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The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - Printable Version

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The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - gsmacleod - 09-09-2017

On the Round 4; Boots or Hearts was the clear consensus for weakest of those remaining in Round 3 with Opiated and 38 Years Old going neck and neck for the second weakest song. Since they ended up tied, they will both carry forward into the next round.

Eliminated in Round 1:
Another Midnight
Everytime You Go
Trickle Down

Eliminated in Round 2:
She Didn't Know
When the Weight Comes Down
I'll Believe in You (or I'll be Leaving You Tonight)

Eliminated in Round 3:
Boots or Hearts

Choose the song you think is the weakest on the album from those remaining. After 48 hours, the song with the most votes will be eliminated and we'll do round 5.

Happy voting!

Note - voting will end Monday at 7:35 Eastern.

Shane

Re: The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - Killer Whale Tank - 09-09-2017

Tough, tough round, in that "Opiated" and "38 years Old" - the only candidates to be voted off, since 'Blow' and NOIS are both rightly iconic Hip classics - are keepers, for radically different reasons. "Opiated" is smoulderingly sublime, showing that the Hip can work with much subtler dynamics, both lyrical and musical, than just the kick-ass rockers that define the album; it's got that quality of menace that became such a distinctive Hip trademark, and showcases Downie at his best in every respect. It's also a sadly neglected deep cut appreciated only by serious fans, and in that sense deserves not to get voted off, just because it is so under-appreciated. But then, "38 Years Old" is clearly a more "important" Hip song - the key early acoustic Hip song, showcasing that crucial aspect of their sonic repertoire, it's also a major early excursion into Canadiana, and is, as the other thread shows, one of Gord's most fully realized narrative songs. And apart from all that, and with due respect to the critics, it's just a very strong, well-crafted and superbly-executed song, period.

I voted for "38" in the end on the grounds of its importance in the Hip canon, but not without mourning for the great "Opiated" Sad

Re: The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - gsmacleod - 09-09-2017

I voted Boots last time and figured I'd be voting for either Opiated or 38 Years, whichever made it through. 38 Years Old has always been a favourite of mine but I think it loses out to the other three.

Love both guitar parts and the overall story but when I look at the four songs, 38 Years Old is the weakest of them even though it pains me to vote for it. Even worse is that I might have to vote for it in the next round too!

Shane

Re: The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - potsie - 09-09-2017

This is such a difficult vote that I've been tempted to abstain. However, I must not shirk my civic duty! I've listened to UTH a lot over the past week and I keep coming back to 38 Years Old and Opiated. 38 yo might just be the most perfect marriage of music and lyrics in the Hip catalogue. That mournful slide from Rob fits the feeling of the lyrics beautifully. I've been really paying attention to Downie's vocal on this song and although I won't say it represents his very "best" singing (although it's close), to my ears it might be the best capture of his voice. I can't tell if it's simply good production or a great studio microphone, but I've formed the opinion this week that he's rarely sounded better on record than 38 yo.

I've got the last four as:
1. Opiated
2. 38
3. Blow
4. NOIS

As I've been listening this week NOIS hasn't been able to rise above those top three. For as fantastic a song as it is, I just can't bring myself past to look past the fatigue of having heard it so many times.

Re: The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - potsie - 09-09-2017

Killer Whale Tank Wrote:"Opiated" is smoulderingly sublime, showing that the Hip can work with much subtler dynamics, both lyrical and musical, than just the kick-ass rockers that define the album; it's got that quality of menace that became such a distinctive Hip trademark, and showcases Downie at his best in every respect. It's also a sadly neglected deep cut appreciated only by serious fans, and in that sense deserves not to get voted off, just because it is so under-appreciated.

Opiated has to be counted among the Hip’s darkest songs. To me, it’s a melancholic documentation of the suicide of a close friend. Downie opens the song with the not-immediately-obvious metaphor of gasoline for alcohol and then pulls back that curtain with a sly nod to the Grateful Dead. Two fifths of gasoline is about one and half litres, enough to barely get you down the road in a car. However whiskey was formerly measured in fifths (a fifth of a gallon or about 750 mL) and two fifths of that would get you a whole lot further down the road, and maybe take you right off the road and into the ditch, in the figurative sense. The line “the bottle is dusty but my engine is clean” likely has its origins in the Grateful Dead’s “Brown-Eyed Women” in which Garcia sings “the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean”. Downie uses this to bring the alcohol metaphor forward.

