The Tragically Hip to get Thursday rolling in a disorderly manner (who needs order? We don’t!) – recorded at The Copper Penny Restaurant (?) on November 9, 1985 by the band sound engineers.
In a few words from Wikepedia:
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, two live albums, two EPs, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Following Downie’s diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album, Man Machine Poem. The tour’s final concert, which would ultimately be the band’s last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio and internet streaming special.
After Downie died on October 17, 2017, the band announced in July 2018 that they would no longer perform under the name. The surviving members have, however, continued to pursue other musical projects, and have begun releasing deluxe reissues of their albums featuring previously unreleased songs from the band’s archives.
Anybody who remembers that very last, farewell show knows what an emotional event it was and the loss of Gord Downie was profound. So rather than go to 2016 for the last show, going further back to 1985 for an early show, considered by many collectors and fans as “The Holy Grail of live concerts”.
Well, you get a chance to hear it for yourself – and if you aren’t already familiar, it’s a good jumping off place to celebrate a band that did a lot for Canadian Music around the world.
It’s Thursday – so far, so good – Easter Vacation is upon us. Be nice to yourself.
