[Scotty12]

I agree with mark and carebread that if it had been another band member it would be easier to continue on, if they wanted.

As it was noticed that drummers seem to be the easiest and most frequently replaced band member, I'd even take it a step further and say that if it was Johnny, many wouldn't even notice the difference of another face hiding behind the drumkit.

quote="Moof_Milker"]Great to hear Rob out there doing these interviews - arewhyehen, yours is a personal favourite. Well done. Seems like Rob (along with Gord D, of course) are the most willing to talk...with Johnny Fay the least. I want to hear perspectives from ALL the boys! Looks like we may in the upcoming doc.
In regards to bands keeping their original line-ups, it's rare for sure...especially for bands with a 20+ year career like The Hip. Not many do. I can think of Rush...Sloan...U2. Are there others?[/quote]

Phish, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Green Day

[arewhyehen]

do you think the band would have continued if it had been one of the other guys who was sick?

Not a chance. GD is no more important to the band than any other member. It's part of what's made them great...an equal partnership. The Hip is those five guys. Since they came together they've never played a gig apart. Without one there is none.

Loved the interview. Such an intimate feel. Wish it was five hours long.

This is my thoughts too. Rob said himself that after a certain point they sat down and decided to make every song written by the tragically hip as a whole, not just a band member or two. They did this to make everyone an equal and to eliminate arguments or breaking up. I guess everyone has their own opinion but we won't ever know. The band members might not even be able to answer this question..

Very glad you enjoyed the interview

[arewhyehen]

do you think the band would have continued if it had been one of the other guys who was sick?

Not a chance. GD is no more important to the band than any other member. It's part of what's made them great...an equal partnership. The Hip is those five guys. Since they came together they've never played a gig apart. Without one there is none.

Loved the interview. Such an intimate feel. Wish it was five hours long.

i disagree to a degree. i think that replacing a lead singer for any band is incredibly difficult simply because they seem their voice can add so much of the "sound". i know i'm not articulating myself very well here. a good guitar player can recreate the notes of a bands songs, but to recreate the voice of the band is hard.

pearl jam had an ever-rotating selection of drummers for years, and while people will argue that some were/are better than others, they continued on. I mentioned Dave Matthews Band already. ACDC successfully replaced their lead singer with tremendous success. Springsteen replaced Clarence Clemons. the foo fighters replaced Pat Smear when he left and i believe they changed drummers early on, too.

Yeah I'm with you here. Replacing a singer is tough. Alice in Chains have done it and gone out to do it well I think. But you can't replace Layne. A good example right now is prophets of rage. There is no replacing Zach from Rage...the guys singing for prophets right now are just terrible in my opinion. It doesn't work. But if it were Tom to leave the band, a really good guitarist could replace him and sound the same without anyone noticing. Hell, the RHCP have kept a fairly consistent sound with all their guitarist changes. Yes, they have changed a bit, but all bands do, changes in members or not.

The question here though, is would the hip WANT to continue if this were the case with another member. I got the feeling from talking with Rob that he was ok with closing that chapter and he was excited about new things. Everyone has other things on the go. I as a band member don't think I would want to replace someone and continue. But like I said above, it's all just our opinions..

[arewhyehen]

Great to hear Rob out there doing these interviews - arewhyehen, yours is a personal favourite. Well done.

Thank you. Means a lot.

[potsie]

Thanks for sharing Ryan

Here is another recent Rob interview I found yesterday. He comes on around 9 minutes in

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This was a very enjoyable interview, although it suffered slightly from the interviewers not being able to get out of their own way (Gabby did a much better job of that!). Rob seemed to be on the verge of talking about the one song he didn't like to play, which would have been very interesting to hear, when the interviewer cut him off. By the time Rob got talking again he went off on a different tangent. Some things that I found interesting:

On the Kingston show: "I don't think it was our best show, or even necessarily a great show."
On being interviewed for Long Time Running: "If this is going to be a final document for the band, then we wanted to help tell the story."
On the original name for their marijuana: "Sherpa"
On politics: He has thought about running for city council, mayor, and has actually applied to be a senator.
On "The Bear": Gord Sinclair wrote it (the music).
On "Pigeon Camera": It was Johnny's idea.
On the most difficult album to make: "TATH, due to lack of an outside producer"
On childhood sports: He played on Dougie Gilmour's lacrosse team as a young teen.

[potsie]

do you think the band would have continued if it had been one of the other guys who was sick?

Not a chance. GD is no more important to the band than any other member. It's part of what's made them great...an equal partnership. The Hip is those five guys. Since they came together they've never played a gig apart. Without one there is none.

Loved the interview. Such an intimate feel. Wish it was five hours long.

