Forged from something not of this earth
In this episode, join hosts Pete and Tim along with special guest Dan as they dissect and analyze the Tragically Hip's 2012 record, "Now For Plan A". They dive into the musical journey, reliving their first experiences and evolving impressions over multiple listens. From highlighting the unique elements of each song to the lyrics and influences behind them, no detail is too small. They examine the guest vocals of Sarah Harmer in 'Look Ahead' and the Rolling Stones-esque 'Modern Spirit', exploring the musical and lyrical details. Listen in as they debate the meaning of the lyrics in 'Take Forever' and uncover the mysterious 'About this Map'. A treat for any Tragically Hip fan, this episode is a deep dive into the iconic band's musical journey.
Tracks
About this Map - Studio Version
Man Machine Poem - Toronto 2012
Streets Ahead - Ottawa 2011
Take Forever - Toronto 2012
Transcript
Track 3:
[2:51] Hey, it's JD here, and welcome to Getting Hip to the Hip.
[2:54] A weekly podcast where I take my friends on a whirlwind tour of the Tragically Hips discography, one record at a time, week over week.
And that is the case with this week, as we're discussing 2012's Now for Plan A, the 12th studio record from the Tragically Hip.
I'm joined as always by Pete and Tim, and we've also got Dan from London here.
How the hell are you guys doing? Oh good, oh good.
Excellent. Well, after that, hold on, let me look at my segment guide here.
Uh, introduction, rousing response from the gentlemen. Yep. Check.
[3:53] Now we'll move on to the next segment, which is, uh, experience with this record.
This is a coming off of, we are the same, a record, which was, uh, roundly dismissed by these two gentlemen, uh, a week ago, Dan, um, it was one that It was one that was not well liked.
So we're hoping we've got a comeback on our, in the mids tier. It happens. Bye bye.
Pete and Tim Burse, talk to me about where you listened to the record the first time, how you experienced it on multiple listens, and overall vibeage off the top.
And then we'll fire it over to you, Dan, to get a similar reaction.
Well, I listened to it in multiple places. Listened to it first, I think, I think, working, sitting at the computer, listening to it in the home stereo system, listening to it in the car.
[5:02] I love the record. I don't want to say too much because I think we're going to get into a lot of it.
But only thing I will say, and in all due respect, I don't want to come off harsh here, but fuck you, Dan, right off the bat, Because you've had this record for some time, and we got a weekto soak it in.
A week. Let me tell you, a week wasn't even enough.
I mean, I could soak this record in for a year.
That's all I'm going to say. I'll agree with that. With all due respect, but I can't fuck you down. Like, with all due respect. Thank you. We had a week with it.
We had a week with it. I feel like we had a lifetime with We Are The Same.
But we only had a week with Now for Plan A.
And I felt a little rushed to let it resonate, but every time I turned it on.
[6:00] I don't know. I don't want to say it felt like the first time, but it just clicked with me. There are some good tunes on here that we'll get it. We'll get it. We'll get into it.
But I listen to it my usual places.
Usual places. I listen to it more, I guess, excitedly with my better headphones on around the house, which always makes for, where's dad? Oh, he's right there. but he's not here.
So I, you know, because I wanted to hear it in its entirety.
And I can only really do that in the car or with the cans on.
So yeah, that was kind of my experience. It was quick for a quick album, right?
Yeah, the fastest record in their oeuvre at like 39 minutes or so.
And only two singles as well. That was shocking to me as well.
Which were those? I didn't think they were at transformation was the first single. Of course.
And hold on. I've got it right here.
[7:09] Streets ahead. Cool. Cool. Any feedback from Spotify?
Did any of you guys look at Spotify? Like where the play counts were?
Yeah. I mean, I think that's definitely up there. there. So is, so is that transformation and, and I think the title track.
Okay, gee, I just want to get transformation. Judy, do you use the term oeuvre a lot?
And I pause it to think that you use that term a lot because it rhymes with your last name and the production company that this that is gifting us with this here podcast oeuvre.
Yeah, yeah, that's what it Is that why? It's my last name.
[8:00] And Ouvra combined without the D. Yeah, and it's because it's all my work, right?
It's my collection of work Right is do.
Yeah, so so you don't like the D is what you're saying Hey now Pete told me he thought it might be a extra terrestrial Anatomy that he's not aware of Dan, Dan, he actually said this is thisis this somebody part that I didn't learn Dan's regretting joining this podcast.
Dan, what are you, like, well I want to hear from Dan, I want to know what, he's had a wild time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well listen with this whole thing I'm just along for the ride, you know.
I'll let you guys play out in front of me. Um, no, um, yeah, as you say I was really lucky because it was after the last one I was on that I learned that this was the next one I was going to beon.
So I had some considerable amount of time and also time to purchase Jan's album and get it imported from Germany I think.
[9:09] So I had a real binge at first because I think it's a pretty easy album to get into.
There's a, there's a couple of tracks that sort of, you kind of misplace, you know, in the order along the way for various reasons, but, um, I've, I was just listening to on my way to work.
So that was always, you know, whilst traveling on the train, um, and, uh, and I had, I had good times of it and I had it all prepared what I was going to say.
Um, because it was many months ago, I then moved on and got busy and did different things, forgot it all.
And then spent today binge listening and making notes again.
So I'm actually catching up with you guys now, which is typical. What can I say?
I mean, that represents our week with this album.
[9:57] Oh, that's great. Dan's last visit was Trouble at the Hidden House, right? So he's had a couple of good ones. Which we also have in the collection now. Nice. Awesome. Look at that.All right. Look at that guy.
Well, what do you say we start this, Son of a Gun, then?
We get in, turn the keys, and see where we end up. All right.
Analysis of the first song, "At Transformation"
[10:16] The first song, we start in with this cancer metaphor right off the bat with At Transformation.
Can I go? Sure. This one, I was so happy hearing the first seconds of this song coming off of our last album's experience.
[10:39] This one was so fun for me. I was relieved to hear this song.
I played it three times before I went on with the album.
Literally, just like, OK, let's do that one again. OK, let's do that one again.
It's just so I mean you can feel I don't know the, the bass is on fire in this song. You can feel Gord when he does the you know after that transformation towards the kind of the end. I feltthat coming.
You knew the woo was coming, right?
I don't know, it just...
Context aside, it's a killer song and even the The outro loops back everything about the intro.
It just was this circle of a song I felt like just could have been a single, been done. OK. Yeah. Great starter.
There's some weird, on this album, there's definitely some playfulness with song endings, with distortion and feedback and keys and synthesizers or something, which this one kind ofgives us that first taste of.
So I was happy to hear it. Played 128 times live. 128 times live.
So they played this one a bit. How about you, Dan?
[12:04] I mean, my second favorite track on the album. Yeah. I mean, as soon as that sort of distorted bass kicks in, you know you're in for a bit of a ride.
And again, similar to other tracks that we were looking at when I was last in on the Hen House, this does similar things where you've got that not quite, you've got a really good bridge andthen a not quite a chorus, but then it comes in the second time with the, you know, that transformation bit.
Well, the I can see it all at once and that transformation bit, and then that bass takes off and does its thing and it just, man, it just takes off.
And as we say, it just dissipates into this weird sort of sonic, mad sort of ending.
And similar to the start, it's like after that bass is there, the guitars kind of come in in some kind of informal manner, and then it just, bang, picks up when he starts singing the verse.
So it's a banger. Yeah, absolutely. Listen to it again and again and again and again and again.
[13:04] Contextually, it's weird. I second-guess myself a lot, not just to this song, Especially with the song though, but with the whole record I say because Tim alluded to it a little bit.
Dan doesn't have the context of last week's record So I'm like is this fucking record is amazing as I think it is? Or is it, it's like, hey, I've been living in a, you know.
In a faraway prison eating rice and stale bread for three years and now I'm sitting down at fucking Ruth Chris, Steakhouse and you know eating a.
[13:59] Filet mignon medium rare with a bottle of uh It just comes in like a beat and a half before. It's fucking cool.
I'm just looking at the notes. So long, Bob Rock.
A Welcome Back to Tragically Hip
[14:21] There's a lot of that in these notes, the bass, guitars, chords, voice throughout this entire record.
This is just a welcome back, Tragically Hip.
[14:37] One thing that I thought of when I was listening to it was I pictured in my mind the whole band on stage playing this song after maybe being through some shit for a while and likeyou know 45 seconds into this tune everybody just looks over at each other and like they don't say shit they don't have to say shit they just say everything with their eyes and they look ateach other and just smile and are just like yep welcome back Welcome fucking back.
I mean, what a return.
I mean, yeah, I just feel like we drifted so much from last week, again, that listening to this first song was awesome. Loved it.
At the same time, you know, in my research and reading about Gord's wife and her breast cancer and him dealing with that and that kind of being a thread through this album, I believe.It's... BOOM!
[15:45] You know, it was exciting, listened for me and I love this first song, but at the same time, it's like, oh, fuck.
We all in our own ways, our own stories, our own experiences can relate to cancer and probably even breast cancer.
And we have a good friend who just went through it all the way and just a couple of days ago found out she was cancer free.
So. Oh, wow. You know, this is Gord's.
Yeah. Gord's wife, you know, came out. Yeah.
In the end and it didn't take her, which is fucking cool, but you know, to read, I don't know, there's one quote, just to get into it real quick.
There's one quote from him, um, from Gordon. He says, many of these songs are me trying to help, you know, through the process, mutely the way a man does around breast cancer.
So it's, it's some, some heavy conceptual.
Oh my God. Themes here going on. But even straight, even straightforward though, I was unaware that a transformation is the term, the medical term for a cell going from malignant tocancerous.
That's called a transformation. So that's what, you know, the title of the song is, right? Yeah. Heavy, heavy stuff.
And then we move into man-machine.
[17:07] Poem.
A Bold Statement: My Favorite Hip Song
[20:44] I'll tell you. Yeah, I'm going to say right off the bat, I'm going to make a bold statement.
This may be my favorite hip song. Oh, wow. I mean, I didn't I.
Tim, I'm telling you the whole thing.
I was like mourning sort of Tiger the Lion for a minute in a weird way because I was just.
I mean, I don't know what to say about this song. Yeah, Yeah, it's cinematic, JD, but it's just so different.
And it's funny, because your whole thing that you just said was it's such a return to form.
And while it is, it's still melodically nothing like I've heard from the hit before.
That when it gets that minor four, that man, it trickles down.
Howard's Strained Voice and Unique Guitar Tone
[21:37] It's amazing. Howard's voice is like, I feel like he's straining it on purpose.
It just sounds like he's screaming, singing with every fiber of his body.
And when he gets to the end of a phrase or a word or a breath, it's like, you know, it's out of gas and he's got to take a breath to recharge and say the next line.
One thing I thought of when I heard this, the guitar tone on this song is forged from something not of this earth.
I don't know what, and there's a lot of really cool effects on this record, but I just don't know what that is.
And I don't know if they remember, if they know how they got it, but it just...
The keyboards hit in this song too. Like there were so many keyboards in the last record that I think Tim and I and JD as well felt were squandered, overused.
[22:45] Like this was just. Did you gotta, you gotta write, you gotta write to Gavin Brown, the producer. I bet he'll know you should.
Oh, I mean, you're, you're talking about effects, settings, everything, all the mix to make that sound the way it did just Jesus dude it was wow what a song what a song.
[23:11] So this was played at their last show, right?
At Air Canada Center, August 14, 2016. Wasn't that it?
K-Rock Center is their last show, which was the 16th, I think.
Ah. Or the 18th. Either way, towards the end, this was played, and I can't imagine. I mean, did people know Gord had cancer?
They did, right? Sure did. Before the end. Yeah. So I just can't imagine hearing this one live, because it's, you know, originally about his wife.
And yes him talking about her having cancer and it turns out, you know I just when I heard this and put it all together I just thought this probably just made people cry towards the endwhen he was singing this song when you sorry That's exactly what I is one other thing I put my if I would have seen this song live it would have crushed me it would have physicallyFucking crushed me Yeah, I Mean the the metaphor of the Abbas it and the Peregrine Falcon.
[24:13] I mean you're talking a ballerina of a gentle long skinny legged bird versus a fucking Falcon which will swoop down and you know steal a Chipmunk or a squirrel or chicken oranything?
You know, there's just the the position in this song is just just so big and heavy.
And the first time I listened to it was in the car, and it was just like, you want to scream along with him, the chorus, but I just couldn't do it.
And then at the end, it's like this bomb going off. The end is just as explosive as the middle of the song.
So. Yeah. I mean, the song, at the end of that transformation, after you've gone through that weird little sporadic, you know, sonic soundscape thing, you get that little percussive knocking,you know, and it's, it's like a little sort of artificial heartbeat.
And then, you know, you track that in and it starts the song and then it's there at the end as well.
After the everything, you know, that big chord goes away.
It's it comes back into that as well. Um, but also within that as well.
Um, I mean, Pete was talking about guitars, but there's, there's, there's so much like weird tambourine stuff going on in it amongst all things as well.
So that was good. But I mean, man, yeah, what a huge song. And then.
[25:40] Yeah. I mean, I say that the, the, the, the chorus is huge, even though it's just three words, absolutely massive.
And, um, you know, God singing, as we were saying, it's just the, the first verse just starts off with this kind of declaration, doesn't it?
And it's a kind of desperate declaration and it just sort of, yes, this attacking desperation in his voice sort of carries on from there.
It's yeah. It was the same. It's just not like anything I've heard before.
That was amazing delivery. Yeah. And those lyrics, crazy.
Now, Pete, I want to go back to something that you said about, you know, this being something we've never heard before.
I feel like this is a band that even on the records that we didn't necessarily like, they do that every record.
They, you feel like they're touching the edge of their capabilities and you know, they're sort of, they're sort of, you know, whoa, they're sort of out there, this record, but you can do, youcan go all the way back to Road Apples and say that about Last of the Unplugged Gems, you know, well, this is sort of, uh, out of, out of left field, it doesn't necessarily fit on this record.
And then, you know, uh, we are the same. You could say that about the Depression Suite, right?
Like holy shit, who knew they had this opus in them?
[27:07] So I'm just curious, you know, if you vibe what I'm saying.
