12-03-2004, 05:58 AM
I remember that Winnipef summer fully and completely.
It started in the spring actually of 1991. I had just bought my first car (a little suzuki jeep) and I had an ok stereo in it with these huge home made speakers that may have only been 15-20 watts, and they distorted quite well when I cranked up the stereo. Finishing grade 11 and heading into summer, these speakers would distort frequently that wonderful summer.
I remember seeing New Orleans is sinking on MuchMusic, and I always thought the video was 'The Old Man Down The Road' by John Fogarty. I clearly remember the old guy with the bad fake beard, so I would get them mixed up. I didn't mind the song, but thought the video was lacking.
But 92 Citi FM in Winnipeg was starting to play this band called The Tragically Hip, and they were not bad, and Canadian. I would also get the three songs that they were playing in regular rotation mixed up. The three songs that spring/summer of 1991 were New Orleans, Blow, and Little Bones. They all stated off with a solo guitar or bass riff, and I was starting to know right away which band it was, but not the exact song....not yet anyway.
Well, I was starting to know these three songs quite well as the summer went on, and did hear a couple of other tracks from the band from their latest album. I remember the album name quite clearly aswell, as one 92 Citi FM dj gave and explaination of what 'Road Apples' was, or meant. I thought it was quite cool.
However, THE moment....THE...actual...moment came on a night in late summer 1991, at my sister and brother-in-law's house. I went over to visit, have a beer, and play some ping pong on their new table. While playing, my bro-in-law had the stereo going, and brought out a couple of 'tapes' of this cool Canadian band, The Tragically Hip. I said, ya, ya, I have heard of them....they are pretty cool. So he played the two 'tapes' a few times as we played ping pong, and it wasn't so much the three songs I had heard on the radio that made an impression on me, but some of the other tracks on the albums that did.
That was it....I was officially a Tragically Hip fan. The summer ended, and a few of my friends had similar stories of getting to like The Tragically Hip. School starter again, grade 12, my final year. After saving a few bucks, I went out and bought the two tapes. Your final year in high school aways imbeds itself in your memory because of that years importance and influence. And The Tragically Hip were apart of that. As the year went on, so did the buzz of The Tragically Hip around school.
That year would end, and grundge would come and go. Though I would be a fan of some of the grundge bands, and the quality of their music and messages, the music industry, pop culture, and society would chew them up and spit them out before 1995 was over.
But there is one band that was a consistant soundtrack to 'my' 1990's. The Tragically Hip.
Not only would they become my soundtrack for the 90's, and such and impressionable and life moulding time (late teens/early 20's). They would also become the soundtrack to my life.
So that's my story....and I'm sticking to it...
It started in the spring actually of 1991. I had just bought my first car (a little suzuki jeep) and I had an ok stereo in it with these huge home made speakers that may have only been 15-20 watts, and they distorted quite well when I cranked up the stereo. Finishing grade 11 and heading into summer, these speakers would distort frequently that wonderful summer.
I remember seeing New Orleans is sinking on MuchMusic, and I always thought the video was 'The Old Man Down The Road' by John Fogarty. I clearly remember the old guy with the bad fake beard, so I would get them mixed up. I didn't mind the song, but thought the video was lacking.
But 92 Citi FM in Winnipeg was starting to play this band called The Tragically Hip, and they were not bad, and Canadian. I would also get the three songs that they were playing in regular rotation mixed up. The three songs that spring/summer of 1991 were New Orleans, Blow, and Little Bones. They all stated off with a solo guitar or bass riff, and I was starting to know right away which band it was, but not the exact song....not yet anyway.
Well, I was starting to know these three songs quite well as the summer went on, and did hear a couple of other tracks from the band from their latest album. I remember the album name quite clearly aswell, as one 92 Citi FM dj gave and explaination of what 'Road Apples' was, or meant. I thought it was quite cool.
However, THE moment....THE...actual...moment came on a night in late summer 1991, at my sister and brother-in-law's house. I went over to visit, have a beer, and play some ping pong on their new table. While playing, my bro-in-law had the stereo going, and brought out a couple of 'tapes' of this cool Canadian band, The Tragically Hip. I said, ya, ya, I have heard of them....they are pretty cool. So he played the two 'tapes' a few times as we played ping pong, and it wasn't so much the three songs I had heard on the radio that made an impression on me, but some of the other tracks on the albums that did.
That was it....I was officially a Tragically Hip fan. The summer ended, and a few of my friends had similar stories of getting to like The Tragically Hip. School starter again, grade 12, my final year. After saving a few bucks, I went out and bought the two tapes. Your final year in high school aways imbeds itself in your memory because of that years importance and influence. And The Tragically Hip were apart of that. As the year went on, so did the buzz of The Tragically Hip around school.
That year would end, and grundge would come and go. Though I would be a fan of some of the grundge bands, and the quality of their music and messages, the music industry, pop culture, and society would chew them up and spit them out before 1995 was over.
But there is one band that was a consistant soundtrack to 'my' 1990's. The Tragically Hip.
Not only would they become my soundtrack for the 90's, and such and impressionable and life moulding time (late teens/early 20's). They would also become the soundtrack to my life.
So that's my story....and I'm sticking to it...