[Moosehead]

Interesting contradiction of the old 2005 post about the 1998 story on whose funeral it was. (And the new info about IoD "Terry")

On a lighter note I just recently noticed that Metropolis Noir is the official French name for Nabob Full City Dark coffee. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kraftcanada.com/products/00060200001160">http://www.kraftcanada.com/products/00060200001160</a><!-- m -->. I remember a newsgroup post back in like 1999 where someone (maybe me??!) was asking if anyone knew the spoken line at the end of Greasy Jungle. Not in the lyric book and nobody seemed to know it for sure, although with the benefit of google I found a 1996 post that had it. (Later live recordings are clear that it's Full City Dark.)

The first time I remember seeing Metropolis Noir coffee was maybe in 2009 when I was slinging coffee and We Are The Same came out (i think?) At first I thought it was a coincidence, but then they added a 'flavour descriptor' beneath the name of the coffee, and it was described as 'Full City Dark'.

Nabob trademarked it in... 1993/94. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/viewTrademark.html?id=731449&lang=eng">http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmr ... 9&lang=eng</a><!-- m --> - but the term "Full city" is used generically for a style of roasting: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://coffee.wikia.com/wiki/Full_city_(roast">http://coffee.wikia.com/wiki/Full_city_(roast</a><!-- m -->)

[edgoffin]

The lung transplant story really seems to line up the best with the songs -- I also came across the Nabob coffee connection while at a cottage a few years ago. Made me laugh, so all those years was trying to figure out what "full city dark" meant and it was right there on the package, and it all made sense.

[potsie]

IOD:
"Terry's gift is forever green
It got me up and back on the scene"

Most previous discussions of IOD's "Terry" pinpointed Mr. Fox. The "forever green" may have alluded to the money that Terry Fox has raised year after year, and will seemingly do so in perpetuity. The second line of that couplet never really fit for me. What would Terry Fox's "gift" have to do with "getting me up and back on the scene"? I suppose one could again tie this into the cancer research/treatment angle but that seemed like a loose connection.

With the story from the Stittsville woman, the couplet makes more sense to me. The ribbon colour for organ transplantation is green hence making Terry's donation of a set of lungs to Bill McKay a "green gift". The second couplet now becomes more obvious in that the new lungs took him from the edge of death to being back up on the scene again. In the end he lasted less than a year with the new lungs, not getting the amount of borrowed time he had hoped for and therefore "beating the inevitability of death to death, just a little bit."

Interestingly, if this is closer to the true meaning of the lyric, it removes Terry Fox from the song and thus a piece of Canadiana from Gord's lyrics.

[edgoffin]

IOD:
"Terry's gift is forever green
It got me up and back on the scene"

Interestingly, if this is closer to the true meaning of the lyric, it removes Terry Fox from the song and thus a piece of Canadiana from Gord's lyrics.

Yeah, I always tried to figure out that Terry Fox connection and "back up on the scene". I've always put Inevitability and Greasy Jungle together as two parts of the same story.

[andrew sharpe]

I've assumed for so long that the Terry was Terry Fox that even now I refused to believe it doesn't at least mean both I'm convinced I even heard Gord mention Terry Fox in regards to this song.

I haven't heard Ren's name in a long time. I stayed at his parents' place in Ottawa one time on my way to the NYE 1999 Hip show in Toronto. He had posted on the newsgroup that he was looking for a ride, we said we'd give him one if we could stay at his place, so we didn't have to drive straight through from NB. Really nice family. Kid was quite brave though, catching a ride with strangers to stay in Toronto by himself...I think he was maybe 16 at the time. Even then I remember he had a super nice camera and was big into photography.

Ah the old days. My favourite thread in a long time

[potsie]

I've assumed for so long that the Terry was Terry Fox that even now I refused to believe it doesn't at least mean both I'm convinced I even heard Gord mention Terry Fox in regards to this song.

I understand the reluctance of some songwriters to be specific when questioned on lyrics. Vagueness allows the listener to maintain the illusion that the song is exactly about what or whom they conjured it to be about. I'd prefer that line in IOD was about Terry Fox as well, and maybe it still is. Unless Gord specifically told her that the song was written about her father's lung transplant she may be under an illusion as well, which is a great place to reside in that it enhances meaning.

[LandscapesEmerg]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hipmuseum.com/jungle.html">http://www.hipmuseum.com/jungle.html</a><!-- m -->

Reposting in case it goes away.

Greasy Jungle references

Believed to have been inspired by a late night drive into Ottawa for a funeral (see below), "Greasy Jungle" references classic film, an actual funeral home, and a rain slicked capital city.

"Greasy jungle, metropolis noir."

When a rain storm leaves a city's streets greasy and reflective, you can see the towns highlights and high-rises shimmering in each puddle. If you were driving into the city at night, as legend has it Gord was, it would quite literally be a metropolis noir or "dark city." These dense puddles of reflection in a city that certainly sleeps, a greasy jungle, may be an allusion to Metropolis, the dark, creepy, but classic silent film. The movie was famously shot using mirrors (because proper equipment for matte or projected background techniques did not yet exist) and was intended to reflect the dark realities for the average city dweller while romanticizing the Marxist-Leninist movement. The strange cityscapes were intended to show how capitalist and industrial societies would evolve into hulking, ominous and oppressive domains. "Metropolis: City Noir" is an excellent academic look at the film, and its title hints at the connections between this 1926 expressionist work, and the film-noir style that would follow it.

A metropolis is a large and densely populated urban area. Despite what Sim-City may have taught us, there is no general level of population that qualifies a city as a metropolis. It's a subjective term. It's also where Superman lives.

"...I drove down your road
To Hazeldean where I tasted
your funeral home's sandwiches and coffee."

Hazeldean Rd. is a large thoroughfare that stretches east and west across Kanata, Ontario: part of Canada's capital city of Ottawa.

A letter by Leslie McKay in the August 20, 2016 Stittsville Central explained that a man named Bill McKay was living with the parents of Gord's wife, Laura Downie, as he awaited a double lung transplant in 1992. Sadly, he passed away when the surgery was unsuccessful. It stated that the Inevitability of Death and Greasy Jungle were written for Bill. His daughter, Leslie McKay, wrote that Laura and Gord took Bill on tour and became very close: "Gord was like the son he never had. Inevitability of Death was written for him after he passed away from his double-lung transplant. Greasy Jungle was written after Laura and Gord attended his wake and funeral in 1993 at Tubman's Funeral Home before coming to our house." Thanks to Mike Twittey for pointing out this letter.

"I looked out your kitchen window
where I saw a soulful gymnast
melt in the air and shudder
just above the snow
making moves that just weren't there..."

The McKay letter (see above) stated the following:
"The Tragically Hip wrote two songs in 1993/94 on their Day For Night album for my father. They wrote Inevitability of Death and Greasy Jungle for him.
At the time, my sister was on the gymnastics team at Queen’s – lyrics “soulful gymnast above the snow” [were written about] our backyard. They also made a really special t-shirt for Dad which I have and the notes they wrote when he received his lungs."

Letter - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://stittsvillecentral.ca/letter-the-tragically-hip-have-a-really-special-place-in-my-heart/">http://stittsvillecentral.ca/letter-the ... -my-heart/</a><!-- m --> (still up !)

[Killer Whale Tank]

In other news, I was never a big fan of this particular track. Great opening line, though, but beyond that, I dunno, it never got through to me.