Embark on an enthralling odyssey with four unwavering devotees of The Tragically Hip, each possessing an unswerving passion yet a blind spot for the mystique surrounding the band's charismatic frontman's solo ventures.Introducing 'Discovering Downie,' an eight-part exploration delving into the profound artistic legacy of the late Gord Downie. Journeying from the evocative 'Coke Machine Glow' to the mesmerizing 'Lustre Parfait,' our quartet, comprised of Craig Rogers, jD, Justin St. Louis, and Kirk Lane, meticulously dissects Downie's discography, unveiling a nuanced appreciation, one record at a time, week after week.Embark on this captivating expedition with us as we unearth hidden gems within Gord's eight solo albums and delve into the tapestry of his poetic works. Join the conversation, subscribe, share, and indulge in the auditory richness of the latest podcast from Dewvre podcasts & such.
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Gord Downie, The Sadies, and The Conquering Sun: Live At Six
vendredi 27 février 2026 • Durée 01:35:58
Discovering Downie: Live at Six (Gord Downie + The Sadies + The Conquering Sun) — Track-by-Track on Release Day
On launch day, jD reunites with Craig Rogers, Kirk Lane, and Justin St. Louis to break down Live at Six, a newly released live record featuring Gord Downie, The Sadies, and The Conquering Sun. It’s an eight-track collection drawn from four shows (Sarnia, Fredericton, Cambridge, MA, and Dundas) spanning 2012 and 2014.
This episode is a full-on fan-and-musician conversation: play it loud, follow the rabbit holes, and enjoy a record that feels like you’re right up against the stage, even when it was recorded outdoors.
MVP picks, deep cover-song origins, live-record sequencing debates, and a whole lot of gratitude—plus a reminder that sometimes the point isn’t to decode everything. Sometimes it’s just rock and roll.
Episode Highlights
The crew gets back together to cover Live at Sixon release day
Why this record feels like a sweaty club even when it isn’t
The meaning behind the title Live at Six (and where “six” actually comes from)
Major rabbit holes (including the story behind “If You Have Ghosts”)
Covers that still sound unmistakably like Gord Downie + The Sadies
Live energy: loose-but-tight, tempo shifts, extended outros, and why that’s part of the magic
MVP picks from each host—plus what track people “need to hear” first
Tracklist Breakdown (as discussed)
1) “If You Have Ghosts” — recorded in Dundas, Ontario (Sept 1, 2012)
Huge reactions to Dallas Good’s performance
Deep dive into Rocky Erickson and the song’s backstory
Why the lyric “If you have ghosts, you have everything” hits so hard
2) “So Sad About Us” — Sarnia (Aug 30, 2014) — a The Who cover
Noted for harmonies and a vibe that recalls early rock/pop influence
Discussion of how naturally it sits in Gord’s wheelhouse
3) “It Didn’t Start to Break My Heart” — (live version discussed as an all-time banger)
Faster than the studio version; jam section praised heavily
Described as completely over-delivering as a live performance
4) “Grey Riders” — Fredericton, New Brunswick (Sept 12, 2014) — Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival — a Neil Young song
Strong praise for backing vocals and arrangement
Conversation about preferring this version vs. the one they heard from Neil
5) “Generation” — Fredericton (Sept 12, 2014) — a Fucked Up cover
Album title reference comes from Gord speaking right before/around this track (“at six o’clock”)
Note: the group didn’t have as much time with this track due to a file miss
6) Cambridge, Massachusetts set (May 3, 2014) — a track originally by The Gun Club (from Fire of Love, 1981)
Described as the most “Sadies-sounding” song on the record
Talk of punk lineage and guitar swagger
7) “Demand Destruction” — revisited live (from the Sarnia show)
jD’s MVP: the live performance hits harder than the studio version
Favorite lyric noted: “Breakdown in the verse part / Dead spot in the lyrics…” (songwriting “fourth wall” moment)
8) “I Gotta Right” — The Stooges cover (closing track)
Described as a “punch in the face” closer
Leaves everyone wanting more; debate about wishing the album was longer
Justin mentions being disappointed it wasn’t “Search and Destroy” (also performed by Gord + The Sadies in other live clips)
MVP Picks
Craig: “If You Have Ghosts”
Kirk: “Grey Riders” (and says “I Gotta Write” is the one people need to hear)
Justin: “It Didn’t Start to Break My Heart”
jD: “Demand Destruction”
Production Credits (as stated on the episode)
Mixed by Ken Friesen (all tracks) except “Goodbye Johnny”
“Goodbye Johnny” mixed by Dallas Good and Guillermo Sabatze
Mastered by Philip Shaw Bova
Timestamps (approx. from transcript)
0:49 — Welcome + what Live at Six is + who’s on the mic
3:36 — Release context: 4 shows, 2012/2014, where the recordings come from
9:14 — Track 1: “If You Have Ghosts” deep dive begins
21:57 — Track 2: “So Sad About Us” (The Who cover)
33:11 — “It Didn’t Start to Break My Heart” (live version reaction)
38:27 — “Grey Riders” (Neil Young)
43:54 — Side B + “Generation” (Fucked Up) + title explanation
51:07 — Cambridge, MA track (The Gun Club origin discussed)
55:26 — “Goodbye Johnny” (live vs studio)
59:11 — Closer: “I Gotta Write” (The Stooges) + credits
1:09:24 — MVP picks
1:17:41 — Final thoughts + gratitude + community + live music plug
Primary: Discovering Downie, Live at Six, Gord Downie, The Sadies, The Conquering Sun, Gord Downie live album, Gord Downie covers
Secondary: If You Have Ghosts, So Sad About Us, Grey Riders, Demand Destruction, Generation (Fucked Up), I Gotta Write (The Stooges), live record review, track-by-track breakdown
Long-tail: Gord Downie Sadies live at six tracklist, Live at Six album discussion, Discovering Downie Live at Six episode
The boys are back together, this time it's to discuss the new docuseries on The Hip.
Epilogue
Saison 1 · Épisode 11
lundi 12 août 2024 • Durée 59:35
The gang gets together to close the book on Discovering Downie. They share their experiences from their journey to Kingston, Toronto, and the fundraiser.
Transcript:
Track 2:
[0:17] Hey, it's J.D. here and welcome back to Discovering Downey, an 11-part project.
Track 2:
[0:24] Where you're finally getting the 11th part. It's got a focus on music and poetry of Mr. Gord Downey, the late frontman of the Tragically Hip. He gave to the world an extensive solo discography on top of all of the great music we got from the Tragically Hip. Gord released five albums while he was alive and three more posthumously. Now, listen, you may think you're the biggest fan of the Tragically Hip out there. I've got three of them sitting right in front of me right now. But why is it that so few of us have experienced Gord's solo catalog? Have you really listened to these records? My friends, Craig, Justin, and Kirk, giant fans of the hip in their own right, fell into that camp. So earlier this summer, I invited them to discover Downey with me, JD as their host. Every week this summer, we got together to listen to one of Gord's records working in chronological order. We would discuss and dissect the album, the production, the lyrics, and we would break that sucker down song by song. But that's come to an end. We put it to bed on July 19th. And here we sit on August 5th.
Track 2:
[1:34] Gang, we fucking did it. Yeah. Yeah, we fucking did it. We did. We got stickers to prove it. Yeah. We got stickers to prove it. All over Kingston, in fact, we've got stickers to prove it. Well, tell us more about that, Justin and Kirk. We did a little vandalizing of Kingston. That was okay, right? Do not call it vandalizing. We call that- Yeah, I was bruising up. I would call that an art improvement project for Kingston. I love it. Yeah, it was good. What a, what a beautiful little city that is. Oh my God. Amazing. I just watched the video again. And I mean, I know I haven't watched it 15 times or 20 or something. I don't have an issue watching or hearing myself, but I mean, honestly, I think I've been rewatching it, you guys, just cause I can't believe it happened. Um, just like still that we have it documented that, you know, we went to one of our favorite bands cities after this whole project so i i mean it's it still hasn't sunk in for me and it's been a couple weeks.
Lustre Parfait
Saison 1 · Épisode 10
lundi 15 juillet 2024 • Durée 02:05:06
This week on the pod we wrap up Gord's discography with the Bob Rock collaboration, Lustre Parfait.
Transcript:
[0:00] Long Slice Brewery presents a live event celebration of Gord Downie, July 19th, at the Rec Room in Toronto. Join the hosts of the podcast, Discovering Downie, as they record their finale with special guest, Patrick Downie. A silent auction with items from the hip and many others will take place, along with live entertainment from the almost hip. All proceeds will benefit the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research. For more information and tickets, please visit discoveringdowney.com. Clutched clipboard and staring out past the end of her first day into tonight and all the way across oceans of August to September. It makes for a beautifully vacant gaze.
[1:08] Music.
[1:42] Hey, it's J.D. here and welcome to Discovering Downey, an 11-part project with a focus on the music and poetry of Mr. Gord Downey. The enigmatic frontman of the Tragically Hip, Gord gave to the world an extensive solo discography on top of the vocal acrobatics in the hip that awed us for years. Gord released five albums while he was alive and three more posthumously.
[2:09] Now listen, you might think you're the biggest fan of the Tragically Hip out there. However, why is it that so few of us have experience with this solo catalog? Have you really listened to those solo records? My friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk, giant fans of the hip in their own right, fell into that camp. So I invited them to Discover Downey with me, JD, as their host. Every week, we get together and listen to one of Gord's records, working in chronological order. We discuss and dissect the album, the production, the lyrics, and we break it down song by fucking song. This week, we wrap up Gord's discography with an album attributed to both Bob Rock and Gord, Luster Parfait. Craig, how goes it this week? week things are okay a bit of a break tomorrow going off on a little family trip for a couple days meeting my parents and sisters uh you've never met your parents before this is big news dude yeah yeah i think they're gonna like you man congratulations and then yeah and then shortly after that head off to toronto for for an event with you guys whoop whoop yeah How are you doing, Kirk?
Introduce Yerself - Alan Cross
Saison 1
vendredi 12 juillet 2024 • Durée 45:12
On the Friday bonus episode, Justin, Craig, & jD sit down with Alan Cross to talk about Gord and Alan's TTH origin story.
Away is Mine
Saison 1 · Épisode 9
lundi 8 juillet 2024 • Durée 01:27:05
Today on the podcast the boys tackle Away is Mine, Gord's seventh LP and his second posthumous release.
Introduce Yerself - Tribute Singers
Saison 1
vendredi 5 juillet 2024 • Durée 38:56
This week on the Friday Bonus Episode, Craig sits down with the Singers from Gift Shop (Ian) and the Almost Hip (Craig) to discuss their performances and what it's like to be in a tribute to The Hip
Introduce Yerself pt. 2
Saison 1 · Épisode 8
mardi 2 juillet 2024 • Durée 01:18:30
This week the gang gets together to discuss the rest of Inroduce Yerself.
Transcript:
Track 1:
[0:00] Hey, it's Justin. You know and love us on the Discovering Downey podcast, right? So come hang out with us in person for the finale. Join us for Long Slice Brewing presents a celebration of Gord Downey at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto on Friday, July 19th. Craig is coming from Vancouver, Kirk is coming from LA, I'm driving from Vermont, and JD's like walking down the street or wherever he lives in Toronto. Tickets are available now on our website at discovererndowney.com, and when you get your tickets, that means you can come Come hang out with us and our very special guest, Patrick Downey, and you can bid on some incredibly cool silent auction items, all while jamming along with tragically hip cover band The Almost Hip, and most importantly, helping us raise money for the Gord Downey Fund for Brain Cancer Research. Crack open a long slice, put on some Gord tunes, take a journey with us on discovering Downey, and then crack open another long slice on July 19th and hang out with us in the six. I always wanted to sound cool and say that. For more information, follow us on all the socials and visit DiscoveringDowny.com. Christmas Day for Edgar. My dad always used to say just after the presents, well, it's as far away now as it will ever be. I'm thinking about that as the stewardess cracks the public address system. For those sitting in economy, there's no music for you today.
Track 1:
[1:21] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents. Discovering Downey.
Track 2:
[1:31] Hey, it's JD here and welcome to Discovering Downey, an 11-part project with a focus on the music and poetry of Mr. Gord Downey. The late frontman of the Tragically Hip gave to the world an extensive solo discography on top of the hip's vocal local acrobats that wowed us for years. So far, he's released eight records in total, three of them posthumously. Now listen, you might be the biggest fan of the hip out there, but have you really listened to these solo records? Because I'm an inquisitive podcaster, I enlisted my friends, Craig, Justin, and Kirk, giant fans of the hip in their own right, to discover Downey with me, JD, as their host. Every week, we're going to get together and listen to one of Gord's records, working in chronological order. We discuss and dissect the album, the production, the lyrics, and we break it down song by song. This week we're going to be talking about the back half well plus two songs from the front half of introduce yourself justin my friend how are you doing on this gray fucking oh is it gray there toronto oh oh it's terrible all day maybe because i was wearing sunglasses wait a minute.
PodList V - Odes to Gord
Saison 1
samedi 29 juin 2024 • Durée 35:36
Here it is, the annual PodList. This year we are featuring 10 artists covering 10 Gord songs.
Track Listing:
The Stranger - Maria King
Lofty Pines - Tragically Al
Trick Rider - Darrin Cappe
Vancouver Divorce - Craig/ jD
Yer Ashore - Kirk Lane
Crater - Craig/Justin
Canada Geese - Lifte
Gone - Gerald McGrath
SF Song - Aye Karou
The Stranger - The Strictly Hip
Bonus: Introduce Yerself - Nathan Astin
Saison 1
vendredi 28 juin 2024 • Durée 35:39
This week on the bonus episode, Justin sits down with his pal Nathan to discuss Nathan's The Tragically Hip origin story.
Track 2:
[2:44] Well, let's start at the start. On Wednesday, the 17th of July, both Craig and Kirk set out from the West to fly into YYZ. YYZ. Oh my gosh. They're going to take my passport away now. We need to redo this Canadian quiz here. Jesus Christ, right? And Justin, this guy, jumped in his hot rod and fucking drove all the way to Kingston. How many hours was that, Jack? 10, 10-ish. Oh, just 10. Oh, man, that wasn't bad. No problem. Just 10 hours. Each way. You know, just for the day, too, right? Each way. Yeah, 10 out, 36 there, 10 back. And you beat us.
Track 2:
[3:29] Yeah, I did. I was there 10 minutes before you guys got there. Yeah, what was our holdup? Oh, I ended up driving all over to try and find the 407. That's what it was. This is going to save us so much time getting on the 407. So we leave, uh, Kirk and Craig and I met at a hotel near the airport and we woke up the next morning and we basically said, we're never going to talk about last night again. And then my probation officer thanks you, by the way, we met for breakfast and then Then we got in our ride and we headed out to a rest stop on the way to Kingston where we met Dean and David, who were so gracious to join us and capture all the stuff and made us, I don't know how they made you feel, but they made me feel a little bit like a celebrity, you know, walking around Kingston. And they're like, stop right here. David, you know, David would always be like, like Dean tries to capture the au naturel is how I feel. And David's always like, Jamie, back up one step. Okay, Craig, tilt your head over here. You know, like, I want this to look this way. But I'm talking way too much now. Because from that rest stop, we met up with them. And we started recording this Kingston video.
Track 2:
[4:48] And it wasn't until we got to Kingston a couple hours later that we met up with Justin. And I'll let somebody else carry the story on from here. Because otherwise, it's just me droning on. Craig, what, what, um, what was the drive from Toronto to Kingston? Like for you, was it, was it what you expected? Was it. Yeah, it's pretty much what I expected, except for it was a lot, there's a lot more green than I expected. Driving along Lake Ontario, anytime I could see the water, it just made me feel at home. But it was, it was a long drive, but, you know, had great company. And so that made it, made the time pass a lot faster. And I was super tired. I did a lot of the driving, but, um, I had had zero sleep. I was adjusting to the time, uh, time change. And so for me, when we met in the lobby that morning, it was like 4 AM for me. So, so I was very tired, but got through on fumes and it was, yeah, we drove out and met Justin at the Gordownie pier.
Track 2:
[5:54] Yeah, it was good though. Really good. And you mentioned it earlier, JD, but Dean and David are just two top-notch dudes, let alone act like full-on professionals at what they did. And they made me feel like a rock star for sure. And you go back through and you look at some of those pictures and some of the video and some of the posting and us walking through the city of Kingston and people stopping us going like, why are they filming you?
Track 2:
[6:24] Why are they taking pictures? you know like that that part that that was to me the part that kind of pushed everything through like this whole project like that was definitely not what i had thought was going to happen like just the thought of going to kingston was cool but like that we got the full tour and like we had some things that that fell through that were going to happen that were really cool you know the the radio stuff and whatnot but but everything we did do was well above and beyond you know anything that i expected and again here we are two weeks later and i'm watching video and i'm looking at pictures and i still don't believe it happened honestly like just it's so insane to think the level of of interaction that we had with uh with again what we've said from the beginning like just somebody a band we loved and an individual that that you know had such an impact obviously as a band, which brought us into this. But then with the solo work that we just spent a wonderful amount of time going through. And as we mentioned, I think on this first call, we're all just roaming around aimlessly like what the heck are we supposed to do now? Yeah. Yeah.
Track 2:
[7:40] Yeah. That, that tour of the bath house that day though, was, was the highlight for me and meeting Niles and hearing the stories about some of the instruments in there, the piano that, um, you know, Stranger was played on. And then the piano that Haunt Them was played on and a couple of little stories around that was just so cool. And to see the artwork, you know, the, some of the artwork we've seen in the albums. For the albums. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And even video too, though, right? That they just filmed part of it was in there. Yeah. Right. Right. Oh, which one? For the doc.
Track 2:
[8:22] Oh, well, the cover of the book he said was, um, was taken up in the loft that we got to visit. See, I didn't see the loft last time. So to me that way. Yeah. That was unreal. And that's prominent in the book too. Big time prominent in the book. Is that? Yeah. How would you know that, Kirk? How would you know about the book? Because maybe someone spent a little bit of extra money. It was a good conversion from US to Canadian. And I might have gotten a book. And I might have gotten a jersey. And I might have gotten a few other things. But it all went to a- And a tattoo. And a tattoo. Show us that on. And I got a really cool tattoo. And I think all of my funds went to great causes. So I'm very- Oh, yeah. Right. So you are probably, other than the band, probably one of the few people in the world with that book right now. We'll have to wait another couple months, but hi. Yeah, let's just give some, we'll give some context on that. One of the items we had in our silent auction, which was for people that were there only, was a advanced copy of the Tragically Hip book that is called, it's eluding me right now. What is it called? What is it called?
Track 2:
[9:37] Sure you've got it right there this is our life this is our life that's right yeah and um sorry i didn't and it's well worth buying it's way better than i expected i just glanced through it that night and it's not i'm super pumped to get i thought it would be you know a lot of photos and very little text but there's a ton of info in there i really oh yeah you're right craig i expected it to be a coffee table book right which is lots of pictures little subs but it is i mean this is going to be a full-on commitment to sit down and read all this. And I'm excited about getting through more than just my, you know, going through and looking at some of the pictures and whatnot, but yeah. And this is just the base level level version too. And it was packed full. I can't even imagine what the, uh, right. Expensive one looks like. It was pretty cool when I came home and I was showing the book to my family, I was showing the pictures on my phone and items that were on my phone were there in the book, you know, just front and center.
