I remember a professor at university tell our class a story about his visit to a second-hand CD store, where he witnessed a 16 year old skater-boy purchase a box set of The Beatles. Our professor chided us, “The Beatles was my generation! Don’t you have a band that defines yours?” Of course we have; and in the time and place that I’m from, it is The Tragically Hip that has defined a generation.
Three days ago, TTH released their twelfth album — 14 if you include their live album and their compilation of favourites. Interesting that the latest album is entitled We Are The Same. Well, it’s playing over the iPod as I type this and I’ve got to say, they don’t sound the same.
I remember nine years ago thinking that Music @ Work was experimental. Little did I imagine that World Container and now We Are The Same would be in the band’s future. Only Track #3 “The Last Recluse” reminds me of the Hip I once knew (similar sound to “Leave” from In Violet Light). Nevertheless, the further I get into this album, the more attached to it I am becoming. In that respect, The Tragically Hip is exactly the same. Their songs have rarely grabbed me the first time I’ve heard them, yet they seem to have far greater staying power than any other music I’ve ever listened to.
As I have not been able to make it through a poetry unit yet without including at least one TTH song, all of my students have become familiar with this band. The class always finds this a welcome break from the textbook poetry, and I find Gord Downie’s lyrics among the best for introducing many of the literary devices in our curriculum: rhyme, alliteration, repetition, oxymoron, tone, mood, etc. My students especially enjoy speculating on speaker, symbol, and theme; not in small part due to the fact that I myself can only speculate on Downie’s purpose.
I’ve run into people from Washington State and Sweden, and on the streets of Osaka who agree that The Tragically Hip is one of the top bands of the last 20 years. And in Elmira, Ontario, on a muddy infield just about where second base will be placed in a month or two, best friends agree that every Hip album has been well worth the adventure, that there has rarely been a more genuine band.
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Image by SMN
