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Tragically Hip Gord Downie Passed away

Mackcanuck

By Mackcanuck
in Off-Topic General

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-DLC- Canucks Hall-of-Famer

-DLC-

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Posted

This one's hitting me REALLY hard.  Worst.  As said, above, you can prepare yourself but you can't erase the pain that you feel.  How you flash over the years and what this band...this man, has meant.

 

Here's my deal, because it's going to help to share it. 

 

From the first time I heard Up To Here, I was in love with it.  It was instantaneous and I had to have it.  I was prepping to one day become a fitness instructor, and immediately took my new cassette & bright yellow Sony Walkman (yes) up to Loon Lake with me on vacation.  It was on a mountainside that this music was infused into my very soul.  It connected, deep.  It told my story, as a Canadian woman up there in the hills with the deer and the loons.

 

It also made me feel strong(er).

 

"I can get behind anything".  I really believed I could.  That driving sound propelled me and I could kick butt and take names if Gord was in the driver's seat.

 

When we had to compose our routines to be judged for a final exam of the certification, they had stock music that was put together for aerobics.  I hated it.  I could not work out to it...that was the thing with me.  I had to love the music and it was as important to my workouts as my feet moving was.

 

So I put together my own "mix".  The Cult.  G & R.  And, mostly, the Hip.

 

I wasn't sure of how it would be received.  I never have cared or been swayed by having "different" tastes in music (or anything) than others may have.   So this was no different.

 

It was a huge success and I've worked out to that mixed tape to this day.  It has never let me down, never not driven me to push a little harder.

 

I won't go into detail, but I was in a relationship for a very long time that wasn't always kind to me.  And I sought solace, bravery and strength in music.  And my workouts. 

 

I can remember crawling out of bed at 2 AM when I was riddled with anxiety, and putting on PJ and the Hip to work it all out on my stepper.  It was a little ridiculous, but it saved me in my darkest moments.

 

I was at many of their concerts, the first (if I recall correctly) at UBC.  I'd ditched the people I went with...we'd arrived early and went to the bar to shoot some pool and they proceeded to get hammered.  So, as the concert time drew nearer, I left them and walked up the road alone.  I got to the front of the stage, but the crowd surge was suffocating and a security guard noticed that I was being squished and lifted me over the fence and out of danger.   I'd take a new position a bit further back, but would experience the show of a lifetime.  The first of many.

 

That night didn't end well.  As darkness crept in, I had the very scary realization that I had to get home alone (flashback to my Zeppelin concert days...do I never learn??).  After walking down some dark and isolated roads, I ended up at a bus stop and eventually got home.  But the night didn't end well for me and involved fear and violence.  Details aren't important, but the fact that inside I heard the lyrics that made me strong.  Made me a survivor.  You can get behind anything.  I found strength there, in that place.

 

I'd connect with friends through this music.  I'd meet a fellow mod here who has remained a dear friend and will stay so for life....we watched the final show together and I know the profound heartbreak this will bring to him.  He lost his best friend and they'd been connected at the hip, too, so it's attached to that sense of sadness.

 

I hired a woman at work a few years ago (a huge hockey fan...she failed to tell me she was a Red Wings' fan).   We, too, would pull closer together over our love of hockey and music.  We went to the final show here in Vancouver together  (twice, as we'd inadvertently showed up on the wrong night and our tickets were declined for the first show!).  We will forever have the memory and bond that's been created.  (I didn't know the Kleenex I'd brought had menthol in them, but quickly found out as my eyes burned for days afterward).  We also would visit Gino together and get through the rough spots holding each others' hand.  These things happen when you have something to connect with together.   This stuff sticks over time....

 

This is the third passing in a couple of weeks for me and the sadness is spilling into a puddle of grief and despair.  But I will turn to the songs that have always gotten me through.  I will cry and smile and remember and find gratitude in my heart for having experienced these people in my lives.

 

So many friends have come to me who have shared a love for this band.  And today we will all console each other, but also have the inner strength that this music dredges up in us and we'll smile through the pain.  We will always see the impish grin of a man full of love who flew his freak flag proudly and never wavered or bought into the hype that this gig can bring.  A kiss on the lips, with everyone watching.  

 

Gord's legacy isn't just about his music though.  Here is a proud Canadian who's always embraced the little pockets in rocky sockets and given them their stories on the front page of his music.  History lessons through song and poetry.  A man who wasn't afraid to just let it all out, up there on the stage.  Who'd improvise, wear his heart on his sleeve and entertain just by being "Gord".  Who could interact with a microphone and have you believe it.

 

His most recent energy was directed to something so important and, even in his last moments, he was selfless and humble.  And has opened the door for us all to be better.  We owe it to him to be better. 

 

And so it is, he will be so greatly and deeply missed.  We love you, Gord.

 

(I don't know how to make this smaller, but this is where it all started for me...up on this mountainside.  Wrist weights, high tops, fanny pack with my Walkman inside, and my step.  With a deer in the wings, watching and... listening?) 

 

I am a little broken right now, but will always have his voice inside my heart.

 

 

20229442_10155327509220549_1704067906102

 

Because everything's pouring out right now ...

 

It's also so very unique to be able to share music with our children.

 

A couple of years ago my daughter was in San Fran (her b/f lived there at the time).   He got tickets to a show at the Fillmore for $10 or so each..."some band nowhere here knows".  She didn't delve further into it, just went along for a night out.

 

I got a voicemail that night as she lifted the phone in the air to share the experience with me.  This unknown band was none other than...The Hip.  I saved that voicemail and have played it many times since.  The sheer joy in her voice......

 

Gord would become an important influence in her life.  Not in swaying her (she's a strong girl), but in reinforcing what's important in life.  The way he lived and loved is how she's doing it and we have come to share him and his important messages of love, empathy and compassion.....ones that we will always carry.....

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Green Building Canucks Franchise Player

Green Building

Posted
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The Hip were the first concert I ever attended with all my buds back in high school. That concert had notable differences from the nationally broadcast one we all saw last summer. How many bands in history have had a farewell tour like The Hip did? Farewell tours themselves aren't that rare, even multiple "farewell" tours from the same band have happened, but we all knew this would be the last of The Hip because Gord was dying. There were a lot of moist eyes in the pub I watched that concert in, mine included.

 

The whole country knew this day was coming, and I've got to say I wasn't surprised in the slightest to see the headline this morning. I made it up to Trudeau's response before feeling set in. Chris Cornell's death was much more of an instant shock, but this one punches me right in my Canadian DNA. 

 

The nation will be galvanized by the passing of an icon, yet for how long, I wonder. People band together in times of tragedy or loss only to quickly forget how to be better people as mourning turns to healing and we go back to our daily grind. Gord loved this country, he loved making people happy through song, and he wanted the world he lived in to be a better place than it was when he entered it. Gord did his part, and now as we remember him we could all do as @Alflives suggests and be a slightly better person today. If, through The Hip, we draw inspiration to be better people then Gord's legacy will truly stand forever. He would have left this world a better place than he found it.

 

 

 

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Lionized27 Canucks Prospect

Lionized27

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1 hour ago, Canada Hockey Place said:

I don't know the origins of the band name Tragically Hip. 

 

Gord Downie's death... just makes that name... hurt more. Dammit.   

There's a line in the song "Town Cryer" by Elvis Costello which the band liked.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I'll just leave this one here, because username:

 

 

 

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-DLC- Canucks Hall-of-Famer

-DLC-

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I saw this in the theatre and recommend everyone tune in on Friday night:

 

In celebration of the life of the unforgettable Gord Downie, CTV announced today it will now present the acclaimed film about The Tragically Hip, LONG TIME RUNNING, in a special advance, commercial-free world television premiere event this Friday, October 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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otherwise Canucks Third-Line

otherwise

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I have never experienced the passing of a musician that has the majority (all except country) of radio stations I shuffle through in a day have tributes flowing through the day. Genuine sadness expressed by so many. The reach, respect and love that the hip had is very uncommon.

 

His love for Canada and story telling of Canadiana is what I feel really set him a part from other song writers of his generation.

 

RIP Gord, you will be missed.

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