[fingernailsonhull]

I got tired of waiting for the library and I picked it up today. Starting to read tonight.

[potsie]

I have this book on hold at the library so will reserve judgement until I read it, but the fact that he's quoting fan-sites and writing chapters about cover bands isn't encouraging.

In the acknowledgements he thanks Hipbase... "This book would not have been (sic) come together so quickly without the endless resources of the Toronto Public Library, the fan community at Hipbase.com and HipMuseum.com. I believe he's read the "Thoughts and Insights" threads because I see something I wrote in the UTH thread in August 2017 appearing on p. 67 of the book (where he says "Of the line in 38 Years Old...):

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Re: Thoughts and Insights -- Up To Here

Postby potsie » Tue Aug 29, 2017 1:09 pm

There is a very wide chasm between UTH and the EP in terms of the lyric writing and musicianship of the band. UTH is truly a quantum leap forward. I think it still holds up very well 28 years later, including in the areas of production and sound.

I’ve always viewed UTH as the Hip’s “party album”. The straight-ahead blues rock is likely a product of the band’s over-riding philosophy for their live shows in the 1980’s: To make music that filled the dance floor at the clubs they were playing (a credo espoused by Downie in print in the mid 1980’s). The songs of UTH accomplish that goal better than any other album in their catalogue, FC included.

When paying a cover charge to hear an unknown band and experience new music in a club, people want to have a good time. That’s a simple concept that generally involves the band playing music that induces both drinking and dancing. The songs on UTH would have worked well on both fronts, resulting in a happy club owner that invites the Hip back for future shows, and patrons that tell their friends about the fun band they saw last night. And the audience grows.

Simply put, the Hip made the album they needed to make at that time to solidify their future as a viable (and profitable) live act. To illustrate my point, drop any five random tunes from UTH and imagine instead that it contained “Don’t Wake Daddy”, “Flamenco”, “Apartment Song”, “Sherpa”, and “Put it Off”. For many people (although not me) these songs may be on par or better than any they hypothetically drop from UTH, but they are not “good time” songs and do not represent the type of music the Hip needed to fill clubs in 1989 and 1990.

All that being said, the subject matter of the album is very incongruous to the musical spirit. In fact, this may be one of the Hip’s darkest albums, something I almost always overlook when listening to UTH. Song protagonists often find themselves in very troublesome situations: The resulting disaster of messing around with a unknowingly loaded gun on “She Didn’t Know”, suicide in “Opiated” (“It was see if you like it or see you up there”), end of life as the metaphorical calendar burning in “Another Midnight”, a rape avenged with murder in “38 Years Old”, and a scorned women prodded by her mother to her teach her wandering husband a lead-filled lesson in “I’ll Believe in You”. In addition you’ve got a bitter break-up song about a self-centred individual in “Boots or Hearts”, and some potentially heavy material on “Weight”, “Everytime” and “Trickle Down”, depending on how one interprets these songs.

When you dig into the lyrics on UTH, the album really does begin to feel like a bit of a downer. Yet, I can clearly recall myself standing on a coffee table with some buddies at a party in the early 90’s belting out 38 Years Old and singing “See my sister got raped so a man got killed” like it was a breezy line without any weight. That discordance between the “feel” of the album and the darkness of the content is what makes UTH very interesting to me.

[edgoffin]

I rarely look at the hip fan FB page -- the discussion on this book is hilarious with regards to unauthorized, the band privacy, etc.

I found it very respectful of the band -- I maybe learned one thing about each member's personal lives that I did not know, and usually it was a pretty mundane fact. Without "unauthorized" journalism, basically there would be no stories properly told, plus Barclay primarily uses already published sources for the book.

Then weirdly, you can scroll though the FB page and see people still posting shots of the Macleans magazine (one of the main pieces written by Barclay, likely biggest selling issue of the magazine), posting shots of unauthorized artwork purchases (the scam charity gold album), or advertising cover band appearances. I wanted to point out the lack of disparity, but didn't want to get lambasted by middle aged women.

That said, there's a guy posting links to a YouTube channel who has some pretty great boots, sounds like audience recordings he's done some work on.

[Killer Whale Tank]

The "ballad of Billy Ray" is a priceless little gem in this book. I love that bit where Crash Vegas hires him thinking "he's with the Hip, he must be the best in the country," and quickly realizes that the guy has no idea what he's doing :lol: The incredible, touching loyalty between him, GD, and the band as a whole is really something.

[spottrax]

Lots going on personally lately. Completely forgot about this book was coming out. Ordered it yesterday with next-day shipping. Can't wait to get started! Btw...I've (obviously) been on Hipbase for years. I'm also on the FB page occasionally. I get some of the slams against peeps there but at the end of the day we're all just fans who dig the Hip. Some good folks on there too...

[Moof_Milker]

Barklay is doing some appearances this month to promote the book - including tonight at the Horseshoe. Anyone here going? I might try to get to Lindsay on Saturday. I have a million questions running through my head to ask him -- what would you ask him?

https://www.facebook.com/pg/barclayhipbook/events/

[potsie]

Barklay is doing some appearances this month to promote the book - including tonight at the Horseshoe. Anyone here going? I might try to get to Lindsay on Saturday. I have a million questions running through my head to ask him -- what would you ask him?

https://www.facebook.com/pg/barclayhipbook/events/

What the best Hip cover band is... after 14 pages of coverage I'm still left with that nagging question :wink:

[direwolf74]

Barklay is doing some appearances this month to promote the book - including tonight at the Horseshoe. Anyone here going? I might try to get to Lindsay on Saturday. I have a million questions running through my head to ask him -- what would you ask him?

https://www.facebook.com/pg/barclayhipbook/events/

What the best Hip cover band is... after 14 pages of coverage I'm still left with that nagging question :wink:

Ugh, that chapter was indeed way too long. 4 or 5 pages on that subject probably would have sufficed.

[Killer Whale Tank]

I think there is definitely a legitimate essay to be written on cover bands as a general phenomenon. It's as though he had a desire to write on that theme, and decided to cram it into his book on the Hip. That piece would have worked much better as a stand-alone essay on cover bands in general (not just Hip cover bands). If he had to write about specifically Hip cover bands, then it definitely should not have been placed so early in the book, where it gets in the way of the exciting narrative of the Hip's rise to fame. A big and basic editorial mistake.

[potsie]

Barklay is doing some appearances this month to promote the book - including tonight at the Horseshoe. Anyone here going? I might try to get to Lindsay on Saturday. I have a million questions running through my head to ask him -- what would you ask him?

https://www.facebook.com/pg/barclayhipbook/events/

What the best Hip cover band is... after 14 pages of coverage I'm still left with that nagging question :wink:

Ugh, that chapter was indeed way too long. 4 or 5 pages on that subject probably would have sufficed.

Thinking of something analogous... Would you want to read 14 pages on Aussie Pink Floyd and Brit Floyd if you were reading a Pink Floyd biography? Hell no!

I'm not suggesting that the cover band chapter came at the expense of other areas but for instance there were only 2 pages on the Sadies record and not much insight into that recording process. I would liked more effort given to tracking down interviews regarding that album than interviewing faux-Gord Downies.

[edgoffin]

I think there is definitely a legitimate essay to be written on cover bands as a general phenomenon. It's as though he had a desire to write on that theme, and decided to cram it into his book on the Hip.

That would be a fascinating book. I do remember either a chapter in a book or magazine article that was about a tribute band for a semi-forgotten hair metal band (I want to say it was Warrant, but it could have as easily been Poison or Great White...someone that I was a bit surprised required a tribute act). Guys who would work Monday to Friday, load into a U-Haul trailer and play in clubs along the northeast US seaboard while staying in crap motels every Friday and Saturday. The lead singer was a bit deluded about his place in rock and roll as he drank beer in the Motel 6.

With this book, I think where you notice gaps are due to lack of sources. Sources seem to be Kevin Hearn, Gold, Drew/Hamelin (though may be from previously published sources), Bidini (though again may be from other published material), Steven Drake, Feist, Brendan Canning, Morningstar, Brown and Fenner. Some of these could also have been from when he was researching the Macleans pieces he wrote, versus writing this book.

He seemed to have better success with producers -- looked to get some new insight from Steve Berlin and Tsangarides -- or those who worked with Gord solo (excluding The Sadies).

[sean.bonner]

Got my free ticket to the interview by Jeff Wells reading at the NAC on April 20th. Anyone other Hipbasers get a ticket?

[andrew sharpe]

I'm on the final chapters. I think the book is a decent summary of previously published information. A bit scattered, opinionated, and amateur (quoting message boards and fan sites, a chapter on cover bands, etc), but overall an enjoyable read. I'm glad it was published.

[rocketsan22]

I think there is definitely a legitimate essay to be written on cover bands as a general phenomenon. It's as though he had a desire to write on that theme, and decided to cram it into his book on the Hip.

That would be a fascinating book. I do remember either a chapter in a book or magazine article that was about a tribute band for a semi-forgotten hair metal band (I want to say it was Warrant, but it could have as easily been Poison or Great White...someone that I was a bit surprised required a tribute act). Guys who would work Monday to Friday, load into a U-Haul trailer and play in clubs along the northeast US seaboard while staying in crap motels every Friday and Saturday. The lead singer was a bit deluded about his place in rock and roll as he drank beer in the Motel 6.

With this book, I think where you notice gaps are due to lack of sources. Sources seem to be Kevin Hearn, Gold, Drew/Hamelin (though may be from previously published sources), Bidini (though again may be from other published material), Steven Drake, Feist, Brendan Canning, Morningstar, Brown and Fenner. Some of these could also have been from when he was researching the Macleans pieces he wrote, versus writing this book.

He seemed to have better success with producers -- looked to get some new insight from Steve Berlin and Tsangarides -- or those who worked with Gord solo (excluding The Sadies).

I hired The Practically Hip for their first ever gig and was present the night they formed for the first time at a skid bar that is now a Mark’s Work Warehouse lol

[Killer Whale Tank]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed, but one thing that seems fairly clear from the book is that Gord Downie was somewhat estranged from the band from M@W onward. That quote where an observer notes that, leading up to MMP, Gord admitted to the rest that he'd been a "total dick for a while now" seemed pretty striking to me, given that previous chapters discussed the band's antagonism to Gord bringing new elements to the table for the M@W tour, striking out for his solo career, and so on.

My impression is that after M@W Gord basically approached the Hip as a job, one he did with commitment, but without terrific joy or enthusiasm. His real joy was in subverting or at least dancing around the expectations created by Hipdom itself through his solo work and other ventures. This might contribute to explaining the bizarre "Screamo Gord" phase, which I always suspected had to do with some kind of frustration, either with the Hip or their fans or the crowd's preference for oldies or for the playlists - whatever. I think the clash between GD's experimental nature, his 'arty' streak, and the essential musical conservatism of the others taken as a unit - really their greatest strength in the early days - eventually became an ongoing sore-point that undercut the unity of the band. That's my impression anyhow.