Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie performs with band members Paul Langlois, Gord Sinclair, Johnny Fay and Rob Baker at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to kick off the bands latest Man Machine Poem tour in light of Downies brain cancer diagnosis, in Victoria, B.C., Canada July 22, 2016. That's really compelling to me." Then sit back and see what happens, because its not like you can control it. Over three decades, the Tragically Hip released 14 studio albums, the majority of which topped the Canadian album charts and were eventually certified Platinum (their first three LPs all went Diamond). The press and the music industry were largely baffled; among his peers, and especially among non-Hip fans, it remains a beloved and influential record. The Secret Path began as 10 poems that Gord Downie wrote as he grappled with Chanie's story. [19], Downie was heavily involved in environmental movements, especially issues concerning water rights. "[58] Canadian MP Tony Clement called upon the government to consider holding a state funeral for Downie, stating "I think he matters that much to Canadians. The band even has its own postage stamp and a street named after it, Tragically Hip Way, in Kingston, Ont. When you hear the songs, clearly it was affecting him. Today Bodie is an authentic, intact ghost town. He clearly was so taken with it and couldn't let it go.". CBC broadcaster and musician Tom Power called them "Canada's local band." His third solo effort, The Grand Bounce, was released in 2010. Poetry and pop music are not strangers, of course: just ask the committee who granted Bob Dylan the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. It was a moment that helped Gord finally get at something that had been nagging at him for years. Its focus is on youth learning and combining Cree education with the contemporary world. Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Anishinaabe boy, ran away from a residential school in northern Ontario 52 years ago. Because of the feeling you get when you go up there. Downie dismissed questions about why the band didn't break big in the U.S., telling CBC that he felt successful after the band's first practice. [73], In the wake of Downie's death, CTV rescheduled the planned broadcast premiere of Long Time Running, a documentary film by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier about the Man Machine Poem Tour of 2016, from November 12 to October 20. Gordon R Downie (1899-1943) - Find a Grave Memorial Born in 1899 and died in 13 Oct 1943 Winnipeg, Manitoba Gordon R Downie Skip to main content Home Memorials Cemeteries Famous Contribute Register Sign In Register Sign In Memorial updated successfully. Edgar died in November 2015. At the end of their set that night, the whole place stood up and clapped and it was undeniable if you were in the room that night that this was something special.". The Idol: How HBOs Next Euphoria Became Twisted Torture Porn. Everyone whose family has ever been cursed with cancer projected stories onto the tale of a man who chose to stare down a terminal diagnosis and take the show on the road. Hey all! He was also a dedicated activist, focusing on environmental issues and the disenfranchisement of Canadas indigenous community. As a musician, he lived "the life" for over 30 years, lucky to do most of it with his high school buddies. Stations in other formats, such as contemporary hit radio, adult contemporary or country music, typically did not suspend their normal playlists, but still added some Tragically Hip songs to the day's rotation. We are not the country we think we are. [52] Under the stage name Kaya Usher, she released her own debut album as a singer, All This Is, in 2021 with the participation of two of their four children, and some of the tracks feature Usher performing with a guitar that had once belonged to Downie. The band also earned 16 Juno Awards the most ever for a band and the fourth-most ever for an artist picking up their last two in April for Group of the Year and Rock Album of the Year for Man Machine Poem. "Who are you comparing us to?" When he first said they were going on tour, I said, Are you okay? Upon hearing the news, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a tribute statement on his official website. Gord Downie's legacy. Lemire created a graphic novel inspired by Downie's songs, and its images were used to create the film. Meanwhile, the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund was started to "start a new relationship with Indigenous Peoples.". I know an 85-year-old with boy trouble. [9], Downie began pursuing a solo career with the release of Coke Machine Glow in 2001. Gord Downie, the Tragically Hip frontman who united a diverse array of music lovers with his commanding stage presence and