Yoooo interesting piece. As a music/art/poetry/history enjoyer who also spent a fair amount of my youth swilling beer blasting yer favourites on a JBL, I think there’s a secret third option.
The Tragically Hip soundtracked (and continue to soundtrack) so many experiences that tie me to whatever “Canadian Identity” I have. My first Massey Hall show was a hip concert. A few clutch camping trips in my youth revolved around some of their big open air appearances, which lead to me exploring small towns in and communities in Central Ontario. Last time I saw them live was at the ACC looking at the Bill Barilko banner while they played 50 mission cap. I watched their last show on a projector with 1200 of my closest friends on Cobourg beach as part of a failed Tinder excursion. On the day gord died I was in Scarborough aerating lawns with a coworker and we listened to either the edge or Q107 play hip songs for the entire afternoon. Those are just a few key memories in addition to the numerous road trips and cottage patio moments they soundtracked.
I think the fact that Gord’s lyrics touch prominently on Canada’s geography/history make their music inseparable from its culture. It’s hard to read “bobcaygeon” or “fiddlers green” on a map and not hear the songs in your head. It’s hard to hear the loon at the beginning of “Wheat Kings” and not think about early childhood camping trips. I can’t hear three pistols without thinking of the time I went to a group of 7 exhibit at the Oshawa Art Gallery in grade school (where I also remember tracing a picture of the winning ‘72 summit series goal).
I’m not 100 per cent certain due to my age, but from my understanding, before they were championed by drunken frat boys, they were championed by the small room music world and the people who make up FACTOR, the CBC and the CRTC precisely because their music is so intertwined with Canadiana beyond beer soaked cottage porches (If it wasn’t, we’d probably hear less hip and more Kim Mitchell in the grocery store). Because of that they received airplay on practically every radio station in the country which led to the half-examined patriotism they’re now revered with. You can watch Woodstock 99 footage of the band ducking beer bottles from limp bizkit fans while gord wears a feathered cap looking out into a sea of Canadian flags. They didn’t always belong to the frat crowd.
It also doesn’t help that in the wake of Gord’s passing their legacy has become somewhat of a cottage (no pun intended) industry but I won’t say too much about that. Let them get the bag, I still have my hazy high school memories.
Sorry for the numerous edits but I also want to say I think you picked an excellent title for this article.
First off: no apologies necessary for taking the time and effort to respond so thoroughly to my post. It has been a long time since anyone has engaged with my work in this way, and thank you for doing so.
You are absolutely right: fandom is a spectrum and my bias, specifically speaking of the Hip, is to see it as a binary when it’s much more nuanced than that.
I suspect my response has to do with my own personal associations, closely tied with my first experiences with Hip fandom in first year of university in an all-male dorm. It’s the chubby, closeted gay Italian mamma’s boy part of me that tends to dismiss “Hip fans,” and paint them all with the same brush. And I own that I am fully completely ignoring what I know is a far more complex group of people.
Your comment sparked a lot of thinking and ideas about better understanding the Hip, their music, and fans.
Again, thank you for taking time to give such a detailed comment.
![the act of just being [t]here](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!McXN!,w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fab2fad98-6f90-4e0d-bd57-65f637318d2f_500x500.png)
![the act of just being [t]here](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cdwc!,e_trim:10:white/e_trim:10:transparent/h_72,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5847ef94-3036-47ca-9b03-809c7e95fb65_1344x256.png)
Yoooo interesting piece. As a music/art/poetry/history enjoyer who also spent a fair amount of my youth swilling beer blasting yer favourites on a JBL, I think there’s a secret third option.
The Tragically Hip soundtracked (and continue to soundtrack) so many experiences that tie me to whatever “Canadian Identity” I have. My first Massey Hall show was a hip concert. A few clutch camping trips in my youth revolved around some of their big open air appearances, which lead to me exploring small towns in and communities in Central Ontario. Last time I saw them live was at the ACC looking at the Bill Barilko banner while they played 50 mission cap. I watched their last show on a projector with 1200 of my closest friends on Cobourg beach as part of a failed Tinder excursion. On the day gord died I was in Scarborough aerating lawns with a coworker and we listened to either the edge or Q107 play hip songs for the entire afternoon. Those are just a few key memories in addition to the numerous road trips and cottage patio moments they soundtracked.
I think the fact that Gord’s lyrics touch prominently on Canada’s geography/history make their music inseparable from its culture. It’s hard to read “bobcaygeon” or “fiddlers green” on a map and not hear the songs in your head. It’s hard to hear the loon at the beginning of “Wheat Kings” and not think about early childhood camping trips. I can’t hear three pistols without thinking of the time I went to a group of 7 exhibit at the Oshawa Art Gallery in grade school (where I also remember tracing a picture of the winning ‘72 summit series goal).
I’m not 100 per cent certain due to my age, but from my understanding, before they were championed by drunken frat boys, they were championed by the small room music world and the people who make up FACTOR, the CBC and the CRTC precisely because their music is so intertwined with Canadiana beyond beer soaked cottage porches (If it wasn’t, we’d probably hear less hip and more Kim Mitchell in the grocery store). Because of that they received airplay on practically every radio station in the country which led to the half-examined patriotism they’re now revered with. You can watch Woodstock 99 footage of the band ducking beer bottles from limp bizkit fans while gord wears a feathered cap looking out into a sea of Canadian flags. They didn’t always belong to the frat crowd.
It also doesn’t help that in the wake of Gord’s passing their legacy has become somewhat of a cottage (no pun intended) industry but I won’t say too much about that. Let them get the bag, I still have my hazy high school memories.
Sorry for the numerous edits but I also want to say I think you picked an excellent title for this article.
First off: no apologies necessary for taking the time and effort to respond so thoroughly to my post. It has been a long time since anyone has engaged with my work in this way, and thank you for doing so.
You are absolutely right: fandom is a spectrum and my bias, specifically speaking of the Hip, is to see it as a binary when it’s much more nuanced than that.
I suspect my response has to do with my own personal associations, closely tied with my first experiences with Hip fandom in first year of university in an all-male dorm. It’s the chubby, closeted gay Italian mamma’s boy part of me that tends to dismiss “Hip fans,” and paint them all with the same brush. And I own that I am fully completely ignoring what I know is a far more complex group of people.
Your comment sparked a lot of thinking and ideas about better understanding the Hip, their music, and fans.
Again, thank you for taking time to give such a detailed comment.