobile.audible.com/search?searc ... Q8SQAQC5V&</a>

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - direwolf74 - 07-12-2018

Tthip Wrote:Audio book is out now. Narrated by George Stroumboulopoulos

<a class="postlink" href="https://mobile.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=George+Stroumboulopoulos&ref=a_pd_Bios-M_c1_narrator_1&pf_rd_p=aa3522d4-5aad-4ef5-b5ef-5e53b9d3f5d7&pf_rd_r=T62NWSRK2XAQ8SQAQC5V&">https://mobile.audible.com/search?searc ... Q8SQAQC5V&</a>

Strombo boycott on the Hip fan facebook page in 3...2...1...

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - fingernailsonhull - 07-12-2018

direwolf74 Wrote:
Tthip Wrote:Audio book is out now. Narrated by George Stroumboulopoulos

<a class="postlink" href="https://mobile.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=George+Stroumboulopoulos&ref=a_pd_Bios-M_c1_narrator_1&pf_rd_p=aa3522d4-5aad-4ef5-b5ef-5e53b9d3f5d7&pf_rd_r=T62NWSRK2XAQ8SQAQC5V&">https://mobile.audible.com/search?searc ... Q8SQAQC5V&</a>

Strombo boycott on the Hip fan facebook page in 3...2...1...

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: The Never-Ending Present - Michael Barclay - FourPistols - 07-13-2018

I just finished the book. It has some really nice insights.

It doesn’t give enough detail on the later albums. The cover band chapter is out of place and almost completely unnecessary.

Even worse was the Death of Every Rock Star chapter. I couldn’t believe how long that went on.

Still I learned a lot and the band come off like a bunch of nice guys, which is not surprising. I loved that one Gord quote which is attributed to someone else: “We wanted to be violent and original in our work.”