Canadiana-laced lyrics, has died. He told Globe and Mail writer Ian Brown he planned to build a cabin near Chanie Wenjacks relatives in northwestern Ontario, where he could spend his final days. The cause was terminal brain cancer. The Tragically Hip, photographed in New York in February 1992. in which the Tragically Hip are shown as a local band practising in the main character's garage. [29], In May 2016, Downie and his bandmates received honorary degrees from Queen's University. As original material slowly seeped its way into the set, it was the other Gord, Sinclair, who wrote most of the lyrics. "I think my body's giving subtext and with my voice I'll give you the confines of my heart, which is illegible," he told CBC in 1999. He also performed a few live shows to support the album, with supporting musicians Kevin Drew, Charles Spearin, Dave Hamelin, Kevin Hearn and Josh Finlayson. Four of those five young men played their first gig as the Tragically Hip in November 1984, in a small white room at the Kingston Artists Association. when she met a 23-year-old Downie, who was just getting started with the Hip, playing mostly university gigs.. "I think he really tried to put himself in those shoes and imagine what that was like," Mike says. Years later, when he decided to be more vocal, he made sure he did his homework, studying casework, speaking at hearings, relying on research and science rather than his celebritymuch like his old friend Sarah Harmer, another Waterkeeper supporter. St. Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. [50] Downie and Usher separated in 2015 before Downie's cancer diagnosis. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. Musician manager Jake Gold, who along with Allan Gregg gave the Hip members their first shot, told the authors of the book Have Not Been The Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-95, about the Toronto show that won them and an ambivalent crowd over. His family released the following statement: Last night Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family. The 15-show Man Machine Poem tour, especially its final concert, became a cultural event, as Downie's dire prognosis prompted an outpouring of support from people across the country who had the rare opportunity to celebrate a much-loved Canadian before he was gone. "For me, it's not as easy. What few knew in 2015, however, was that Downie and Usher had separated, promptingthe sale of the house. On that summer night in Kingston, the set list dipped back to the Hips first hit single, Blow at High Dough, the one that opens with the line: They shot a movie once, in my hometown. His movie, our hometowns: Downies lyrics imbued Canadas music scene with mystery and magic and presented it, poetically, to a wide mainstream audience. At the Assembly of First Nations in Gatineau, Quebec, on December 6, 2016, National Chief Perry Bellegarde honoured Downie with an eagle feather, a symbol of the creator above, for his support of the indigenous peoples of Canada. The Tragically Hip announced his diagnosis on their website on May 24, 2016. It was a rare piece of celebrity news about Downie, who had steadfastly shielded his four children and Laura Usher, his wife of 23 years, from the public eye; the lone exception was in 2012, when Downie talked openly about Ushers bout with breast cancer. The Tragically Hip formed in 1983 at Queen's University, named after a sketch in former Monkees member Michael Nesmith's long-form music video "Elephant Parts," and were soon playing the Kingston bar scene. "That's kind of our job, to make sure that it's in place going forward, because I do think that he had an oversized impact on this country. He sang about Canada, but disavowed nationalism, his songs exploring heavy topics like David Milgaard's wrongful conviction (Wheat Kings) or Canada's treatment of First Nations (Now the Struggle Has a Name). But he did, at the final Tragically Hip show at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston on Aug. 20broadcast live on the CBC to an estimated 11.7 million viewers, with 20,000 people from across the continent assembled in Kingstons Springer Market Square to celebrate. Downie said growing up on the shores of Lake Ontario had an impact on the way he viewed the environment, which led him to support the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper as a board member and to pay for renewable energy at his Toronto home. "She said, I wouldnt go to the lobby of my building to see Frank Sinatra. In a 1991 profile of the Hip, a reporter from the Kingston Whig-Standard visited all the band members families. [33], In December 2015, shortly after attending his father's funeral, Downie was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. Finding the Secret Path premieres . And I think at that time our