The narrator conveys the idea that the protagonist is struggling with depression. He was “addicted to approval” that he wasn’t getting and there was “poison in his head”. Drinking, depression and suicide are often intertwined. The purchase of the suit is for a “future” bride (I don’t interpret “bride” to be a reference to a current wife), but he realizes that if those dreams aren’t realized, hell, they can just bury him in it after he kills himself as the suit would be suitable attire for meeting Saint Peter at the pearly gates.

In the chorus the narrator describes the pain of the loss of his friend. He is trying to dull his feelings with opiates (possibly heroin, or this may be a metaphor) and is confronting the “Why” and “What could I have done?” that anyone touched by suicide faces. He feels that he maybe didn’t do all he could (“Maybe I couldn’t catch up”), but puts some of the onus for seeking help back on his friend (“But maybe he could have waited”).

Overall, there is a lot of depth to this tune. It’s stellar, both musically and lyrically. One of my all-time favourites, not just from the Hip, but from anyone. I have a feeling that this song isn’t going to make it past this round so I will consider this my eulogy for Opiated.

Re: The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - andrew sharpe - 09-09-2017

Interesting take potsie. Similar thoughts posted on http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/65561/. I always took the bride line as meaning she'd kill him if he didn't clean up. Suicide seems more accurate.

Re: The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - potsie - 09-09-2017

Upon initial listen to Opiated many years ago it was the line "see you UP there" that made me think the song was about a suicide (there is the obvious St. Peter but it was really the former line that was more ominous). The more typical phrase "see you there" would be used when you've made plans to meet someone at another location, at a later date. However, when you add in "up" the line begins to hint more at the afterlife.

I heard the Dead's "Brown Eyed Women" for the first time just a few years ago. One of my favourite bands, My Morning Jacket (with Bob Weir guesting), played a cover at a concert I was at in Mexico in 2014. When I heard that line it immediately struck me how similar it was to Opiated. It wasn't until I got home and listened to the original on Europe '72 that I fully understood Gord's alcohol metaphor and put it together with the rest of the song.

The above author states that the "booze fueled his suicide". I interpreted the alcohol reference to convey a sense of the depths of his friend's depression (he's drinking heavily) and to maybe be an impetus for his suicide, but not the direct "on the day" cause. However, maybe we can take the first verse of the song as a narrative of the suicide. He buys 1.5 L of booze, drives home, puts on his blue suit (and maybe he buys the suit on his last day as well), downs all the alcohol, kills himself while wearing said suit, and in short time finds himself standing in front of St. Peter. In which case the blue suit is no longer suitable for burial. This interpretation makes for an even darker song.

Re: The Weakest Link - Up To Here - Round 4 - Killer Whale Tank - 09-10-2017

Great stuff, potsie. You're surely right...what is being "so out of breath," if not being dead?

The chorus has a haunting bit of reflection by the song's narrator, asking about personal responsibility ("maybe I couldn't catch up, but..."). Other than that, though, the song doesn't cut too close to the bone on a personal or emotional level, which suggests to me that Gord is imagining a scenario here, painting a vivid, evocative picture rather than recounting a personal experience. It's not like "Fiddler's Green" or even "Montreal" or "Secret Path" in being something that harrows the author's own soul.

My guess would be that it should be taken as thematically akin to "Blow at High Dough," and therefore makes a lyrical bookend with the album's opener, in being a set of observations about self-destructive artists/performers. I find it interesting that the Hip's first record has at least two songs that explore these dangers of stardom - those songs being almost like little warning notes the band is writing to itself about its own future. Then again, maybe all performers, especially in popular music, are naturally given to pondering the Elvis Presley/Amy Winehouse/Kurt Cobain scenario. At least the intelligent ones would be. It's an incredibly high-risk profession.