112896 The Tragically Hip, Ottawa, ON

As I sit here gazing out my morning window I ponder the sad fact that Gord Downie has been gone from this realm for a little over six years now.  A poet and humanitarian, a lover and a thinker, a performer and a singing shaman, Gord was snuffed out and stopped dead in his tracks at a time when so much potential still laid before him, and by association, us.

For a while there he had Canada’s full attention, as we all shared a country-wide standing eulogy for the man while he led his stoic bandmates on one final tour, where the four musicians stood quietly behind their brother like humble shadows, each drenched in their own shades of grief as they rocked and rolled, rocked and rolled.  It was the attention that Gord Downie always deserved, and while the reverence and horror was genuine and borne out of respect it was similarly tainted with a dark hue.  It was like we were all lining the streets of a one-man parade, each of us silently looking on with our hat in our hands and a tear in our eye while Gord pranced by wearing a glittering suit and a Bob Dylan hat with a tight-lipped smile-frown painted on his face as he bravely waved goodbye to us all.

And then it was done; the parade ended.  A good man died for no good reason.

Our country lost an ambassador of the highest integrity two years ago, a patriot who was more concerned with highlighting our country’s bumps and bruises than lauding it’s most glittering prizes, a man who somehow chastised us all without berating us, who somehow managed to raise major issues without ruffling hardly a feather.  He miraculously spread pride while pointing out our dark, hidden historic blunders.

Canada is noticeably quieter since he left us.  Nobody could ever have accused Gord Downie of being a media hound, but no longer are we treated to occasional reports about Gord releasing a new book of poetry or talking about a wrong that should be righted; tidbits that would invariably lift us up.  And of course, there is no more The Tragically Hip.

No more will we have a new Hip album that won’t be as good as the old stuff until a few years go by and we all realize how great it is.  No longer can we look forward to the inevitable tour that would bring the band to all the usual stops and a few surprise out-of-the-way places too, with every show a different collection of legendary songs that were each given a new treatment every time.  The albums and tours were so prevalent that it was easy to take them for granted.  I mean, they were always a great time, but it’s not like one would relish a Hip show as a rare, once-in-a-lifetime event or anything.

But they were.  Every single one of my thirty The Tragically Hip concerts were once-in-a-lifetime events.  Including this one from November 28th, 1996, the first of a two-nighter in Ottawa.  The Rheostatics opened the show and I missed them, but I was there from The Hip’s Grace, Too opener to the six-song encore.  It was a great show and Gord was on fire – as he usually was – preening and miming and scatting through stream-of-consciousness improvisations the whole time.  

Not to mention singing his amazing lyrics.  Some of which I will leave you with here, if only to highlight a tiny bit of Gord Downie’s brilliance.

Excerpt from Scared, which was played in the middle of the epic encore from this concert:

Clearly entranced, you're leaving back now

Defanged destroyer limps into the bay

Down at the beach it's attracting quite a crowd

As kids wade through the blood out to it to play

Okay, you made me scared, you did what you set out to do

And I'm not prepared, you really had me going there for a minute or two

He said, you made me scared too, I wasn't sure I was getting through

I got to go

It's been a pleasure doing business with you

I feel like this need a postscript, but it can only include what I’ve been saying the whole time: that Gord Downie was a thoughtful, intelligent, caring creative giant who’s tragic early absence from the Canadian cultural landscape created a void that cannot be measured, though it is felt daily by those of us sensitive enough to remember.

It should be measured though.  The guy should be on money.  There should be statues.  A Gord Downie Day.  He left us with so much.  We have his books and his songs to love and relish, and we have his challenges and his legacy to try to live up to.  

RIP Gord Downie (1964-2017)