feeling was, if we knew so little about something like this, like wow, there must be millions of Canadians who have no idea.". We would like to thank all the kind folks at KGH and Sunnybrook, Gord's bandmates, management team, friends and fans. Memorial has been sponsored successfully. It was brave . I see stuff and I ," Patrick says, taking a moment to collect himself before continuing his thought. Tragically Hip: Canada Waves Goodbye to a National Treasure. All Rights reserved. Bob Berg/Getty. After the final cross-country tour, all 17 Hip recordings (including box sets and live concerts) were back on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart as sales and downloads skyrocketed. Gord Downie was given sufficient time to pen his own obituary, and that is exactly how it should be. But things were much quieter now. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life. "His main focus was the release of Secret Path," says Gord's brother, Patrick Downie. They were too traditional and aspirational to be punk or alternative, and yet they were raw enough that they immediately stood out on any mainstream radio playlist. In a genre prone to clich, outright nonsense and occasional misogyny, Gord Downie wrote lyrics that dipped in the same well as Al Purdy, Raymond Carver, Northrop Frye, Timothy Findley, Hugh MacLennan and others; he would even quote those writers directly in his lyrics. When he spoke, he gave us goosebumps and made us proud to be Canadian. 1. In the remote north, in a land where the many not born there dare not go. Thats whats missing as we celebrate doughnuts and hockey. Gord said he had lived many lives, they added. [60], Downie was widely mourned in Canada. The Downie residence was the only one where the Hips gold record was nowhere to be seen; the elder Downies couldnt remember the name of his high-school punk band. David Lindley, Multi-Instrumentalist Who Shaped the Sound of Soft Rock, Dead at 78 When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Gord Downie, singer of The Tragically Hip, died of complications from brain cancer Tuesday night at the age of 53. His later solo records, including a rollicking, punkish 2014 album recorded with the Sadies, were remarkably conventional compared to Coke Machine Glow. [63] The Toronto Maple Leafs honoured Downie with a moment of silence before their game on October 18, during which the retired-jersey banner for Bill Barilko whom Downie had written about in the Tragically Hip song "Fifty Mission Cap" was lowered from the rafters of the Air Canada Centre. Related [43], In September 2017, Downie announced what would be his final solo double-album titled Introduce Yerself; it was released on October27, 2017, ten days after Downie's death.[44][45][46]. It had more in common with Neil Youngs 1975 ramshackle fan favourite album Tonights the Night than, say, anything that would have a life on classic-rock-radio playlists. [6] After graduating high school, Downie attended Queen's University where he majored in film studies, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in 1986. Their self-titled debut EP arrived in 1987 while their first LP, Up to Here, followed in 1989. [34] The tour's final concert was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario, on August 20 and was broadcast and streamed live by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on television, radio and internet. Nickelback? [64], Residents of the Ontario village of Bobcaygeon, which Downie had written about in the song of the same name, held a candlelight vigil for him the night after his death;[65] a large public gathering also took place at Springer Market Square in the band's hometown of Kingston. [39] The album was accompanied by a graphic novel on which he collaborated with Jeff Lemire,[39] and an animated television film which aired on CBC Television. His family announced the news in a statement published on the Canadian band's . No one. [77], In August, Downie's Twitter account was reactivated, and began posting a series of teaser photographs of handwritten song lyrics, accompanied by numbers that appeared to be a calendar countdown to the date of October 15. It's the main take-away of almost everybody who worked with him,. It was passed in December 2019, establishing the Poet Laureate of Ontario. [42] At the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019, two additional awards were won by Gord Downie's Secret Path in Concert, the CBC Television broadcast of Downie's 2016 Roy Thomson Hall performance of the album. As their popularity in Canada grew, the Tragically Hip seemed primed to cross over in America, especially during alternative rocks Nineties heyday. Downie was reluctant at first; he told the Toronto Star he felt like a dilettante. Updated at 11:10 a.m. Sit down. Gords command of