[edgoffin]

I was not sure if I was going to listen to it -- had the same reaction leading up to Secret Path. Both deal with such a depressing story.

I relented and listened a few times today on spotify, mistakenly at work. It is a great album, far more joyful than I had anticipated -- it's a pretty incredible way to be able to say goodbye and thanks to a number of people who impacted him in his life (and I think with Faith Faith a dog?). There are a few tracks where you can hear Gord shuffling paper, taking a drink, or chatting as tape begins to roll that show how quickly and "one-off" this project was.

I won't try and paraphrase, but in the Mansbridge interview Gord had some interesting comments about the process of preparing for the door being better than getting hit by a car. This is a pretty unique thing to leave behind. Great piece -- like Secret Path I Iikely won't reach for it often when choosing some music -- but for these times when music needs to mean a little more it will find its way to the turntable. (once the vinyl arrives....)

[sean.bonner]

Breaking a non-existent rule here...

Any body have mp3s of this? I do subscribe to Spotify and will be purchasing the vinyl... however I'd love the mp3s for Last.Fm tagging purposes.

[Chris Tanz]

I got to Bedtime and had to call it quits. Sobbing at my desk. Jesus. I cannot imagine the pain of writing this album. I...God.

What a beautiful thing.

Bedtime was as far as I got at my desk before I decided with tears in my eyes that I can't do this properly at the office.

Snuck back to listen to Love over Money which was a little more uplifting, but I'm going to do this right later.

ct

[direwolf74]

Picked up the CD this morning at Sunrise Records. Thought I had a defective copy for a second, as there was only one disc in there. Threw it on in the car and realized all 23 songs are on the one disc. The lyrics are included, but it's Gord's handwritten scribbly lyric sheets, so it's very difficult to read. I'm sure they'll put the lyrics up on the website shortly.

So much music to listen to on this thing and it's definitely gonna take me a while to fully absorb it all. I've made it all the way through about 3 times now. Every song is absolutely dripping with emotion, and yet the album isn't as sad and melancholic as I expected. Some of the songs are actually quite upbeat and catchy despite the circumstances surrounding their creation. Many of the songs are also more structured than I was expecting, while a couple of them sound like they might have been improvised on the spot in the studio. My favorites so far:

A Natural- that chorus! Just an amazing vocal performance from Gord.
First Person
Bedtime- gorgeous and heart-wrenching.
Love Over Money- very touching tribute to his bandmates in the Hip.
Coco Chanel #5- I assume this one is about his ex wife.
Safe is Dead- noticed he re-used the line from Tired as F**k in this song: "don't let your balloon touch the ground."
A Better End
Far Away and Blurred

[senrab]

Picked up the CD this morning at Sunrise Records. Thought I had a defective copy for a second, as there was only one disc in there. Threw it on in the car and realized all 23 songs on the one disc. The lyrics are included, but it's Gord's handwritten scribbly lyric sheets, so it's very difficult to read. I'm sure they'll put the lyrics up on the website shortly.

So much music to listen to on this thing and it's definitely gonna take me a while to fully absorb it all. I've made it all the way through about 3 times now. Every song is absolutely dripping with emotion, and yet the album isn't as sad and melancholic as I expected. Some of the songs are actually quite upbeat and catchy despite the circumstances surrounding their creation. Many of the songs are also more structured than I was expecting, while a couple of them sound like they might have been improvised on the spot in the studio. My favorites so far:

A Natural- that chorus! Just an amazing vocal performance from Gord.
First Person
Bedtime- gorgeous and heart-wrenching.
Love Over Money- very touching tribute to his bandmates in the Hip.
Coco Chanel #5- I assume this one is about his ex wife.
Safe is Dead- noticed he re-used the line from Tired as F**k in this song: "don't let your balloon touch the ground."
A Better End
Far Away and Blurred

I felt exactly the same way about the chorus in A Natural.
I also noticed in another song (can't remember now) that he used the "God walks with persons" line from Great Soul
I think My First Girlfriend has something to do with this - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.watermarkproject.ca/watermark/a0dU000000DfzkNIAR">https://www.watermarkproject.ca/waterma ... 00DfzkNIAR</a><!-- m -->
Spoon - <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://jam.canoe.com/Music/Artists/T/Tragically_Hip/2006/10/23/2104614.html">http://jam.canoe.com/Music/Artists/T/Tr ... 04614.html</a><!-- m -->

[loach]

Interesting find, senrab, about the watermark site. While the first thought is that the song is about his first girlfriend, reading that story makes me rethink that it's actually about his sister, his first female friend, who I'm guessing is 6 years older than him. I'll have to give the song another listen tonight.

[senrab]

Interesting find, senrab, about the watermark site. While the first thought is that the song is about his first girlfriend, reading that story makes me rethink that it's actually about his sister, his first female friend, who I'm guessing is 6 years older than him. I'll have to give the song another listen tonight.

Either that or it’s one of his sister’s friends. I listened to it and thought, “wait, I thought I read somewhere that Gord said his big sister saved him from drowning once...”

[Scotty12]

Anyone else besides me not going to listen to this one for a while? I still need time.

I held off all day to give it my first listen tonight as the sun set over Lake Ontario. Does that count?

As an obsessive Tragically Hip fan I've always enjoyed Gord's double features and enduring themes. Garbage bag trees on FC, chambermaids on PP, the drive in LTR & DarkCanuck, bear(s), dreams, the water etc.

During tonights emotional first listen I found the numerous MMP lyric callbacks interesting:

"I DONT do what I hate" - wolf's home
"Right thing at the right time" - coco*
"Treasure or worse" - a better end
"Don't let your baloon touch the ground" -safe is dead
And as mentioned above "God walks with persons"


* - It also crossed my mind that "I could tell the truth, or I could tell a lie" in coco5 could be related the question posed in the back to back opening lines from "pretend" and "kids don't get it" on WC

[laliber]

The Lake...

[NWOntario]

I made it through tracks 1-6 on a redeye from São Paulo to Toronto. It’s brilliant, and oh so hard. It’ll take months to process.

[senrab]

Anyone else besides me not going to listen to this one for a while? I still need time.

I held off all day to give it my first listen tonight as the sun set over Lake Ontario. Does that count?

As an obsessive Tragically Hip fan I've always enjoyed Gord's double features and enduring themes. Garbage bag trees on FC, chambermaids on PP, the drive in LTR & DarkCanuck, bear(s), dreams, the water etc.

During tonights emotional first listen I found the numerous MMP lyric callbacks interesting:

"I DONT do what I hate" - wolf's home
"Right thing at the right time" - coco*
"Treasure or worse" - a better end
"Don't let your baloon touch the ground" -safe is dead
And as mentioned above "God walks with persons"


* - It also crossed my mind that "I could tell the truth, or I could tell a lie" in coco5 could be related the question posed in the back to back opening lines from "pretend" and "kids don't get it" on WC

Great post and you articulated Gord’s hallmark repeating themes and “callbacks” better than I ever could have

[patiodweller]

Downloaded the album today. Love love love it. "Conversations serious as night." *Patiently waiting for all lyrics to surface.

[TG]

what an absolute stunner of an album. its beautiful. its magnificent and kudos to Kevin Drew for getting out of the way and just giving Gord such a wonderful canvas to send out his goodbyes on

highlights . . . so far:

first person (what you do is you)
wolf's home (and yet, and yet)
bedtime (hauntingly beautiful)
safe is dead (it could be a mmp outtake)
yer ashore
love over money (oh how i would have loved to been at a show and been stunned and surprised to see the boys and gord rip through this one during an encore, with me screaming at the top of my lungs "love - that's how we get good!!!")
nancy
faith faith (which is definitely about a dog, has to be)
the lake
far away and blurred (gorgeous, just gorgeous)
the north (that outro)

Like so many of you, I was a little worried about how sad and heavy this record would feel but its only the personal and direct songs i'm having a tougher time with (spoon, natural, my first girlfriend, etc). they are super forthright without gord's usual evasive poetry, and i suppose they had to be that way. These songs weren't really meant for me, or us, they are meant for those in gord's life and with signposts meant for those people only. and without an invitation into the song i feel a bit like a voyeur and interloper, and then it really hits home that while we have lost our hero, our exemplar, our guide, our poet . . . they've lost their father, brother, lover, friend . . . and it's in those moments that it gets heavy, gets real . . . but i'm glad those moments are in there, truly, as its a good reminder that all of us are humans. all the people you'll never meet but read about, hear about, casually pass by in the street or see on TV, whether rock star or refugee, are people first and foremost, with people who love them - children, spouses, brothers, sisters, friends. and maybe if we can all look at each other like that, as people who love and are loved, maybe then we can truly "take care of each other"

it truly isn't a sad or sombre or mournful record not even in the least, its full of hope and warmth and beauty and love, and in all reality its more a mission statement than anything else, one he's been trying to get across for so long now.


" . . . how it happens,
well it disappears as it happens, doesn't it
not everything is capturable,
hard as we try.
Like this moment we're in presently.
It's going.
It's going, going, gone . . .
So live it up!
Take care of each other!!
(And drive the fucking speed limit!!!)"

- Gordon Edgar Downie, man who walks among the stars


love is the only virtue there is. and our lives are made up of fleeting moments that fade away, and in the end, all you'll ever really have are snapshot memories that will remind you how it felt to live.

yes, life is forgetting, but life is for getting . . . because isn't it exquisite.

[direwolf74]

Lovely post, TG. Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Jenna_Bird]

I adore "Love Over Money" because, obviously. Does anyone know what birth was missed? The thought just keeps knocking around in my head.