Track 2:
[10:36] Oh my God. And it was really just cool to just like go, like we, we, we weren't just there. We didn't just get a tour. Like we spent time and talked about it. And like, for us, I think the tour almost began when we did those interviews ahead of time. Right. When we talked to Niles and we talked with Kevin and we talked with, um, Josh and, and others, like those were the pre-tour for me. And then obviously, because we know so much about the band, we've seen footage and we've watched all the videos, but like to get that pre stuff to already have a base knowledge and then to get in there and, and it didn't feel rushed at all. And we went everywhere. I mean, like Patrick even said at the event afterwards, Oh, did you go for a dip in the pool? And he wasn't joking.
Track 2:
[11:24] He honestly, if we would have said, yeah, he would have said to Niles, oh, we're going to jump in the pool. It would have been no big deal. And that's the way it felt when we were there. And, um, like to go up in that rehearsal room, but just to go to the garage, to get to the rehearsal space. Like, I don't know if you guys slow walked that. I know you all did. Oh yeah. You were looking at all the, like, I'm looking over the boxes to see what's in that, that other case that's down there. And I just was like, wanted to go, Hey, now, do you mind if I just clean this place out? Like, I'm just going to clean it up. It looks a little dirty. I'm not taking anything. I just want to arrange it. It was like that big museum type thing at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. There's that big warehouse where they keep all the Ark and things. It was like that. All these treasures unfold inside there. Great analogy. Yeah. You didn't talk about the part where they opened up that one gearbox and Dean's face melted off. This is true.
Track 2:
[12:24] Yeah, it was, I thought it was so cool that we're like, we're walking through that garage, which is just musty and dirty. And like, we're oohing and aahing over the stuff that that's just where the crap goes. Like, that's not the room you're supposed to see. And like, that's the one that we're like, wow, look at that over there. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was, in retrospect, kind of glad that our tour, our actual tour of Kingston fell through because I think we were able to soak up things a little bit more and enjoy them as it unfolded. It probably would have felt a little bit more rushed had we had that time commitment. Yeah, you're probably right. We got to really spend a lot of time with Niles, and he was so gracious having us there, and he didn't rush us out the door. He was like you guys good like what you know he he was a great host and oh he showed us everything and did you guys have a favorite uh moment from the from the tour.
Track 2:
[13:25] Of the bathhouse? Oh, it was definitely when he went to the bin at the end of the tour and got that little whatever it was. So what happened was I, I asked him, uh, my MVP track for away as mine was, or sorry for introduce yourself was, um, snowflake. And I asked him what the jangly sound was and you could see him sort of, you know, go through the Rolodex in his mind. And then I was expecting just an answer like, oh, that was a blah, blah, blah.
Track 2:
[13:56] But instead he runs out of the room, goes through this tickle trunk, uh, Canadian reference there. Um of uh stuff and and pulls out these bells like just like almost like toy sleigh bells and starts jangling them in his hand and just said you know it's just this and i added some reverb and it was so cool and it sounded exactly like it when i heard i was like that's so cool when we were in the kitchen and you asked the question that the i just watched his face and watched him process the question and you could see him within seconds like go through the inventory in the house and he knew exactly where it was and then he go yeah i i called it a hamper what did you call it craig a tickle trunk a tickle trunk and he like he goes to that and he's like and it's just a bunch of johnny faye's percussion stuff and he just reaches in and grabs it that that was a magical moment um watching him try and uh hook up the the speaker on the leslie the b3 the the leslie's you know in a rotating speaker. That was really cool.
Track 2:
[14:59] Obviously going into the, uh, the rehearsal space to me, seeing that mic, I think was probably the highlight for me out of like many highlights to see the mic that Gord used on the last hip show, you know, down to the XLR cable. And it's just a straight stand and a, and a good old SM 58 and like being an audio visual guy and knowing that he still uses that mic that's been around, you know, that brand has been here forever, like 30, 40 years, and it's still considered the industry standard. And he used that for his vocal when there's tons of other mics out there that are, you know, considered to be better, but just to see that basic level and to see that it was the last one and to be in that, that room, I think just that, that was my highlight moment for sure. Well, just imagine what's been created in that room. Right. And not just from the hip.
Track 2:
[15:59] I mean, having that discussion with Miles about all the different people that have been in there and recorded, you know, like, yes, the hip and gourd did some amazing, but it's not just them. Like so much magic has come out of that space. Yeah. There was a, when I was asking him that question in the kitchen right behind him was a, a half man run album with his name on it. And that's, they're one of my all time favorite bands. bands and um and he said i think july talk was coming in the following week and just yeah so many great canadian and and probably not canadian bands rolling through that place and yeah so cool i had a little bit of imposter syndrome walking through there like i don't know if this is the right place for me like i soaked it all up but it's like i don't think i should be in this room right now you know he kind of toward he well we were going through oh that was a little upstairs who's kind of shown us i was like yeah this is uncomfortable i did take a quick selfie on gorge's couch but i couldn't resist i'll never be there again and craig craig forced me to take a picture of him playing paul's guitar i asked i did ask niles to paul if you ever hear this niles said i could not permission uh i got chills when um he played the keys on that piano um from haunt them.
Track 2:
[17:18] Holy crap I was like yeah I gotta go outside for a second because it immediately it was like a full body experience you could feel it not just hear it but you could feel it it was a very distinct sound on that piano and you know I loved the seeing the bass drum from some marching band in Rochester New York or wherever it was from you know and seeing the books on the bookshelf like this is where these ideas came from.
Track 2:
[17:45] You know, that was super cool. God, it was just a really good place. I mean, I think overall, especially, you know, having, I've been to Toronto, but I haven't been to Kingston, but like not only finding stuff in the bathhouse, but just driving around, you'd see subjects to hip tunes or gourd tunes, like either titles of songs or references. Yeah. Millhaven and right by that was the Ferry to Glenora sign. Yeah. And then like the, the pictures of the, uh, just at the bath house itself, the, um, uh, oh gosh, help me out. The Jamie, you took a picture with one that not garden gnomes, but the, oh, the gargoyles. Thank you. The pictures of the gargoyles were there that you've seen in, in, you know, several of the, um, on your t-shirts shirts and hip and gourd related stuff. But that part to me is pretty cool when you see it wasn't there, but the actual unit that they did Phantom Power, the photo from was they had taken it out for the photo shoot for the box set. But, and as Craig mentioned earlier, like seeing artwork from actual albums, that parts, I get the imposter syndrome, right? Because it's, you see these things right there in front of you, the real, and they've helped create, you know, moments in your life that obviously musically have moved you beyond anything. So that part, that part is very cool too.
Track 2:
[19:14] Yeah, really cool. So from there, well, actually before there, I just want to touch on this really briefly. We, we did meet at the Gordani pier and these three guys all fucking jumped in. We did. Like they, they, they changed. I would have just fallen asleep. I almost, I almost didn't come back either. I was going down. I went down with my mouth open and I got half of the lake in my lungs. Oh God.
Track 2:
[19:43] So from there we ended up driving. No, not like that. No. I have to say though, that lake was insane and I can see why it was such a, you know, such a common thread through Gord's music like that. Like, you know, I, I grew up on a large lake, but this, this is like an ocean. It is insane. Sorry, JD. No, no, no. Uh, no, it's Lake Ontario is pretty formidable and it's not even, you know, the biggest one. No, it's the fourth, isn't it? Fourth biggest? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so where did we go from there? We left Niles and we went and had that, that weird pizza place. Yeah. Great pizza. What, what, um, Justin, what did I make you get again?
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[20:30] Oh, I got the poutine pizza. The poutine pizza. Yeah. I totally forgot. Weren't they from. And the owner was really, really cool guy. He, he had a recording studio, he said down the, down the street and he was, um, building a larger space and he was, um, they were giving out grants to allow people to record for free. Really interesting, man. Yeah. And that place was only what, three or four months old. He said the building had just been built, and he was so excited to show us his sound equipment. And play it for us, too. Whether we wanted to hear it or not. And play it for us, yeah. He cranks up Thunderstruck. That's right. And then he put on the headband. And let me tell you, for us, I love pizza, and I love poutine. They don't belong together. You heard it here, folks. It was good cold the next day. It was good.
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[21:22] So then we left to that delicious lunch. lunch and we had already toured kingston a bit at that point right yeah so did we go to our we went to joe's house oh fuck we went to joe oh yeah who wants to take that one the same day that day is just the the never in a good way yeah and you guys remember sorry going back to the bathhouse like.
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[21:45] You wouldn't have known it was there if someone oh yeah pulled in like it was you you couldn't tell it was insane and then just to go oh yeah not that far away over to joe's house and you see this i think i called it a hip sanctuary and i think that's like being kind but just he's spent years creating this space his garage into this hip sanctuary and i mean from floor to ceiling like that's checkerboard floors literally he's got uh he's got graphics on the the garage uh with you know, really cool, you know, an earlier shot of the hip and then, and one from the, you know, final tour, um, the, the signed jerseys, the, um, the art piece artwork of the band that he got, I think from his wife on as part of their wedding gift, just everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The table. It was pretty spectacular. He had the, he had the set list from the troubadour and, and, uh, a show that I'd actually gone onto and he actually had the, the, a poster for the Anaheim and LA and San Diego shows I went to as well. So just. Yeah. Really? Yeah. A story for every, every item. I guess I, I didn't know that. That's crazy. Every item had a story. You're right, Craig.
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[23:01] Every item. In fact, his beer fridge too, stocked full of. I was going to say the beer was cold. Stocked full of all Trashly Hip themed and we were, um, you know, lucky enough to be able to give him some podcast Pilsner to add to his collection.
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[23:16] Yeah. That's right. He had the wines, the ciders, everything was hip related. And then that really cool photo of him, because, you know, as you do, you wake up one day and you go, I'm going to run a marathon without training. Cause, cause that's what you do. And, and then you do it the next year and you go, Oh, I'm going to dress up as Gordon, carry a guitar the whole time and raise, what did he say? Like 20 grand or 10 grand. He raised a bunch of money. Yeah. Um, so it just, the guy himself was, I mean, he was a really cool individual, great story, chiropractor, fireman, you know, the story with Billy Ray and, and, um, helping him. And that's how he got that, that grace to Jersey, which was really cool.
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[24:04] Um, oh, also I didn't tell you guys, but he had the copy of the, um, um, uh, secret path book there. And that I took the picture of here, here, here for my tattoo from his book. Cause I didn't have it from already and I couldn't find it on, on a Google search. So, so Joe, if you're out there, my tattoo came from the photo of your book. Nice. That's great that's awesome uh that's great and he was such a he was such a good host like he kept us laughing the whole time and you know you guys need more beer and we're like all right man, it's cool yeah it was a whirlwind day but it was a good day because from there we left joe's and we went and just sort of chilled or did we go for dinner yeah we went, We checked into the church first. Yeah, which was the church. Oh, our Airbnb was in the 18th century. The church.
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[24:59] Which now has Brown. Yeah, which now has a clean apartment. Sorry. I don't even remember. Who spilled the coffee? Went for dinner. We're not going to announce it. I think it was Dave. Sorry, Dave. It wasn't us. Sorry, Dave. You owe me some money, Dave. Oh, okay. It was like 10 minutes before we left. play guitar and then we went to Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons was five seconds down the street, like five second walk. That's right. It was like two doors down the street. We walked to dinner. That place was cool. Oh, that's right. We went to that cool place. And you guys saw that dude from the hairband. The bass player. We were inside. This is a crazy story. We were part of that. It relates to the hip too. I wasn't there. I just heard the story after. So we're we stayed inside and uh just having a chat jd and i and um we it was either david or somebody else we were talking to dean somebody and um it was dave outside what's that it was dave outside with us because so we're just chatting in and i'm like yeah i'm from la and when i said i'm from la this guy walks out of the car with his wife or girlfriend or whatever and or wasn't both Thank you, folks.
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[26:18] And he goes, oh, I'm from LA too. And so we just started chatting. And he ends up going, well, yeah, I'm originally from Kingston, but I moved out there when, you know, I was trying to be a rock star with his band, Anna Black.
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[30:20] And they were a full-on hair metal band that did okay. And they were in L.A. and Hollywood. And he tells a story about how they were playing the Roxy and the hip were playing the whiskey. So it wasn't that famous Roxy, which I think we had mistaken when we were talking that night. So they were playing the opposite places. So Anna Black was playing the Roxy and the hip are playing the whiskey, which if you're familiar with it, it is quite literally a two blocks, a block walk from each other on the sunset strip. And so he tells the story of he's driving the car up, they're going to the gig for, you know, to do to get ready. And there's a line around the block for the other venue where they hit for play. So he was really worried that you know that there was there weren't going to be people there because every canadian in town was going to go see the hit but he said he said there was a crowd so.
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[31:19] But then he went on to you know tell the story how you know when they found out they're from kingston and ended up you know talking to each other you know both in the u.s and back in kingston and you know him and uh rob ended up becoming pretty good friends he had mentioned and And yeah, and part of his, you know, part of the interview we took is, is on our Kingston video. So that was definitely look for the Kingston video. Cause it's, it's, it documents everything that we just told you. It's what is it? It's not 10 minutes long. It's eight minutes. Yeah. So it's like, if, if you've got some time and you want to watch it, it's a lot of fun. And you get to see all three of us with our shirts off.
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[32:03] They could have done some like color correction. I should have mentioned right there. I know. Well, they had a whole like three hours to edit it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. And that's the other thing. Like not only were Dean and Dave awesome and they were very much part of our I think they made the experience a lot better just being good dudes. But Dean worked on that video until five minutes before the event started on Friday. It was wild. We were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off. But anyway, we'll get there. Because it was like, we get to the, so basically the next day we drive.
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[32:39] Uh, we drive back to Toronto and then by the time we get back to Toronto, we've got to run around. And like, I anticipated having much more time than we actually had, but it was run around, run around, run around, and then head to our, Oh, I didn't even go to the Airbnb. Two of you guys went to the Airbnb and two of us went to the venue, right? Well, we went to your house for a little while. We got, got to check out the scenery. Your view jd is insane by the way i didn't know toronto had yeah green stuff there was a lot and such a cool skyline too yeah and you can see all of it yeah yeah we got to record some of our promo videos too which was nice up there on the yeah yeah we we did a good job that day i think of we recorded a video of the program we recorded a video of the guitar recorded a video for dinner so we were we were we were doing our best to try and help support the people that were supporting us that's right and you know it was we're not gonna lie it was a small but mighty crowd like i they didn't make it they didn't make us feel like they were a small crowd by any stretch.
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[33:53] Now some of you might be wondering why are we not listening to the actual episode that you recorded that night and i can tell you the answer to that we didn't record the episode that night we did the episode it was an in-person but we didn't record yeah we are the dance and baby yeah what was your experience like with the final event just for people that didn't get a chance to go um i had a blast meeting patrick i mean it was it was great hanging out with you guys but patrick is just a dude like us and he was so approachable and was like he was there for the whole night um he was drinking beers and talking and and just being a guy and and he's he's as big a fan of the hip and of Gord as we all are. And I mean, obviously he's his brother, so he's got some, some more background, but you know, he, he was cool with whatever questions we had for him on or off Mike. I mean, he, he was a superstar.
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[35:10] I had so much fun getting to know him that night. Yeah. Me too. He stayed like, it was there three hours at least. Yeah. Yeah, the first thing I said, like, you know, you're welcome to leave, but we'd love to have you hang out if you want. And yeah, I chatted another good 45 minutes with him. And it was, yeah. And then I jumped up on stage with the band, which was awesome. So the Almost Hip, they did a great job. Also a big highlight. And I was lucky enough to get up for, um, they let me choose a song and I did music at work with them with Patrick, uh, standing side stage, which was pretty cool. And, uh, yeah. Yeah. The whole. Very cool.
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[35:57] And listen, I want to, I hope I'm not blowing up his spot here, but, um, maybe you can edit this out if it's not appropriate. But the you know patrick wasn't he's not in love with hip cover bands as i think most most bands are not in love with cover bands sorry craig but you know he at the beginning of the night he said what are these guys called and somebody answered the almost tip and he goes i almost feel bad for them but he stuck around and by the end of it he was i mean he was bobbing his head and tapping his toe and he was enjoying the music and he was like yeah these guys are all right you know i mean I mean, he warmed up to it and he stuck around and he hung out with the fans that were there and he talked to people and was, like I said, he was totally accessible. And I'm talking about Patrick a lot, but the fans, you know, Kirk was the host that night, by the way. Kirk talked to every single person for at least 20 minutes. Or tried to. I'm sorry. And it was great. I tried. I really tried. Yeah. Yeah, but you played the role perfectly. Craig and I sort of last minute handled the auction items with, I'm sorry, I don't remember his name, J.D.
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[37:19] Yeah. And he was awesome too. And he's hilarious. Um, and has a great sense of humor. He was very funny guy. Um, but he, he handled everything. And Craig and I were kind of switching back and forth between beer and water, trying to get through it. And, um, and everybody JD that you brought to help out. Um, and I, I forget most of their names, but, um, they were, they were all wonderful. And um it was all hands on deck and we all pulled in the same direction and none of it when we were yeah when we were did it all of us madly trying to get all these items up online and take photos and, put the pack just together i looked at justin i'm like this isn't phasing you at all is it and he's like yo this just this is what i do this is what with the racing this is yeah and yeah it was it was a good time it was uh a little high stress for a moment there but and then getting up on stage and interviewing Patrick in front of the crowd and like you said it wasn't a huge crowd but they were so supportive um obviously fans mostly of the you know I think most of them were fans of the podcast and big hip fans and we got to what did you have a question that that that you asked Patrick that you you know that did you want to share.
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[38:48] Um, like any that you, you know, that kind of stuck out to you or surprised you. I'll, I'll go, uh, just to, I guess, really back up what Justin said. Well, we've all been saying is, you know, he showed up an hour early, took photos, you know, signed stuff, talked with everyone. Like the fact he, he was so enamored with my hip California shirt. Shirt like he must have stopped me four or five times to like look and look the you know the lyrics that were in there and he took a couple pictures with it and he was genuinely like he wasn't just messing around he genuinely dug the shirt and then um you know the other thing that i thought was cool too is he spent time with every single one of the guys in the almost hip like he took pictures with them talked to him he treated them with the utmost respect and i just so dug that because he could have easily, he could have easily been a star and stayed in the corner that night and not done anything, but he totally opened himself up, not just that night, but all the stuff that he helped, you know, getting with the different items that we got in, like, sorry, I'm going to, I want to answer your question, Craig, but I'm going to put on my producer hat and say, I'm bummed that we didn't get more people because that event was an amazing event. You got more than your money's worth walking in the door, getting the interaction with everyone.
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[40:14] I mean, just getting interaction and accessibility to the auction items. I, I mean, we could spend an hour talking about the different items we got from, you know, the hat, the guitar, the Oxford pennant that day, that day had donated stuff and, um, just all the people that, that stepped up for that. But Patrick was able to, to get a couple of really cool things as well. Um, and then him coming out on stage and I think him talking about, um, like playing on his brother's album, I really appreciated kind of that effort and especially the part. And, and I might be taking Craig's moment and I apologize, but him really understanding how much effort it takes to be a singer. Um, and I'll say that as a singer and the amount of work that you go into prep your voice and, and he really, he just thought it was, oh, you just go in and sing a little bit, but there's, there's a lot more to it. And I think he articulated that extremely well. So I really appreciated that. But again, I just want to say overall JD, that event was phenomenal and people missed out if they didn't go. I mean, um, the band was spot on the, the staff there at the rec room were great.
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[41:35] Oh my God, hold on. I have to interrupt you. Security guard. Yes. It was her first night. It was her first night working there. And she's a huge fan, was raised on the hip by her parents. She was, I don't know, mid to late 20s and had no idea this was happening. And she got to meet Patrick and he took the time and talked to her and took selfies and all this. And she was just like, what the fuck is happening to my life right now? It's all downhill from now. It was such a great moment. Yeah she was just oh my dad's gonna be losing his mind yeah and yeah but there were people that were out in the rec room like having dinner or playing arcade games or whatever and they heard a band they didn't know what was going on they came over and they were interested and i think i think you're right bidding on items too um because they were they were genuinely like what the hell is happening right now and then they became very interested very if you're out there and you're listening and you've got an answer to how do you crack the nut of getting people to come out to your events, send me an email.
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[42:37] DiscoveringDowny at gmail.com. Because I just can't figure out that part. I feel like we nailed everything else. Is it the Toronto thing? I had to wonder that. Well, I don't know. We were up against a baseball game in an IndyCar race. And we are a very niche podcast. podcast this is you know there was a reason why i guess there's not a reason but it's called discovering downey because none of us had ever heard of it you know and you know so i wouldn't i i thought that the crowd that showed up they were there for the right reasons and they enjoyed the hell out of the night and who cares about the numbers and i think patrick even said so on an email said we still raised a good amount of money though how many people were there would have been nice to double that but it was sure nice to not only hit our goal but get a little past it Yeah. JD.
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[43:32] I think that you should stand a little taller than you have been about this whole thing because it's been pretty fucking awesome. And especially being there in the event and seeing everything after it. Meeting your friends and family also says a lot about you, JD, and they're top-notch people. And obviously you guys get along because you're all really good people and you made you know, at least this American feel completely at home and, um, just, uh, really, really enjoyed getting to know all of them and hanging out. Um, yeah, it was, it was fantastic.
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[44:08] And we're all friends because of thanks you know and a a married couple yes spent their honeymoon with us right they drove across the goddamn continent to smack down in the middle of american st louis right almost dead that was so cool yeah that was so cool yeah that people were great um that that was to me and you mentioned justin it was really important because there were word people that drove and flew in from all over the place and a bunch of cool well you got well yeah christ but the fact that you guys all made the trip like that's a big fucking deal don't let that you know just slide away but we we were i think paid back in spades with the experience that we had i mean all all of it out the window just to become friends with you guys has been been great right justin you said that like jdu facilitated that but to go on this experience as hip fans was absolutely phenomenal but to go out there to to fly and get to visit kingston and get to go to the places that we went to and then to be a part of that event that i mean yeah something we'll never forget so it yeah it was yeah it was spectacular it really was and, And then, of course, for me, the next day, it just was...
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[45:33] Put you know i got to walk on the danforth finally got to walk down the danforth and then i got to go into the black pearl tattoo and get you know my my mvp tattooed in which i had planned earlier but to actually have it done there i was just going to go to whatever tattoo place i could go to and to get like we walked in and we had just they just had a cancellation and had that not happened it wouldn't have all came to fruition and kirk do you remember we were even going to go to a different place and i was like oh fuck we walked around the block we missed the black pearl so we had to we went backwards that's right that's right and had we not done that yeah yeah that was pretty special i think the whole thing was pretty special guys and i really want to thank you but before we wrap it up we did do something at the event that uh i would like to reveal on the podcast as well and that was kirk you just mentioned the m mvp tracks the most valuable of your most valuable playable tracks. Kirk, you revealed that yours is... Here, here, and here. That's right, and it's on his arm. Craig, what was yours? Mine was Steeplechase. And yeah, go back and listen to the episode if you want to hear my reasons, but just, I couldn't get away from that song. It's just too good. Yeah, it's great.
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[47:01] All right and uh craig anything else to say about that no i think you've summed it up and you also nailed it by saying go back and listen to the episode, a part of me really wanted to pick um hell breaks loose just because it was just in my head at the time that was like my current favorite song that's become my favorite but i think um yeah steeplechase is pretty hard to beat, Justin, how about you, buddy? Mine ended up being Don't Let This Touch You. It's for a lot of different reasons. But I will say my original pick before I knew that we had to pick from our MVPs was Steeplechase. Mine had changed to Steeplechase, but that wasn't on my original MVP list. I had 11th Threat on that album, which is still ranked highly for me. He was trying to bend the rules, folks. I didn't know the rules. And I wouldn't let him. I wouldn't let him. I had to come down hard. Stern but fair. That's right. Yeah.
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[48:05] So, guys, this has been an incredible journey. And I'm really grateful. You know, Justin, I knew you tangentially, you know, through your donation last year and your emails.
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[48:21] You know, Craig, I knew you from coming to the event. Kirk, you were a wild card, though. you were a wild card and you still kind of is that guy still kind of is it turned out to be a-okay yeah kirk was the last minute addition too it was originally me and justin right and then, jd's like do you mind if i bring in one guy one more guy i think he'd be be great hopefully we're glad you did i kept it interesting oh yeah yeah yeah there were a lot of people that wanted to do it too so it worked out really nice yeah um tremendous journey folks go back and listen to the Gordani solo records, enjoy them parse them, You know, but this is what we've got. What is out there is what we've got. Unless there's, you know, more to come. There was just, I can talk about this now, but when I went for drinks with Patrick Downey before our event, just to sort of get to know him a little bit. And he told me something that was just revealed officially last week on creative control, the podcast, uh, done out of Edmonton by Vish, uh, Kana, um, and creative control. They had, um, oh my gosh, what's his name from the Sadie's? Why can't I think of his name right now? Uh, Travis. Travis. Travis. Yeah. Travis. Yep. And he, uh, and he, um.
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[49:50] Confirmed what patrick had told me that i couldn't say before but there's like five or six, songs that they left off the record that are out there it's 80s songs can't wait it's so interesting that they're doing a reissue of and um that record and the conquering sun, but they didn't include those extra tracks i was i was really blown away by that are we gonna get get to see them like where you know like if if you don't include them on that reissue when are you, i don't know i'm sure they have a plan i'm sure they have a plan but guys it's been just so fun and we'll have to uh keep um some sort of uh book club type, atmosphere going with the four of us that we can get together and talk about things maybe when the up to here box that comes out oh yeah um you guys i definitely look to have you on the next podcast i'm working on which is the tragically hip top 40 countdown which begins january 6th and runs through uh middle of october and the finale will be a fall finale this time it will be in october on the 26th so there's that 2025 correct 2025 okay.
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[51:15] You're making me happy because that's after racing season right, so we'll see if that changes things at all uh in terms of getting people out who knows like uh whoever it was who said a minute ago who fucking who fucking cares the people that were there had a great time we got some good feedback um i had a great time you guys had a great time Patrick had a great time. The band had a great time. What more can you ask, right? We made 5,500 bucks. That's awesome. Like just shy of $5,500. That's nothing to shake a stick at, you know? We also got to get pretty close to some music that we were already close to and didn't really know was out there. So that's definitely worth the price of admission. And the rest of the world needs to listen to it. They do. I'll go around the table one more time. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. Just a quick, uh, shout out to the fans too. Like getting emails from, from some of you about your experience with the, with the podcast and going back. And we heard a lot of stories about people like us who, who were discovering this catalog along with us. And so to hear from you was, was really awesome. Yeah. And we're still hearing from you, which is great. Yeah. Stay active on the socials, you guys, we're going to be so. Oh, we should also announce, uh, we, we hit a milestone, uh, recently. Oh yeah, go ahead and that's it, Kirk or Craig.
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[52:40] We officially on Apple podcasts hit 10,000 downloads a couple of days ago. So. Awesome. Pretty pumped for that. Yeah. It's fucking great. That means people like us. They really do. They like us. Well, they may not like us, but they've heard us. This is true. Well, I don't know. The two people that. Hey, it's five star rating. A lot of people reviewed or a lot of people rated, but we also got two actual reviews as well. And they were both very positive. So I feel like if you take the time to write a review, you know, um, you're either pretty pleasantly surprised or you're angry, you know, that's usually the two, the two things. Anyway, I've got a pretty hard stop, but what I want to do really quick before we be at a due is I just want to go around the table one more time for, you know, final thoughts, buttoning this up, uh, obviously as concisely as you can. But, uh, if there's, you know, anything else you want to share or say or do, um, this is a good opportunity for you to do that. Kirk, do you want to start? I'll jump right in. And again, just thank you guys for being a part of this journey for the last, uh, what feels like six years.
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[53:52] Um, I think it was six months. It felt, uh, also like six weeks in certain cases, but it was great. Get to know you guys especially um you know with the the depth and knowledge that you guys have on the hip catalog and the lyrics and everything it was impressive to um who i thought i was a pretty big fan to you know really really see that that knowledge um jd thanks for having us um and for the experience that we just talked about on this episode but i said it and i'll just keep saying it Like this music is amazing. Y'all, you really need to give it the chance. I know there's a lot of hip lovers out there that didn't quite give Downey Gord Downey solo stuff. It'll grow. You'll enjoy it. You'll learn to love it. Use our podcast to help you with some guiding, you know, if you have questions, but you got it, you got to get into this music. It's great stuff. Thanks, man.
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[54:54] Well, it was just a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience. It was amazing. I talked from the start about how this music had been sitting with me in this very room, these unopened CDs, and I knew I needed to listen to them, but I just couldn't bring myself to it. And sometimes just finding the time even to listen to new music can be difficult. So this gave me a perfect opportunity to do that. And, you know, the event meeting Patrick, you know, it was just the crowd being a bit smaller actually made it better for me. I enjoyed myself more, I think, than if it would have been like a packed club. And, you know, we really did get to circulate and talk to people and take photos and just have a great time. And, and, and honestly, the highlight was probably just getting to know you guys and talk about this music. It's, I don't get to talk about music very often, even though it's a big part of my life. Um, there's not a lot of people who actually want to talk about, you know, lyrics and break things down like, like we have. So it's just been a blast. Thanks, man.
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[56:09] Justin. Justin? So I just noticed that right there, my wife put an empty can of podcast Pilsner on the shelf right above my desk. I love it. I'm just seeing it right now. And that's like kind of my favorite part of the whole thing was actually when we were in the basement of a church and we were all pretty much hammered. We'd had a good dinner. we were exhausted and we were sitting around playing guitars and singing songs. All right. The six of us. And it's, and I'm, I'm including Dean and Dave. Um, cause they were, like I said, they were absolutely made this thing better in every way. And, um, just the odds of all that coming together. Um, the event was great. Don't get me wrong. And the tour and the, you know, meeting Niles and the whole thing that was great, but sitting together, the, the six of us who didn't know each other at the beginning of the day was pretty fucking special.
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[57:11] And we're all a bunch of nerds and we all have the same interests. And, and I think, I mean, we're going to be friends forever, right? Like this is, this is a much bigger than, than what it was intended to be. So I'm, I'm just thankful for the experience and for JD reaching out, you know, it's, this has been a lot of fun.
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[57:33] And continues to be. It's been so much fun for me too, guys. Like truly, truly, you know, these things are a lot of work, both the fundraiser and, and, you know, promoting the podcast and editing the podcast and doing research and, you know, writing the little mini essays and, you know, that stuff. But I didn't feel any of it, this, you know, with this project, it was, it was an, it was a breeze. stories. Uh, it, it was delightful, you know, it was just a lot of fun. You guys, you guys really brought it. So that was really great. So that's what I have to say. And I, you know, I just thank you so much for bringing everything you had into this project and making it what it was. I'm really proud of this. This is something I'm going to, uh, you know, definitely point out to people when they ask what I do. Um, it's a, it's a great example. of what I try to do, you know, and, uh, take things I'm passionate about and get people who are equally passionate and try to get other people passionate. And, uh, I think that's what we did. So there's that.
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[58:42] That's what we've got for you this week, man. And that's a wrap on episode 11, of Discovering Downy, an 11-part podcast.
Track 2:
[58:55] Pick up your shit!
[3:30] You know, guys, I'm doing pretty good. It was 107 out here in Boise, Idaho, where I'm on show site. As we mentioned, I was in Europe last week, so I'm not quite sure time zone, temperate zone, what zone I'm in. I just – somebody point me in the right direction and I go. So I'm doing good, though. We had such a great time. But more importantly, I'm just really excited about next week and just hanging with you, you lads and checking out all the stuff that we have planned and, and, you know, especially that the event. So I'm that energy will get me through whatever jet lag, whatever heat stroke, whatever heck I encounter over the next seven days. So, and what about that new item? The hip gave us today to go towards our silent auction. Someone's going to get some major bragging rights. Man, we can't say what it is, but-
[4:27] We might be fighting internally for this. We'll be revealing what it is, I guess, Friday. And some other great prize stuff, too. JD, you just told me and Kirk about this ridiculous prize that we got. Craig's got it memorized. Yeah. Two tickets to the Toronto Raptors. $500 in arena gift cards. and two customized or personalized jerseys and a shoot around. Man. Are you ready for this? Come on. That's great. Jadon. Yeah. You're in, you're not in Kansas. Tornado Alley. Tornado Alley. But there's twisters about. Yeah, we just had a...
[5:51] And then 20 minutes later, there's a video on Facebook of a frigging tornado a half a mile up the street. What the hell? So we're fine. Yeah, that is freaky. If you look out your window and you see somebody riding a bike in the air, you're in big trouble. With a dog in the basket. That's right. Cow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but dude, I'm, I'm good. Otherwise without the weather or with the weather, I'm good. And I'm psyched for next week, man. Ooh. Yeah. Let's go. Justin. I tasted the podcast. Pilsner officially tasted it now. I had four of them at home. I gave two of them to my father-in-law and I drank two of them and they were very crisp. Delicious. Yeah. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. Awesome.
[6:47] When word broke that we'd be getting a third posthumous record from Gord, there was a hush and a wait and see approach. You see, Gord had partnered with Bob Rock back in the 2010s, shortly after Rock had produced probably two of the most divisive records in the Hips catalog. I enjoy both these records a lot, but your mileage may vary. In any case, it was an uneasy feeling for fans. What would this album be? As it turns out, it's a whole lot of everything. There are songs that are reminiscent of the hip, like North Shore. There are horns on the title track, which we got to sample about six months before Lester Parfait dropped. And it relieved us.
[7:41] There's even something resembling rack time? Suffice to say, as we've gotten used to saying around these parts, this album is altogether, folks, unlike anything Gord has produced before. It's been said that Bob Rock has a tendency to overstuff the records he produces. It's as though he's just been given access to a 48-track board and he feels compelled to use every last fucking track. rack. On this record, however, his hand seems firmly on the rudder. The songs come across as overly polished, of course, but never too indulgent. If there's one complaint I have, it's that there's too many goddamn songs. On a record as varied as Luster Parfait, you're almost overstimulated by the end. You've been through so many different styles and sounds. If I had it my way, this would be a tight 10-song record, and with the right tracks removed, I dare say this is a collection of songs I would put head-to-head against virtually any other record in Gord's oeuvre.
[8:59] Yeah, I think it's that good. There are highs and there are lows on this record, as there have been on each of the albums, but on Luster Parfait, the highs seem higher to me. Have we ever heard Gord sing like he does on The Moment is a Wild Place? Or something more? Have we ever heard a chorus as striking as Is There Nowhere? By the way, big hat tip to Shea Dorval for providing those gorgeous backing vocals. At the end of the day, has Bob Rock redeemed himself with this effort to the haters out there? I would offer a resounding yes. Yes, this is a record that should be listened to loud and on a good pair of headphones. There is so much going on, but it all seems to have a purpose. That's what I think of Lester Parfait.
[9:52] Tell me what your experience with the record is, Kirk. Yeah. So the first real listen I had to this album, because I'd been pretty busy with travel and whatnot, we were on our family vacation in Madrid. And beautiful little up on the top of the hotel looking over the city and just enjoying the wonderful atmosphere. And, um, I was actually listening to that kind of rough cut of our, um, rough cut of our interview with, uh, Niles and Kevin. And he had referenced like that. He thought that, you know, the, the, the moment is a wild places is, was his favorite song. And I'm just like, I can't hold off anymore. I need to jump in. So that was my first experience was listening to it, um, on, on the roof in Spain. And since then, it's just been a pretty incredible journey. I spent a lot of time like listening to Bob Rock interviews and, you know, just really understanding where it's coming from. And as you mentioned, JD, like, you know, I understand the divisiveness and whatnot, but oh my gosh, I, I was already in love when I listened to it the first couple of times at this point, you know, I'm, I'm firm in my, my commitment to, to in Gord, we trust, you know, And to see that...
[11:17] That friendship. I mean, he, he, he makes the statement. We were like two teenagers that were in the studio, just making music together. And, um, you know, to hear how the whole process went and I know we'll get into it and everybody, you know, obviously we'll provide their input. Um, I fell in love with it even more, you know, and, and the variety on this, this album i mean guys we got reggae we got we got west coast punk we got 70s glam we got 80s synth pop we've got you know it it just every even within certain songs you'll have a jump from one friggin genre to another and then you you know you start looking at all the studios they recorded in, the process that it took, the number of years, the people that are involved.
[12:13] And especially after we've discussed with the last three albums, like it was just fun to, I felt like, I felt like I got a warm hug from Gord. I really did. Just like, I just was all that, that we went through. It was like, Hey, this is just when it's fun. And this is, this This is for you, music lovers. That's what I felt. That's what I felt. I love that. I haven't watched much with Bob Rock, but I did read that one of the reasons why it took until 2023 to rear its head was because it was too painful for him to, like, he was really emotional following the death of Gordani in 2017. Absolutely. Because they had gotten lungs. Yeah. They had become such close friends and, you know, they reference, you know.
[13:09] Uh, Gord flew out to talk about world container and they'd figured that out in 15 minutes. And then they spent the rest, the rest of the conversation talking about being dads, being Canadians, being hockey lovers. And, and then that just continued. And I think those guys, you know, with the level that they were at, I think they kind of found it was a peer to peer relationship.
[13:32] And I really felt like they found refuge in each other. And then I think they sought it out because it was a long relationship. I mean, was it 06 when World Container was being made or coming out? Up until the very end. And that's when they first met is when he came out, or at least per what I had listened to. You know, they flew out to Maui, to his studio in Maui, Gord did, and then, you know, like I said, Discuss World Container. And then they didn't really do much as it was described until after the second album, We Are The Same, that they did. And then that's when the, you know, that relationship in the music for Luster Parfait started. So yeah, I mean, I recommend everyone to check into this. And Bob rock doesn't seem like, you know, like you.
[14:25] You just, he didn't, didn't do a lot of, I mean, of course he gets on the documentaries, he gets a lot of airtime and whatnot, but beyond that, you know, there's not a ton, I guess, but the stuff specific to this is well worth, you can just hear the genuineness all these years after, like last year was a lot of the interviews that were going on and he's still breaking up. Like you're still oh yeah um and he's just he's like you go bob rock and you like you think the guy's flying you know coming in on the learjet all the time and he's like most of these interviews he's like just got done feeding his horses craig what was your first experience like i was also traveling uh down to seattle for a ball game and i was on on the amtrak train taking my notes and i I actually wrote, I'm going to read this and don't get mad at me. But I said, hate to be negative on this last album, but there's a lot to pick apart.
[15:25] Two days ago, we were supposed to record this episode, and we had to postpone. And that evening, at 10.30 at night, I texted you guys a photo. A package arrived, and the CD was dropped off by Amazon. So I got the CD, and I started looking at the lyrics. And then the next day, I popped it in the car. And it's been in there for a couple days now, and I've been listening to it quite a lot. And my opinion has totally changed. Changed it's like some of this and i think it's what you said jd it's it's a very long album and so some of my favorite songs come at the end and what i what i've been doing is hitting shuffle and that's when it really started to um pick up for me is when i started listening on shuffle before getting the cd that i liked hearing just random songs come on and then and i thought it it was a problem with the sequencing at first but then i realized it's probably more because when the album came out i did listen a couple times when it first came out but i think i only got through the first four songs and so now i'm getting to know and love these later songs and then when i got the cd it just all kind of started working for me and i'm like wow some of the things that i was going to be nitpicking on today's episode i think i've I've grown to appreciate Justin, my man. Yeah.
[16:51] Talk to me about your relationship with this release and has it changed since your first listen? So I pre-ordered this last year and yeah, this, this CD was in heavy rotation for me until, um, until you asked us to be part of the podcast. So I've been cold Turkey since January or whenever it was and waiting for for this week to get back into it. Yeah. I love this album, and I wish that Gord had done a Broadway show.
[17:27] Um, could you imagine after hearing how strong his vocal is? Um, and especially during this time period. And it's funny, Craig, that you mentioned that you did not like this album. And then today you changed your mind. I took a break from this cause I've been over listening and I went back to the grand bounce and I love that freaking album as of today. And everybody knows I did not love that album when we were doing the podcast. Yay!
[18:00] Yeah. I love this news. It grew on me big time today. And Justin, one of the interviews that I watched, they actually said that the lyrics were almost like a screenplay on Luster Parfait and that there is a movie inside this album. It's just no one has brought it forth. So I like that. Broadway play. Movie i think i saw some of the same interviews you did um the one with uh terry mulligan was i actually listened to it a few times um to pick that apart but um yeah it would be it would be fantastic if that film was to get made or some sort of video component to this um but you know this was at gourd's you got to remember this the vocals recorded a decade ago and this was at gourd's busiest period and i would say his strongest period um vocally um and seems that way but you know bob also said in the in the interviews that he intentionally um potted gourd's mic up so that it was more on the forefront you know with the hip gourd's voice was an instrument um with this album it is the show and that absolutely rings true and you know jd the the songs that you mentioned just...
[19:24] Kick my ass every time i hear it and i've heard them i've heard them 50 times at this point you know without exaggerating um yeah it's it's a very cool album a very confusing album uh stylistically um and it's very long but i can palette that um and i had the same issues craig um with stopping and starting and you hear you've you know you've heard the first six songs on this album probably twice as many times as the final seven or eight um and it's just it takes a commitment to get through it um and every song is long in addition to them there being so many of them um you know there's several songs that are five or six minutes um yeah seven and a half right it's for the moment is a wild place and i'm really interested in in your guys's uh mvp, yeah tracks for this like more than any other album we've done yeah because i think it's going to be all over the place i i've got mine and i i think this was like the easiest choice i've had to make and this is the first time i don't i quite literally don't have an mvp i'm i'm pulling the trigger when we talk every other album first three listens i had it down i mean i'm usually the first one to chime up i i can't i i just haven't been able to pick one it's strange that that it's It's opposite.
[20:48] Should we try and untangle this web that Justin just spoke of, this mystery of a record, and go track by track? We start with, Greyboy says.
[20:59] Music.
[24:42] I mean, from the first note, it's like, what the hell are we listening to? And in the best way, you know, I just had no idea that this is where we were going. You know, and I love World Container and I love We Are The Same. And we all know everything else that Bob Rock has done. And this is not any of those things. It's bizarrely different. Um, and who the hell is gray boy, right? Like I've spent a year now trying to figure that out. And I thought I'd read something that it was a DJ. Um, yeah, I read that too. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but there's a DJ out of San Diego, uh, named gray boy. Um, sort of like an acid jazz DJ I read and it could be him he's referencing, but I'm not sure if that's no idea. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's just a, a total, it's a mind fuck right from the beginning. And, and I was really like, okay, I'm turning this up. Um, you know, I remember listening to it in my car, um, the first time that I, that I put it on. However, I wanted to ask, um, JD and Craig, if, if you guys had any of this, um, on air in Canada, did, were any of these songs played on terrestrial radio? Yeah.
[26:05] I don't recall hearing it on the radio i don't listen to a lot of uh local radio i'm usually, you know serious yeah xm listener but um but no i didn't hear it i did see the video though and so this song is a song i heard right away when it came out because of the the video which uh if you've seen it it has um some of the guys from offspring dexter nude and yeah and And when I look at the track listing, they don't actually, they don't play on the track. So they were just kind of there for the video and having fun filming the video. And Bob Rock's got James Hetfield's ESP that he's playing in it. And so it's a pretty cool video.
[26:49] Did you guys recognize the drummer? I did, yeah. So Abe- Abe Laborio Jr. That's Paul McCartney's drummer. Yeah, really quick connection. When I was in my original band back in the 90s, we had a drummer who filled in for us fairly often when we were down a drummer. And he was roommates at Berklee with Abe. Really? And I didn't meet Abe, But one time he was in town for either sting or McCartney and our singer slash, you know, front front man got to jam with Abe and he came back and told me that he has never felt anything like it being in the room with him. He said when the, when the kick drum hit one, it was unlike anything he's ever experienced as a musician. So it was just that tight. And you can hear that tightness in his playing. Yeah. I mean, you don't get picked up as Paul McCartney's drummer, unless you know what the F you're doing. 20 years.
[28:17] Video and, and, And he even plays and he's like, he's a beast of a man, right? He's, he's, he's, he's a big guy, but he's just sweet. I've had opportunity. There's a show called ma'am national associate music merchants. If you're a musician, you should know about it. It's every year in Anaheim. So it's pretty close. So I've been going for years and years and he's there quite a bit. And so, you know, had few little interactions and he's just, yeah, he's a, he's a sweetheart just, and, and an incredible musician. Oh, wow. Incredible musician. Well, they did it weird, right? Because they released Lester Parfait, and then they released a three-song EP, or maybe that was the time they released Lester Parfait. And then they released a six-song EP. And it had The Moment is a Wild Place, Camaro, Lester Parfait, Grey Boy Says, I think. So they did that But I'm not sure about, I'm not sure whether Lester Parfait Was considered the lead single or not Hold on I have it open here So that's why I asked you guys If you'd heard it on the air because Again the station that I talk about all the time Here WBQX played Lester Parfait Over and over last year Wow And I think that I heard Grey Boy Says as well On the radio.
[29:45] Damn So we were talking earlier about sequencing. I believe it was Craig that was talking about it. So we'll start with him here because when I first heard the next track, which is the Raven and the Red-Tailed Hawk, I remember thinking, what the fuck kind of sequencing is this? We go from, you know, this crazy rock song to like a kid's song. And then all of a sudden that chorus hits and you're just like, wow. I would love to be next to a fucking stack listening to that, feeling my pant legs whistle in the wind. Fucking right. That would be just fantastic. Craig, what do you think of The Raven and the Red-Tailed Hawk? I really love this song. I think there's a lot of things that really stuck out. The lyrics were great. The chorus, like you mentioned, is powerful. There's the nod to the east wind, I think, in the lyrics of the chorus.
[30:47] And it's just a strongly written song. There's a very unique melody. And there's a really cool descending tremolo guitar that I thought was effective. And some nice piano. piano there's a really wild synth solo which was really cool followed by an acoustic guitar solo which you know to to the opposite of what i said last song i loved i thought bob rock killed that solo an acoustic guitar solo is very hard to pull yes agreed to make it sound you have to be spot on and not only does the tone of the guitar have to be good but you have to have the feel.
[31:28] And because you hear every slide you hear every nuance you're every bend you hear every chord configuration if you're if you're throwing that in so i agree 100 craig yeah you have to be kyle gas and when you're playing a playing an acoustic soloing you don't have that sustain when you're bending a note so it's just a so someone who tries to play you know just take electric solo and played on acoustic it's not going to sound the same so i thought he did a great job of crafting a solo that worked um there was some really cool like compositional tricks with you know like you know leading tones passing tones and just lots of lots of things to love in this um and also one quick thing at the end the vocal jumps up an octave going into that last chorus just a great great trick yeah and yeah the lyrics i just you know pulled out the lyric booklet two days ago and really wild stuff what do you think justin yeah it's the same exactly the same it's a kid's song and then it's not right um and it's the the storytelling and the.
[32:40] You know i can see that helmet the imagery that he tells the story um and one of these interviews um um, that Gord had done, um, which nobody knew it at the time, but it was during these sessions.
[32:58] Um, he had mentioned that Bob had asked him to speak more clearly. Don't be so vague with your lyrics. Tell, tell a story that people can understand without having to pull out an encyclopedia and boy, you got it right in this one. Um, you know, this is, it's very cut and dried. Um, it's, it's nothing to figure out. I, I just love how, how clear and concise it is. And some days I just can't do it, you know? Um.
[33:28] I think we've all had that. Fuck yeah. Kirk, what do you think? Well, being the elder of the group and someone who really grew up in the 80s, I heard this song. I was joking before when we first started talking on, you can't see me, folks, but I'm doing the 80s dance. When I heard that song the first time, I got that new wave post. I just felt like a kid again in high school. And when you'd hear those, we were in the heart of new wave. It was like true post-punk, like Sex Pistols, late 70s, early 80s, punk, post-punk, where it's now you're getting the precursors to, you know, what becomes Green Day and Blink-182 and everything. But there's, I mean, fuck, there's five keyboards parts on this song, five separate keyboard, you know, credits listed and you can hear it. Um, so, you know, I would say, I know I'd mentioned at the beginning, like I couldn't pick an MVP. This was one that just always stood out. I wouldn't again say MVP, but loved it. It made me feel good every time I listened to it. And then Kirk's going to roll into his second criticism of the entire, uh, series. And I believe it was, is it Tim? I was just going to say, who are you, Tim?
[34:47] Like i don't necessarily have an issue with fade outs but i struggled with the fade out on this one i really did i i was like i don't come on just like end it it's a long fade out too it's a long very long fade out very long fade out so um so you know i uh i i again if you guys know i really don't care but odds it's it's all good matthew good he was also strippers union so you know yeah he did the drums on that he was also like the house drummer for the kids in the hall so oh yeah yeah so like how cool is that that you got you go from paul mccartney's drummer to you know brian adams matthew good all the stuff that that pat did so um yeah uh great song uh just uh really helping the love affair uh with the album and uh you know outside of the i could have done without the fade out um friggin loved.
[35:56] It friggin loved it it's a 20 second fade out though like it's it's long it's much sort of it's much i'm usually okay with it but this was you know the one thing though the reason why i brought it up is because i kept having to look at my phone going did my phone die um because i'm like the song was the next song wasn't coming he's got late and i couldn't tell if it was going out or if it was the intro but it's yeah it's a 20 second long outro insane justin how about you buddy yeah i i knew somebody was going to mention the fade out. I didn't hate it because the song is kind of long and it's like, alright, it kind of feels appropriate.
[36:38] But yeah, no, I just love the song and I don't know, how many times are you going to say the sonic sounds like nothing else you know and i i understand you know he really wasn't necessarily involved in much of the the writing of the parts, um but i don't know it's just so freaking cool yeah it is it's very cool, so luster parfait what do you think of that track that's the one song that my daughter has grabbed a hold of because of the hey hey hey um you know i don't i don't know what the song is about but i picture it as gourd's love letter to music um and you know performing live we gather in the dark um you know we can only connect um that's that may be the only way that some people connect that's how we all connected right is through music and specifically gourd's music um i just this this uh this song you can't help but feel good listening to um it's such a fun freaking song and there's horns and there's that little you know half step.
[37:58] Kind of thing in the chorus and it's it's really really interesting and it's very fun and it's funny almost um just the the energy that that gourd has and that the entire i want to say band but you know the people playing in the song it just sounds like every i can picture every single person in there playing with a smile on their face you know and and just enjoying the shit out of this whole process it's a luster parfait baby would you dig into the yeah because it starts off with horns and you we haven't had horns per se um on i mean i guess is this what it sounded with davis manning like i i i'll put my cards out there and i haven't heard a lot of it so i don't really know what the hip sounded like with him, but like you've got a full on sack. So what's that, Justin? Not like this. Davis Manning did not sound like this.
[39:02] Ah no he sounded like uh and i he sounded like an 80s you know bar band saxophonist that's because that's exactly what it was who can it be now i'm in at work right but the horns just hit you right up front um and uh the the sax solo like in the middle and then And, you know, a really cool, as we talked about, you know, it's got a hard ending, which is great. But in the end, that little vamp with the B3 and the piano, like Justin said, the music all around, you just, you can't listen to it and not smile and not feel like that was the energy when it was being recorded.
[39:51] So the one note that I wrote here too that I think is really cool. Um and it kind of speaks to what you guys were saying is like a like a a letter to music but he described the bridge bob did uh as being essentially the sensational alex harvey band and if you don't know anything about the sensational alex harvey band just look it up just youtube it and i'll leave that there um you know i guess i'll call it like the canadian david Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust years is, is probably a good way to describe it. So, um, but how cool is that? That like throwing that right in, right in after you get these two rockers and now he's going glam and, um, yeah, this just brilliant, uh, brilliant, brilliant, uh, title track song.
[40:47] I really liked the, speaking of the bridge, the sort of chromatics and the bridge. And then at the very end, it blends into the final chorus.
[40:59] So, you know, luster parfait, hey, hey, which I thought was very cool. Um yeah and speaking of the lyrics at the at the start it says isn't it funny how little we can do how much we are like a scene from the deluge and i looked up a scene from the deluge because it was capitalized and i found a painting called scene from a deluge from 1806, and it's a pretty wild painting i'll just read the description really quickly the man perched on a rock hangs from a from a tree that is beginning to break he tries to pull up his wife and two children all while supporting on his back an old man who carries a purse in his hand the sky is streaked with lightning like justin right now and a cadaver floats in the agitated water it's a pretty i'll just hold my screen it's pretty wild um anyways uh pretty wild so i'm not sure what he's getting at but uh but yeah definitely what's the lyric yeah it's the it's the intro isn't it funny how little we can do how much we are like a scene from the deluge, which as you describe it, it was pretty, uh, pretty stark. Yeah. Like, yeah.
[42:26] Yeah. Like he's hanging on to like his wife and two kids with one arm, like by her one arm. So I guess there's not too much he can do.
[42:35] Other quick notes. I just want to mention the horns. So the horns, the saxophone is played by Tom Keenleyside, who is a local Vancouver-based saxophone flautist. And he has been all over. He has played with so many different artists. and actually the very first cassette i ever bought back in grade seven i think i just finished grade seven and i was in the kitchen i can still i remember exactly where i was and on the radio came, rag doll by aerosmith 1987 and i was drawn in by the horns because i i'm i started playing saxophone in grade six so i was drawn in by that and steve tyler's voice and that song grabbed me right away I took my money from my piggy bank and I bought a Walkman and a cassette tape you know the next day and that's really where my journey with rock music started and so Bob Rock was the engineer on that album Permanent Vacation and Tom Cunley side played the saxophone so I thought there's a cool kind of full circle for for me personally um you know seeing that he was the one And because as soon as I heard horns, I knew it was him. Listen, I don't know where you would put a showcase track on a record from a sequencing standpoint.
[44:02] Music.
[50:44] The vocals uh that are going on in this um you got and then going back to bob and all the guitars like you've got acoustic guitars you got two lead guitars you've got what sounds almost like what i know as like a slack hawaiian slack guitar it sounds like a pedal steel but there's nothing in the liner the the the pedal steel song is not this song um it's got that kind of a you know of acoustic and slide in the beginning and and then you've got this the chorus that just uh you know it's uh it it it's like a dump truck of love coming down with this massive gourd here i am and and you understand why many people call it their favorite and uh a song that is seven minutes in 26 seconds and sounds like it's maybe a couple minutes so when you know that a song that's that long can just like you get lost in and you don't even think that it's that long you know you know it's it's obviously very very well written craig what were your thoughts i thought the.
[52:02] Yeah the chorus was was what made it and the moment is a wild place reminded me of you know like a theme throughout his work about living in the moment where whether it's the dance and its disappearance or never ending ending present and i'm sure there are many others i know we've discussed them on this podcast so that was really really a great tie-in um the hawaiian guitar i loved as well at the start and you know you have to think that it is bob rock playing that so it you know he lives in maui much of you know much of the year from what i've heard and And, you know, he's soaking up all that Island music and, and yeah, my only other real note was, um, like a couple of quick things. Sean Nelson is the drummer on this track and the last one who I had to look up and he's actually, um.
[52:54] Not someone who's played on a ton of high profile albums or anything. He's a drum instructor out of, I believe, San Francisco, I read. And, you know, very cool that he had that opportunity to work on this album. And one last thing, the piano flourishes at the end, reminded me of Dr. P from the country of miracles, which was very cool. Nice callback. Wow. Yeah. That's a great. Yeah. Justin, how about you? The moment is a wild place. Well, you know, I keep referencing my love of Prague and this sounds like a pink board. I can see that.
[53:38] I love that it's long. I love that it's got, they use all 88 keys. You know, from low to high, it's It's really just a beautiful song, and the lyrics remind me of Secret Path. Heal. I don't know. There's definitely some tie-ins in my brain to Channing and his story. I don't believe that. Wow. Because this was probably written before secret path was even in chords around the same time around the same time it was birthed.
[54:24] Yeah. But you know, I just, yeah, I think this is one of the songs that Bob said that Gordon heard completed before he passed.
[54:36] Oh, that's nice to hear. Yeah. Uh, and, but Jesus Christ, the range that this guy has, right? Like, uh, I don't know. It, it, I fall apart whenever I hear the song. It's it's in in the best of ways you hear this song and it's almost like has he not been trying all these years you know because he's like he's got this in his fucking back pocket holy shit you have this in your back pocket and you're 50 years old time gourd god the other thing that i think is is uh something i just want to comment on really quickly is somebody who deals with mental wellness and is uh working on his mental health i look at this song almost the same way i look at the darkest one in that it's got this sort of clever twist right it's like the wild are strong, and the strong are the darkest ones and you're the darkest one so it's like starts out as almost this great compliment but it turns into something else and in this song it's like hey everybody you got to be in the moment you got to be in the moment but sometimes the moment is a wild fucking place that you don't want to be in so i'm going to put a bow in this jd and you guys.
[56:04] So yeah i had mentioned earlier i was you know on the rooftop in madrid and i'm listening to the I'm listening to the Kevin Drew Niles interview, and you'd put this song in, sorry, Inside Baseball.
[56:23] This song comes on, and it turns midnight in Madrid, and frigging fireworks start going off everywhere around the city. And I don't know if it was the transition from June to July. I don't know if it was the Spain had just won their Euro cup game earlier in the day, or if it was just, you know.