language was profound. In 2005, the band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. "This is not to take away from anything he did on that farewell tour with the [Tragically] Hip, but this is what he really wanted to see to the end. Michael Barclay is the co-author of Have Not Been the Same, and the author ofThe Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip. All the while, he was writing and recording: with the Hip, keyboardist Kevin Hearn, avant-garde noisemakers Dinner is Ruined, and separate projects with producers Kevin Drew and Bob Rock. [79], In October 2022, the song "Lustre Parfait" was released to streaming services as a preview of an album collecting various previously unreleased songs that Downie had recorded with Bob Rock. [31], Downie, along with his Tragically Hip bandmates, was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada on June19, 2017, for "their contribution to Canadian music and for their support of various social and environmental causes". And it seems like you get up there every single time and give it!. At home, he worked just as tirelessly at being a good father, son, brother, husband and friend. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time In December, the Assembly of First Nations honoured his work on reconciliation by endowing him with a Lakota spirit name: Wicapi Omani, or man who walks among the stars. In June, he and the band were named to the Order of Canada; Downie received his early, alongside activist Sylvia Maracle. Last night Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family close by. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Vandoliers Play Tennessee Concert in Dresses to Protest State's New Drag Bill Imagine if they were part of us and we them, how incredibly cool it would make us? Visitors walk the deserted streets of a town that once had a population between 7,000 and 8,000 people. In the bands first three years, they played 60s cover songs by the Rolling Stones, Van Morrisons Them, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and the Monkees. It was a Terry Fox story with a twist: a story where the protagonist completes his goal before the disease gets the better of him. A man that was so proud of his children and his family. [61] The CBC news broadcast, The National, spent 40 of its sixty-minute broadcast discussing Gord and The Hip. He called concert touring "grunt work," and talked about building the fan base one person at a time. [36], Downie toured with the band in summer 2016 to support Man Machine Poem, the band's 13th studio album. During their live shows, Downie would notably ad-lib lengthy stories in the middle of songs. Clockwise from left: Gord Downie, guitarist Gord Sinclair, guitarist Rob Baker, bassist Paul Langlois and drummer Johnny Fay. Gord was my friend, but Gord was everyone's friend, it's who we were, our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had." "He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life." "We are less as a country without Gord Downie in it." The band never reached the same sales figures it did with its first four full-length albums, but continued to make music that was generally well-received by critics and selling at platinum or multi-platinum levels. Downie also appeared in Michael McGowan's 2008 film, One Week. Kingston Transit buses displayed "GORD, WE'LL MISS YOU" on their electronic destination signs, alternately with the regular route number and name display. Tragically Hip front-man Gord Downie's brother Mike talks about the CBC documentary 'Finding The Secret Path.' He met his future Tragically Hip bandmates while attending. A young drummer in Grade 9, Johnny Fay, watched with interest. Tom Sizemore, Heat and Saving Private Ryan Actor, Dead at 61 [34][35] Doctors at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre confirmed the same day that it was a glioblastoma, which had responded favourably to radiation and chemotherapy treatment but was not curable. Gord said he had lived many lives. No one worked harder on every part of their life than Gord. The Hip, as they're often called, won 16 Juno awards (the most of any band) and received a raft of other honours, including the Order of Canada. Your father is now buried. I think if I put myself out there like that, on the line, and make people emotionally connect with me, I feel like I couldnt ever do it again, because Id get bored or I just couldnt summon the same amount of emotion. It's the . Another 11.7 million watched a CBC broadcast of the concert, with hundreds of viewing parties held in public parks, squares, movie theatres, bars and restaurants across Canada. [51] They were not divorced at the time of Downie's death and had remained close friends. In his last year, while living with his own tragic story, Gord Downie was consumed by