Yeah, no, it's a good point, JD.
And I think the component here that I feel is different, because I agree with you, especially you on the last record, we are the same.
And you could you could tick along to every record since. And there's an element of that on there.
But Tim said something in the beginning of the pod. I can't remember exactly how you said it, but what I had the feeling that I got was like this record being about his wife and all thatstuff.
It's one thing to be elaborate.
[27:55] It's one thing to show up to a party or whatever wearing the coolest outfit or dress or suit or whatever.
[28:09] But it's another thing if you wear it well. And what I mean by that in terms of this song is that you can feel that there's a feeling behind It's not just, hey, we're going to go fuckingbig and elaborate because, I, don't know, name a hundred reasons why the hip would go big and elaborate.
Probably the most used excuse would be that they want to break through the American market. Whatever. That's not what's going on here.
This is like organic as hell.
Everything about this song.
They're going big and elaborate on this tune because they don't have any other choice. They're like, this is the fucking song that's coming out of all of us right now.
[28:54] Yeah, it's elaborate. I'm just, this is the song. Fucking take it or leave it.
If that makes sense, JD. It's that difference, I feel.
OK, gotcha. Well, in the car with this one cranked, I just thought, imagine being in the recording studio with these guys and everybody's kind of listening to Gord belt this one out. Or Idon't know.
This song is just a gigantic one. So for song number two, following that transformation to get into this, if we want to jump ahead to the look ahead.
I mean, this gave us just a, we shifted gears a little bit and got a little more lighthearted with the look ahead.
[29:41] I thought the song packed a punch under three minutes. It's quick.
So the bass and the guitars seem a little more in tandem on this one.
If I remember right, there's like left riffs throughout.
But for me, the lyrics of you weigh a snowflake, the glamour of the sky descending past perfect eyes and hearts leaped.
That's just... Poof.
I am the look ahead. I first searched it as the look ahead three words and you know couldn't find shit until I realized look ahead was one word and then learned that that means awesomeyou know like I'll say Dan and JD have fucking look ahead shirts on today we Pete and I didn't get the memo where to wear pavement shirts but that that's that's the phrase The text wasnot sent.
The Look Ahead: A Beautiful and Uplifting Tragically Hip Song
[30:47] Yeah. I don't know. What about you, Dan? What do you think?
I think the Look Ahead is my favorite Tragically Hip song by a long shot.
And as we were saying, it's just because of those choruses, those words that just hang over between the lines.
It's just beautiful. It's just absolutely beautiful. It just does something so amazing to make you feel fantastic.
[31:17] That's it, man. If I'm having a bad day, I could stick that on and that's me.
Yeah, because I just quickly mentioned that it felt more light-hearted, but I also thought this one is still fucking full of of juice, you know, it's still, I don't know, this is kind of felt like thisgreat tragically hip rock song, but it's it's loaded. And it's under three minutes.
So yeah, it's, yeah, I say it just it comes and goes. But as it comes along, it's just magnificent.
You know, you can't say more than that. It's just it's fully formed.
And this was one of the ones that I just started listening to it.
You know, you'd start at the start and the start is just so different to what it evolves into.
And you keep thinking you've got the wrong song, but that start section only lasts about 20 odd seconds before it just everything kicks in.
And it just, you know, it's one of those songs that you just can't say that much about. It just is what it is. It does what it does to you.
And you just recognize that and it's unstoppable. Yeah, it's cool.
Yeah, I would, I tend to agree with you.
[32:26] It's a banger for sure. Wouldn't be my favorite Tragically Hip song, but it would make my top 20 list, probably.
But boy, oh boy, we haven't really commented on the backing vocals of Sarah Harmer in this one. Pete, what did you think about Ms.
Harmer's addition to this song?
Well, question, is she on the other tunes on this record as well?
Or is it somebody different? Yes. Okay. Well, I want to get up.
I'm going to kind of save that if that's okay for some other songs.
All I'll say about this is that it's crazy. I love that Dan feels it's his favorite tune, because I feel like this song is like, it is formulaic, tragically hip.
Yeah, I agree. It's not just like, there's some songs that you feel like it's, yeah, exactly, exactly. There's some songs you feel like, oh yeah, this is a hip tune.
But it's not just that, it's fucking great.
[33:35] And you know, generally with their records, they come out with two or three bangers to start and they kind of like, or ones that just jaw drop you.
And then song three or song four, they just pull it back a little bit.
And I feel like in terms of the, they take off the throttle. It's not as crazy.
But melodically, this song is just, I mean, you can't not put this song on and enjoy the shit out of it.
Like it's a surefire. You know? Yeah, Dan hit the nail on the head.
Nail on the head. He's like, if I'm having a bad day, I put this song on and it, you know, helps turn it around for me. I completely agree.
[34:24] I read a critique of this song about it being too simple or less prolific or, you know, there are even some other critiques of the album citing the lyrics to be not as complex or, youknow, less poetic.
All these kind of harsh critiques. Yeah, fucked.
For real, they're out there. I can't even believe that. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And it just made me like this album more, you know, this.
This song in particular, it's like, I couldn't agree with you more, Pete. Under three minutes, it just totally packs a punch.
It's sure a hip song, but fuck, it's killing it.
This is a top five record for me. I figured. Hands down.
[35:13] Yeah, yeah. Hence our special guest.
Anybody else, anything else to say about The Lookahead featuring Sarah Harmer.
Okay, then we go right into the really heavy We Wanna Be In.
I don't have a lot on this one, just because it's fucking huge, you know? Like, the drip, drip, drip stayed in my head for days.
[35:38] It's so impactful. This is just a fucking loaded song.
It was played towards the end of their career live as well, and it was just another one of of those where it was like, what was this like?
I think this one was the same show I mentioned, Air Canada Center.
So what was it like to hear this in that state of the career of this band and Gord's life?
[36:05] Yeah, and I was there for one of the shows at the Air Canada Center.
The first one, I can look up what the set list is, what the setlist was, but so can anybody who's listening to this right now.
Yeah. A bunch of these, I think half of these songs on this album were played at those last shows of this album. I think it's like four or five songs off of those last shows. Four songs peralbum.
And then I selected, you know, six albums a night to play.
So, you know, that's, So even if you went to all three nights at the Arcanda Center, you probably didn't get repeats.
Um, cool. Yeah. So, I mean, and this is guys just wait, just wait, just wait for the documentaries. Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh. It's crazy town.
Crazy town USA. Yeah. So...
[37:09] We Want To Be It, Giant Song, You're Right, The Drip Drip Drip.
Did you get it right away? For me, it took a bunch of listens before I was like, oh, that's fucking, that's fucking chemo.
Yeah, I got it. My mind went to morphine first, but I got it. Oh, morphine.
Oh, okay. Maybe that's what it is. Something. I was thinking it was probably chemotherapy.
[37:36] I mean, for me, I didn't know anything about the context of this album until just before we started recording, which obviously puts a completely different slant on it for me. So I'minterpreting this as we go along as well.
I mean, yeah, an amazing song, absolutely huge. But at the bottom of the page, at the bottom of the lyrics in the album, it says for Alan Arkin and Madeline Khan.
And, um, they were in a film together, 1980 called Simon.
Anybody seen that where, um, yeah, this is, this is what I came across.
So, uh, in this film, Alan Arkin plays a guy who, um, the psychology professor, he gets brainwashed and, um, basically by this company and they, uh, they persuade him that he's from adifferent planet and he escapes from them and attempts to reform American culture by overriding TV signals with a high-powered TV transmitter, becoming a national celebrity in theprocess.
But also in that film, he's trying to break this record as well for being a sensory deprivation tank for 80 hours.
So I don't know how it relates, but that's something that I found out in relation to this.
The Mystery in the Song
[38:57] Yeah That is totally crazy because again that means Maybe there was one line in that song that is about that or maybe there's a whole theme.
It's you know I don't see it or hear it, but Doesn't mean it's not there.
There's there's some I don't I don't know what the relationship is there, but that's that's on the page. Yeah, very strange. So we all need to watch that film anyway, yeah. Yeah. That's crazy.
Yeah, when you said that they convince him that he's from another planet, it reminded me of the movie Joe versus the Volcano. I don't know if you ever saw that movie with Tom Hanksand Meg Ryan.
It was a bomb at the theaters, but they convinced him that he has something called a brain cloud, like a cancer, but he's going to die.
So they get him to jump into this volcano.
It's the craziest fucking movie.
[39:56] But it reminded me of that. No, I, yeah, this song is, it's huge.
There's a bridge part in this song and.
You know, my feelings with bridge, it's either good or it's not.
Or actually, no, it's either standard, and you're like, OK, that's the bridge.
OK. Or it's total shit. And you're just like, man, that just threw the whole fucking tune off.
This is a good bridge. I like it. I love it.
There's a third layer, you're saying. Yeah, and very few bands are able to pull it off.
[40:36] I feel like when you're writing the standard pop song, it's just like there's a formula of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, you know, whatever, and bands fall right into it.
It's just like this thing that happens and it didn't happen here.
And I love it, man. mean, I, I would say this is maybe my third, I don't know, third or fourth best song on this record, because there's just so many good ones.
Don't give away the final segment.
[41:16] Well, I kind of already gave my whole segment, but but oops, No, if we're going to move ahead to the next street, we'll see what I did.
I'm Ted. Yeah, thank you. Ted's just like, you're a fucking idiot, dude.
It's just like, you're a fucking idiot, dude. I know.
Introduction to the thread of fuzz in the record
[44:41] His head is definitely... So this is the first song where I noticed the thread of fuzz in this record.
Because then after this, it's wildly apparent on every song.
This fuzz and this distortion, it's like a static that's there on every track after this.
Incredible Musicianship: Bass and Drums Shining
[45:06] The bass, Gordon Sinclair's bass for this one.
I know we talked about it taking off in the look ahead, but I really just, it just off the charts, the licks he's throwing.
The drums too, the drums are fucking killing it right there.
Absolutely. The drum fills. Thank you, Tim. Yeah, I, this must have been, I actually wrote down, holy macaroni, because it just, it just feels like this song, They're hitting on all cylinders.
At this point, it's like the car is going.
You've gotten to fifth gear and the car is just brrrrrr.
[45:50] It's humming along. You can go faster, you can slow it down a little bit.
Still in fifth gear, engine is just humming perfect. The car has just been serviced. Oil's changed.
Everything's great. 160 or anything going like 150 and it just feels good Yeah, and it feels the same 100% Thank You Tim That's what I got to say about I'll retrieve my Statement a minuteago about the look-ahead meaning.
I totally blew it. It's the streets ahead which means cool or awesome So my bad there. Yeah, Streets Ahead, if you wanna say, you know.
Oh, okay. Pete's new do is Streets Ahead, he's there.
I did get a haircut, thank you for noticing. Oh, Streets Ahead, okay, okay.
Well, Look Ahead then, Look Ahead has significance.
Look Ahead is something that was said between Gord's wife and him.
And it was like sort of what they would say to each other.
[46:57] Yeah, I did as well. God, I'm just hacking this up like a big, it's a perfect piece of meat. I've just hacked it into tartare.
You cooked it well done. Which is, you know, tartare's delicious, but not, you know, the way I did it.
Yeah, it was like all good kind of thing. It was her look, you know, to him as if everything's going to be okay. Yeah. So streets ahead, different.
Means awesome. It means really cool. This one I thought it kind of kicked off.
It reminded me of Elvis Costello or the Kinks.
Kind of had this loud, like, late, I don't know, mid-70s rock kind of love-slash-anthem sound to it.
It felt like it could end around two minutes, but there's a bridge and then it takes another lap, which is great because it's still a short song.
But it really felt like it just brought me back to, I don't know, middle school and hearing the kinks and those times.
It has this crazy, ominous 20-second ending, over 20 seconds, Like, this one's the best.
Yeah. I got to give kudos to Gavin Brown, because he really let the band explore intros, outros.
Live Experience: Fans' Regret for Missing Their Live Shows
[48:23] They got more creative on this album in general. Yeah, I think it makes it harken back to that live sound that we all crave so much with this band, sorry to say, what you guys havebeen saying the last few weeks about like, oh man, I wish I could have seen them live.
That's what a lot of people are saying right now. There are a lot of people in that camp.
They were renowned for their live show, absolutely.
I wonder how many people listening to right now are late to the fucking, got came to the party really late. It's like, Hey, punch bowls empty.
There's fucking no K left.
And they're just talking to people. Yeah. You know, I never got to see the fucking family.
Please send Pete a mail at Pete at getting hip to the hip.com. Yeah.
There, there was a blurb from Gord giving some journalists a quick, ah, it's about, dog sledding.
[49:35] And that was that's all I gave so who the fuck knows with that guy?
I mean, I would love to have been in Gord shoes during interviews because he was all over the place from things I've read.
He was all over the place. He would he would give like heartfelt, you know, meanings to stuff and then he'd be like, ah, That's that's that's what somebody said to me on the train one timeand I misheard them.
One of my favorites is somebody asked him about Cordelia. What is Cordelia all about? And he's like, well, it's like a metaphor.
Just go read King Lear.
[50:18] Well, it's like, I feel like that's like as much as we're joking about it, it's got to be, there's got to be an element to that that's true.
It's like, you know, at one point a song means something to you.
[50:31] And then as time goes on, you're like, yeah, it's just about some shit I heard on a fucking train one day or whatever it is, you know? That's right.
I don't think he's poo poo in the bed. Like he's not pulling a Donald Fagan, as I've said before, from Sealy Den or just like, yeah, they're just words written down on a page. They don'tmean anything.
You know, he's not pulling that, but he's, you know, was it.
Did you ever hear that interview that or that clip?
It's a great clip of Jack White from the White Stripes where he says, and whatever you think about the White Stripes is irrelevant, where he said that when he hears Seven Nation Army,which is arguably one of the most overplayed rock songs in the history of rock and roll, that he doesn't even feel like it's his song.
He's like, I just wrote it. We recorded it. It was a cool tune.
And now it's out there. And it's like, it's like, that's another band.
It's not my bad playing that shit It's really cool.
It's really cool the way he comes across Hey, he basically said his I've heard some read some of it from him, too And he basically says once once a song is out Yeah, yeah, and, he openshis wallet and cool and looks at that Yeah, oh my god the songs or his Ford Broncos.
Jack White's Perspective on Songs and Fame
[51:56] Oh my God. That guy is funny. He's he's got some on him. Sure, man.
I just recently learned that my wife has a thing for him, which I had no idea about. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, fuck.
[52:14] Definitely, definitely not measuring up to that guy. Oh, you just need to write a couple of hit songs that are like global phenomenons. Yeah. Paint my house red.
Anything else on the streets ahead? So this next part of the album is where we take a dip in amount of time songs were played.
And I'm not really sure why, but now for plan A was only played 10 times live.
[52:45] There's no explanation for me, but that's just a data point.
But this one I thought was kind of this level of super heaviness, no turning back. This is like you're facing this song, you know?
There's nothing short of everything's enough.
You know, there's acoustic guitar in here that feels at one point in the song it...
I don't want to say it feels forced but it feels like it could be played softer and nicer but it's not, And which is very distinct with acoustic.
And I thought I at this point wasn't sure who was on backups, who was singing backups. You know, I didn't know if it was Kate Fenner who we had before. Oh, right. Right.
JD, you mentioned it. Who is this gal? This is Sarah Harmer.
So she's a... What's her story? Anybody got any data? She's got a pretty good solo career. Gosh, I'm trying to think of what her big song was.
That would have been in around 2002, 2003.
I'll take some links for those of you out there. TimbyGettingHitToTheHit.com.
Please register him as a Republican. Send me some email.
I have notifications turned on. And it's...
[54:06] Email Pete at GettingHitToTheHit.com if you want the address and phone number.
No, she's gorgeous. She has an amazing matchup with Gort. Her voice is, I thought, incredible.
Basement of Parliament was a big song in 2000. Okay.
[54:28] For the cadence of the album, for this being Song 6, these are my chapters of the book. The chapters of the book.
It's a good Song 6.
No issues. It's there's also with one point, this lastly, um, when Gord sings, nothing's short of nothing short of everything's enough at one point when he's seeing that in the song that Iheard Johnny Cash, like there was some kind of Johnny Cash coming through.
Definitely more growly and Gord ask, but it's, it's a cool song.
Only played 10 times life.
Thoughts on the length and build-up of the song
[55:07] So special. Yeah. I say, this is the, is this the longest song on the album as well?
And it's only like five minutes and four, but, um, the, the buildup is such that it's, uh, one minute 16 when the lyrics actually start.
So it's just swirly, swirly buildups. And then, uh, yeah. And then you, you get it.
I don't, I don't know what to say about this. I say it's, it's one of those tracks that I.
[55:40] I just get through. It's one of these things that's just not really on my attention span. I don't know why, because of the, I don't know. I don't know, it's weird.
Because of the aesthetics of the song, I don't know.
But listening to it again today, I have grown to like it more.
It's a dynamite song on great headphones after a joint.
The way it settles in the album, It's almost like you've been through a few things and then you get a snowstorm and everything just really sort of settles down and you're sitting sort ofwatching the snow.
But for me, I don't know, it doesn't feel like I want to sit down and be there watching the snow.
I want to kind of hop on a bit. So I don't know why, it just feels a little bit misplaced for me.
But that's how I am with albums. I always want something more.
I always want them to sort of build up. I'm not so good when they change down slightly. For me, I don't know, maybe if it was later on in the album.
No, we talk about sequencing all the time here, so this is great to think about that.
[56:54] That film I was talking about, the Simon film, when I saw trying to delve into what that was about, there was a few little trailer-y bits and a few little segments of it, And there's onewith Alan Arkin doing one of his psychology lectures, you know, and he's with these kids and he's just saying, yeah, one of the greatest Wittgenstein quotes you'll hear is the, I don't knowwhat I don't know, which is fantastic.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, there you go. That's the ultimate wisdom.
That is the ultimate wisdom. When you can truly think that out your fingertips, fingertips, you know?
[57:38] You've got it. You've got it. Made in the shade. I've tried many times to get there, but just can't get that. Oh, wait a minute. That's another podcast.
Dan, what you said about it taking a while to come in.
I feel that. And I think JD's right. You need a joint and some good cans for it. but I would say this is probably my second favorite song on this record.
Inquiry about the woman singing
[58:11] JD, you asked me about the woman singing before.
Bands featuring female guest vocalists on certain songs
[58:19] I feel like nowadays that's a cool thing to do.
I think it started in like 2017, 2018 a lot of bands.
I know the National's been doing it a lot with their new records, having like female guest vocalists join in on certain songs.
Oh, wow. It's cool. I like it.
But I feel like when they did this record in 2012, nobody was doing it. Nobody was doing that.
You got a band of five guys. That's the fucking band.
I know, you know, it's not like a song featuring so-and-so, like bands very rarely do that.
That's totally true. Yeah, absolutely. And this this woman's on at least what, three songs?
Two for sure. I've only got two, two, maybe, maybe two, sorry.
Yeah, I mean, I, I, I.
The song is just amazing the way it starts. I got some, production-wise, I got some Beach Boys vibes from this because there's so much production.
[59:39] Like, Abbey Road stock level, like we're in the studio sitting around the board like, what do you think if we do this and we throw this in and everybody's talking like that's the levelof this song because the musicianship is just it's gone when you look at the the EP compared to where we're at now everybody is just you know it's not they're not even on the same planetanymore this band um, i would say that just just if you look at this song from production wise whatever you think about it, you know, the song, you like it, you don't like it.
I happen to like it, but it's got to be some of their best, most accomplished work because of how well everything is done in it.
Whether or not you like the melody, whether or not you like the minute and 17 or 16 seconds without anything, I get that.
I get how sequencing wise I could put you in a weird spot, but like, You can't deny that this song is extremely well done, well recorded, produced, written, everything.
Yeah, I completely agree with you and you know, again, there would be a lot of people who would argue that the last two records were really well produced as well.
[1:01:07] And maybe they're right, I don't know. But to me, it's just more heavy handed.
It's, you know, it's much more heavy handed. This record is much more subtle.
Yeah, there are still brushstrokes, but it doesn't feel as like they are put on by like a makeup specialist Right, you know difference between a produced record and a well-produced record.
Yeah Yeah, or overproduced maybe overproduced So let's get into the modern spirit and we can think about the modern spirit in a couple of different ways We were talking aboutsequencing earlier, and I'm wondering wondering, would Dan, would this have satisfied your palate if the modern spirit had come after Streets Ahead, or was it something more specificyou were looking for, something more to drive it even higher?
No, no, I mean, you can link those two together. You can imagine it coming straight in after Streets Ahead.
It would have been a good transition. Yeah. But I say, in terms of this track, I mean all of their Rolling Stones cover versions paid off, didn't they?
This is Modern Spirit's pure Rolling Stones. It's just, in every aspect, it's just fantastic.
Modern Spirit's Rolling Stones influence
[1:02:31] Do you get that vibe? Yeah, I can hear that. Even the drum shuffles are just stones.
[1:02:42] Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's some wattage in there for sure, 100% and well said.
Yeah, it's it's it's it's very sort of modern, late sort of stones, but it's it's it's spot on, even though it's not supposed to be stones.
But yeah, you know, versatility and how to do it so well. And his voice is fantastic on this as well. Banga. Yeah. Yeah, hard agree.
The way this song starts, I mean, I mean, I listened to this song in a number of different venues.
[1:03:26] I'm 100% the way this song starts and it hits. It's a fucking driving song.
I mean, And it's just driving down the fucking highway, windows down.
You know, I know last time Tim was with us, what record was it? Or Tim?
Last time Dan was with us, what record was it? I'm trolling right now.
So I don't know if Tim or I don't know if Dan remembers, but Dan, my car, so my car has what you would call, what the layman would call a premium audio sound system.
So the listening experience is not what you'd normally get from, you know, even a decent sound system in a car.
It's quite advanced and this.
The transcendent vocals of Gord and his evolution as a vocalist
[1:04:26] I don't know if Dan remembers that from the last listening, but I think I remember you mentioning it. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's it's definitely a cut above.
I think the backup vocals on this song to the way they come in.
Everything about this song is fucking cooks.
If you don't have a smile on your face, jamming along to this song, driving, whatever you're doing, then you need a fucking lobotomy or you need something, I don't know.
I don't know how you could not absolutely love this song.
[1:05:11] The one note I want to bring up here, I feel like Gord's, when it comes to his vocals and everything.
This song, I think that it's thematic throughout the record, but this song really makes me realize he's not he's, he's transcended humanity as a vocalist.
And I know this is bold words I'm saying here. But I feel like where he was at from the EP and where we've seen it go.
It's like he's an evolved, you know, humans evolved from apes.
Like Gord has evolved from humans. So they say. Right, so they say, my apologies for all you creationists out there.
No, but I feel like Gord is, he's moved past it vocally, he's just, and as a songwriter and as a front man, he's just like, I don't think I've ever seen, you know, no disrespect to the Stones,because we were talking about the Stones, Dan brought up the Stones.
You know, mix mic man, you know what you're getting every time.
[1:06:15] He's great, and he's consistent, and he's always great.
But I wouldn't say the guy's vocals and style and everything has evolved much since Get Off My Cloud to where it's at today.
It's the same dude. Gord, I feel like, is just...
He's evolved past the normal human Gord.
You know, like Megagord or... Okay, you know. Megagord. Mechagord, you know, like... Yeah. He was five lions, and then he converged into one.
[1:06:57] I don't know. I'm gonna use Voltron as a verb. He Voltron'd into one giant robot of a lead singer.
Tim, what do you think of this one?
I thought the same about the open road with this one. The white and open throat.
Night slips back with no noise.
I mean, that's... Yeah. It's a great song. All right, next.
So this next one about this map was last played in Spokane, Washington, 2012. It was only played twice.
Oh, Tim, how about Modern Spirit? Was it played more? Feels like a live song.
Ah, sorry. Modern Spirit, only 12.
Only 12. So as this album goes by, these songs are played less live, which, yeah, it just made me wonder about the band and what, what, what, or why, or, you know, it, was it, was it thetheme of the album and the life and the times that was kind of too heavy to play live or I'm not sure.
Well, they only had one sure after this as well. And that was the last tour.
How many stops do you think? And we'll, and we'll get into that.
Like, I think it was like, it was strictly Canada.
Yeah, it was a pretty big deal.
[1:08:22] So about this map.
The mysterious and unique start of the song "About This Map"
[1:08:26] Pete, talk to me about this map. It's a really weird start.
And not in a bad way, just in a... About this map. It's kind of a mysterious song.
Yeah, very mysterious. But I love the...
[1:08:46] This was the song that made me think on the whole record, because again, like Dan said, I didn't know the history of what was going on in Gord's life during this record. But thisis the song where I kind of was like, okay, what the fuck is going on?
This is just, everything's just too different, especially when you look at what the previous record was. But I dug it.
The chorus and the pre-chorus is so good in this song.
I don't have a ton to say, but the melody and the guitar licks are just top notch.
I mean, I feel like it would take me a year to come up with that.
Being so cool, making guitars sound that cool, and then afterward, I would just like pat myself on the back for the rest of my life because it's just that fucking cool.
And fucking Rob Baker probably just did it in like two takes and then just forgot about it and went home and had, I don't know, fucking rotisserie chicken or whatever you guys eat overthere in Canada.
We do eat a lot of rotisserie chicken.
[1:10:00] What about blue? What about blue? Oh no, I'm really hungry and thirsty.
Fuck. Well, what did you think about this map, Dan?
Yeah, it's a good track, but as we were saying, yeah, it's a bit of a weird one.
The lyrics, the sort of, the sentiment in the lyrics doesn't sort of, like, build, you know?
Of stays on this sort of level.
Was the sort of guitars and everything kind of rise around it, which I found was pretty fascinating.
And again, it's like, yeah, in terms of sort of lyrics, about this map is said 15 times.
So there's a there's a lot of that in there, which I think sort of flattens the lyrics out a bit.
But a lot of textures in there that I haven't heard in other stuff as well.
[1:11:04] It's a grower. It's an absolute grower. It was for me.
Again, it was one of those tracks I'd always get to this stage in the album and then think like, oh God, hang on, is that? And then, uh, yeah, it, it, it had come back to me and, um, I dig. It'sgood.
Are any other two fuckers going to recognize the irony of the fact that Dan's discussing the song about this map and directly behind him is a gigantic map?
Oh yeah. Am I the only one like seeing the irony here? Sorry.
Yeah. For those of you listening... We got a theme. Yeah. Tim's got a map up here.
Yeah, got a couple. He's got a couple there too. You got Spain and Italy behind you, right Tim? Staring at it every day.
[1:11:56] Good ol' EU over there. Sorry. We'll save the tour for another day.
Did anybody get the edge vibes? Like from the guitar? Like, from the guitar? 100%!
This song and one coming up, 100% got the edge.
Well said, JD. Yeah, we've talked about how the latter part of U2's career has sprinkled some seasoning on this band. I've heard that too.
Dave's Weed Shop: The Edge's Redemption?
[1:12:36] I think the edge is a bit of a cheat though. So I have a hard time talking about him. I forget his real name.
It's probably let's let's let's name him. What was his name?
It's probably like, I think it's Dave.
It's got to have three syllables. I think he's going to open a weed shop.
It's going to be called Dave's not here, man. Now if the edge opened a weed shop, I'd probably, I'd probably like him again.
Yeah. David Howell Evans. How?
See I call him Dave. We're tight. What's the middle name? Let's move on.
Dan? Did you have anything to say about this map, Tim?
I didn't realize that about this map was said 15 times.
That's a lot. I don't have a lot on this one. I thought that it was a bit of a filler, like we've rounded the bend, and we're getting towards the end of the album. You know, the bass, there's areally nice bass guitar through this.
It's a little bit more meandering and I don't know.
I didn't have a lot on this one.
Yeah, it just kind of kept me going. Again, this part, this chunk of the album just felt just stronger than the past couple albums. Okay, let's move on to...
Take Forever? Goddamn son, where we going? Take forever. Forever.