[56:52] Tuesday in Spain at midnight, we like to put off fireworks, but I'm, I'm, you know, up there. Like I said, I've had a few glasses. I'm feeling wonderful. I'm jet lagged. I'm listening to that brilliant, brilliant, brilliant interview. The song comes on and fireworks start shooting off quite literally in the middle of it. So the moment is a wild place. Yeah, sure fucking is. Boy. Well, let's move to track five and something more. Craig, how do you feel something more lives up to its role as a follow-up song for The Moment is a Wild Place? This is a tour de force song and a showcase piece. Is this the right sequencing order? I'm just curious what you think. Yeah, that's a good question. I'll need to think about that some more, but I do think the song was quite good. It reminded me, vocally reminded me of like earlier Gord.
[57:58] And it's the first song on Lester Parfait that did sound like a previous version of Gord. The horns are great, which is what makes it sound so it doesn't just sound like a copy of something that he did earlier. There were some great dissonant guitar shots that were very cool and a little horn part. And of course, we have to shout out the drummer on this song because it is none other than Johnny Faye, who makes an appearance a number of times on this album. And you can tell. He just has such a great... He's playing on an album with Pat Stewart, with Abe, and he fits right in there because he's just such a musical player.
[58:46] He has such a great tone to his drums always, and it was just a treat to hear him again. He's also listed as backing vocals. I think that's on a later track. I think track number 11, I think, for some reason. Oh, okay. All right. Right. But speaking of vocals, I have in my notes that Johnny Faye said this was Gord's best vocal ever recorded, hip or otherwise. I've never heard – I've been listening to him since 1989, and I've never heard anything like this. Right, right. There's a lot of strong, strong Gord vocals. And he's also got a very powerful voice. We know that because watching a special video of his later performances where he's more guttural and screaming but holding the microphone down at his belly button. And you can still hear just how powerful his voice is. That's really wild that Johnny Faye would say that. This is the first one that, at least for the album version.
[59:58] This song is actually towards the end. So kind of wild. Or at least from a lyrical standpoint, it goes something more in the field, and then there goes the sun. So it's one of the last three songs on the album. you've got an error your album's on that skirt my album is a wild place i'm not i'm not even lying guys i'm not lying look at it right there it's third from the end odd odd that that you know as we talk about the sequencing that's the listed you know outside of the comment from johnny i just you know gothic synths driving drums bright horns really amazing solo um uh just I like it actually in the spot that we're talking about it from a sequencing standpoint, as opposed to towards the end. Because it is one of those that, I guess they're all in the MVP category opportunity, but this to me might have been in the upper quarter of MVP opportunities.
[1:01:04] What do you think, Justin? um i spent a fair amount of time on the lyrics on this one and trying to there's a lot of stuff that's in quotes um and i tried to figure out what he was referencing by a lot of stuff and the only thing this is the silliest thing that i think could have come out of this was the cool hand of a girl all i found for that was a mexican restaurant in toronto jd have you been there it's It's called The Cool Hand of a Girl.
[1:01:39] Hand of a Girl. That's the only thing that I found on the internet with those words in hand. No, I've not heard of that restaurant. No. And I did some research on the restaurant, and it's been open since before this was recorded. So was he talking about a Mexican restaurant? It's an MO, man.
[1:01:59] Yeah um i i did love the uh the line i legalize criminality and criminalize dissent i love that because i american who is fucking terrified right now and um that's where i live is where criminality is legal and dissent is criminal uh quite fucking literally, um i don't know the um you know you guys had referenced that this is this is sort of old gourd and the thing that really stuck out for me because i felt the same way it was yeah he said fuck you in this song and this album to that point feels too clean to have those lyrics, to have him say that. And the way that he says it is really live-gored, you know, the ranting voice, almost. He drags the F out in that word.
[1:03:09] I like this song. It's not my favorite. I don't know why it's not my favorite i don't know why it's not not my favorite but um yeah this song is is fine and it the the as far as the sequencing goes you know the moment is a wild place is such a deep valley um that this just gets us right back up in the air and and we're on to our next stop and And, um, I, I liked the energy of it, um, to follow, um, yeah, in a wild place. But, um, other than that, I don't know. I think it's got another showcase vocal, uh, toward the end, the latter third of the song when he goes up high. Yeah, for sure. I don't know if you guys, uh, like, I'm not going to try and sing it, but do you know the part I'm talking about where he goes up very high? Yeah. Again, that's not something we've heard from him before. Him going into a place like that.
[1:04:15] I could see the classic Gord sweat in this song. He worked hard in this one. And you know what? Moving on to Camaro, I sort of get a sweaty kind of vibe from this one, too. What do you think about this one, Justin? My first thought was, is Gord a secret car guy? like that would be amazing for you oh, No, I mean, this, this is, uh, this is, you know, you're in high school and this is the first car you can afford. Um, this is not a nice Camaro, by the way, the, I had, this is a, this is a 72 that nobody wanted and I found it for 400 bucks in the classifieds and let's go, you know, um, uh, I don't know. It's got no floor on the passenger side but everything else is cool you can see the lines on the road through the friggin' drin you can Barney Rubble it, it's a piece of shit but it's my car, it's my wheels and I love it, I actually went back and listened to other Camaro related songs.
[1:05:33] Kings of Leon and Dead Milkmen Bitchin' Camaro You know, just, just, I went back to that for some reason. I don't know. It was, it was cool to just kind of revisit that. Bitching Camaro. Did you see Justin on this particular song and this actually brings up a question for me. The song is Bob said was written because that's his wife's favorite car was a Camaro and then he gave it to Gord and Gord was like, I don't want to write about a Camaro. I'm going to write about a girl named Camaro. So the lyrics are about a girl named Camaro but the title Camaro came from bob's um and this is again this is just what bob mentioned about it um his wife's favorite car so apologies yeah and isn't that crazy isn't that totally crazy and and.
[1:06:36] Yeah. You know, a great song. Um, I have, uh, I have like talking heads listed as kind of a vibe in, in, in a lot of them actually have a real, you know, kind of eccentric talking heads, kind of odd jazzed influence horns, um, as well. So, yeah, but anyway, love that. It's a girl named Camaro. Great. I love the line of the chorus, Camaro, the name means just what you think the car can do, go. Just the way he phrases it is just very odd. Until I read it, I didn't realize what he was trying to say at the end.
[1:07:16] And yeah, just very cool phrasing. it reminded me of um i couldn't get the simpsons out of my head the canyonero canyonero, but that's just where my mind went but my also my dad had he's currently rebuilding a uh a 1980 camaro in silver so i'm uh i actually just texted him to see if he could text me a picture of it but he's uh he's a car guy and yeah he's working on one as we speak so So it did bring back a memory that I had repressed from high school where I got a ride with a buddy's sister's boyfriend who had a Trans Am, you know, like a Burt Reynolds Smokey and the Bandit vintage. And we went 140 miles an hour on the way home. That's the only time I was certain that I was going to die was in the backseat of that car. And it's a Trans Am, not a Camaro, but same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Night.
[1:08:15] Music.
[1:12:50] The North Shore is the first track on the record to me that sounds like vintage hip. It could be at home on Day for Night, a different production version of it could have been on Fully Completely, maybe even Hen House. It's of that sort of vintage. Am I totally crazy, or am I barking up the right tree, Kurt? Yeah i mean i have i have written uh alt rock style um kind of ballad so you know that's i think that hip would fall into that that uh realm but the song sounded big to me it got big you know it starts off with that kind of acoustic piano in intro and um and and the cool thing like most scored lyrics is like is he talking about the north shore of maui is he talking about the north shore of you know lake ontario everyone because like everyone kind of has a north shore, and um i i uh i i i just appreciate again the his ability to um.
[1:14:05] Keep you guessing and keep us talking for many more episodes of podcasts to dissect Accord's lyrics. Yeah. And I recall seeing an interview with Bob Rock where he kind of mentioned the same thing. He talked about the North shore in Maui. There's a North shore in Vancouver where, you know, Bob Rock would, would know about the North shore that I actually spent the first four years of my life on the North shore in North Vancouver. And, um, I'm I'm thinking he's probably talking about the lake only because he mentions, I think it swallows, which there wouldn't be, I don't think in Maui on the North shore there. It's much too windy. There's little sparrows, I think, but I could be wrong.
[1:14:46] But, but yeah, it's meant to be for wherever your North shore is. And it really is a great song. It could be, could have been a radio hit is that, that type of song I did. This is one of those songs that earlier on I had a critique about the chorus being too generic. So the chord structure is one we've heard a million times. But then the more I listened to it, I started thinking, well, there's a reason this chord structure has been used a million times. It's powerful. And when Gord is added to this mix, it does sound original. And it sounds great. I really love the harmonies at the end in the guitar. There's some sort of like Boston seventies via seventies, like guitar rock vibe on the, on the harmonies, which I dug or like, or like almost like a thin Lizzie or something. So yeah, solid song all around.
[1:15:39] Justin, your thoughts. Yeah. I actually, um, view this as a followup to the last recluse. Um, like, yep. That's all that to me lyrically. Um, I also went back to Summer's Killing Us from In Between Evolution, because I really do love the lyrics about one more breeze and summer's complete. And then at the end, he goes back to summer lowers its flag now. And obviously the word is summer. And so that is my tie in. But, you know, the the uptempo of summer is killing us and summer exists at the fair. Right you know like this is yeah summer kicks ass and then this is the end of it like we're going back to school now and uh the leaves are falling off of the trees and you know it just um i also really loved the line we occurred to each other 48 hours a day how fucking amazing is that line um when you're in love holy hell that's that's all you think about and um.
[1:16:52] Fingers and toes 40 things we share you know uh yeah or fireworks um yeah believing in the country of me and you that's what it was yeah yeah yeah i agree with the last recluse reference though and the way he sings it is actually very similar to we held hands between our bikes it's very and if you've seen the video for the last recluse as well they actually show that with you know these two kids with their yeah well um track number eight is this nowhere kirk this song like i even have i told you about my nights at the ihop i would go after work here over the last couple days and and it's the right next to the hotel and it's simple and so i wrote this on a little napkin holder and my note says it's the same phrasing as one from.
[1:17:42] You too i'm sure you guys all that's right yes yeah so and then all of a sudden what's that justin reference to it too midway through the song oh yeah it it's not getting better like he's bull right he is ripping this song he's admitting yep that's a great pick up justin yeah good friend right and then you have one more coffee in the bill which is gonna come up later as one of the lyrics and the backing that the chorus just boom shade shade of all now is that someone that you guys were familiar with ahead of this because I didn't know anything about her until I did the research Justin yeah No, Craig has a story. So Che, Amy Dorval is someone I had to look up because I heard the vocals on this song and I was so blown away by the backing vocals that I had to look her up. And she's from here. She's from Vancouver.
[1:18:49] And I think she may be based out of Toronto now. I'm not quite sure. She has a couple of dates coming up in Portland and Seattle, I believe, but nothing here. So I was hoping to go check her out. But yeah, it turns out she worked with Devin Townsend on a project called Casualties of Cool. And so I went onto YouTube and looked that up. And it's very, very cool. Kind of like ambient stuff with just beautiful vocals. And yeah, Devin Townsend is a local musician who, yeah, I remember playing back in 95, sharing a bill with him when he played in a band called Strapping Young Lad. And now he's like a, you know, worldwide world, you know, renowned, uh, musician. And, uh, yeah, we have a, yeah, we have a bit of a band connection with him too. That I won't get into on, on air, but yeah. I want to love you.
[1:19:45] That's so cool and then just my last two things on this song um, bob wrote five songs on her solo album and i don't know that he helped with the production he may have been the producer on it but he he wrote five songs with her very in a similar style that um he did with gourd but this is the part that gutted me gourd didn't hear the vocal, It was added after he passed.
[1:20:43] I mean you know there's so many haters out there you know he the guy produced the the biggest album of the 90s like the the biggest decade for music um you know i'm pretty sure sales wise yeah i'm pretty sure the 90s as far as like you know you know actual physical product i gotta say this about bob he gives two fucks yep and it's just good for good for him to work with two he just he's living in maui with his wife and his horses and spending time with his kids and you know try you know yeah oh yeah i got to deal with this bon jovi album or this you know offspring album whatever else and then i'm gonna go and wake up and pick one of my 700 guitars and he's got he's got like just he's got he's got music for days but he doesn't sing so i mean he does a little backup vocals or whatever else but i love that about because you know i'm kind of teetering on this i love the bob rock hip albums and of course i am loving this album and and i appreciate the other stuff that i mean metallica that you know that i think that especially if you're a musician like i think i know every main riff from the black album i can't play it all but i know all the riffs of you know sandman and and um and i loved watching that documentary you know almost swore out the VHS. So I'm telling you how old I am again.
[1:22:08] Yeah. Another thing about that song, I love the part after the chorus. There's that melody, the da-na, da-na, just at first it kind of throws you, but it's a really great choice.
[1:22:20] And I'm going to give a little critique here. This guitar solo kind of kills me. It, it, it's just so generic and kind of boring. And actually now that you bring up the videotape of the, the Metallica, I think it's called day in the life of, I used to have a video VHS copy of that too. And there's a, there's a time on that when he's giving Kirk Hammett such a hard time about the solo. I think it was the unforgiven maybe. And he's just like, no, do it again. Do it. Gotta do your homework. Gotta do your homework. You don't do your fucking homework. So I was picturing like Kirk Hammett being in there, like giving him a hard, like hard time. And, you know, he needed, he needed Bob rock and needed a Bob rock on this song. I think.
[1:23:07] Well, again, I think it comes, it comes from the fact though, too, that we've been listening to, you know, these bands and, and these records that have such a feel to them, you know, a cohesive feel. Feel and this record doesn't have that same sort of cohesive feel it's it's all over the place right 14 songs 14 songs that's in in in all the things you read he he gave him 14 songs and he got 14 songs back there was no added there was no cut it was 14 14 straight across and and at no point did i see anything that said like okay this this track was written in 1985 this track was It was written in 2010. It just was part of his cadre of music that he's had lying around. And again, I'd really be interested to know if the titles are Bob's or Gord's. I'd be really interested to know. I guess ultimately it would have come down to Bob in the end. But I'm sure he would have respected it. I think Gord, in their discussions, they would have had. I'm sure. But you're right. I mean, they are co-producers.
[1:24:23] Co-writers of the of the record yeah craig i'll put a bow on your statement this was sorry i'm i'm getting a little too flowery with the bob rock quotes and everything else but his statement was budget wise i was the only guitar player available, so there's your answer to the solo okay okay sorry bob i i really i should say i i'm a bob rock fan i love both of the hip albums he did and and like i already mentioned my permanent vacation story and also sonic temple was a big one for me when i was young and that was his yeah me and my buddy found that cassette tape on the side of the road by my dad's work someone had thrown it out the window or something and we found it no no case just the tape and took that home and And yeah, so I'm a big, big Bob rock fan. So sorry, Justin. Yeah. I mean, apart from the backing vocals, I don't love this song. Um, and I think it's kind of the reasons why you guys said it's just not something musically doesn't do it for me. Um, and that's no disrespect to anybody, but the, you know, the background vocals are just so freaking stellar that it's it props the song up probably higher than it should rank for me.
[1:25:48] Um yeah and i really you know i didn't care for the youtube the youtube riff and and it just it's just strange right it pulls you out it almost pulls you out of the song because you're like thrust into another song but like i said i do i do appreciate that gourd references the u2 song yes and says it's not getting better that's very cool okay all right well then we know what we're doing at least yeah good on him for for recognizing that and i'm guessing it was just an accident then he he either he noticed it or someone else pointed it out and then yeah know, I'll just add a lyric in here and it's all good. I think it's better than one personally. The next song is To Catch the Truth. Kurt, we'll start with you. Yeah, man. So here we go. We got a ska song, a frigging ska song, in my opinion. No doubt, Mighty Mighty Boston's, whatever your flavor is. But.
[1:26:51] I love ska. I love ska. My wife loves ska and we grew up in Orange County. I used to go see No Doubt, play at colleges and play at local bars and crap like that.
[1:27:07] And Mighty Mighty Boston is probably the – not even probably, by far the loudest concert I've ever been to, leaps and bounds. But gorge's doing a ska tune um west coast punk was uh was mentioned in a couple of the reviews that i saw vancouver's scene dug in the slugs um it's just a fun great song you know the beauty of ska at least from my standpoint so um loved it absolutely loved the tune jay dog yeah i uh remember very fondly uh watching real big fish in a very small room and um river city rebels were a big ska band horn band here in burlington and i used to you know sneak into shows underage and and love it um it's a fun song it's just fun and um gourd packs a lot into this song um it's i don't really have any any critiques yay or nay other than man i remember being 15 16 years old and going to these shows and having a hell of a good time when i first heard this song the the amount of compression bothered me it's just like.
[1:28:31] You know squished and also i found it strange i was thinking in the realm of like goldfinger or something like that and in what in one channel you've got the guitar the other side you've got the piano and i found the way the piano was so clean was a bit bothers bothersome at first, and i had a note i wish it was almost like rag timed up a bit like or you know a bit like maybe even a bit out of tune or just something to give it a little bit of personality that would be my one see this is the song that i felt was like the the mouth i did yeah i think it was the piano a melody but what i mean is is the actual sound yeah no but not the sound i i hear what you're saying craig it was too clean it needed to be like someone had a mic in the room of a saloon with some out of tune piano and then that would have been the that would have been the flavor that would have been the added that well because i like my note west coast punk like you don't tune up when you're playing punk songs you play what's on the friggin guitar that's exactly what So I hear that. I think that's a very fair, very fair criticism.
[1:29:37] After listening to it on the CD last night, though, I found that it wouldn't have worked if it was done as a more sort of raw punk or like, if it wasn't compressed in that way, the vocals would not have popped in the same way. And so I think it was probably the right choice in hindsight. But like I said, if it could be just dirtied up a bit in some way, I think I would have enjoyed it a little bit more. I did like the beginning. It's kind of like a strange introduction. There's also those hard stops at the end. What's real? What's fake? There's not a dirty song on this record. You know, this record is not, it's not got, it is like that Camaro. Somebody's out polishing it with a shammy. It's pristine and clean. Let me howl.
[1:30:29] Music.
[1:36:30] This was one of my favorites. Really enjoyed this song. Really strong melodies. It's unlike any other song in style. And again, we keep coming back to this, but it does not sound like any other Gord song. Doesn't sound like any other song on this album. Very much like an 80s vibe musically. There's a, you know, because I've criticized some solos, I will say I did enjoy the clean guitar solo on this song. And then there's a sax solo that comes in over top of that and i like how that how the tempo goes into halftime and then it kicks back in at the end yeah solid song so i got i got big money from rush in the intro that's what it felt like to me okay so just think of that synth you know.
[1:37:21] Big money when before it comes in so but you're right man that that breakdown with the guitar and the sax i just kept repeating that i freaking loved that like and you know you guys you know i i'm i like the dead and and one of the reasons why i think i like the tragically hit because they are jam band no matter what you say they are jam band and they're not going to go off into crazy solos well they did go off into crazy gourd vocal solos you could say right but you know rob's not ripping it for 25 minutes and and you know breaking out the wall and making sure you're you know timing your dose just right but um it it i i love that part to this is that um that that that breakdown. Cause you just, and again, and I'm also a big rush fan. So that intro, so yeah, yeah, this is one of those, like I said, I didn't have my MVP, but this was definitely like a strong, strong candidate. And then my final note on this, this was the last vocal recorded before he was diagnosed is some research that I did. So this was the last vocal was let me before, before he was diagnosed entirely for me.
