History Music / TheTragicallyHip

In 2016, lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer; in the face of his diagnosis, Downie nonetheless played an entire farewell tour to support their album ''Man Machine Poem'', which concluded with a final show in the band's original home of Kingston, Ontario on August 20, 2016 (an event so significant that Creator/{{CBC}} broadcast it on every one of their platforms, and prime minister Justin Trudeau even attended). Downie died on October 17, 2017, and the band [[https://globalnews.ca/news/4313981/the-tragically-hip-talk-life-after-gord-downie-were-all-still-adjusting/ announced]] that they were no longer active in July 2018.

* ''Up To Here'' (1989)

* ''Day For Night'' (1994)
* ''Trouble At The Henhouse'' (1996)

* ''Saskadelphia'' (EP) (2021)[[note]]A 6-song collection of previously lost demos[[/note]]

!!Associated Tropes:

* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Phantom Power'' is title dropped in "Something On".

** ''We Are The Same'' comes for the chorus in "Now the Struggle Has a Name"
* AnachronismStew: The video for "The Darkest One" has Downie's character paying [[Series/HockeyNightInCanada Don Cherry's]] deliveryman for an order of UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken (which has packaging from TheEighties) with the "old-style" Canadian bills that were discontinued in the late 90's and early-00's.

--> I'm just a shade shy of true wickedness\\
I'm just a shade shy of truly loving this

* BlatantLies: During live shows, Downie tended to insert long, rambling, and obviously untrue monologues over instrumental breaks, usually in "New Orleans Is Sinking". The most famous tells about how he used to work at Sea World but had to quit after a killer whale bit his arms off, and another tells about how he drowned while trying to pull a family from a car during Hurricane Katrina.
* TheBigEasy: "New Orleans is Sinking", "If New Orleans Falls", and the "Neworleansworld" segment of "The Depression Suite".

* TheCameo: [[Series/HockeyNightInCanada Don Cherry]] and the cast of ''Series/TrailerParkBoys'' appear in the video for "The Darkest One".
* CanadianEqualsHockeyFan: They wrote songs about hockey, and one of their more popular shirts looks like a [[http://www.merchinmotion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PRINTING-hip-jersey.jpg hockey jersey]].

-->You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey \\

** "Bobcaygeon" is an actual town in Ontario, but Downie admitted that he only picked the town name because it sort-of rhymed with 'constellations'. Despite this, the residents there hold the song and Downie in high regard, particularly because it made their small town famous across the country. When Downie died in 2017, the townspeople held a widely attended candlelight vigil in his memory.

** "Fifty Mission Cap" tells the bizarre story of Bill Barilko, defenceman of the Toronto Maple Leafs who scored the goal ("in overtime") to win the Stanley Cup in 1951, and disappeared in a plane crash shortly after. The wreckage and his body were discovered 11 years later (the year the Leafs won their next cup).

-->[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Series If there's a goal that everyone remembers, it was back in old '72]].

** "Silver Moon" (a tie-in to the Paul Gross film ''Film/MenWithBrooms'') has Downie working as the janitor/operator at a curling rink.
** "Courage" is subtitled "For Hugh [=MacLennan=]". [=MacLennan=] was a Canadian author and academic, a staple of Can Lit. The song includes a passage from his novel ''The Watch That Ends the Night.''

** "At The Hundredth Meridian" even references Canadian ''geography'', as the 100th meridian west is the point "where the Great Plains begin." Any Canadian will tell you there are distinct differences between Western and Eastern regions of Canada.

-->There's Mistaken Point, Newfoundland\\

--> Twenty years for nothing\\

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Frontman Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2016. In the same press release that the band announced his diagnosis, they announced that they would tour that summer anyway. On stage, Downie was noticeably paler and frailer, but lost none of his stage presence. The tour culminated in their final show, on August 20, 2016 in Kingston, Ontario. The ''three-hour'' concert saw the band run through most of their big hits, three encores and 30 songs. The concert, broadcast without commercial interruption by the CBC on television, radio, and online, pre-empting their coverage of the 2016 Olympics, was watched by ''one-third of the population of Canada.'' Talk about a way to go out.
** Also possibly an example of DoNotGoGentle, as Downie took several opportunities over the course of the concert to call out the government's treatment of First Nations peoples - in the presence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

--> Laugh at a funeral or two\\

* GriefSong: "Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man", [[http://www.hipmuseum.com/escape.html if you know the story behind it.]]

