[Ryan2]

HOCKEY IS KING: On his just-released second solo album, Battle Of The Nudes, The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie pays homage to late hockey great Garnet "Ace" Bailey, who perished in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.

A song called Steeplechase ends with some great play-by-play about Bailey, and a post-game interview with him. Bailey scored a key goal in the Boston Bruins' run for the 1972 Stanley Cup.

"I got that from a vinyl record this friend gave me, which was just basically the summary of the Bruins' championship season, '71-'72," Downie told The Sun.

"It had all these great little vignettes ... That was a huge goal for (Bailey). I wanted to hear his voice. And when I heard his voice I found it very chilling, and Dale (Morningstar) did some work to kind of edit it down to what you hear, with the music underneath. And I just thought, yeah, in light of losing him in Sept. 11, I found it somehow a little reminder of something he did once."

Downie has a soldout NXNE solo gig tomorrow at Lee's.
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[mrlayance]

That was nice of Gord

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[CanuckCourage]

The more I listen to Steeplechase... I think he's referring to the Trade Towers "coming down"




There's a cruel crumpling sound from over yonder by the steeplechase
( Steeplechase a metaphor for the modern day rat race of life ?)

It's a sound of coming down like horses slamming on

the brakes it's the sound of a crowd , of an equine crowd

IN THE VACUUM OF IT'S AGE
( The naivete of North American immunity to world crisis ?)

It's a sound coming down of an entirely different race
( Middle Eastern reality shatters American Reality ?)

It's a sound coming down like il pallio

Sent splayed and sprawling into a cafe in an explosion of table legs and trays

It's a sound coming down like a chuckwagon when it strays

A little to far from the stampede days

And slams into the butterfly chase
( Butterfly Chase - "The Pursuit of the American dream" ?)

That's the sound

Coming down




It certainly ties in to the Ace Bailey reference .

Am I way off base here ? Am I stating the obvious ? Any thoughts ?

[Ryan2]

your post time was 9:11 ....you have some good points and i think your right that its about 911

[CanuckCourage]

Cool , I'm not losing it , well , maybe I am . :lol:

[das_hips]

I might be incorrect, but didn't part of the lyrics from steeplechase, along with a lot of material from CMG and BOTN come from rants that Gordie threw in during songs on tours before 9/11. I know I've heard that particular part ("There's a cruel crumpling sound from over yonder by the steeplechase...") as part of a rant, I just don't know when and where, and from what song.

[sherpahigh]

I might be incorrect, but didn't part of the lyrics from steeplechase, along with a lot of material from CMG and BOTN come from rants that Gordie threw in during songs on tours before 9/11. I know I've heard that particular part ("There's a cruel crumpling sound from over yonder by the steeplechase...") as part of a rant, I just don't know when and where, and from what song.

I think you're right. I'm pretty sure that at least some of the lyrics were pre 9/11. Of course I can't recall any dates of rants or anything else to back that up right now. I'll have to look into it a bit more when I get home.

rw

[briansmccabe]

"the brakes it's the sound of a crowd, of an equine crowd"


This may be a bit of a stretch, but "equine" being some sort of reference to horses and all, this line may have something to do with the image of the thousands "gallopping" down the street to get away from the buildings tumbling down. Just a thought.

brian mc

p.s. I for one don't really care if any of the lyrics to steeplechase pre-date 9/11 or not. If that's the case, it only serves to firm up my belief in how these songs come together in a way that makes them what they are.