What more can I say about Gordon Edgar Downie that hasn't already been tweeted, written, or spoken in the past couple of days? Gord Downie died in the evening hours of Monday October 17th, 2017, and the news broke the next morning a little before 9 AM. I'm going to write a bit about what he, and his band meant to me.
I missed the first Tragically Hip EP, and their first two LPs. I recall becoming aware of the band when "Fully Completely" was released and "Locked in the Trunk of a Car" was getting radio airplay. I remember buying the album on cassette a while after it had been released. Those were the pre-internet days, and you would hear singles from the album on the radio, or MuchMusic if a video had been made, but really nothing else from the rest of the album. You had to either really like the band, or had heard and liked a couple of the album singles if you didn't want to chance on buying a stinker. By that time, I had liked enough of the the aforementioned "Locked ...", as well as "Courage", and "At the Hundredth Meridian" that I decided to buy "Fully Completely". For a young person, trying to find his place in the world, "Fully Completely" was an album that gave a sense of place. Singing songs with references to Jaques Cartier, the CBC, prime ministers, corduroy roads, the Leafs, etc., here was a band whose lyrics spoke of my country. Canada. This nation, with an inferiority complex, often looking for American or world validation. The Tragically Hip were telling our own stories for better, or for worse.
After a culture shock of a move from a small northern Ontario town of 1 200 to a bustling southern Ontario suburb of 500 000, one thing my peers still had in common was a love of The Hip. "Day For Night" through "Trouble at the Henhouse" through "Phantom Power", The Tragically Hip were at the height of their musical power, at least for me. Still having their moments, "Music @ Work", "In Violet Light", "In Between Evolution", "World Container", and "We Are The Same" were all very good albums, but to me at least, didn't quite equal the heights of "Fully Completely" through "Phantom Power". In my mind, The Hip made not one, but two perfect albums: "Fully Completely", and "Phantom Power". I can listen to those two LPs from start to finish, without skipping a single song, and I feel that any song off of either album could have been a potential single.
I also followed Gord's solo albums, from the quirky "Coke Machine Glow", to the more polished albums "Battle of the Nudes", and "The Grand Bounce". Around 2012, I had a bit of a falling out with The Hip. I heard "At Transformation" from their new album "Now For Plan A", and it just didn't grab me. Worse than that, after listening to the album on the band's Soundcloud page, I got such a been-there, done-that vibe that I fell out of love with The Hip. Suddenly, I felt as though I couldn't listen to the band anymore. This happens to me from time-to-time. I'll overplay an artist, and have to put them aside for a little while, but I will eventually come back to them. I was on the fence still, after hearing about "Man Machine Poem". The album title shares the name of a song included on the previous "Now For Plan A" which had not impressed me. But the first single "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind" really grabbed my attention, and I found myself falling for The Hip once again.
I was completely shocked on Tuesday May 24th, 2016, when I turned on the TV in the morning and saw the scrolling news ticker announce that Gord Downie had an incurable form of brain cancer. The Hip were a band that I had always just expected would be around, but now they had a definite end on the horizon. On the surprising side, Gord's illness be damned, they were going on tour! For the next few days and weeks, I played the hell out of every Hip album that I owned. I made a half-hearted attempt to get tickets to a show on the Man Machine Poem Tour, but with a 2 year old and a newborn at home, attending one of these shows was not going to be a reality for me. I made my peace with the fact that my last time seeing The Hip would be the Canada Day show I saw at the
Budweiser Stage Molson Amphitheatre in 2004.
September 2017 came around, and my youngest was 2 months into his own cancer diagnosis. In the process of reading about my own son's illness, I had stumbled across an article about Gord and his cancer. I doubt that I'd be able to find it again, but the article spoke about Gord's treatment, and how the options that he chose would give him up to a 5 year life expectancy. Not even a full 4 weeks after reading this, would his disease come to take Gord from his loved ones.
This week has been a rough one. On top of both J, and E being sick with hand-foot-and-mouth disease, a hospital visit for E because of a fever, and consequently little sleep for us, Gord Downie passed away. It's not the same disease; E has leukemia, and Gord had gliboblastoma. Two very different cancers with two different prognoses. Comparing them would be like comparing apples and oranges, but at the base level, they are both cancers. I found myself alternately heartbroken for Gord's family & friends, and worrying about the mortality of my 17 month old. Nothing has happened or changed in E's diagnosis or prognosis, but hearing that this horrible abso-fucking-lutley terrible disease has taken someone away from their family, leaves you extra weary and worried for your own loved one.
And yeah the human tragedy consists in the necessity of living with the consequences under pressure, under pressure.