-->Then a crowd appears, and they yell out\\

--> '''Gord''': I know you don't want to hear it, but in 1832 there was a cholera epidemic up and down the lake. Many people died where you stand tonight. And now here's a song about two young people who don't give a shit.
* LargeHam: Gord exemplified ham in live performances and in music videos like "Poets" and "My Music at Work".
** For an example of how Hammy Downie could get, in the "My Music At Work" video, he managed to make ''hanging up a phone'' seem dramatic and [[MundaneMadeAwesome impressive]].
* LongRunnerLineUp: They had a couple lineup changes in 1986 (with Paul Langois joining, and Davis Manning later leaving), and remained stable until Gordon Downie died over 30 years later.
* TheManTheyCouldntHang: Referenced in the lyrics of The Tragically Hip's song "Bobcaygeon":

** It may also be a reference to the band called The Men They Couldn't Hang.
** Given the multiple interpretations available to songs, as well as Gord's own comments during live performances, "The men they couldn't hang" can also refer to time when racial and secularist tensions in Toronto exploded due to Nazis (yes, they were in Canada too) inciting violence that took almost a day to quell in the 1930s.
* MisplacedWildlife: Parodied in "Gus The Polar Bear from Central Park".

* OneWomanSong: "Cordelia"

** "It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken" plays with this concept. The video follows the band as they drive to a private residence, meet a family of wealthy snobs who give them lavish accommodations, dress in all-white suits and perform the final verse of the song for a group of socialites who look utterly bored with them.

** "Vaccination Scar", which rails against Bush-era jingoism.
** "Gus The Polar Bear From Central Park" is about the government using fear as a political tool.
** "Scared" is the same as Gus, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin but is obviously much more explicit.]]

* PunkInTheTrunk: "Locked in the Trunk of a Car".
* PrecisionFStrike: "Fireworks"
--> You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey\\

** Also in "We Want To Be It":
--> Baby, when'd you get so zen?\\

* RockstarSong:
** "Family Band"
** "Escape is at Hand For the Travelin' Man"
* ShoutOut: "Courage" references a passage from Hugh [=MacLennan=]'s book ''The Watch That Ends the Night'' near verbatim in one of its verses.
** In addition, many of the songs contain references to Canadian history and various places, times and people. "Locked in the Trunk of a Car" references a Quebec politician getting kidnapped and later killed by terrorists, for example, while "Fireworks" talks about the Cold War and Paul Henderson's "miracle goal" against the Soviets during a Soviet-Canada hockey game series in 1972.

--> Treading the boards\\

--> Beware purveyors of cool\\

* ThoseWackyNazis: Referenced in "Scared", "Bobcaygeon", "Silver Jet", "World Container" and many other songs. It seems like Gord Downie had a bit of an obsession with them.

* TitledAfterTheSong: The band took its name from a line in Music/ElvisCostello's song, "Town Cryer", from the ''Imperial Bedroom'' album.
* [[TransatlanticEquivalent Trans-Pacific Equivalent]]: To Music/MidnightOil; both bands are [[LongRunner long-running]] AlternativeRock groups fronted by bald singers, who happen to be wildly influential superstars in their home country but are virtual unknowns everywhere else, in part because of the heavy CreatorProvincialism in their lyrics.

* AssholeVictim: "38 Years Old" is about a man imprisoned for murdering his sister's rapist.

* RockstarSong: "Family Band" and "Escape is at Hand For the Travelin' Man".

Band members:

'''Discography:'''

* LongRunnerLineUp: They had a couple lineup changes in 1986 (with Paul Langois joining, and Davis Manning later leaving), and remained stable until Gordon Downing died over 30 years later.

* ShoutOut: "Courage" references a passage from Hugh [=MacLennan=]'s book "Two Solitudes" near verbatim in one of its verses.

* [[TransatlanticEquivalent Trans-Pacific Equivalent]]: To Music/MidnightOil; both bands are [[LongRunner long-running]] AlternativeRock groups fronted by BaldOfAwesome singers, who happen to be wildly influential superstars in their home country but are virtual unknowns everywhere else, in part because of the heavy CreatorProvincialism in their lyrics.

* {{Mondegreen}}: [[{{Invoked}} Deliberately courted]] in "I'll Believe In You (or I'll Be Leavin' You Tonight)".

* WordSaladLyrics: Sometimes.

** "Nautical Disaster" is about the Battle of Dieppe, which took place during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and involved the highest number of Canadian fatalities in the conflict.
*** Although definitely one interpretation, [[http://www.hipmuseum.com/naut.html another would be the sinking of the Bismarck]], a decidedly ''non''-Canadian event.

** "Courage" is subtitled for Hugh [=MacLennan=]. [=MacLennan=] was a Canadian author and academic, a staple of Can Lit. The song includes a passage from his novel ''The Watch That Ends the Night.''

* Davis Manning (saxophone, [[ThePeteBest left the band in 1986]])

* BrotherSisterIncest: WordOfGod says "Pigeon Camera" is about this.

*** Although definitely one interpretation, [[http://www.hipmuseum.com/naut.html another would be the sinking of the Bismarck]], a decidedly ''non''-Canadian event. However, WordOfGod says it's not about any specific event, but just random musings.

* RealSongThemeTune: "Blow at High Dough" is used as the theme song for the short-lived {{Creator/CBC}} series ''Series/MadeInCanada''.