My second thought after hearing the news last year was "if it were any other member of the band, they could have went on". Doubt they would've, but...

What is The Tragically Hip and what isn’t? I think the Hip with Downie in the band and at least two other original members (pick any two, it doesn’t matter) is still the Hip. I’m still going to that concert and I don’t have a problem with such a group continuing to label themselves as “The Tragically Hip”. Similarly as long as the Stones have Mick, Keith, and Charlie, they will still be the Rolling Stones to me. It doesn’t require all the original pieces (Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, and later Mick Taylor) for me to still enjoy the band.

However, I can’t make an argument for a band with the original four, minus Downie, still being “The Tragically Hip”. That’s not an indictment of the talent of the other guys, but fair or not, the identity of the band resides with Downie. The unique voice, phrasing, stage presence, lyric writing, etc is so crucial to the Hip that there is absolutely no one that can fill those shoes. I don’t know if I could bring myself to attend a “Tragically Hip” concert without Downie being out front.

[Hippiehistorian]

Thanks so much for listening everyone! I really, really appreciate it.

[Killer Whale Tank]

I'm dropping in way late, but still wanted to say, great interview! Rob sounds weirdly like Robbie Robertson. I know he says it's not a great voice for singing, but I kinda wish he would embrace a semi-spoken-word approach. That voice is gold.

Interesting to hear Gord Sinclair described as the band's 'natural songwriter.' It's so easy to *assume* that Gord Downie is that guy, just because he's the lyricist and is up there singing all the songs, and because he's had such a prolific 'solo' career. You also have to wonder what kind of backlog of fully-developed songs GS has piled up at home, and why he hasn't channeled any of it into private projects the way Downie has - to say nothing of what a personal creative sacrifice he had to make in order to serve the Hip. Beyond that, it's quite clear from this interview that much of the Hip's songwriting really is a collective endeavour.

Rob has mentioned in several interviews about all the material the Hip have in the can. I hope this means that we can actually expect future releases. Personally I'd love to have a Hip Bootleg series analogous to what Dylan has done...but whether that would actually be financially viable is another question. One issue is whether the whole band support Rob's apparent view that that stuff should be released (in talking about this stuff, Rob may be discreetly lobbying his band-mates; who knows?). The other question concerns format. Generally speaking, when longstanding acts take a parsimonious approach to unreleased material, the results frustrate everyone. Look at the Beatles' atrocious "Anthology" project, now superseded by much more generous things like the Sgt. Pepper re-release. Fans want more. Many of us even want demos and half-finished cuts. As in so many things, Dylan is the path-breaker here. His label has taken to releasing literally EVERYTHING recorded during particular sessions. I wouldn't go that far, but I don't think the Hip should be afraid of erring on the side of 'more.'

[sean.bonner]

. That voice is gold.

Ever since `Bullet Proof White Limo`, I`ve wanted Robbie to do a project with his voice. `The Circle Is Small`just further proved my point. His voice reminds me of Leonard Cohen.

[arewhyehen]

Thanks for all the comments and feedback.

. That voice is gold.

Ever since `Bullet Proof White Limo`, I`ve wanted Robbie to do a project with his voice. `The Circle Is Small`just further proved my point. His voice reminds me of Leonard Cohen.

Agreed. Really love his voice. My favourite Stripper's Union song is The Circle is Small for that exact reason. Reminds me of Leonard Cohen.

[SRK]

As in so many things, Dylan is the path-breaker here. His label has taken to releasing literally EVERYTHING recorded during particular sessions. I wouldn't go that far, but I don't think the Hip should be afraid of erring on the side of 'more.'

Columbia had to do that, otherwise they'd lose the copyright on it.

[Killer Whale Tank]

Perhaps Columbia had to do it - but I doubt they're losing money on it.

Anyway, I don't want the Hip to release every last scrap. But I would love them to release

1. Any completed tracks that never made the albums
2. Striking alternative versions of completed tracks that did make the album (e.g., I'll bet that somewhere there is a version of 'Lonely End of the Rink' that foregrounds rather than smothers the poignancy of those lyrics, such as a low-key acoustic treatment)
3. Some sweet-sounding demos
4. Some promising half-finished numbers

A big 3-or-4 CD set is probably realistic. Maybe the right approach here is to spread it across two or three releases ('Early Hip Bootleg' - covering the baby blue album to, say, FC - 'mid Hip Bootleg' - DFN to IBE - 'later Hip Bootleg' - WATS to MMP). The first two would probably sell well enough to make it worth the company's bother.

Live material I'd set aside for different treatment - e.g., a boxed set of three or four complete shows. What an important document that could be, a major testament to one of the best live bands that ever existed.