Coke Machine Glow part 2

The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown

This week on the show, jD, Craig, Justin, and Kirk wrap up Coke Machine Glow and pick their MVP tracks. Join us won't you?

Transcript:

Track 1:

[0:56] Minneapolis hotel room. Here I sit, cool as a garage, writing by lightning. I don't mean lightning as a metaphor for inspiration. I mean lighting. Intermittent lightning. By lightning really turning it on. A lightning-powered hotel room. It's the most lightning I've ever seen in one room.

Track 2:

[1:19] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downey.

Track 3:

[1:28] Hey, it's J.D. here, and I'm joined, as I am every week, by my pals Craig, Justin, and Kirk from Chino. While our love for the hip unites us, it's Gord's solo ventures that remain uncharted for our trio. Hence, I've gathered this team of enthusiasts to delve into the musical repertoire of the enigmatic frontman of the tragically hip, the late Gord Downie. Come along with us on this exploration as we navigate through his albums one by one in chronological order, embarking on our quest of discovering Downey. This is the second of two parts of our gang covering Gord's first solo record, Coke Machine Glow. If you listened to part one, we discussed the album as a whole and then got into a song by song breakdown. Down on this episode we'll pick up where we left off with a song that has to be about cottage country doesn't it well in my head it is craig why don't you kick things off with your thoughts on black flies right.

Track 4:

[2:31] Away what hit me was the laminar flow line because i was at that show and i'm not sure if this was something that he did all through the the roadside attraction the first tour that I saw. But the Vancouver show or the Seabird Island show in 1993, I believe.

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[2:50] Um maybe 94 93 um he goes off on this rant about the laminar flow and you can actually find it online too and uh and he's talking about you know it's the flow of liquid and he's sort of talking about the crowd and the movement of the crowd and this was my first hip show we're talking i'm not sure how many thousands of people there are 20 000 this wave of people and this is like the early hip fans right this is this is roadside a partying crowd yep and it was this it was in the In the middle of nowhere. That's your first hip show? Huge. Wow. Yeah, huge. Yeah, just in the middle of a forest, really. And, you know, just like you see on the videos with, like, Canadian flags and drunk, you know, jock types. And I was quite young. I think I was 18 at the time. And not really knowing how to take gourd. Like, I loved the hip at the time. Like, I think fully completely. I'd either just come out or was about to. Loved that album. Loved, you know, the band since up to here. And at one point, and you can actually see it in this video, he starts getting angry with someone in the crowd saying, don't look at them, look at me. Like, you know, referencing, you know, the other band members. And he was obviously joking, but at the time I had no clue. He just looked, I was like, this guy really is starved for attention because not only does he sing all the songs and he's talking in between all the songs, he's talking over top of the guitar solos. And at first I didn't know how to take that. I thought it was really...

Track 4:

[4:15] It was really jarring for me being a musician and, and I was kind of thinking, what are the other bandmates think of this? Like he's, um, of course over the years you get to, you come to appreciate that and, and know it's just a part of the act. Right. But, but yeah, that, um, don't look at, don't look at them. Look at me.

Track 4:

[4:32] You have to find the clip. It's so good. It's called laminar flow. Find it on YouTube. It's so funny. My friend, I went to the show with who I still am in contact with. He would always talk about the laminar flow and I didn't remember it really. And then he, He, a few years ago, pointed out the video to me and I'm like, oh yeah, I do remember that trim. Gord had the big beard at the time. He had the almost like pajamas on. And when the pajama top came off, he had the Save the Human shirt on, which I actually saw in one of the videos for this album. So he brought the shirt back out for Coke Machine Glow. And the timing of that wouldn't have been too far removed from the Killer Whale time. Probably not, yeah. I don't remember him doing that. But again, I was young and it was craziness. It was it was a fun fun time see the bull moose checking out another drac, like sorry that was the highlight i made from from a lyrical standpoint and then you know from a musical standpoint and i think i also read about this um it's pretty prevalent where they're strumming the piano strings and they brought a mic and recorded it and just love that love that like what's that and uh they decide to bring bring bring in the bring in the mic and record the track so on to lofty pines all right let's go to lofty pines where paul langlois shows up and makes uh an appearance one of two appearances.

Track 4:

[5:59] On this record to provide his sublime backing vocals god damn is this guy good.

Track 4:

[10:46] I think it was a week or so ago, I took a trip up north. I think you guys know about. And I was driving back and it was, it was raining and which we don't get a lot of rain. We don't get a lot of anything in California other than the sun. So, you know, when it's raining out, it's a big deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember listening as I was driving and buddy I was with was, you know, was, I think he was taking a nap or working on something. And I remember going, the mood, you know, my mood was, okay, I got a long drive. And, uh, there was kind of like a monotonous monotony that had been coming from song after song after song, because this is typically slower than that hip stuff, um, that, that I was used to. Um and and i know that they made a conscious effort or at least gordon made a conscious effort to keep the hip away from this right like i read as well like they didn't they didn't want to record anywhere that the hip had recorded they didn't want to use any of the gear but then paul who's right his that's his long longest friend or buddy for sure yeah yeah and then he comes in and and And he's on another tune as well, I believe, on this album.

Track 4:

[12:06] But you hear that, and for me, driving, I was just, I got that like, okay, thank you. Thank you for giving me a little just reconnection. I know this is Gord, but I also know that Gord is that kind of heartbeat and pulse and provides the lyrics to. And I liked having that friend along, me personally. Um and uh and i couldn't you know i couldn't get the you know twin peaks type lofty pine uh connection correlation uh going there not not that i was you know fully into the twin peaks world or whatnot but yeah so uh that's what i had for my some of my notes the the lines that are in french i was hoping for something revealing and it's literally just i was born for the heat we can't, I was hoping one of you guys would research that. I was too lazy. They, my only note for this song. Yeah. If you could see my notebooks, just better call Paul. Cause he's, um, he just is so effortless. I just picture Gord being in the studio. Like, ah, yeah, I can't quite get the sound I'm going for here. And.

Track 4:

[13:16] Calls up Paul and he just comes in and, you know, smoke hanging out of his mouth. He just rips off one take and that's how I, it's just so effortless. You can just tell by the, you know, he's just sang with Gord for so long, sung, sang with Gord for so long that he, he just knows what to do. I guarantee it was one take and he was done. Yeah. Again, it gave me that, uh, just, uh, the combination is something that, that, That definitely fills you up.

Track 4:

[13:42] When I was doing the research as well on the French part, the first thing that came up was, I want to say a province in Quebec, but it was like a lake chalet.

Track 4:

[13:53] So that's where I was going at first and then obviously did a little deeper and found out. No, not quite, but thought we were referencing something there at one point. Well, I mean, that could be. There's a lot of lofty pines in Quebec and a lot of lakes. So you never know. The Lofty Pine Hotel was in cottage country in Ontario until I don't even know when. Like, not that, like, pretty recently. So, to me, I hear this song and...

Track 4:

[14:26] It's like one of those, it sounds sticky. It sounds muggy. It's like one of those August nights in the city where, you know, it's extra hot because air conditioners are spitting out hot heat. Like the city's just got this almost dense air that you're walking through. The cool side of your pillow is sweating, you know? That's the kind of heat.

Track 4:

[14:50] And they're just daydreaming about getting up to the cottage. Just getting the fuck out of dodge and going to the cottage dreaming of those lofty pines i don't know that's that's sort of what i get from it so just a real quick note building on what you just said about it's so freaking hot and the spectacular part in the lyrics and there's a matchbook or whatever that falls like we needed something hotter right yes you know and here's matches you know i didn't get that but yeah totally what do you believe he's referring to in the uh i give the editor my pitch a series on the cultural wealth uh about the era of catalogs and lists i just think he's good at creating protagonists uh i think it's like a protagonist of this song um like but i but i guess i'm very literal yeah don't don't make me say hitler again no i don't i think this is i don't know literal more literal you know but he's proven to not do that so often that it seems like not likely but that's how like he's answering a question that we haven't asked you know let's go to the next track which is boy bruised by butterfly shake I really didn't have anything to say about the song for a while.

Track 4:

[16:14] And then I listened to it, um, actually just today. And it kind of came to me that this is.

Track 4:

[16:21] Somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness or life and death somewhere in the middle um you know he he references someone was crying i as i lay in the dirt i could hear their hearts breaking but i wasn't even hurt so that's kind of like i'm slipping away and i don't feel anything sort of thing that's just how i interpreted the line i came across um something just by chance glancing through the cd booklet last night um and there's a little article it says bruised by a butterfly chase and it looks like um it's actually photocopied from a newspaper it says four-year-old andrew herrit holds his winnie the pooh blanket at a hospital in halifax the kentville boy survived a 20 meter fall from a cliff at blommadon provincial park while chasing butterflies during a family outing so it could be very literally about a boy down down down falling yeah exactly yeah it made so much sense when i read that so yeah there's an extra song and i didn't get to listen to it yet but is it this it's it is down down down yeah it's the same lyrics yeah yeah and i guess that makes sense the grass felt so good and there's they're talking about he didn't have shoes so that makes sense that it's a four-year-old um the day was so blue i must have tripped i don't know do i remember falling away nothing that i hold on to and not being afraid so that's when you're that young you probably don't have much.

Track 4:

[17:46] Memory of it as an adult and especially i would assume there's some trauma there and justin though i i.

Track 4:

[17:53] Mean just your your first explanation that that in between um before we.

Track 4:

[18:00] Heard the story like you took me there and i think musically it does as well like my notes are the guitar like you know guitar is prevalent in some of these other songs but you don't hear.

Track 4:

[18:12] Guitar lines and guitar melodies as much and there's some very clear guitar work going on here both acoustic and electric which you also don't really get a lot of in in these songs or you know the song is almost poppy yeah it's super radio absolutely and i thought it could be a hip song yeah yeah you know those and i guess obviously see that could be true to anything, but change up some of the instrumentation, change up some of the tempo and, and, uh, yeah, yeah, you're definitely in hip territory. Definitely hip territory. Let's go to mystery, a sonic soundscape. Yeah. And, and it really is, it starts off in, in that sonic soundscape world and then goes to the spoken word. Sorry, a bit of humor. You know, one of my favorite flicks is, so I married an ax murderer and turn off the base. It's your rollers. The soccer game is on somewhere.

Track 4:

[19:13] There's a soccer game. and uh being being you know the background with that i i at a loss in the sense of that that journey that gourd's going through and and doing some research and finding you know with with the book of poetry that came out uh that he was you know it was not received from the poetry world as it were um and yeah it was yeah they they it was not received from a it's like oh this is just you know and they made the joke of oh yeah what what are you going to do give bob dylan a a pulitzer or uh you know uh it it's just it's that being someone that's written songs before and and And I can't say that I've written poetry, but it's very much frowned upon to have, you know, they said, you know, Jim Morrison killed that. So why is anybody else doing it? And so then the counter argument goes.

Track 4:

[20:17] Well, yeah, it sells well because of who Gord is and what he does and how he moves people. And then what came afterwards was, yeah, in the libraries and in the bookstores, there was a lot more people in the poetry section than had ever been there before. So what are you trying to do? Are you trying to be completely inclusive or exclusive? And does the inclusivity then start damaging the art? I'm of the belief and the ilk that you need people to dive into both lyrics, dive into poetry, dive into the spoken word side. So, yeah, sorry, I digress. And this is just coming off the song Poets on Phantom Power, which in live shows, he's sort of, don't tell me what the poets are doing. I don't want to know. I don't care about the poets. Or it could be perceived that way, whether he meant that or not.

Track 4:

[21:21] I know from a musical standpoint, this song gave me vibes of, of the rain song by Led Zeppelin. And I know it sounds nothing like it, but if you listen, and it took me a while to figure out what it was, but if you listen to the bass notes, he's playing really high in the register and it just gives that cascading feel of, of the rain song. And, um, yeah. And, and near the end too, he's playing up the neck on the bass and it's just some really nice playing. Yeah, I have avant-garde. I would imagine that the Dinner is Ruined gang had a heavy influence on this. Yeah, and this is the other Adam McGaughan track as well. So that guitar you hear, the little classical guitar, that's McGaughan. Ah, cool. Sorry, help me understand, not being as familiar outside of in the research, does he hold a special place in a Canadian heart?