Song about astronauts and Calgary
[1:17:03] Yeah, this one's eight times live. Last played in 13. I, you know, maybe it was a song about astronauts.
I'm not sure. It seems like also some statement about Calgary.
Is Calgary the, where the wealth is of the roof?
He seems to think everyone should have heart attacks there, According to the songs is what I read Yeah You know, I listened to another podcast and they were from Calgary and they tookgreat offense I don't recall as to why right now, but to me I think about it like, you know that beginning part like When I broke down, I always thought I'd go to Calgary.
I think that's a nice sentiment But what do I know?
But the yeah, there is a lot about Calgary, right? What about you Dan, how does that?
[1:17:58] Totally stumped by this track. For some reason it reminds me of a late Blondie track as well, it's got some kind of vibe like that about it.
But yeah, the lyrics and the Calgary thing man, yeah, it's crazy.
I mean this is what I'm getting from some of these, I like the tracks, but the lyrics when I'm looking at the lyrics, it's just like, whoa, where are you going with that, Gord?
Any insight, JD?
[1:18:31] I wish. It's like a time bomb, you know?
There's so many wires and things in there that you might pull one wire and it might make some progress, but then there's a whole other pack of wires underneath, you know? Yeah.
I mean, again, when you do look at the lyrics for this album, there are a few themes that go through I mean this again this has got the whole kind of man machine reference and it's got thiswhole sort of um you know destroying space thing that we've we've heard um quite a few times as well yeah yeah um I I think this song is textbook hip I mean just the sound that it is I Ihear you on the lyrics, I guess they didn't make enough of an impact on me as the instruments of the song, you know, the instrumentation.
Love the fucking thumping bass, just Sinclair's all over this record, you know.
It's classic hip.
[1:19:46] This is a song, especially in terms of chords, vocals, again, not speaking about the lyrics per se, just his singing.
I think this is one of the songs where I'm like, God, why does nobody get this band?
Just the song that made me think of it. So yeah, not a ton to say about it, but I dug it.
I'm not, um, I feel like compared to last week, you could, you could, you know, serve me a shit sandwich and I'll just be like, you know, Can we, can we get into just a little bit about whydidn't this band, blah, blah, blah, make it in the U S or whatever it is.
I had a lot of thoughts about this during this listen, which you just reminded me of.
And I was kind of neither here nor there. nor there. But this album, I too, Pete, had thought a bit about.
The popularity of this band in Canada versus the U.S. and all those things.
And it was concurrently during, while listening to this past week, it was concurrently during Coachella that's going on right now.
And I have a buddy who works on the marketing side of everything Coachella.
[1:21:09] You know, if I ever went, it would be to hang out with him because he gets a golf cart.
But anyways, I thought this band, really, he has a golf cart every year, his own one, his personal golf cart there.
But this band, you know, I just had to wonder about how much attention they were getting on that marketing front, you know, and we can, again, save some of this for our final episode.
[1:21:38] But this has been the evolution of my thinking of them as like they weren't who cares if they're too Canadian it's just such a stupid statement with the concepts yeah you know whocares it's like what do you say about you could say something negative about every band and the concepts of their lyrics whether they have them or not and if they don't have one thenthat's their concept who fucking cares I just thought maybe they weren't like Globally marketed Enough, you know like fucking who cares about radio and radio play you can do that inacross Canada And you can do it on stations in Detroit and upstate New York.
Yeah, but it's like they somebody There's a factor of the span if there's like five Polls of what makes a band globally successful like there was one that was just kind of missing for themThat's was the that made the chair not stable, you know, I made your party I'm going to push back a little bit, Tim, because if that was true, then Franz Ferdinand would not fuckingheadline festivals.
[1:22:46] In my humble opinion, not to say they're a bad band, but, you know, they were one of the bands, the biggest band that was implicated in the payola scandal in the United States.
And one thing I wrote down also that I forgot to mention is that the fact that this band was not more popular, it makes me think that popular music isn't about what's good.
It's just about what gets played the most.
[1:23:15] Because it's like, and I've said this before on a previous podcast, I think we got really dark and we mentioned we got into like things that.
The... what AZI's did, you know, it's programming with like music and torture, so to speak.
But when you, when you, when you, when somebody hears something over and over and over and over, eventually they're going to hear that during a time when they're enjoyingthemselves.
And so, if they don't hear it for quite some time afterward, they're going to, And then they hear it again, maybe let's say 10 years later, 15 years later, they're going to automatically thinkback to the good time that they were having when they heard that song, which is going to be good for them.
So I think really with this band is like they just, I know it seems you can dissect it 20 different ways and skin this cat, but at the end of the day, they didn't get shit for radio play in the US.They just didn't.
And if they were all over the airwaves, they would have been popular as shit.
Because it's the same thing as hockey, man. How many people do you know who are fucking American football fans? How many of you are fucking hockey fans in the US?
[1:24:33] My quick push, push, push, pushback is, during this time, people were fucking streaming music. Stealing music. You know?
Like that digital was happening with music. So I think, in part, this latter part of their career chunk, which is so significant.
Fuck radio. I mean, I just. I get it. Yeah. I'm pretty sure they put this record on SoundCloud and that was like a big deal.
[1:25:06] Let me quickly look here. That would have been a big deal at the time.
I mean, they were doing some cool digital stuff. I'm not really talking about that as marketing speak.
I don't know what I'm... just something to the effect of that gets them like invited to festivals or, you know, their own festival they threw turning into a fucking great little festival.
On September 25th of 2012, the band made the album available to stream online in its entirety via SoundCloud.
So that, yeah, that would have been quite a Quite a big deal, I would think.
Probably got a chunk of change for that, because SoundCloud was just coming up. 2012, 2013, it was really unpopular. A lot of investors.
Yeah. Again, maybe not enough on the Canadian side to pay up.
The Fuzz: A Cool, Raw Opening
[1:26:00] Done and done. Here comes the fuzz again.
A really cool opening. Yeah, it's got that cool, kind of rough, fuzzy start, right?
The back, yeah, 100%. This is just yet another one with the fuzz, the backup vocals.
And through and through is repeated, and you always get your way.
After that, it goes to a minor chord, and it just fucking hits.
It hits really fucking good.
This is one of the few songs on this record with an acoustic guitar in it. I love it.
Normally on a rock record, I just kind of look at the acoustic guitar is something that's not important.
It's just in the back to add some volume to the song or it's an acoustic song, but it's, this song really adds a lot of depth.
Definitely get some edge vibes again on this song.
And then the keyboards coming in are fucking rad, you know, I like it.
Cool tune. How about you Dan? Well, you probably know what I'm going to say.
It, you know, again, it feels misplaced. I think this should have been the last track. This should have been the final track, you know.
[1:27:28] And I just wish it had more lyrical content, I'm not good with the same stuff that's repeated, it just doesn't build on the sentiment for me.
But the backing does, the music does, and that makes it so much stronger. So for me, it's not...
It's not a favorite, it's not up there. But I do like listening to it.
It's got a sort of chilled vibe at the same time. Makes you wonder the poetic choice to second verse, same as the first, you know?
[1:28:12] Because that's obviously a choice, and it's not, oh I have lyrics, you know, because Because, you know, clearly he's demonstrated he had an abundance of lyrics.
Yeah, see those kind of choices sort of, I don't get my head around them, you know. That's the dichotomy right there, you know. Yeah. Capable of sticking things in. But the choice wasmade not to.
And let's say for me, it sort of holds it at a particular level, which Pete digs, but my brain needs something else.
Yeah, it needs it to go somewhere else. Yeah. What about you, Tim?
I kind of felt like with Dan that this could have been the last song.
It has that feeling like we're towards the end.
[1:29:03] It made me think of someone who's living their last days or falling in love or falling out of love.
But that's kind of what the vibe I got from the, he says they're through, but through and through, you know, it's an emotional, kind of packs a punch under three minutes.
And yeah, it was, to me again, like these past three or four songs, or they just like have a stride and keep moving us through.
So lots of layers, especially on this one with, throughout it and with the intros and the outro, It's the intro and the outro, it's a...
[1:29:46] There's a lot of, I feel like the production of this album versus the last album, this one, I don't know, got more creatively in the weeds, but not in a complicated way. And this songstill carries that through it.
The fuzz, as Pete has called it. Yeah. And then I'm with you two as well, that I think it should have been the last song on the record.
I think you can go with a 10-track record and make Good Night at Wapiskat a bonus track, because it doesn't sound like it's from the same session, necessarily.
It's slicker. It's got a more fully, completely kind of vibe to it and polish to it.
But I will accept it as my 11th track on Now for Plan A, because I think it's a.
[1:30:44] You know, again, we're getting these thoughts and feelings from Gord about the indigenous plight in our country and, um, trying to not normalize it, but, you know, make it right.
If there's any, if there's any way that that could ever happen.
So I will accept it. And that's good night out of Wapiskat.
Uh, Tim, well, even, even Gord asked Trudeau to, you know, help out.
What did he say? It's bad up there. Yeah. At that last show.
He's like, come on, Trudeau.
We we've really fucked up here with everything having to do with, um.
[1:31:34] I don't know what you, how do you want to label it, but the resident schools and everything, and it, um, Oh, what did I have on this one?
Let me just back up a little bit aside from all the First Nations and it's yeah, this one was played 36 times live.
So this one they fucking, you know, we're hitting a message hard with this song.
And where do you place it in an album? Where do you place a song like this on an album?
You know, it's if done and done, which was played once live only 2012 in Rochester, November six.
Were you there? I bet that was a killer show. No. But this, but this one, good night, Otto Wapiskat, right? Yeah. Do you say it right?
You know, it's it's kind of just the song that you have to put out there.
So put it at the end. Sure. It's not really the end of the album, but it's its own Island. It's a total statement song and yeah.
Tim Lydon's Album Experience
[1:32:43] I'll say it, you've been searching for an album, and I'm gonna say it, Tim Lydon, this is your album.
I think so. Track 1 to 10. Yeah, it's been pretty good. That's a ride you go on, you know?
And Good Night Out of Wapiskat is just this fine little biscuit at the end, you know?
How about you, fellas? I love the alien like opening. I dug it.
Silver Poets, Thousand Mile Suits.
Really lyrics that jumped out at me.
But yeah, I mean, I feel kind of the same way. Tim feels, JD feels in terms of this song being on play, you know.
Bonus track it, maybe. okay, make it a single on its own. I don't know.
But yeah, it's definitely just there.
But the thing I thought was cool was that I thought about, you know, And I know, what you said, they only played it once, live?
[1:33:58] Yeah, I... Oh, Dun & Dun was once. Either way, I don't imagine.
Rob Baker probably fucking destroyed this on the guitar, you know?
So yeah. Okay, so yeah, one, I think it was from, it was either from the Hit Museum or Song Meetings. I don't know. I read too much, but no, I haven't read enough, actually.
So, I read sophisticated societies have existed around James Bay, which I understand is in Attawapiskat.
[1:34:36] Sophisticated societies have been around James Bay for at least 3500 years.
We know that before there were pyramids in Egypt, there were people living around this part of the country that we now call Canada.
So, you know, think about these First Nations and the issues that the Native people had with the invasion, and it's like, fuck, I'm so grateful that the Tragically Hip has sang about thisissue.
To have this succinct, fact-driven fucking historical story, you know, it's a shame other bands don't sing enough about it. Dan, how did you feel about this song?
Well, I'll say, another one that kept taking me by surprise, because when I thought Dun & Dun had finished, it was at the end of the album, and then obviously this kept coming in.
I mean, I listened to this on loop, and I still was just so convinced that it was the end of the album after Dun & Dun.
But I always did listen to it.
[1:35:47] And yeah, it's a good track, but I had no idea what the hell it was about until today.
So again, I had a bit of a look at there as well.
Also didn't they say that the hit played at the Great Moon Gathering, was it 2010 or 11 or something like that?
Was after that, that they, um, they, they kind of recorded this.
Oh, I didn't know that. That's great. Yeah. So that's what I sort of, um, got out of it, but, um, the, it's the end of the track, isn't it?
It goes again, it goes into the one, they sort of Sonic-y, landscape-y type things, and, uh, almost the stuff in that almost sounds like a plane sort of taking off as well.
So yeah, it's, it's cool. I mean, it's very atmospheric, but I don't know, I just got this thing about, I just got this thing about done and done.
It just sounds so final, you know? Yeah.
Missed Opportunity for a Standalone Single
[1:36:49] Yeah, I can't disagree with you. I think a live version of Goodnight Attawapiskat on a 7-inch with the studio version, they could have sold it and made even more people aware.
Do it as a standalone single. Because it wasn't even a single.
It's strange, there were only two singles. I don't know, don't get it.
Well fellas, this has been a slice, and it will be a lot of slicing and dicing when we cut this episode.
At the end of every episode I ask you guys to select an MVP track, a song that you can add to a playlist that you are going to sequence.
This is going to be be something that you will provide the link for on Reddit so that people can get access to your playlist.
So, Pete, do you wanna just put a little snap on it? Hands down, Man-Machine Palm. Track two.
[1:37:59] Cher's in common, Tiger the Lion, at the track listing of two.
You're going to have a hell of a time putting those two songs on the same set list. Boy, oh boy. That's going to be big.
All right. So Tim, now we go to you. What be's your song?
Well, the album really, out of the gates, sold me with that transformation.
I just dug that song and was so pleased.
But I got to say, Streets Ahead, it's three and a half minutes of fun.
It's got a great pace to it. It's just a fucking cool song.
And I keep coming back to that one. So I'm going with Streets Ahead. That's it. Nice.
And Dan, we're not going to let you off the hook. You do have to pick a song, god damn it.
Well, you know what I'm going to pick then, don't you? It's going to be The Lookahead.
[1:38:56] There you go, you know, 20% all right, give me the look ahead. All right, beautiful.
Yeah, that's two minutes and 30 seconds that packs a punch and it's like our podcast, you know, it packs a punch in minimal amount of time.
And I really want to thank you for doing the heavy lifting as you do each every week, Pete and Tim.
We are so thrilled to have you back, Dan, from London. Yeah, good to see you, Dan.
Thank you. All right, fellas.
[1:39:40] Well, thanks for today. All right, pick up your shit.
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