another. I came from a rural area, he once recalled. That included only three live shows, in Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax, and appearances at the Ottawa WE Day event and Haydens Dream Serenade concert in Toronto. [14] Three days after the funeral, Downie had a seizure. Fifty Mission Cap,for instance, recounts the story of Toronto Maple Leafs hero Bill Barilko, who died in a plane crash months after winning the Stanley Cup. It was a move unprecedented in music history: this was not a suicide, like with Kurt Cobain; this was not an addict flaming out in public, as Amy Winehouse did; this was not an artist whose later work showed clear signs of physical decline, like Johnny Cash; this was not someone who was going to disappear quietly, like David Bowie, who left us to wrestle with his final artistic statements posthumously. He listened to everything he could in his older sister's 45 collection, and used his allowance to buy records. "His big heart served him well," Patrick Downie said of his brother Gord. [6] The Tragically Hip quickly became famous once MCA Records president Bruce Dickinson saw them performing at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto and offered them a record deal. The man slumped a bit. "Rock 'n' roll is not unlike love," he told music writer Michael Barclay in 2000. Usher was a 20-year-old student at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. Lets not celebrate the last 150 years, Downie told a Toronto audience last October. It's a story that gripped Downie, even as he struggled with the brain tumour that was killing him. Following the release of Man Machine Poem and the Tragically Hips final concert, Downie continued to work. What followed once the show hit the road, though, was a public outpouring that few could have predicted: a year of Downie transforming from an aging rock star to tragic hero. Downie contained similar complexities: He was an everyman poet, seeming both aloof and down to earth, writing lyrics that rhymed "catharsis" with "my arse is." His death was announced in a statement from his family . [13], In addition to his solo works, Downie collaborated with several fellow Canadian and international artists. His words and lyrics spoke to everyone, coast to coast and across the miles. Tragically Hip front-man Gord Downie's brother Patrick on why he and his brother Mike are working so hard to preserve the singer's legacy. Downie was born on Feb. 6, 1964, in Amherstview, Ont., just slightly west of Kingston, to Lorna and Edgar, a travelling salesman turned real estate developer. He said he told Canadian stories because they were there to be told, and said he performed music because it was the ultimate medium for expressions of love. This, it seemed, meant much more to him than the Hips final show or the Order of Canada or the millions of records he sold. In 1995, a particularly successful year for the Hip, the band opened for both Page and Plant and the Rolling Stones, and performed on Saturday Night Live. In the middle of the set, Downie made a plea for reconciliation with Canadas Indigenous peoples, calling out the Prime Minister by name. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Then came May 24, 2016, when the band announced Downie's diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. His death was announced on the Tragically Hip website, stating quote: Last night Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family close by. He saw it as something that I think made sense to him as his life was coming to an end.". No other act of the day was embraced with the fervour and frenzy that Hip fans displayed toward Downie as a performer, but it was his lyrics that inflamed his fans. More recently, he and other members of the band appeared in the episode of Trailer Park Boys entitled "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys", in which he is harassed while eating a bologna sandwich at a singles dance. That's a strange and comforting thing to me. Gordon Edgar Downie was born in Kingston on Feb. 6, 1964, and spent his formative years in nearby Amherstview. Making the documentary has been a welcome distraction for Mike, and a painful reminder for Patrick. Downie was also featured in the sitcom Corner Gas in the episode "Rock On!" You do it for the company but I'm genuinely shocked by the themes and things you touch based on the music you're singing to. However, the band never quite took. [15] [23] The venue was small and not typical of the band. Gord Downie passed away a year ago on October 17, 2017. . [citation needed], Downie died of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, on October 17, 2017, at the age of 53 in Toronto. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. We would like to thank all the kind folks at KGH and Sunnybrook, Gord's bandmates, management team, friends and fans. Though he clearly relished his role on stage, Downies approach to celebrity was always tenuous. He was transfixed by Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Anishinaabe residential school student who died of hunger and exhaustion while trying to walk 600 km home to his family. "Growing up, he always felt that there was something missing," says Mike. And Then There Was David Lindley, See the Beths Deliver Refreshing 'Expert in a Dying Field' Mini-Set on 'CBS Mornings', The YSL Case Is Stretching Fulton County's Justice System to Its Breaking Point, Trump Promises to Continue Presidential Campaign if Indicted, Then Delivers a Snoozy CPAC Speech, NBA 'Investigating,' Team Suspends Ja Morant After Allegedly Flashing Gun on Social Media. It was viewed by an estimated 11.7 million people. [3] His first to hit number one was Introduce Yerself, shortly after his death. It's there all the time, tuned in to Fox News. [25][26] The fund is a part of Downie's legacy and commitment to Canada's First Peoples. " Rosa Hwang (@journorosa) October 18, 2017. A childrens choir sang The Stranger, the opening track from Secret Path. Gord Downie was a haunting presence around Toronto in 2017: singing Lost Together with Blue Rodeo at Massey Hall, taking in a PJ Harvey show, embracing Drake at a Raptors game, posing with Bobby Orr. I think rock 'n' roll is the same. TV is the main source of information. "I think something like 'legacy' would be a word that Gord wouldn't be too comfortable with," Mike says. or somewhat similarly minded mainstream artists like John Mellencamp. I think that everyman quality matters.. Gord was the fourth of five children . The statement was released via the band's official Twitter. I don't pretend to understand it; it feels confusing and frightening and wonderful.". Also, a series of music videos for all the songs on the album were created by Canadian artists and released on YouTube. [76] A different recording of "The East Wind" appeared on The Grand Bounce, and "At the Quinte Hotel" was previously released in video form, but never in an audio recording. Were still trying to figure out what makes us Canadian, and we have one of the loudest neighbors in the world, so this band helped a country, and Gord helped people lyrically, slowly start to try to define themselves.. Written entirely in the first person, Downie tried to feel what Chanie Wenjack was feeling on his journey from moment he was taken away from his family, to his lonely death. [25] Chanie Wenjack was a young indigenous boy who died trying to escape a residential school,[27] who became the centre of Downie's Secret Path project. The 23-song double album is due out Oct. 27, 2017, and is expected to be released posthumously by the Canadian label Arts & Crafts. He died of hunger and exhaustion trying to walk 600 kilometres home to the family he was taken from. That's who influenced me as a poet.". The Tragically Hip: 10 Essential Songs Author Joseph Boyden, who invited them, said their motivation was to "initiate a guerrilla act of love for a people who are so thoroughly underrepresented but now, somehow, overexposed for only their shortcomings. [8] Originally, the band covered popular British rock songs from the 1960s. Downie was married to Laura Leigh Usher,[48] herself a breast cancer survivor. [1][54][55] The surviving members of the Tragically Hip made the news of his death public the next morning, by sharing an official statement from his family on their website:[54]. They then honoured the 215 children who were recently found buried. he asked an interviewer from the Toronto Sun. It's not very pleasant, but don't look away,' you know? Over more than thirty years and across fourteen studio albums, Downie and his band of brothers built a legacy as the essential Canadian rock band. Now, nearly a year after Gord Downie's death, his brothers Patrick and Mike are premiering a new CBC documentary they've produced Finding The Secret Path. If anything, the Hip's lack of success in the U.S. has only made Canadians more protective of them. Post navigation Anyone who managed to catch him fronting the Tragically Hip in 1985, playing covers at a roadhouse in Renfrew, Ont., could tell you that. As could anyone who watched him command 40,000 people at any given outdoor appearance during the 1990s, singing songs that were summer soundtracks for an entire generation. By 2004, he'd clearly grown tired of the question. Downie had an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer called glioblastoma, which he discovered after a seizure in December 2015. [28], Downie took to Parliament Hill on July2, 2017, to speak out for Canada's young Indigenous people, likening it to the same kind of pain young people suffered in the now defunct residential schools.