Track 4:

[22:14] Um adam mcgoyne he was a filmmaker i i can't say i'm an expert on him but he's um he had a movie called the sweet hereafter which was very well received i believe it won awards and actually i believe uh didn't sarah harmer sing i think a version of courage on the soundtrack sarah polly sarah polly right right yes yeah well i'll have to do a little more research and check some of that that out justin were you familiar at all only from reading the never-ending present book had i had i heard the name no anything else on mystery uh only that the the phantom power outtake version is so drastically different and also equally amazing it is so yes the one on phantom power is so dark and so so moody and i have here a note that it's almost like a more depressing version of landslide by fleetwood mac it's just haunting oh yeah yeah yes like i mean they're wildly different but so funny they share the same dna ultimately what's i think what's funny is that the version that's on the phantom power re-release would have been recorded two years before this so this is reimagining this is part two yeah it makes you wonder is it just that he really loved the words and he you know the track got cut for whatever reason just didn't fit in maybe with the album and he it was something he really wanted to put out there and And, you know, I'm glad he did. I love both versions.

Track 4:

[23:43] Okay, next up, we get a song of 3-4. It's got a country-ish little tinge to it.

Track 4:

[23:50] And that's Elaborate. Elaborate.

Track 4:

[29:10] I imagine cowboys after having driven cattle across the plains, just sitting around a fire, drinking a beer, you know, and somebody's got a guitar and then somebody works out a mandolin three minutes into the song, you know, but it's about, it's about death. It's about somebody's sick, somebody's dying, has cancer. And in the poem version in the book, the title also has a parenthetical Toronto No. 2, which Music at Work has the song Toronto No. 4, which is about Gord's grandmother dying. So there's a common thread there. I don't know. It is very much a end of the day.

Track 4:

[29:51] Things are happening and they may not be coming to us. Yeah, I have a tough time hearing this, knowing what we know about what happened to Gord. Like, I can't help but hear it through that filter, and it makes it difficult to listen to for me. Yeah, I had the same thing, JD. It felt to me like a song that was meant to have a little bit of, I don't want to say humor, but a bit of lightheartedness to it in a way. But then knowing what we know... What happened with Gord, it definitely changes the way you hear it. Interestingly, my head went to Now for Plan A instead of Gord's own diagnosis. And also, I'm not sure if you guys heard this at all, but again, I'm less of a lyric guy, more of a music guy. The mandolin solo comes in, a little mandolin melody, and it reminds me so much of Neil Diamond's Play Me. And I swear, if you listen to it, you'll know what I mean. It's so funny. It doesn't quite go in the same place, but it's very close. Yeah. Great tune. And at the end, they're kind of going on for a while. And then Gord kind of clears his throat, like as if to say, come on, wrap it up, boys. I have that in my notes. So JD, if we're going on too long, just clear your throat and we'll know it's time to wrap up. No, not at all.

Track 4:

[31:11] One thing that I picked up on, which is a timestamp on this album, is Gord mentions cell phone. And a lot of bands in the late 90s, early 2000s for just like a three or four year period mentioned cell phones because that's when they came out. We didn't have cell phones before 98, 99. And if we did, they were in a bag that weighed 30 pounds. So I thought it was interesting that cell phone was topical for their 2000s. It's a country song. You said it. It's a country tune. That's my first note is country tune. And then you hear the guitar tremolo, that ringing, that just doing single notes and it's just ringing. And then the mandolin. But yeah, you're talking about modern topics on a cowboy song, on a country tune. There's also a great live version of this I found. It's the black and white. It's like a full concert that someone's put on YouTube. There's this pretty epic Gord rant on it. And he's talking about stem cell research and the Pope. And it's worth a watch for sure.

Track 4:

[32:18] And he actually, and he dedicates the song to Dave Bedini, which I found interesting from Reostatics. He's still alive. So I don't, I don't know why he just says, you know, the songs for, for Dave. I wonder if he went through a battle with a family member. Yeah. Possibly maybe, maybe a mutual acquaintance or yeah. Who knows? The beauty of the beauty of where, where we're being taken on this, this particular album is, is pretty incredible yeah and then you go into frigging a polka right with you're possessed.

Track 4:

[32:52] Yeah yeah i did not expect that coming i'm just like you're hearing all these songs that are very kind of melancholy yeah you know outside of canada geese that that that has a little bit of drive to it yeah you're another two man yeah and then now for two but if you guys know um have you.

Track 4:

[33:11] You guys seen spinal tap i'm guessing oh of course okay so my mind went right to you know yeah yeah the the nigel and david uh st hubbins their first song the you know the dune duga dune dune dune walking down the railroad track to get dune dune dune dune wait for my babe to bring me back um that's where my mind went but um funnily enough my my daughter picked this song out uh we were in the car listening to the cd and she wanted to pick a song so she went through the the track listing and she picked you're possessed because uh her favorite hip song is you're not the ocean this is my 11 year old daughter and so she loved the spelling of of year and uh she put this song on and her reading of it like the i told her what what i was thinking and she said this sounds to me like emmett otter, and i'm not sure if there's a ref i can see kirk knows what i'm talking about so here's a quick Oh my gosh. We could just be finished right now.

Track 4:

[34:09] I grew up in a small town called Peachland in the Okanagan in BC. A small town. We had maybe, I don't know, a couple thousand people when I lived there. And we had two channels. We had channel four, CBC, and channel nine, CTV. And there was no cable company in town. But on the outskirts of town was a large satellite dish, like a huge satellite dish that someone put there and uh and so the whole town got free hbo for years like pirated stolen hbo i'm talking like five six seven years and uh let's go every you know three months you'd come home turn on hbo and it'd be scrambled and so that it would be all down for a couple days until they repositioned the satellite and so every christmas time and you know this is early 80s Emma Daughter's Jug Band Christmas would come on HBO.

Track 4:

[34:59] And to me, I just thought this was a thing that everyone knew. And as I got older and I found a DVD copy in a bargain bin at Zeller's or something, I started talking about this show to people and no one...

Track 4:

[35:14] Except for the people i know from peachland know this show and it is it's a jim henson production from about 1977 it's and it's like it's a cult classic it's just paul williams yeah, and to me yeah that's what my daughter said and i was like yeah that's that's it this is this is a jug band you know with a tuba instead of a jug t-shirts i have stickers i um am on the verge of learning river bottom nightmare band to cover with our band um right christmas does not happen in the Lane household. I'm the same way. Emmett Otter's plays. We have, you know, obviously the DVD copy. And in fact, it's a running joke. Sorry, JD and Justin, if you haven't seen it, but like anything that's $50, Craig, $50, that's a lot of money. So my whole family, anything that's 50 bucks, the first response is $50. Yeah, yeah. Or yeah, anytime we have mashed potatoes, just mashed potatoes i love mashed potatoes hey yeah man how are you doing catching anything good today sorry guys so jd and justin you haven't seen that christmas your life will will begin begin to exist afterwards so let's let's change the focus for episode two please the music is so good and it's this christmas story doesn't once mention you know religion jesus it doesn't once Once mentioned Santa.

Track 4:

[36:44] And it's the best Christmas show you'll ever see. It's so sweet. Huh. The music. Yeah, it's just, it's amazing. It tears me up every time. And I love that connection that your daughter has to this song, Craig. I mean, that's, I really did start welling up. Not only finding someone that loves him and Otter, but that she made that connection. Yeah, it's really cool. That's fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic. And of course, Paul's back singing the backups here. And I have to ask, have you guys been to Boston? They mentioned Lansdowne Street, Fenway Park. I'm guessing Lansdowne is. So that's where Fenway Park is. And that's my only note on this song was just after that, he says, no one's going to hurt me like you did. Well, he's talking about the Red Sox. He's totally talking about Bill Buckner missing the catch or the grounder in 1986 to throw it away. Maybe, or I watched a live version of this as well. And he tells a story and I don't remember all the details, but he tells a story about a fight with his brother, Patrick. So yeah, I'm not, I'm not sure if it could be, you know, a brotherly story. Well, and Patrick was the sound guy for the garden where the Bruins play and the Celtics play.

Track 4:

[37:57] Um, and of course the, um, Harry Sinden, the Bruins coach was the godfather. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. yeah sure he wore the sweater in um courage in the video for wow yeah this is a great great tune i mean just in all of it you know you've got the spoken word stuff you've got uh some of the melancholy stuff and and and then boom you know you get this boom boom and and the solos uh.

Track 4:

[38:28] Yeah we're at a pool party in 1946 and uh and also quick canadian tie-in um another i know j uh jd you know the other canadian classic with a tuba can you you know what i'm talking about i don't off the top we talked about this spirit of the west and if venice is sinking oh my god like tuba part yeah yeah so the only two songs i can think of featuring a tuba i'm sure there are others but it last i checked there weren't that many bands featuring a tuba not enough every irrelevance i spoke a lot already on this last one but i can i just share my experience with this one because so i'm doing doing dishes i'm often listening to um music or podcasts when i'm doing dishes and and uh i'm listening to this song and i'm just getting into it's just this beautiful like instrumental sounding song. I love the tremolo guitar.

Track 4:

[39:22] And I was just thinking, okay, this is probably, maybe there's no words on here. And I was really digging it and thinking, okay, I like this. I like this choice of an instrumental near the end of the album. And then all of a sudden Gord starts singing and just this beautiful melody. And then the snare comes in halfway through the verse and I'm just like elevating. I'm just like my mood. And what I thought of later when I was thinking of how to explain this was the Vince McMahon meme, you know, the levels of Vince McMahon's like elation. And so I'm like- Which doesn't play so well now.

Track 4:

[40:01] And level one, that's the instrumental. Level two, Vince is the singing. And then all of a sudden he hits me with, catharsis my arses is capable of more flesh and i'm like oh it's the line from from the from the live album and you know um and then i'm just like loving this song and all of a sudden the there's the piano and so i'm all of a sudden on fourth level vince and just when i think i can't love the song anymore that trumpet comes in at the end and it is so tasty just the the muted trumpet tasteful perfect like the both the piano and the trumpet play just enough they don't overplay and i just love this song who did the horns it wasn't this from another can't think of his name though is it andy mays i'd have to look at that i i don't that sounds familiar yeah yeah well i'm pretty sure that's who he's talking about an emperor penguin as well right like the first two lines yeah yeah tony or trump that was my other thought yeah i like the tony yeah there's There's another line that I can't remember which live show it's in. It might even be from the live between this album, but it's leading into a head by a century. He talks about adolescence in essence is all about trust. And that, that line pops up in here.

Track 4:

[41:20] Um, I don't think he mentions adolescence in this song, but yeah, I'm looking at the credit. So does Andy Mays, is it? That's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. Nice job, JD. And one thing, um, did you guys notice in the, uh, in the credits to this album it's very specific it mentions the type of guitar being played by each member the type you know the types of drums and um and it very clearly says that gourd was playing on a gut string guitar which is you know the old old style string made of you know, animal guts basically yeah and it just gives a way different um you know timbre.

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[41:57] I like the echo on the snare on this particular and, and it sounded like a standup bass. I'm not sure if it was a standup bass. It was just the way the notes were played. Um, but you know, I, I have a jazz reference obviously in my notes. So yeah, I agree. Craig musically, it was phenomenal. And then, then again, you're not quite sure we're going to get a spoken word or, and then you get the, you know, the beautiful, the beautiful voice and the beautiful, uh, song. Hmm.

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[42:28] It's it's definitely one of the best ones on the on the record i think i i love the song i'm i'm a big fan as well i i love when he leaves little breadcrumbs in in a what seems to be like an improv rant or a throwaway rant not that any of them are throwaway but you you turn it turns out that it's been a line in his notebook for five years prior and it's got six underlines under it you know like god damn it i'm going to use this line somewhere down the line yeah when it presents i'm going to rhyme catharsis that's right i've got this great lyric i'm gonna use it sometime you know and uh i think that's so cool he's so talented let's just go right now to insomniacs of the world, good night.

Track 4:

[43:56] Thank you. I can see the line of your reserve, I can contemplate it from here, there's no need for breathlessness when we're so far apart. I can see us writhing in a phone booth or laid back in the dewy grass of our youth and gathering our sweetnesses and wishing on the never-ending sun.

Track 4:

[48:05] So, the research that I saw, this was supposed to be the name of the album? Does that jive with what anyone else saw? Yeah, that checks out. Yeah, that's what I heard. And then um again capping it off with you know more of a spoken word and just straight up i can see the line of your brassiere i can contemplate it from here there's no need for breathlessness when we're so far apart i know um one thing i noticed was um.

Track 4:

[48:42] What I picture here is, is there's a point where he starts recapping some lyrics from some other songs. I know he brings up the Fenway park again. And what I think this is, is, is recordings of Gord in the middle of the night, grabbing his tape recorder when he's got a melody going through his head. And he's kind of singing because it almost sounds like he trails off. Sometimes he doesn't always have the full melody melody developed. And I think this might be his like audio journal, like little excerpts.

Track 4:

[49:09] Wow. listen to it again i i swear i'm i'm very quite confident in this that's amazing that and a perfect bookend as well to to star star painters just um bookends the album the spoken word on both sides the sort of um i don't know that's i think it's an organ this time not an accordion but a similar sound and oh and julie uh dwaron is pocketed or is credited with with playing the a pocket trumpet so just a just basically a tiny trumpet shakespeare pops up in in some of the hip works and there's that um if i could sleep there's a chance i could dream which is from hamlet um he changes it a bit because it's perchance and shakespeare right so it's it's interesting yeah right this line yes arguably the most notable line that shakespeare ever wrote and changes it and keeps it the same but just that little word change like what what does that mean what is that all about and more to the point and it's the elephant in the room, is the version from phantom power.

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[50:20] Where do you guys stand on those two versions? Can you enjoy them both? Can they both be your children? Or if I asked you to make a selfish choice, which one would you choose as a preference? I can't answer it because I don't know the one from Phantom Power as well. That's cheating, but okay. But I do remember. It sure is. That means I just don't love one of my children, right? Right. Um, I do remember him screaming the line at live shows and in some performances. I had heard that reference and, and heard a scene that reference for in some. Yeah. My preference is, is this one. I, I, I really like this, this version of it. One thing that I really is so amazing about this song is it lulls you like you're ready to until the crash. Yeah. That's the same thing. Massive cymbal crash. Yes. Oh God, I love it. I love that so much.

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[51:25] And fast forward to the final album that the hit put out, Man Machine Poem, and there's the song Insomnia. Insomnia. Which was supposed to be Insomnia. Yep. And if you read the liner notes in that, Insomnia is scratched out in every line. And I don't know what that means, but interesting.

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[51:44] Well, I think the whole record is interesting. what did you guys think overall is an experience with the record and uh after you tell me that what is your mvp track and you have to pick one this time justin i'm gonna go first i'll make it easy because i think i've already referenced it and and and it it's you know probably unlikely but But Star Painters was my, and again, it's the lyric. It's that line. Like anytime I hear that line, whether I'm walking the dog and I listen to it or if I'm driving and I hear it, you know, the scaffolding. Scaffolding.

Track 4:

[52:29] The scaffolding is in its place. The Star Painters are taking over now. And then your anesthesiologist tonight is washing up and on her way. So for me, it was that line. And I think it's because, again, I wanted to separate and I'm glad that I had the wherewithal to be able to go. I wasn't looking for hip light. I was looking for Gore Downey. And, and you didn't, I, it's me personally. And I think we even mentioned it with, with the book ending with the spoken word, you were going to get Gord Downie and you were in a, not just, you're not just going to get the energy that we know and from the hip, but you know, that he's going to take all these, these amazing musicians that were part of obviously his career.

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[53:20] His musical background that, that, that created the hip and that he's going to give them that opportunity for them to get together. And then just when you hear the story about how they recorded it and where they recorded it and, uh, you know, meshing that together at the same time, he's, he's, he's, he's writing, you know, he's putting out the book along with it. So I'm, I mean, yeah, a little bit of criticisms on some of the recording maybe techniques and could have used a few more mics here and there. But that's just, I guess, the musician in me. But overall, I can understand why it was what I would assume mostly fairly well received. And again, I know there's a lot of hip fans that weren't even going to give it a chance. And then the song that I chose as my MVP kind of pushed him away from the get-go, at least for me. So, yeah, I'm...

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[54:22] I'm glad I found the hip or maybe I should say the hip found me and I'm glad I didn't give up on them. And, uh, you know, the energy and, and the feeling that Gord always gave me when I, uh, had the great chance to see, uh, see the band and see him. And even when I met him, I actually, I wore this shirt on purpose. This is the shirt that I was wearing when I met Gord backstage house of blues Anaheim. It's a harley davidson shirt with big letters hd and the ac are masked with a canadian flag, yeah and this i got this up in vancouver on a trip when i went up there i fancied myself i was going to be a harley rider one of these days and and still don't have a bike um but went through that phase and uh i wore this shirt because i felt like i needed to because i'm you know go see the hip. And, uh, and this is the first thing he said, he just goes, that's a really nice shirt, man.

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[55:23] And he shook my hand and, and, uh, and there was just this gentleness about him. And, uh, you know, I was starstruck and I don't typically get that. I mean, I'm, I'm in a business where I meet people all the time and I'm in LA and Hollywood and, and, and done all that, but this guy is different. And it was a moment where I definitely paused and couldn't put together a whole lot of words. I didn't know that I was necessarily going to meet him. I wore this in honor of that moment and taking this journey with you guys. So I am so excited because I think this was a great start.

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[56:07] Outside, I've heard a little bit of some Secret Path. I absolutely had not heard anything from any of the other albums outside of Coke Machine Glow, and again, a little bit from Secret Path. So I'm just, I'm really jazzed, right? Because I get to dig, you know, we get to dig deeper into this individual that's just, wow, he's pretty special. And you could see, you know, the impact that he's had on so many. So I'm excited about this journey and I'm picking that song and I'm sticking to it. Nice. Craig, how about you?

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[56:45] Well, being one of those hip fans who took a bit of a break around this time, and not that I completely abandoned them, I think for me, I was just at an age where I was just exploring so much music. I was in school for music, so I was being bombarded by classical music and music from all through the ages. And on top of that, I was getting into a lot of more experimental music. And I just started drifting away from not just the hip, but all the bands I had been listening to in the 90s. And, you know, a lot of those bands I did come back to, some I didn't, but I came back to the hip big time, kind of the mid 2000s or, you know, yeah, around 2006, probably. And um and so for me i this is an album i never gave a chance i'd heard you know a couple songs here and there chancellor and vancouver divorce i think but um i'd never listened to the whole thing and wow i'm i'm so grateful for this opportunity to do this it's just i love this album i i put it up there with with you know some of those great hip albums and um my my um mvp track is every irrelevance i again i explained already the vince mcmahon meme um that that was me during this song just i by the end i was just you know spent lying down with the smoke.

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[58:14] Justin uh it's sentimental for me with it's trick rider um because my daughter is six um and And I build bike ramps for her, you know, and, and then tell her don't ride so fast off that bike ramp. I just built you, you know, and, um, don't ask me to explain. Um, and, Yeah, I just, that's, it drives, you know, it really, yeah, I don't know. I love that song for different reasons. I also really love Canada Geese just because it's a sweet rock song. And I know, I just like what I like. I grew up on Yes and listening to 22-minute opuses that were way beyond what a 13-year-old kid should be listening to. So, I get weird stuff and I get out there stuff, but I also just love rock and roll.

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[59:06] And, uh, you know, that's a, that's a pretty good rock and roll song. I, and I'm going to echo you guys that I'm super excited for this platform. Um, because as a kid in the States who had the secret about the hip, you know, my last name is St. Louis. So everybody thought I was Canadian and I was a Montreal Canadians fan. So everybody, you know, they'd pick on me. And then I talk about the tragically hip, which was in the periphery, you know, nobody, nobody listened to it, but they'd at least heard of them. And then be like, Oh, that's who the hell is that? Why are you listening to that? And it's stupid. Well, now I can finally celebrate it and talk about it, you know, and, and I'm Canadian for the next eight weeks. Oh, that's great. Eh? Yeah.

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[59:49] Well, this has been a great deal of fun.

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[59:55] This Saturday afternoon. You'll be listening to this on a Monday, of course. If you have anything you want to shout out to us, please send us an email. We would love to hear from you. The email is discoveringdowney at gmail.com. That's discoveringdowney at gmail.com. You can also find a link on our website, discoveringdowney.com, and there's a link to email us right from there, which makes it easy peasy. So it's been a blast doing this with you guys this week. I'm really looking forward to where we go and learning more. I am a somebody who has listened to all the records, and I've listened to them on a number of occasions, but I have a very poor short-term memory, and it's tough to recall them sometimes. Times so it's been really fun going through this and listening the shit out of this record and then getting to talk about it with somebody it's like a book club so i had a lot of fun and if you like what you heard send us an email discovering downy at gmail.com we'd love to hear from you, and on behalf of kirk craig and justin pick up your shit.

Track 1:

[1:01:13] Thanks for listening to Discovering Downey. To find out more about the show and its host, visit DiscoveringDowney.com. You can email us at DiscoveringDowney at gmail.com. And hey, we're social.

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