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Gord Downie, the highly effective, enigmatic and splendidly quirky Canadian singer-songwriter handed away Oct. 17, 2017. It wasn’t a shock to anybody. He selected to make his mind most cancers analysis public in May 2016. That summer season, he underwent an emotional and exhausting tour along with his band The Tragically Hip. The finale in Kingston, Ontario was described by the New York Times as “an unparalleled moment of national pride laced with sorrow.” (from ‘Gord Downie, Frontman for the Tragically Hip, in His Final Act,’ New York Times, 08/22/2016)
I let my youngsters keep up late to observe the first set. I cried like a child as I watched Downie kiss his bandmates and crew in appreciation and slowly mouth the phrases “I love you” immediately right into a digicam throughout one in all the Hip’s signature jams. It was an intimate second. Millions shared it. I’m unsure if it’s essential be Canadian to know Downie and the Hip. It helps if you happen to like hockey although.
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I’m not the first to attempt and join Gord, hockey, and music. Justin Cuthbert did something similar beforehand. Bob McKenzie launched an excerpt of his 2014 book, Hockey Confidential, through which he traced the historical past of the Tragically Hip and hockey. I got here to these items solely after I began penning this one. To me, the energy of his lyrics and of the which means of the songs justify retracing a few of these steps.
I hope you agree.
Hockey and Music
Gord Downie was a Bruins fan. This was little doubt influenced by his godfather Harry Sinden, former coach of the Boston Bruins. Downie famously wore his Boston jersey in the music video for Courage (for Hugh MacLennan). The Hip had been unapologetically Canadian. Hockey, as a central a part of Canadian identification, discovered its manner into a lot of their songs.
The 1972 Summitt Series
Fireworks is the third single from the Hip’s sixth studio album, Phantom Power. The track references the 1972 Summit Series, hockey legend Bobby Orr. The ’72 summit sequence was an ideal second for Canada and Paul Henderson’s series-winning purpose is the most well-known purpose in Canadian hockey historical past. It was the defining second for a technology.
The track can be about rising up and about the first flush of affection that may displace even the nice Orr. Considered one in all the best hockey gamers of all time, Orr was a defenseman for Sinden’s Bruins (after all). He received the Stanley Cup twice, first along with his well-known flying Cup-winning purpose in 1970.
Related: Top 10 Montreal Canadiens Goal Celebrations
If there’s a purpose that everybody remembers
It was again in outdated seventy-two
We all squeezed the stick and all of us pulled the set off
And all I bear in mind is sitting beside you
You stated you didn’t give a [expletive] about hockey
And I by no means noticed somebody say that earlier than
You held my hand and we walked residence the good distance
You had been loosening my grip on Bobby Orr
– Fireworks (Album, Phantom Power, 1998)
The track’s refrain refers to fireworks exploding in the distance, emulating heaven, and changing stars. Downie remarked that the inspiration for these lyrics got here from his essential evaluation of the music trade. The trade too usually created pop stars and flashes-in-the-pan in the hopes of cashing in on the newest fad and obscuring actual music.
Bill Barilko
The story of Bill Barilko is a wierd one. (from ‘The 11-year mystery of Leafs’ ‘Bashin’ Bill Barilko’,’ Toronto Star, 06/01/2017) That it impressed Downie to put in writing a track that mixed the thriller of Barilko’s disappearance with a cap given to elite bomber pilots of the allied air forces throughout World War II is even stranger. The track is a gem.
Downie explained to Steve Newton in 1992 that he favored a distinct angle to the story: “In World War II when you were a new pilot, you’d be given a new hat. Of course, you’d work it in to look like a fifty mission cap so as to appear that you had more experience than you really did.”
Bill Barilko disappeared that summer season,
He was on a fishing journey.
The final purpose he ever scored
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn’t win one other till 1962,
The yr he was found.
I stole this from a hockey card,
I hold tucked up beneath
My fifty mission cap, I labored it in
To appear like that
– 50 Mission Cap (Album, Fully Completely, 1993)
When The Tragically Hip performed Maple Leaf Gardens or the Air Canada Centre and obtained to Fifty Mission Cap on the setlist, Bill Barilko’s No. 5 banner could be spotlighted in the rafters. (from ‘What did Gord Downie mean to hockey? Ask the Toronto Maple Leafs — or fans of Bill Barilko,’ National Post, 10/18/2017)
Related: A Look Back at the Career of Jimmy Thomson
Fifty Mission Cap is a part of the Leafs’ game-night playlist as we speak. In 2001, Downie offered the Leafs with the hand-written lyrics to Fifty Mission Cap. They had been positioned in the Leafs dressing room. As CBC reported, the Toronto Maple Leafs and followers honored Downie with a second of silence earlier than their recreation towards the Detroit Red Wings this week.
Dan Snyder and Unsung Service
Downie wrote a track after the loss of life of former Atlanta Thrashers ahead Dan Snyder. Snyder died in a automotive crash when his then-teammate, Dany Heatley, misplaced management at the wheel. As Justin Cuthbert points out: Downie tributes Snyder whereas additionally paying homage to those that serve their nation. Snyder’s mom, LuAnn Snyder, stated “the Tragically Hip were so kind and caring to our family. We will never forget Gord.”
Snyder was a fan of the band, having seen The Hip in Atlanta in Oct. 2002. As an undrafted participant, he spent extra time in the AHL than the NHL, was beloved by his teammates. He was a “glue guy,” somebody who introduced individuals collectively and made them stick.
Scott Desveaux described Snyder as a participant who did the “little things that may not show up on the stat sheet. Off the ice they are more likely to be getting vocal from the bench, keeping morale high during warmup/intermissions, doing little things to help with team-building…”
Here’s a glue man, a efficiency god
A makeshift shrine, or newly lain sod
Hardly even making an attempt, provides the nod
I positive hope I’m not the kind to dwell
Hope I’m a quick healer, quick as hell
Heaven is a greater place as we speak
Because of this, however the world is simply not the identical
– Heaven is a Better Place Today (In Between Evolution, 2004)
The Lonely End of the Rink
Downie was a hockey participant. Bob McKenzie noted that in the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, the boys in the Hip would go to nice lengths whereas touring to arrange hockey video games. Sometimes it was simply ball hockey in an area parking zone. More usually it concerned discovering ice and tools to play a recreation with the crew. In The Lonely End of the Rink, Downie wrote about enjoying purpose and the most essential job in hockey.
Oh to affix the rush
As the season builds
I hear your voice ‘cross a frozen lake
a voice from the end of a leaf
saying, ‘you won’t die of a thousand fakes
or be crushed by the sweetest of dekes’
At the lonely finish of the rink, you and me
At the lonely finish of the rink, the lonely finish of the rink
- The Lonely End of the Rink (World Container, 2006)
The Times noticed that the “place of honor that Mr. Downie occupied in Canada’s national imagination has no parallel in the United States. Imagine Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Michael Stipe combined into one sensitive, oblique poet-philosopher, and you’re getting close.”
For many, the final time they noticed Downie was him standing alone on stage at the finish of the set, waving. He was waving goodbye. It was a strangely intimate moment that transcended distance and illness. Gord gave us music. He gave us which means. Downie helped us perceive ourselves by means of the music he made. He might be missed.
Heaven is a greater place as we speak
Because of this, however the world is simply not the identical
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