01-17-2018, 08:58 PM
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:Tough call. "Dark Canuck" is only half a great song - the last part ('if we ever get home'...) - but that half is one of the best things the Hip ever did IMHO. If they had decided to separate it from the first part ("The Short Answer's 48 Hours," that part), adding maybe a brief prelude to set it up as a stand alone song, they would have had an incontestably all-time great track. Instead you're really voting for the second half of a song, which is weird.
By contrast, "Good Life" is epic, but has two things going against it: the repetition of its one verse, and the fact that it's another song about performing in a rock band, which is, as subject matter, much less interesting than the other two songs. (For all of that, GD manages to transcend the limitations of that subject matter, with some incredibly evocative lines and that distinctive, classic Downie melody).
I went with "Good Life" regardless, because I love the timely and savage commentary on the War on Terror in "Dark Canuck."
Incidentally, this is a rare case where I completely agree with what we've been left with in the final round. These three songs are the class of IVL. ('Leave' isn't too far back there, though, in my book, despite being unceremoniously jettisoned in this process; but it's still not on the same tier as these three).
I enjoy Gord's songs about writing, performing, and being in a band. It seems he's got at least one on most albums and each time he offers a slightly new perspective. "Gives way to shaky movements, Improvisational skills" sums up his performance abilities as well as anything. These were two of his greatest strengths and a big part of what set him apart from other front men.
"Go somewhere we're needed, Find somewhere to grow, Go somewhere we're needed" is a great credo for a traveling band trying to grow an audience, a pre-cursor to "Love over money, pluggin' in and playin', tryin' for the ears of the earth" from Introduce Yerself.
