The Tragically Hip are Canadian rock kings, and their extensive history was recently covered in a compelling four-hour documentary Tragically Hip: No Rehearsal Now available on Prime Video. Over the course of their 33-year career, the Canadian quintet has sold more than 10 million albums and also developed fan bases in Europe and the United States. Their first album. even herewas re-released with demos, four bonus tracks, and live clips on Friday (November 8). It will undoubtedly please ardent fans who want to hear more from them, especially since the group disbanded after the sudden death of singer Gord Downie in 2017.
Before they became Canadian stars, The Tragically Hip were on their way to supporting their debut album, having made a splash with the single “New Orleans Is Sinking.” The quintet was known for their intense live shows as they hit the road across the United States. Little did they know that when they arrived in Wisconsin, their opening act would become the kings of grunge two years later.
“It was mind-boggling”
“We were playing one night in Madison, Wisconsin, in this hole called Okay’s Corral,” recalls hip-hop guitarist Gord Sinclair: American songwriter. “So we arrived and the opening that night, believe it or not, was Nirvana. They opened a date. It was mind-boggling, and completely open to us. They had just flown in from Seattle to start the demo with them [producer] Butch Vig, and the only reason they were taking the gig was to get gas and food money. We arrived and they were sleeping on tables and chairs in the club. They had been driving all night.” (Fun fact: Nirvana’s drummer at the time was Chad Channing of Child’s Play.)
Sinclair continues: “Obviously the American underground scene is what it is, and everyone in the bar was there to see them because the kids were amazed at how cool these guys were in Sub Pop. They came on stage and you could have lifted our jaws off the floor. We realized in that moment, “Wow, everything has changed.” The way these guys played, the energy they showed. It was very heavy, but it wasn’t metallic. It was just something different. It turned out to be grunge rock.
The guitarist notes that he and his bandmates looked at themselves – they were still wearing cowboy boots and underpants. Sinclair adds: “We were that last wave of American rock, and we’re still trying to figure out who we’re going to be.” “That was a really emotional night. Like most young bands, we started our conquest of the United States. Then very, very quickly we realized how big the country was, but [also] how much the game has changed. It was overnight when Nirvana came along.
When Sinclair was asked what Nirvana looked like, he said, “They were cute but they were full of energy, and they drove all night to get to the party. Life on the road. I remember Gord. [Downie] Long visit with Kurt [Cobain]. Three-quarters of the audience was there to see them and they all walked out as soon as it was over. We looked like a country band by comparison, even though we left our acoustic songs off the set that night. It was amazing. They kicked us out of the theater.”
Things certainly turned out well in the end. The Tragically Hip would open for Plant & Page and The Rolling Stones in the 90s, and Midnight Oil would open for them. The Hip eventually released 13 studio albums and two live albums, sold millions of units, and their total Spotify streams exceeded 600 million in the United States.
“New Orleans is sinking”
The Tragically Hip had a timeless sound and didn’t chase trends, but they also knew they couldn’t stagnate, a point that was certainly made when they saw Nirvana.
Sinclair explains: “Our first record really represents where we came from, and our songwriting represents that as well,” Sinclair explains. “We had been playing for three, four, maybe even five years before we had the opportunity to get here, and we were playing primarily blues-based rock ‘n’ roll. Our heroes were groups like The Yardbirds, The Early Stones and The Who. They were basically reinterpreting American R& B music, and that really influenced our songwriting.
Sinclair continues: “‘New Orleans is Sinking’ brought us a lot of attention in the U.S., enough to get Mouloudia Algeria to keep us around and give us a chance to make another record,” Sinclair continues. “But we were very aware of what was happening around us as well. We knew we couldn’t expect to have a long career if we were only going to have 12 bars [blues]It would have been easy for us to rewrite ‘New Orleans Is Sinking,’ but I don’t know evolutionarily if that would have been the best thing for the band.
They ultimately showed their versatility throughout their career with tracks like “Ahead by a Century,” “Grace, Too,” “In View,” and “Nautical Disaster,” and left a musical legacy that will live on through the rest of the world. Members and their individual careers.
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Photo by Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns