The Tragically Hip: essential songs to listen to?

I started a new thread because I didn’t want to hijack the tribute thread for Gord Downie.

As an American music fan, I’ve heard of The Tragically Hip from time to time, but they never really made many inroads here in the U.S. (For that matter, until I started seeking his stuff out, I was only familiar with two Bruce Cockburn songs, as he, too, rarely got airplay here.)

And, thus, I’ve never really listened to their music; they’ve never really gotten any airplay on the radio stations I’ve listened to. I know that they’re hugely respected by Canadian music fans, and, having just listened to “Blow At High Dough” (which several people mentioned in the Gord Downie thread) I think I might like their work.

For those of you who are fans of the band, what other The Tragically Hip songs should I make sure that I listen to?

I was just listening to a random YouTube playlist I found, which seems like a decent starting point for you:

It doesn’t have Courage, though, so it definitely doesn’t have everything. Actually, the whole Fully Completely album is pretty great:

Eldorado was always one of my favourites.

That’s a good list. For now I’ll add Fiddler’s Green

This is a copy of what I posted on Facebook this morning.

Non Canadians may not understand just what the Tragically Hip, and frontman Gord Downie was to Canadians. He was our national song writer laureate…our Woody Guthrie and our Bruce Springsteen rolled into one. He sang us the songs of our country, with love, with passion…

And Grace, Too.

#RIPGordDownie

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

If you just listen to their first four albums, you can’t go wrong. If you’re buying songs off ITunes or Google Play that may actually be your best shot. Still, allow me to suggest 27 essential songs, more or less in chronological order, and I left off some hits because I don’t think you need to know them to hear what the band is about:

“Blow at High Dough” - Fun, rockin’ song; should be the opening theme music for a TV series based in Toronto
"New Orleans is Sinking" - a Canadian classic of blues rock
“Everytime You Go” - Wildly underrated song
“38 Years Old” - Their classic ballad; not about Downie’s brother, by the way. He does have a brother named Mike but the story isn’t about him.
“Boots or Heats” - A fun, funky song unlike any other they’ve made
“Twist My Arm” - Wonderful song with an odd, memorable beat and hook.
"Cordelia" - Maybe the perfect rock song. Four minutes of sheer anger, fury, and rock. Not a note out of place. In the discussion for the best song in the band’s history.
“Three Pistols” - Wonderful rock song, lots of Canadiana, great guitar hook.
“Fiddler’s Green” - A lovely ballad, sad and sweet.
“The Last of the Unplucked Gems” - A short, unusual song that closes the album “Road Apples.” Not really like any other song, either.
“Courage” - A classic song of upbeat notes and truly haunting lyrics.
“Fifty Mission Cap” - A most Canadian song indeed.
“Locked in the Trunk of a Car” - If you can listen to this and not be hopping up and down, see a mortician.
“Eldorado” - Another album closer that has its own unique take. Wonderfully constructed song.
"Grace, Too" - An epic rock anthem, another candidate for the band’s greatest song. Utterly mesmerizing, building to a crescendo of anguish and longing. Magnificent.
“Greasy Jungle” - Just an A+ rock song.
“So Hard Done By” - The Hip didn’t do a lot of songs you can dance real sexy with a pretty girl with. But they did this one.
"Nautical Disaster" - Quite simply a work of stunning genius.
“Ahead by a Century” - I actually am not super fond of this song but everyone else loves it, so I’m probably wrong.
“Put it Off” - A creepy song that builds up so, so well.
“Bobcaygeon” - Another incredibly popular ballad."
“Thompson Girl” - A funky, mostly acoustic effort with a great beat, great lyrics, great everything.
“Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin’ Man” - A sort of long, poetic, contemplative effort; The Hip meets Pink Floyd. Much loved at their concerts.
“The Darkest One” - A simple, straightforward, fun pop song.
“It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken” - The opposite of “The Darkest One” - slow, contemplative, sad, differently arranged.
“In View” - Again, people adore this song. Funny video.
“The Last Recluse” - Their last (IMHO) truly great song.

I will add:

Wheat Kings - a great song about a man wrongly convicted of murder (David Milgaard), but the song itself always makes me think of summers at the lake, listening to music at the campfire

Scared - I just like it, I have no fancy reason

At the Hundredth Meridian - I am from Winnipeg, so this song reminds me of home

Little Bones - rocking good tune

Fiddler’s Green is heartbreakingly beautiful, even more so when you read the story of the song - almost all of the songs have stories.

It’s an odd feeling. I remember picking up the Road Apples and Fully Completely CDs when they came out and putting them on repeat during my years at Queens. Now Gord Downie has passed on and I’m feeling old and far too nostalgic for anyone my actual age.

Fiddler’s Green to start with and then something with a little more bite.

Thank you, all! Lots to delve into. I’ve listened to a half-dozen songs so far, and they’re definitely growing on me.

Most of the good stuff has been listed and I’ll add a hearty +1 to Wheat Kings and Boots or Hearts. plus suggest Another Midnight and Gift Shop which are two of my favourites.

I don’t know if I could handle the backstory. Not now, anyway.

Better not.

Two more-

Tired as F*ck - this was on their most recent release, so rather poignant

Machine - my 14 year old daughter’s favourite

**Rickjay **took the words/songs out of my mouth. That is a great list. I’ve nothing to add except that Road Apples is one of the best albums of all time. Even after more than 25 years, it still stands strong.

You’ll get different answers from different people, but many many English Canadians have some answer to this. It’s difficult to put their popularity into perspective outside English Canada, but their worst chart debut was their first album which topped out at #9 but eventually still went Diamond (800,000 sales here.) They outsold the Beatles everywhere but in Quebec. When you consider they’re practically unknown in French Canada (I polled neighbours young and old the day of the huge farewell concert last year and nobody knew of them) those sales figures are even more impressive. I had been an early adopter because a weedbro was getting advance and live promo copies of those newfangled CD’s from a radio DJ girlfriend, and we were glad CDs didn’t wear out because we played them incessantly. By the time New Orleans Is Sinking became a hit, we knew all their songs to date by heart. I still have their first EP and album on vinyl.

Certainly the first four albums are the ones even casual fans know the best, they still get regular radio airplay. There is a sense that the band fell off in the mid-90’s but that’s more due to the radio playing earlier songs as " rock classics." Every album to 2012 went platinum in Canada. Because fans also bought the records, a lot of them have personal faves much deeper into the repertoire. The Tragically Hip are the opposite of one-hit wonders, easily 50 tracks have the potential to get under your skin and develop personal meaning. I added an amazing live version of Highway Girl that I first heard on those early CD-era radio promos as well as more obscure faves Vaccination Scar and The Drop-Off in the R.I.P. thread. But my list could go on and on.

Gotta add some more essentials, been listening all evening:

Bring It All Back
Long Time Running
When The Weight Comes Down
On The Verge
Fight
Lionized
Poets
Let’s Stay Engaged
Looking For A Place To Happen
Opiated
The Darkest One
Trickle Down
Yer Not The Ocean

Fireworks

Thanks for this thread. It will be a fine way to spend a Sunday morning. I am ashamed of my lack of knowledge of this band, receiving nothing but positive pings on my radar since forever.

This may not be popular, so I’ll post it here rather than in the Downie tribute thread.

Personally, I find the whole Hip thing is a big “not there for me”. I don’t recognise a single song on RickJay’s thread, except from previous Hip threads here in the Dope. I just don’t get the whole “Canada’s house band” theme, or the PM’s tears.

The odd thing is I was at Queen’s in the 80’s when they were just starting out. Never went to one of their concerts, so far as I recall, but they may have been playing in a pub or two that I went to back then. If so, I don’t remember them.

In later years, I’d see their name and think “oh, that Kingston band. Good on them for doing well.” But that was about it.

The only album I remember listening to was Road Apples. Mrs Piper brought it into the relationship. Never made any impression on me.

So, I guess I’m saying that I respect that this was a major band, and clearly meant a lot to a lot of people with good judgment. Just never did anything for me.

Odd.

I’ll give that a +1. I was in exactly the right time and place to be a massive fan of this band, but it all washed over me and left a completely blank impression. They’re not “bad” or anything but all the adulation from the past year is pretty much beyond my comprehension. (I’ll take the Killer Dwarfs or even Kim Mitchell any day)

I guess T.H. is the band you go to if you want background music to drag a guy out of a car window, though. :smiley: