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Gord downie family life1/29/2024 “Ahead by a Century” and “Bobcaygeon” are among the best known. Since The Tragically Hip’s first album in 1987, the band has provided a soundtrack for the lives of many Canadians. I hope they’ll learn about and remember Gord Downie for all they ways he both entertained and challenged Canadians.TORONTO – Gord Downie, who made himself part of Canada’s national identity with songs about hockey and small towns as lead singer and songwriter of iconic rock band The Tragically Hip, has died at age 53 after a battle with brain cancer.Ī statement on the band’s website said he died Tuesday night “with his beloved children and family close by.” The statement did not give a cause of death, though he had been diagnosed earlier with brain cancer. Even if they don’t share their mother’s musical taste, I hope they will see the band for all the ways that they celebrated Canada. When my boys are old enough, I will play the Tragically Hip’s music for them. ![]() In his later years, Downie used his celebrity to focus attention to Indigenous rights, forcing Canadians to confront issues long overlooked like the long-lasting devastation of the Residential School System and the current state of many First Nations communities living in the North.īut the gift of his artistry and activism will always remain. Not just for what it meant for the Canadian music scene but for him as a husband and father. When I first heard of his terminal brain cancer diagnosis, I was gutted. The only indication that he was a celebrity was that he made his way to the first class car while I travelled in coach. We were both boarding a train heading to Toronto. I saw Gord Downie a few times… the last time at the Via Station. Sometimes I would see the other guys from the band pulling into his driveway. No glitz or glamour, just a pretty house in the heart of the Queen’s student housing area. Rob or Bobbie Baker as he was known then, was my neighbour. They made up the day-to-day fabric of life for me in Kingston. Regretfully, I never got to see The Hip live, but in a sense, I didn’t have to. I feel lucky to have been going through this transition at the same time that Canadian bands were also transitioning to writing music about their home country and not being apologetic about it. There is no doubt that The Hip were right there with me as I matured from a naive teen to a young woman. Others I had read about in textbooks like French explorer Jacques Cartier or the wrongly convicted prisoner David Milgaard but never had I heard them sung about in contemporary music. With that album, I was introduced to Canadians that I’d never heard of like Leafs’ defenseman Bill Barilko and Nova Scotian author Hugh MacLennan. At keg parties, homecoming events and throughout the halls of almost all the residences I visited, those 12 songs were as much a part of campus life as lecture halls and meal plans.Įven now, 24 years later, when I hear songs such as Looking for a Place to Happen or Pigeon Camera, I can instantly feel the cold crisp air of that first Autumn or visualize the grey skies and blinding white snow of a Kingston winter. I heard it all throughout that week and in the many months to come. ![]() ![]() I don’t know who said it, but they proved to be very wise. One of the things I remember hearing among the songs and chants of Frosh Week was “You can’t live in Kingston and not be a fan of the Hip.” In the fall of 1993, I moved to Kingston to start a five-year stint in my new home as a Queen’s University student. I bought my first album by a Canadian artist with the release of Blue Rodeo’s Lost Together and I never really looked back. I loved a good dance song and a ballad even more. I left home to start university, voted in my first major election and became a fan of The Tragically Hip.Īs a teenager growing up in Hamilton in the late 80s and early 90s, I listened to pop music and drew hearts around the faces of guys from my favourite boy bands.
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