[1:38:41] Not necessarily the meaning, but just context. Wow. Been hitting the head with the shovel here. Who else needs to talk about Let Me Howl? I think it's just Justin, right? Who, me? Yeah. Yeah, the sax makes me feel like I'm driving a cab in Manhattan in 1986.
[1:39:06] And it's raining out. you know uh it's so freaking cool and it's a long song and it does weird things i remember the first time that i heard it i thought that we were going to have a fade out on the on that half you know the the slower beat um or the half time whatever you want to call it and, and then out of nowhere this massive film and and we're back and we're faster than we were before, right like it there there's a sense of urgency at the end of the song like let me howl here like i'm i gotta get this out and um it's really really fun like again it's, you can slow dance to this song and you can boogie to this song and you can, i don't know it's it's really really fun and um it's up there for mvp for me it's not my mvp but it's top three or four. I also like how the chorus, let me howl. And on the word howl, he has this like glissando up, like a slow glissando up along with the harmony, which is what a wolf does. Like, um, he's not going clean from one note to another. He's got, he's, he's like slurring up to it. Okay. And like, like a wolf would do when they howl.
[1:40:30] And also there's some very slight changes to the way he sings it, I believe, if I'm remembering, if this is the song I'm thinking of, where the chorus slightly changes like the notes he's singing different times or the harmony changes. Something changes a little bit that I thought was really cool. I didn't listen to it today, so.
[1:40:52] Justin, hell breaks loose. What do you think? I immediately, before I knew it, I knew that this was Johnny Faye playing drums. Um yeah and uh it's it's a it's a really cool again and like i just referenced new york city um and it's in the first line of this song like and he paints the picture of walking into a bar and it's kirk watching a soccer game right uh fireworks on the roof elbow one of the very first dates with, with my, with my wife, we watched a world cup game in a, in a bar that was shoulder to shoulder and it was two teams I didn't give a shit about and everybody was cheering and everybody was drinking and it was, you know, and then one guy got pissed off, bigger screens, bigger feelings. Right. And it's, it's cool. It was a, it's a great song.
[1:41:48] Yeah. I love this song. And right away, the bigger screens, bigger feelings, of course, took me back to pill form on battle of the nudes which was my or almost my mvp track of that one, and yeah i just love the story of him yeah he's following this you know girl maybe into into the bar that he thinks he sees someone he recognizes and then and then he's trying to track her down and can't and he's sitting on the side of the road after and they're like oh don't worry man that you know they'll get it next time thinking that he's upset from the soccer game and he's upset because you can't find the girl. And yeah, just that change in the chorus from like the first chorus, this is not where all hell breaks loose. And then, yeah, I have so much to say about this song, but the chorus just is amazing. And the vocal delivery, the way the intensity builds each, like throughout the song, each time the chorus comes on, it builds a little bit. And then he nails that high note at the end. And yeah, just great, great performance overall, simple, but effective guitar hook.
[1:42:57] Yeah. And, and I agree about Johnny Faye. I knew it was, it was like, before I even knew that he even played on this album, I knew something sounded familiar about this. That's so cool. Yeah. And this is also the one that he does backup vocals on that I left it up. This is the track. Yeah. Okay. Right. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got, you got, from a musical standpoint, you got a little bit of a synth wash going on and, um, you know, I, I, I'd heard and also saw on, on some, another review that it almost sounds like the strings on it, but it's, it's synth, but it, it gives it kind of a string sound, uh, mid tempo groove builds up. Yeah i don't have much else to add it's a story it's it's a great tune um and uh good placement if we go to sequencing and this one is where it is on the album so yay the uh exchange with the angry guy the exchange where he says fucking guinea bastard talking about the italian player screwing up whatever and then he's told in french to fucking cool it love that delivery so good top yeah great tan all right go ahead.
[1:44:18] I was just going to say, oh, there's the Camaro. There's the Camaro. I was going to say, one of the cool things about this record is there are long songs. And when you get a long song and it kicks ass, like Kirk said earlier, it feels like two minutes. But when you get one that maybe isn't as great, it feels a little longer. And to me, this is the first track on the record that feels a little longer than the 455 that it was listed at. And that's the safest day of the year.
[1:44:46] Craig, where are you? Yeah, it was a bit odd. first and i had wondered if maybe this was like a leftover paola song or something from the 80s the offbeat guitar shots it reminded me of something they might have done he referenced that craig oh bob referenced that really he he says yeah this is just kind of a leftover no way so you hit it yeah no you hit it spot on because yeah it was in one of because i only know a couple of palest interviews i watched okay wow okay uh catchy chorus i thought very very cool like horn shots again tom keenly side and and one lyric that stuck out to me i sell the eggs i don't sit on them yeah that's all about it that's what i had for this one yeah this is a reggae tune you know but reggae a la clash not bob marley if that if that makes sense you know because clash is pretty unique band and they you know of course they did punk they did pop they They did rock and they did reggae. They, you know, they're another band that, that I really appreciate.
[1:45:51] And, and that's, I got that feel, you know, um, but a reggae tune, like we haven't really ever had a reggae tune before from, um, from, from, from Gord. And of course, Ska is, is kind of derivative of elements of reggae in it. So, um, and then this is the song that has the one more coffee and the beer throwback to the, is this nowhere. wear. So Justin, do you have any idea what day is the safest day of the year?
[1:46:21] Do you think he's talking about a specific day or just? I don't know. I would guess that it's a new year's day when everybody's hammered and waking up. I have no idea. Um, musically, this is my least favorite song on the album. Lyrically. It's one of the top selections. Interesting. Uh, the, uh, explain that. Okay. So I'm going to read a few lines here. One more coffee in the bill. Afternoon's white as smoke and zebra wound red. And worn out tradition yellow i hear a garbage truck outside the seal art of its brakes holy fuck the seal art of a garbage truck's brakes and you know exactly what that sounds like yeah it's so cool and and it made me think of you know um i think it was grand bounce there there's lots of references the color craig brought that up and you know right in there you've got white, red, and yellow in a line and a half. Great. Maybe that would have been better with Kirk's folio work. Yeah, but I...
[1:47:32] I didn't need all five minutes of the song. That's for sure. I don't know. It's just repetitive or something. I'm not sure. Yeah. How about you? Yeah, that kind of offbeat guitar shot just goes for the whole song, I think. So it makes it sound a little repetitive. So the next track on the checklist here is In the Field. And this is a different one, I think, again. Something different again. Kirk? West Coast Punk again. Got some jazz, got some soul, got some swing. Jeez. It's a contender for me. It's a contender for me. Again, the variety that you get out of all this.
[1:48:25] It's a solid tune. Solid tune. How about you? Craig? Yeah, this one was similar to, what was it? To Catch the Truth in Feel, I thought. And same thing where it had the guitar and the piano. I liked in the last verse, the guitar drops out and there's a really kind of strange sounding keyboard that replaces it. And I thought that was just a cool little effect. effect um i didn't have too much too much to say about it i like the descending vocal harmonies like in in the field of the background vocals when they're saying in the field and, yeah i wondered if if in the field was referencing maybe like the career of of music but yeah really sure yeah i don't know either i i think you're right on onto something there because he says everyone I love is still alive or not alive yet. I don't have the lyrics right in front of me or I can't find it, but yeah, You know, he does mention rock and roll several times before we rock and roll and start to die. Look at that.
[1:49:39] It's the background vocals where it says, where they go in the field, in the field. The rhythm of that messes me up every time I try to sing it because it changes two or three times. And it's not even the same line to line. Um and at first i thought it was uh triplets or something it's just not it's really not um it changes within the measure it changes within the measure um yeah like it changes where like the entrance point yeah right yeah i noticed that last night too very cool yeah um yeah it's it's definitely a punk song um it starts off and it's you know where you are immediately that's fun This one sounds, the next one, the title sounds like a Beatles track, just the title, but it's called There Goes the Sun. Here Comes the Sun, There Goes the Sun. It might be a direct reference, actually. Yeah, but it also feels like you walked into the bar, it's late at night, got a piano player with a cigarette hanging out. It's just that chill piano vocal.
[1:50:53] I have a note written from a review from someone called it Light Country Fair. And I kind of was like, I guess I could get there. But yeah, last note was Wilco. Oh, I like that comparison. Just um i i kind of love that this is the last song that we'll hear from gord as far as we know.
[1:51:23] Um i wish or i wish i could hear an isolated vocal um you know there's there's times throughout his career where he's talked about using his hotel voice, this is that i mean he is barely singing at some points and um and it really, It gets me in the feels a few times when I've listened to it. I'm just like, ah, shit, he's gone now. There goes the sun being gored. But it's just so wonderfully done. It's sort of minimalist musically. Um it's i think probably the least amount of um instrumentalist credits of any of the songs, um it's just a nice piano it's probably you know brushes on drums um and it's just a nice way to go out we start with brushes on drums and we finish our brushes on drums.
[1:52:30] Oh that was brilliant that is brilliant nice you've been waiting a whole season to say that, and i didn't even know until justin said it yeah right he does play way to hand off the baton there justin stick, And another thing Justin said at the start of this episode was about him wishing Gord could do like a Broadway musical. And this would be the song that would make me think that he could pull it off. Now, I have to say, I feel the same way about this song that Justin felt about Safest Day of the Year. This is musically my least favorite song, but lyrically, I really love it. Vocally, I really love it. Like Gord nails this song that I think if any other artist, If you put any other singer on this song, I don't think I would even play it. That's fair. Because we have learned in Gord we trust. He hasn't steered us wrong yet. And I really do love the lyrics and his performance. But there's something too perfect about the piano.
[1:53:38] And you can tell it was played by, I think I read the person who played piano in this. Is like a composer like i think he maybe was involved in the olympics or something, and he you can tell he's a professional composer in the way that his chords run together and i it's just not my it's just not a style that i enjoy to listen to i found it a little, too much like a yeah i don't know like a broadway i totally know exactly what you're talking about And it's such a juxtaposition from the way that Gord sings this song, because there's almost no rhythm with Gord on a few points where he just kind of blurs words together. You know, he jumps ahead one and a half beats on a couple of words just because he's feeling it. But the piano is so staccato in some points, you know, or it feels like every note's a clean break from the last note.
[1:54:39] Which is not what going and a couple of other things the uh the line the dream cannot be done, reminded me of secret path the wilderness can't be done from don't let this touch you i don't know if it's a direct reference but just reminded me of that and i did like how even though the piano i found to be a little like i said a little clean or a little yeah just not quite to my taste i i like the pedal steel mixed in with that so it just was a nice you know juxtaposition i think that was probably done purposefully and one last note that i i noticed the name chris wise on bass and he's a name that i know from he played he has played in the cult for a number of years now.
[1:55:23] And that you know that bob rock has recorded a number of yeah i did not know that yeah i just picture bob pulling in people over the years just oh hey do you want to play on this track and even probably before he knew it was going to be for gourd because like like we said earlier these were songs that you know gourd asked bob if he had any songs and so a lot of these would have been written prior to them even knowing this was going to be a project, so i just did a quick little search he's played with the cult ozzy osbourne ace freely from kiss fame and the Hollywood vampires. You guys know who they are? Yeah.
[1:56:02] Joe Perry and- Yeah, it's like a super group with, yeah, exactly. Johnny Depp, Joe Perry- Oh, and Alice Cooper, right? Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Buck Johnson, Chris Wise. That brings us to the end of Lust for Fanny. So the question that I tend to ask at the end of a track by track breakdown is, do you intend to keep this? And Justin, you're disqualified from this question because you've been sitting on this for the last six months. But do you keep this in your rotation, Kirk? I do.
[1:56:44] I mean, I think I mentioned it on a prior episode, like I can't wait to not have the pressure of this podcast and doing research and taking notes. And I mean, I loved it and I do it all over again in a heartbeat, but I also can't wait for, I mean, maybe organic is a bit of a stretch because we've already done like deep, deep, deep listening. But like, I'm ready for it to just be some good background music. Like when you'd grow up and you get an album and you didn't have to sit there and listen to it intently. And, but then you'd hear it so many times that it just becomes part of your DNA.
[1:57:25] And I, I, I'm so excited about that opportunity because we had such a great foundation with all of these albums. albums, but this one, you know, outside of the music by itself, it's going to be one just because I love the story around it. And I love the relationship, you know, cause I can hear the love in all of the tracks. I can hear the friendship between Gord and, um, and, and Bob Rock and all the various musicians. And, and the fact that this, you know, this was over a decade, essentially that, you know, this took place and just knowing some of the roots of, of some of the music and some of the lyrics. And, um, so, uh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Where it falls in the, you know, uh, Pantheon of all the Gord albums. I'm not quite sure yet. That's going to take me a bit, but, um, it's, I, I, I'm excited about listening to this, uh, not under pressure.
[1:58:26] Craig? I will definitely keep listening to this album. In fact, I'm going to keep it in the car stereo for a little while still. I'm going to see if the sequencing is an issue or if it's just what I thought earlier, that I just kind of had heard the first few songs more times than the others. I just enjoy hearing these songs. They're just starting to catch my ear. So i feel like if i'm listening on on my apple music it'll be on shuffle and if not i'll, yeah i'm definitely going to come back to this album i think it's there are things that i could nitpick but this isn't meant to be necessarily a cohesive album that was all you know this wasn't written all in one session this wasn't something that happened over a year or two this is like Kirk said, like 10 years. And even at the end, he came back and redid the first song.
[1:59:24] We can't expect it to be a perfectly cohesive album. And I think that it can almost be seen as a strength of the album, the fact that it's not. Because it does go into different places that are interesting, that Gord's Never Gone. Even the last song that I didn't love, of i appreciate it because he was doing something different i don't want to hear, back in black you know 13 times i want to hear a band and you know i love acdc but i want to hear a band progress over time not be stuck in one you know sound for their entire career and and gourd you know as well or better than anyone i can think of has done that and it's just been awesome god Absolutely.
[2:00:10] So Justin, are you coming back to this one? I'm actually going to put it down for a while because I've listened to it so many times in the last couple of weeks because I love it, but I think I've overdone it. But yes, this will definitely stay in my rotation. And I loved it before, before I knew that I was going to be talking about it. Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely, you know, like I said, my daughter listens to a few songs. Of gourd's songs or hip songs or whatever and luster parfait the the song is one that she really likes and i'm so i have to listen to it whether i want to or not, Well, we're going to stick with you, and we're going to get your MVP track. I don't know if it's the moment or let me howl. I think if I was pushed, I would say the moment is a wild place as my MVP. Can't go wrong with that, Justin. Cannot go wrong with that. Craig, we're going to keep Kurt to the end. And give him more time to think of it.
[2:01:24] Yeah, mine, I would say this was probably the easiest choice of any album that we've done. And my pick is Hell Breaks Loose. As soon as that, maybe the second or third time I heard this song, I just, I couldn't help but just like rock. I just want to rock out. that is just so there's something about it just gets me like in a good mood it it like i i was honestly thinking i can't wait to listen to this song with you guys on a road trip you know either to or from kingston i think it's just to be a blast to hear so we got to throw it on a playlist, it's gonna be great kirk the moment of truth the raven and the red tail hawk wow Oh, hop, hop, hop.
[2:02:15] Well, that brings us to the end of this episode, but there's one thing that I want to challenge you on before I see you next. And that is so that, you know, you are going to be required at the final episode to reveal your MVP track of all your MVP tracks. We'll have it. We'll have it chart. Sadly, I think I probably could tell you. I think I probably know them all. Thank you for, yeah, if someone has them compiled and has sent them to us, please. I have them compiled in my brain, I think. DiscoveringDowny at gmail.com. Craig, that means you too. We really had a pleasure joining you today, talking about Lustre Parfait. It was wonderful. And when we next see each other, it will be here in Toronto at the Rec Room on Friday, July 19th. Tickets are on sale at DiscoveringDowny.com. And grab a friend. You know somebody who likes the hip? Bring them along. We got a ton of great silent auction prizes, one of which we alluded to off the top from the Tragically Hip. You're going to have to come to the show to see this one. So there's that.
[2:03:29] On behalf of Craig, Justin, and Kirk, this is JD signing off. Pack up your shit thanks for listening to Discovering Downy to find out more about the show and its host visit DiscoveringDowny.com you can email us at DiscoveringDowny at gmail.com and hey, we're social.
[2:03:50] Music.
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[2:55] It is it was the opposite of that here in in beautiful vermont today it's it was a beautiful day i I think it's going to be great for the rest of the week, though. So whatever you're getting today, we'll get tomorrow.
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[3:05] Oh, that's weather with Justin. We'll be back with Craig and Traffic. Remember, news on the fives.
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[3:12] Where in the world is Kirk from Fuckachino? How's it going, man?
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[3:22] I am in Washington, D.C. Right now for work in a hotel room. so having some technical difficulties so my apologies but things are good and uh excited to continue the conversation greg.
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[3:41] What say you things.
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[3:44] Are going well a little uh a little tired after a night out uh watching the sadies last night so they played a small venue downtown and got to see the boys rock out and um yeah it was it was a pretty awesome show a big banner of Dallas in the background and yeah, some touching moments, but mostly they, they just rocked.
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[4:03] I haven't been to a live show in a little while now.
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[4:06] Super cool.
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[4:12] All right, fellas, before we get into the music, I want to talk to you about an email that I got from an organization called Lake Fever Wilderness Company. Basically, the gist of this email is that the Lake Fever Wilderness Company has submitted all the paperwork required to City Hall to get At Riverdale Park East, here in Toronto, mere footsteps from my home, renamed Gord Downie Park. I saw an article on BlogTO, and then they also gave us a couple other links to stories. But I'm hoping that our little podcast here, that people who listen to it will hear this, and you know we can build some awareness around this somehow anything you want to say about this or comment about this are you jealous and ate in your town yes.
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[5:17] That sounds like a great cause and um for what it's worth i love the song lake fever so.
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[5:25] Right Right?
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[5:26] Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's a, that's whatever we can do to help, man. That sounds great.
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[5:31] Sounds very cool.
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[5:32] I'm jealous. We, who do we get? Brian Adams Avenue.
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[5:39] Probably already have it. Don't you?
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[5:41] I don't know. I don't know. Maybe in England.
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[5:45] Really? There's not a. Right mind-blowing to me one of the top songs of all time in terms of played, everything i do i do for you right, yeah but this is not a brian adams podcast this is a podcast called discovering downy and let's pick it up where we left off last time that puts us on side two of the first record With the very candid, my first self.
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[6:47] I mean, just explains it like I remember it. And yeah. could feel all of those crazy, stupid emotions and, uh, could just totally wrap my head around and embrace, you know, the message that he was writing, you know, a piano forward tune again. You know, I think we talked about that the last one, uh, I love the vocal and the background that starts coming in uh you know echoing essentially the line um and then the last line is just classic so yeah uh it's a it's a brilliant tune in my assessment.
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[7:28] Yeah, what I liked about it is that it really instantly just takes you to a place in your own life, whether the story is one you connect with or not, it takes you back to, you know, when you were in your teens or whatever. And that's what I appreciated about this song. Another thing before the echoing vocal you're talking about there's i just noticed today for the first time very very faintly in the opposite channel is something that sounds like a, a meowing cat i think it's a person but it's almost this little it's so subtle it's almost like one of those hearing tests you get where there's a little beep and you're like did i hear that but i listened a second time and there's something that comes in about 30 seconds before for the more noticeable vocal on the other side so i.
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[8:19] Did not on that view yeah i listened to it today too actually and.
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[8:24] Um i.
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[8:26] Mean this this girl sounds cool as hell you know like he says in the song six years older so it's definitely you know she's his girlfriend but he may not be her boyfriend from what i'm picking up on you know like and and i certainly related to the you.
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[8:41] Told me off and could she be responsible for uh hooking gourd on reading because he wanted to be like her.
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[8:50] Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah interesting thought yeah yeah yeah i don't know again like i did feel a little awkward listening to this song let's.
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[9:02] Move to the next track on the record you're ashore.
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[9:05] Well this is probably the song i have the least to say about it's maybe the least memorable for me I think probably it's the type of song that if it's about you it's probably a maybe a bit of an inside joke or I'm not really sure what the you know what it's about who it's about, I appreciated the gentleness in his voice. I was glad that it was the length that it was because it was not my favorite. What did you guys think?
Track 5:
[9:38] I loved it me too i uh i i uh i mean it's the shortest song on the album it's a minute 30 you know the lyrics are simple it's you know essentially you're sure you're sure repeated and a few little straight lines but the brilliant in the very beginning is you know he's strumming and then it's the let flow it down i believe is what he says and uh yeah it's um Um, I think especially amongst this body of work amongst this album, like, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of piano, there's a lot of synths, there's even some beats and things of that nature. And it was kind of nice to just get a little short acoustic ditty in my opinion. But, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a sucker for that. That's, uh, just like, just like back in the eighties, right? Every metal band had its little ballad. so uh i i love the ballads so.
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[10:38] Yeah i don't know who it's about but it's an earworm i find myself humming the tune uh quite often and there's only a few words in the song so it's not like, you know like you said craig the lyrics aren't nothing about it is really memorable but it is it does get into your brain and it's an easy little like you could just walk through the the park and just sing that all day. But yeah, I mean, it's a minute 30 and that's about right.
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[11:07] Yeah, that's about right. It's interesting you say that you couldn't determine who that's about, because I, so far, have really sucked at that game, listening to the first record. So, as we go into the second record, Gord lobs a softball at me, and even I know that this next track, Love Over Money, is about the fucking Tragically Hip.
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[11:37] Damn right it is.
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[11:39] Yeah who wants to go first here kirk.
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[11:42] Yeah i'll go first um yeah i i you know uh i would say jd i've had a similar you know a similar experience in in trying i have little parentheses in my notes of who i think the note might be or the song might be too and i you know i can't even get specifics i just write like brother you know question mark things of that nature so this one was obvious what i loved about it as well and and i think i might have mentioned it on on the last of the first the first album it's such a pop it's like a synth pop tune is what i have and this is gonna sound weird but for whatever reason when i hear the song i think of that snl skit where you've You've got like Jimmy Fallon and they're all playing like they're doing that little, you know, they do the little dance.
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[12:36] Oh, right, right, right.
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[12:37] You know, when I heard this song, I, by the second time, I just, I couldn't get that shit out of my brain. So, but just beautiful lyrics talking about the band. So direct and so loving and so to the point. To me, an absolute, brilliant Gord Downie song. I mean, you know, just wonderful, wonderful song.
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[13:06] The moment he said the line, we played to no one, and then no one plus one, I knew it was about the hip. Because I remember in 1996, a band I played in, we went across Canada two times that year, self-booked tours. And we ended up in Thunder Bay on one of the tours.
Track 3:
[13:24] And we played in a tiny club called crocs and rolls which is sort of like a legendary club in in thunder bay a guy named frank lefredo was the booker there who was kind of like a legend, in uh in music across canada and anyway frank um the first night we we played and we didn't draw much of a crowd and he said you know don't worry guys the you know first time the tragedy hit played here they played to to no one and then they played a second night and they got a couple more and the next night and you know they played i think three nights in a row on an early tour, and so that made us feel a little better and he and he um he felt bad about the the draw so when we came back um he found us a gig at another venue um for the for the drive back so that's the the memory that that comes up for me um and also the other thing the queen's jubilee uh so the reference to the um to the playing to the the deafening the husband of the queen um that would be that that show which i looked up and uh and yeah they played poets and interesting enough in that version of poets he changes the lyrics he censors himself a little bit i noticed so for the queen he he He changed bare-breasted to bare-chested, and there was one other change I can't recall.
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[14:44] Yeah, it was a great performance. I remember seeing that. I wish that I had looked it up just to bring the memory of it back, but that line stuck out to me. I remember seeing that performance.
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[14:57] And he used the laminar flow line as well in that version of Poets.
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[15:01] Oh, that I didn't remember.
Track 2:
[15:04] Wow.
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[15:05] Which ended up in Coke Machine Glow on Every Irrelevance.
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[15:11] Yeah. Obviously, the bond between those five guys is unbreakable, and this song is funny, too. I laughed at this song the first time that I heard it and heard the lyrics. We missed death and marriage and a birth. I did notice the words hotel worth, which is kind of a preview to an upcoming thing. There's a song that actually got a lot of airplay here locally a few years ago. But yeah, yep, it did. Yep, it was on the radio two or three times a day for a couple months here.
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[15:47] The love over money line um made me also think about the way that they split their royalties and i'm not sure if if it was like a 20 all the way around that would be my guess but but often the the lyricist will take 50 and then the people who wrote the music take the other 50 so you know maybe it's not that simple but the fact that all five of them were as far as i know listed on all all the all the credits sort of um you know over their career that's something that drives so many bands apart is that fight over you know well i wrote this i wrote this and like even in the band i spoke about a while ago like we had some really crazy discussions around royalties and who should get what and you know in my mind i've always been a equal share guy i don't care if you're the drummer if you're you know you wrote your part that's just you know then again i've not not like i'm making a ton of a ton of money in music or anything but but um it was nice to to see them stick together so long and the same five guys like what other band can you think of that released that many albums with the same lineup it's got to be a very very.
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[17:02] Very short list.
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[17:03] Like there may be some three pieces i mean but a five piece band think of all the potential for conflict and for you know one guy leaving it like no one there's some sleuthing.
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[17:17] Some sonic sleuthing for you listeners out there send us an email at discovering downy at gmail.com with bands that have a lineup up that was consistent with at least 15 records released? Are there any? Is there a database that you could just plug that into and get it from?
Track 3:
[17:40] No idea. I mean, Aerosmith would be close, but they had that lineup change in the mid-career.
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[17:49] Right.
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[17:51] For one album anyways.
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[17:53] Joe Perry left, right? Joe Perry and Brad Whitford.
Track 3:
[17:55] Yeah.
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[17:57] Yeah, yeah. Okay, so the next track is You, Me, and the Bees. Do I go two for two here when I say this is an ode to the Boston Bruins? Yeah. And its ability to connect with your family, particularly in this case to Gord's brother, Patrick.
Track 3:
[21:03] That sounds about right to me.
Track 2:
[21:04] Take us away.
Track 3:
[21:06] Took me right to my childhood as well. And a good friend of mine, so my friend Blair and I, we played a game called hall hockey. Hockey's in my parents basement with you know those fisher price um bowling sets we take take one of the pins and a ball and we would just hit the ball back and forth and if you hit the wall you score and we had this ongoing game every time he came over and we would you know do the play by play and we were both oilers fans so you weren't allowed to be the oilers you had to choose another team and i'll never forget the quebec nordique if you were the nordique and you you know you'd be Stastny and then you pass over to to you know Michelle Goulet and as soon as Michelle Goulet, got the puck you know you're getting a shot in the balls every single time I don't know what it was but and um yeah and then Blair became a little bigger than me and started winning every single game and then we yeah we aged out of that game but anyways that's where it took me yeah what What about you guys?
Track 4:
[22:06] Oh man, this was me and my old man playing pond hockey. Yeah, I loved the song and I loved I could tell right away that the percussion was a hockey stick scraping on the ground. I loved it. And you know, again, I laughed in this song several times and the line about the trading of George Thornton and you know, it's, I don't know, like Like, I'm so excited to get to meet Patrick Downey because it sounds like these guys just had fun the whole time. This song is that relationship. And, you know, and as a Habs fan, I freaking hate the Bruins, but I get it. You know, I totally get it. And, yeah, this is just a really cool song about your brother. You know, it's fun.
Track 5:
[22:57] Yeah, I loved the song. And I loved, I could tell right away that the percussion was a hockey stick scraping on the ground. I loved it. You know, again, I laughed in this song several times and the line about the trading of George Thornton. And, you know, it's, I don't know, like, I'm so excited to get to meet Patrick Downey because it sounds like these guys just had fun the whole time, you know, and the song is that.
Track 4:
[23:30] I, um, I really liked how Gord's voice was very staccato and this, um, he was really kind of a minimalist with, you know, he didn't drag any of the, any of the, the lines out the Bruins. You know, like just very on the beat and kind of not screwing around. Or maybe this is screwing around for him, I guess. But, you know, he turned the word Bruins into Bruins, just one syllable. And I don't know, it felt like a different approach lyrically or sonically, I guess.
Track 3:
[24:02] Yeah, that phrasing really matched the style of the song too. That sort of, like the percussion that Kirk was talking about. It just, yeah, had that staccato feel.
Track 5:
[24:11] The phrasing, thanks for bringing that up, Craig. I had just recently watched the Juno Award tribute, Dallas Green and Sarah Harmer and Kevin Hearn, I believe it was, and I believe it was the Junos. And gore you guys both talked mentioned like the way he phrases like the way he takes his lyrics and will you know enunciate them to fit into the line it is like no one else right and then when you watch this tribute and you see her singing introduce yourself and trying to you know keep the cadence that that that gourd has i guess that's a good way to describe it there's a uh, a unique cadence to it so i i was blown away by that if you guys haven't seen it you you must watch it and then when they go into bob cajun and the harmonies are just incredible but like goosebumps you know it's so incredible and then especially when she comes in with that harmony But to hear her do the phrasing was wonderful as well, because that has to be difficult.
Track 2:
[25:25] Yeah, it's what we love about him, right? His ability to twist and turn and put round pegs into square holes or square pegs into round holes probably is more difficult, in fact. Snowflake has a haunting piano line that works well with Gord's almost pastime. What do you think of Snowflakes.
Track 5:
[25:46] Kirk? Yeah, Melancholy was my note. Again, the piano is used heavily throughout this whole album, but on this song in particular. My guess at who it is to is just a girlfriend is all I wrote. Um but uh the the other note that i wrote was the the woman leaned in to say goodbye but i don't remember his name and uh just the um where is gourd going with that you know i i uh i i wondered i wrote that down as a note so um but just again uh fully emotional song.
Track 3:
[26:34] Yeah i wondered if that was almost like a reference to maybe his fading memory yeah the oh yeah i was a bit puzzled by that too craig yeah it was a very eerie song and i really loved it i love the um the jangling sounds gave it like a really eerie feeling like you're in a i don't know like a haunted ballroom of some ancient house like i just picture this as a movie when I'm listening to it the the, vocal delivery makes me wonder if it was one of the later tracks that he he did and i really love the chorus and the the reverb they put on like just like in a natural there is a ton of reverb, like way too much reverb but it works really well it's so powerful when they do it on this album not something i would normally like um yeah his voice is is gorgeous in the song um a lot of feeling to the piano playing as well by by kevin um yeah and again i had a note about phrasing when he says my name and when he says goodbye it's kind of rushed and it made me wonder if it was just a lack of time just you know doing it in one take and not worrying too much about yeah about how it came off um but again that's what we love about you too yeah yeah.
Track 5:
[27:58] You i mean craig you sing when you play takes a lot of energy um so that's that's one thing that i wondered throughout this this album in particular when like if you just say you're looking at it on your phone and you're listening and you bring up the lyrics and you're you're you're questioning some of the enunciations i guess of some of the words but it's that's gourd and that's uh you know Him making it work for that particular song. And sometimes different than what the lyrics are written as. I don't know if that's just typo type stuff or if that's on purpose. this.
Track 4:
[28:37] So I actually, I don't know, my, my thought on this was that maybe this was, um, something that he was remembering from his childhood and maybe, um, with a, an older sibling or, a relative or somebody, you know, that he knew well. And, um, the thing that stood out to me.
Track 4:
[29:00] More was the, his recollection of the lake and, um, of the house and describing everything about the scene and that this woman is somebody, an acquaintance of whoever he's walking down the road with, and they're going to see her. Um, cause there's the line, she told me to go explore the quiet rooms. Uh, it like, so this is all right, kid, go check out the house. We got stuff to talk about you know um and i actually um somehow connected this to the you know affluent woman in the video for it's a good life if you don't weaken um my my head kind of went to that music video and i don't don't know why or where that happened but um it just felt to me like it that type of house and that type of, of meeting. And, you know, and then at the end of that video, Gord leans down and whisper something into her ear and, and then, then they walk out. I don't, I don't really know why that's where I went, but, um, it's sort of a mishmash of two different things. Yeah.
Track 4:
[30:13] So like there's the song that we'll get to called the lake. When I first heard that, I thought that was about the lake, But now I think this song might be about the lake. I don't know.
Track 5:
[30:23] Just the fact that when he writes his lyrics, like, yeah, he, it's inspired by something, but it may even have a different meaning than what it was inspired by for him. And I don't think he really intends for the listening audience to do anything other than interpret it for their own selves or application. So, um, you know, I, you just, I never got the feeling like he'd be offended by that.
Track 2:
[30:49] Yeah, I can't agree with you more. Again, that's one of these great things about this performer that we all love. We can get behind that. The next song is called A Better End, and it makes me sad. Lonesome for Gord, I suppose. How does it make you feel, Justin?
Track 4:
[31:17] Yeah, the same. I mean, it sounds a lot like the Man Machine Poem album. There's some melancholy in a lot of those songs. And this album came together in a different context, but it's musically a lot similar to or very similar to a lot of the songs on there. And there are connections with the lyrics, the line, for treasure or worse. That's in, is that in Man? or machine, one of the others. You know, where God walks with persons, even the may be doomed, that line crushes me every time I hear it.
Track 2:
[32:00] Repeat it?
Track 4:
[32:02] Where God walks with persons, even the may be doomed. And, you know, there's an end to that sentence, right? There's a finality in that one. And I don't know. I don't know who it's about. The song is called A Better End, but he says bitter. Um you know and that only at the very end of the song does it say the better end um so maybe there's some letting go you know i i i don't know yeah.
Track 5:
[32:37] I i uh i have a description written as dark melancholy but then my final note was a plea and that to me as i think you had mentioned, Craig, you know, maybe it was to a family member. And I kind of felt like it was to all family members and all of his like close friends, like, this is the letter, like, this is it. And so I just wrote a plea, question mark. And the beat, I think we talked about this before, you know it's it had the clock feeling to me throughout um and then like you had mentioned justin uh you know you you the title's a better end the the lyric that he uses is stay to the bitter end but it stayed in the bitter end and uh uh just uh, He's put out so much energy at this point, you know, because it is when they've recorded this, you know, it's 20, 2017. They've done the they've done the. The tours, he's done the secret path stuff like he knows what's coming, he knows the bitter end and he gave everything he could. And this is like his like, hey, somebody give me some energy for, you know, here for a better end.
Track 3:
[34:04] Yeah, I wondered if this was a close family member maybe saying to stay with me until the bitter end. Really, yeah, this was an emotional song, but it's also the type of song that's going to keep bringing me back to this album. I love this song. i found that again another powerful chorus with that big reverb sound and the way he belts out songs like this and snowflake and uh in the choruses is a real strength of this album nancy and yeah just a very powerful um i i had a note i would be interested to hear a heavy version of the song like a full band version um yeah but yeah haunting piano it gave me um secret path vibes it felt very much like musically could have been on secret path he.
Track 4:
[35:02] He hits a lot of different spots um um in his range too he sings very deeply and then he sings very high um there's There's a lot of, you know, he's probably in three octaves or maybe four during the song. Probably three.
Track 2:
[35:22] Yeah. So when I hear this song, I think of it, I think of an LP, like an old LP, like a 72, you know, RPM record. And I picture it being played on my grandparents' couch-sized hi-fi. It just sounds, it sounds old. It sounds authentic.
Track 5:
[35:50] Authentic it sounds like a needle you know the indie rock on the vinyl right it.
Track 2:
[35:56] Sounds like which sorry.
Track 5:
[35:57] It sounds like the needle on the vinyl it's just yeah it's you you and then you got that the dining you know the the dining room or whatever recording that's going on in the background and then and then it just sounds like they have the actual, you know the the needle and the vinyl that that that that static sound going it's it's brilliant it's a little soft guitar it's it's a sweet song it really is it's a sweet song yeah.
Track 3:
[36:28] And the way he sings it too it's almost like a bit of a like a shaky vocal like a bit of a warble to his voice which maybe it was actually maybe they added an effect to make to give it that vinyl quality to it. But I think maybe it's just his, I think it's just his performance. And when I say shaky, I mean, in a deliberate way, I talked last week about how I can't think of any singer who has as many qualities to his voice as Gord and he does it better than anyone. Yeah. Yeah.
Track 2:
[37:09] But then it did go away. You know, sort of, right? Yeah.
Track 3:
[37:17] When he wanted it to, yeah. He just gained so much control over his voice. He had power from early on, but then he developed different subtleties. And when he gets into an album like Secret Path, and he's singing sort of in character, he can just go into all these different places depending on the emotion of the song. And another note about Nancy is, first of all, I'm guessing it's about a sister. I didn't actually look up the names of his sisters, but that's just my guess. I liked how it talked about the beginning, the middle, and the end. And Gord forever being the storyteller. He's always thinking in terms of story. Just a little nugget I picked up. And the conversation at the beginning too when they're just starting to hit record he's talking about his cuff link.
Track 4:
[38:16] It's a good one.
Track 2:
[38:17] It is. It's really good. And I think on first listen, it would have been bottom third for me. And now it's firmly somewhere in the middle third. Like, it has a crack top third for me. But, you know, it's moved up for sure.
Track 4:
[38:36] Yeah.
Track 3:
[38:37] I feel like this album gets better as it goes on. I actually prefer the second half.
Track 5:
[38:42] That's fair.
Track 3:
[38:43] Um i think at first i really enjoyed the first half more maybe because i was really preparing for that first half um for our pod but i i love the the second half yeah i.
Track 4:
[38:57] Actually very much agree with that i think for me it starts to really get good at you're ashore and like i said it's it's a kind of a forgettable song but the the tone sort of changes isn't that wild yeah well.
Track 2:
[39:11] We are at the last song of the first side the remarkably upbeat think my about us.
Track 5:
[41:21] This is brilliant. This song is brilliant for me from the first listen to the critical listens in the middle to listening again just recently before this. And just the way it made me feel, the swagger it had, the message it had, um that just incredible descending piano line um it it was uh it it it's up there for me it's really really really up there i love love this tune i.
Track 3:
[42:03] Agree this is a masterful song really it's just it comes at a place on the album.
Track 3:
[42:11] Where you really need something that's a little, kind of cute is the word i'll use and you've got that little piano melody that almost just sounds like a finger exercise you would do if you're learning how to play piano and some really cool sounds on the synth or maybe it's a theremin but i'm pretty sure it's a synth, and i also had a note that the the drums enter in an interesting way the bass and drums come in and just maybe a spot you're not quite ready for and yeah just just like a playful song that i really enjoy just super catchy i i wish the world could hear this music like i wish more people, would give this a chance because it should be words were i mean maybe this is my thesis for the end of this whole thing but gourd's work should be appreciated like like josh even said like they're both up they're both equal they're both amazing yeah.
Track 4:
[43:09] I had the word super catchy exactly the same in my in my notes and i really don't have a lot of other notes about this song but i i can't stop listening to it i know that um it's a yeah it's a it's a and you're right craig it came at the right time um in the sequencing um it was needed in this spot.
Track 3:
[43:31] It's a little heavy before that.
Track 2:
[43:32] Right?
Track 3:
[43:33] Yeah, and it's going to get heavy again. Yep, that's right. Really heavy.
Track 2:
[43:37] I learned a really valuable... I gained access to some valuable experience today, when I was preparing for this recording, because it's the first time that I've flipped the record over, and had to tackle the final five songs that we ever get to hear from Gord Downie, or so we thought at the time. You know, like, we didn't know there was going to be posthumous releases.
Track 5:
[44:17] Right.
Track 2:
[44:19] We knew he wrote this right before he passed, So either way, you know, it's fucking heavy. Craig, when you think of The Road, do you think of that as heavy?
Track 5:
[44:35] Yes.
Track 3:
[44:36] Wow, The Road, this song destroys me. Again, there's a bit of a theme on the album in a few songs about The Road, about missing out on life events. Yes. On, you know, the sacrifice. Of you know being a touring musician um you know a dream that i had when i was young and it didn't work out and you know i'm you know thankful for the life i have um and you know i'm sure gourd was as well but man like it had to be there had to be some really tough times being out away from your family all the time and missing things and um anyways this song is so good and the um the thing i want to say about this is when the drums come in there's no hi-hat it's just sort of kick and snare and that space really sets the the mood for this song um you know along with you know the piano of course um and there's one line i want to point out the machines are somewhat suitable now um you know is that is that the hospital machines is it is it a reference to man machine poem um i'm not sure but but this song like.
Track 3:
[46:06] Depresses me almost as much as the the book the road which destroyed me when i was um a young parent uh you know or not you know i wasn't young but my my son was young and if you you know um cormac mccarthy's the road it is absolutely devastating it is the a book that took me well i've never gotten over it really and the movie as well i watched the movie and it took me about six months to watch the movie i had to watch it like a little bit at a time when i was in the right headspace and it just it is if you haven't read it's maybe don't but it's incredible um but this this yeah if you name something the road it's probably going to destroy me well.
Track 4:
[46:51] So I had a bit of an awakening about three years ago when in May of 2021, my wife had something that she had to do at work late at night or 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, whatever. And she couldn't be home to make dinner. And it was like a Tuesday or something. I don't know. And she messaged me during the day and said, you need to be home and make Evelyn dinner tonight. night. Evelyn's our daughter. And at the time she was, uh, almost four and I got home and I realized, holy shit, I've never made dinner for my daughter before. Um, I was working 80 hours a week and I was missing everything. And my wife had an Instagram account for our daughter. And that was the only way that I was keeping up. I lived in the same house, but I wasn't in the same family. You know what I mean? And yeah, the song brings all that back and made a big life change that very night. I sent a long message to my boss and said, we got to talk tomorrow, but I'm going to get it all out right now. Cause if I didn't say it now, I'm not going to say it. And I told him I'm done at the end of the year. I've I'll stick with you for my commitment through this year, but but I'd put 10 years into my job and missed everything in that 10 years. And, um.
Track 4:
[48:16] Give Gord another three decades on top of that. Um, I don't know who the song's about and I guess it doesn't matter, but, um, but obviously it matters, but, um, yeah, I, I really identified with the missing everything and even going back to the song about, um, uh, what is it? Love over money, um, about the band, you know, we missed funerals and births and all this stuff. And yeah, that's me. I've been there, man. I've, I still, to some degree, I'm there a little bit, but, um, yeah, I missed my daughter's first four years of her life.
Track 5:
[48:54] Everyone knows in this group here, I'm on the road all the time. I'm talking to you from a hotel room in, in Washington, DC. And, um, and so, I mean, Justin, I think this is actually a letter to the road and a letter to everyone that he's been on the road with, including his wife, his part, you know, his, his kids, his bandmates. It's, it's that, you know, that's that life you choose, you know, whether it's a traveling musician, whether it's a a traveling salesman, whether it's a, you know, a producer. Um, and, and, and it's, uh, it's tough, but when you're not on the road, if you are a road person, it's your, your, you know, jittery, you're nervous, but how do you, how do you give to your family and to yourself and to your job and to your art? And, uh, he wouldn't have been able to do that without the road. So but you know it's a blessing and a curse um i we mentioned this about another song here and this one i wrote was also a song that could have been on secret path was the note for me.
Track 4:
[50:17] Yeah yeah but musically yeah again.
Track 5:
[50:19] We there's not enough hours in the day right lads to uh just talk about the amazing insight and that we have it here you know to listen to to watch to read to just just beautiful.
Track 4:
[50:36] Well there's there's that point where you know you're you're young and and full of energy and you've got these huge goals and then you start to achieve them and then at the same time you have this other life going on behind the scenes that has always played second fiddle to that and then you realize at some point you're too deep into the pursuit to stop now but that this other life that was didn't even exist when you started uh has now taken the spot you know is number one on your on your pecking order and how the hell do you make that change without destroying everything that you've created you know yep.
Track 5:
[51:14] Oh you are the bird.
Track 2:
[51:18] Yeah it's uh it's a slow and lovely song right what do you think about it kirk to.
Track 5:
[51:28] Me this this was uh uh, uh, just a letter. It seemed like a letter to a sibling, right? You, you became the bird you, uh, and then it just, it made sense. And, uh, um, um.
Track 5:
[51:44] I, it, it starts getting heavy after a while, right? When you, when we break, I mean, we talked about it with the last week when we talked about the first one and how emotional it was and, you know, here we are, you know, however many songs in and you just, you stop. And like you said, you know, JD, it was like, these are the last five tunes and it's, it's, it's almost hard to embrace, um, and think about without just getting, you know, overwhelmed. I, I think it is, I think largely because of the love we have for, uh, you know, what, what, what Gord Downie has done solo and with the hip and, and in jazz as a human. So, um, but, uh, yeah, just, uh, you know, Another note was, again, I think I mentioned it earlier, just lyrics that are written different than what is being sung. And I didn't know if that was on purpose. I think I mentioned that. And I didn't know if it was something Gord was trying to do on purpose. Or it's probably nothing. It's probably just what was written and what was sung.
Track 5:
[53:04] You know, he probably had it written down as such and just like we do when you have a script in front of you, your brain has already chosen what the next word is going to be. So, anyway.
Track 4:
[53:15] I noticed that this shared a lot of similarities with Spoon from the first half where he talks about help being the only reason why we're here. You help others and the child in the song Spoon is, I guess, tasked with the same thing. I don't know if task is the right word, but this is a common thread throughout the album. And this lyrically shares a lot with that song.
Track 3:
[53:48] Yeah. I agree, Justin. That was my real only, my only real note on this song was that, that, you know, it's the only reason we're here. And that seems to be like, yeah, like if I had to break down this album into one message, that would be, I mean, other than like a goodbye and, uh, you know, uh, a lot, you know, a love letter to his close ones. Um, that is like the, yeah, the summation of this album. I also thought probably about A Child, the song, and also there's the line about he was the bird, he passed it down, you want to help people out. So, you know, he's referencing not only the person he's talking to, but someone, maybe another family member, a grandfather or someone who's passed down that quality that, he respects.
Track 4:
[54:35] There's one of my mentors. I kind of think of him as a father figure. His name is John Adams and he was a very bottom level race car driver around these parts. And, he and my father were about the same age and they were friends. And I started hanging out with John when I was 13 or 14 years old, trying to learn how to work on race cars. And there was one night he went off, he got pushed off the racetrack and he's, you know, this massive six foot six, 300 pound guy. And he comes barreling out of the car and climbs up to the top of the racetrack and gives a, gives the driver that, that wronged him the double bird. So he became the bird man that night. Um, that was his, that was his nickname. And so everybody calls him bird. And, you know, I thought, wouldn't that be silly if he passed his nickname down to me somehow, how you know because he doesn't all of his all of his kids are girls and i'm kind of like his sort of son um i don't think that's going to happen but i i know the song isn't made to laugh, but i laughed thinking about that that's.
Track 2:
[55:42] A nice memory though yeah.
Track 4:
[55:44] He's still with us he's still with us flipping people off all the time, yeah i.
Track 5:
[55:51] Love that the lake.
Track 2:
[58:56] Yeah, this one's a fucking tearjerker to me. So proceed with caution on this one. Justin?
Track 4:
[59:04] Yeah. I kind of mentioned it before that I thought that this song was about Lake Ontario, which has been such a constant theme throughout Gord's entire career with the hip and with the solo stuff. And there's so many references to the lake. Um but this song is not about the lake this song is is about his daughter willow i mean that's right at the end of the song uh i realized today you are lake ontario the love of my life you are willow and then he does this fantastic call and answer thing with his own you know backup vocals um saying willow over and over again and it's like wow this one this one is something um it's a it's a beautiful song um it's just gorgeous um and yes he does describe the lake or a lake um but all these same qualities could be about your child and man it's uh it's a crusher very.
Track 5:
[1:00:09] Astute observation mr justin that's uh i i think spot on um and as you mentioned you know it's obviously and and to compare the two is is that there's no disservice in that he loves them both dearly so um i loved how the keys on this made it feel like you were on the lake like you listen to the.
Track 4:
[1:00:37] Song and you feel like.
Track 5:
[1:00:39] You're floating in you know in a boat a canoe whatever on the lake and you hear the lake in that song. Um, absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Track 4:
[1:00:55] You know, I, I grew up on the water. Um, Lake Champlain is, they call it the sixth great lake. Um, and that's, I can see it out the window. Um, and my family had a camp on a little lake, uh, Hall's lake. And my wife grew up on a lake in Ohio, Guilford lake. And we go there They're three, four, five times a year. We're headed there next week. And she also came to Vermont working at a summer camp for, I think, seven summers on Lake Fairley, which is a gorgeous resort area. And so on first hearing this song, The Lake, and probably the first 10 times I heard it, I was like, man, I can see it. And then I picked up on the willow thing after, you know, 11th on my 11th listen, I guess. And I was like, Oh no, it's just something completely different. But if it is just about the lake, Oof, that's just as devastating and lovely.
Track 3:
[1:01:57] Yeah, I also grew up near a lake. Our house in Peachland, which my parents still live in, overlooks Okanagan Lake, which is a very large lake. And yeah, it just brings back memories. And it is maybe my favorite spot on earth. Right across the lake from where we live is a small island. There's no roads. There's no power. There's no development on the other side of the lake. And it's just a place that we would boat to when I was a kid and try to get over there every summer. And it's just, you know, this song takes me there. And also, you know, with the mention of his daughter at the end and, you know, the, you're the love of my life and it, yeah, it's just a beautiful song.
Track 2:
[1:02:46] It's gorgeous. Kirk?
Track 5:
[1:02:49] Again, we've said it already. you know these last five songs are they're crushers it's like it it was really hard to listen to them in succession like i really needed to stop you know this these last two far far away and blurred i you know my my my space that i left for what is supposed to be my guess of who it is who the song is to the letters to, is blank. And it is blank because to me it could be anyone. Maybe it was obvious to one of you guys, but I really felt like it was almost like a letter to everyone.
Track 5:
[1:03:34] We smile. All that we've been through, up and down for sure, onwards and upwards, up close, far away, and blurred. Um, the tempo changes in this song are amazing. It goes into a, a swing almost during the chorus. Um, and, uh, I, I, again, just the instrumentation and the, the combination of what, you know, uh, you know, obviously not just, um, Gordon, Kevin, but, you know, the others that contributed as well. So just add, I think, to each one of these letters, as it were, you know, as they started out. What'd you think about Far Away and Blurred, Craig?
Track 3:
[1:04:25] I really love this song. Another strong song on the second half of this album. And I almost wondered if maybe it could be another touring song, or maybe he's talking about traveling with his family. Great melody. And I agree with what you said, Kirk, when it changes tempo halfway through the song, and the drums come in with that slow beat, and the echo the the vocals are echoing and i i found that part very powerful and it's like, again i just can't, get over the the brilliance of his work it is like so emotional um and there's this like guitar pattern going on that's really really cool in the background as well and yeah and justin you yeah.
Track 4:
[1:05:20] I i guess i'm echoing what you guys have said um it's just a if i mean it's a little bit upbeat um for a hot minute there and again comes at a at a place where you need it um Um, yeah, it's, it's lovely. It's how it's a guy who's frigging dying, um, and telling everybody how much he loves them and that he always has, whether, whether you're in view or not. Right. Um, yeah, the.
Track 5:
[1:05:53] Passion in his voice in the vocal, um, is just so palpable. And so it just, I mean, wrenching, but almost in a, just again, another reminder of just how amazing, how amazing every part and ounce of the art that comes out of this guy is just incredible, incredible.
Track 3:
[1:06:23] Yeah, JD, did you have anything to add for this one?
Track 2:
[1:06:26] I don't know if I could get anything out right now if I tried. it's.
Track 3:
[1:06:30] A tough one I.
Track 2:
[1:06:32] Think you know his voice in the verses I've got written down that it's playful and painful at the same time, and you know it builds the chorus is obviously as powerful a gourd voice as we've heard in almost any song on this record, We'll get more of that in later records that we'll discuss in future episodes, but yeah, it's a great song, but it's the second-to-last song, and the North is a really powerful way to end. A callback to Secret Path and The Bridge. But overall, it's an interesting tracking decision. It can't be a coincidence. Right, Justin?
Track 4:
[1:11:07] No, of course it's not. It's a reminder. It's like he spent a good portion of that final show in Kingston reminding everybody to pay attention and to keep paying attention. And that's exactly what this song is. is it's it's uh yeah i did secret path but keep going forward keep talking about it keep moving keep changing um keep trying to figure this out um you know i don't know if we i don't think we've said this on air but when we first started talking about this album there i i mentioned to you guys in our in our group chat that i thought this was some of the songs on this album were like a stream of consciousness and i think i know that there's the video of of them recording this song and i know that it's not a stream of consciousness but i think when he was writing this song, what he wrote down is whatever came to his head first and i'm going to find a song to to put it to and i got to get this message out i don't care if it's rhymes or makes sense musically or what This has to be said again and again and again and again. And good on him, you know. Yeah.
Track 3:
[1:12:22] Yeah. So he makes the reference to, um, you know, a place West of, of James Bay, which would be Ottawa, Piscat, which of course the hip have, have the song about. And, um, I, I, I'm wondering if this song is either about or to Joseph Boyden, the author who, at the same time secret path was released, released a book called when Jack, um, I didn't mention him on the secret path episode only because there is some controversy you can look it up if you're interested but calling his um his roots into you know question um you know people questioning that he may not be in fact indigenous so you know that's definitely something you can kind of look into yourself but um joseph boyden is famous for a book called three day road and And just an interesting little thing that I came across about a week ago was a story related to this. So this story, Three Day Road, is about from just, I haven't read the book, but I've read a different story about a sniper in World War I named Francis Paganagabo. And he was nicknamed Peggy. And he has more kills than any sniper in North America.
Track 3:
[1:13:44] And his story is relatively unknown. And it's a really fascinating story. And anyways, I was reading a short story about that last week and then made this discovery about the connection to Joseph Boyden. Anyways, I highly encourage you to check out a story called Peggy. There's actually a podcast too by CBC called This Place. which is 150 years of Canadian history told by indigenous voices. And the episode on Peggy is incredible.
Track 5:
[1:14:19] The line Canada, we should have never called Canada. Um, I thought was pretty bold as well to put out there as you guys all had been mentioning, you know, obviously when he had addressed the crowd, you know, at several of the shows and, and several of his interviews. So I think that's, uh, bold, but expected. So I, I, uh, I think we all appreciate that. He would, would, go out there to this level.
Track 3:
[1:14:51] Yeah there's definitely a call back to that that statement in the last show that he made to the prime minister and i always um really admired that and, i always wondered what it would be like if an american artist did the same thing, you know like a high profile of bruce springsteen or someone went out and said something like that just the absolute division that would that would ensue um yeah yeah oh.
Track 5:
[1:15:18] Yeah I was going to say the dick and chicks are a good example.
Track 3:
[1:15:22] Of it.
Track 4:
[1:15:22] Happening.
Track 5:
[1:15:23] So but yeah.
Track 4:
[1:15:27] Or the opposite of that lady antebellum who's then sued the person that they stole their name from well fellas.
Track 2:
[1:15:36] It's time to ask the question will you be keeping this record in your rotation.
Track 4:
[1:15:44] I'm going to say not all the time And it's got nothing to do with the music. It's the subject. It's the heaviness of it. It's I don't want to, I don't want to be down. Um, there are some songs on this, on this record that are frigging awesome. They're all, they're all very good, but you know, there's some songs that certainly fit into the hip like catalog.
Track 2:
[1:16:07] Sure. And you can add them to your mixtape, right?
Track 4:
[1:16:10] Exactly. And that's probably how I'll consume them. Um, but this is going to be something that I listened to once every couple of years, maybe.
Track 5:
[1:16:19] Yeah, it's a commitment. I was just going to say it's a commitment. So I would answer very similarly to what Justin said. Even for this particular purpose of this podcast, it was heavy listening every time, every time you went through it. And so definitely some tunes I want to keep hearing regularly, but it's not something that I would. All i have on regular rotation like like i would would some of the others that that have definitely been fantastic in my opinion i.
Track 3:
[1:16:58] Agree with you guys i i definitely will come back to this album, um considering i gave it you know it took me six and a half years just to give it a first listen i'm definitely not going to wait that long um but i think i'll just have to be in the right frame of mind to put it on but i absolutely will i really do love it in fact coming up with an mvp track for this is definitely the hardest decision i've had to make i was hoping we were going to do one last week and one this week but so i'm it's going to be a last uh last second decision i was.
Track 4:
[1:17:31] Hoping jd would forget the question this time.
Track 2:
[1:17:33] I've got it written down so i don't forget my My memory is so piss poor.
Track 3:
[1:17:39] Right in on your hand.
Track 2:
[1:17:40] I call it a format sheet, but for real, it's cheating. Craig, we're going to stick with you. And we're going to go to MVP track.
Track 3:
[1:17:48] I want to know what they say first. So to clarify, is this my absolute favorite track or is this the track that I want to put onto a mixtape?
Track 2:
[1:18:00] It can be, that can be your interpretation. It can, it's the most valuable player. It's the, you know.
Track 3:
[1:18:07] So I had so many I mean my first instinct was a natural but I think I'm going to have to go with Snowflake it's.
Track 2:
[1:18:17] So good it.
Track 3:
[1:18:18] Is such a powerful song to me and I love the chorus I love the way again that big reverb sound and it's just a really gorgeous song and takes me you know visually takes me somewhere.
Track 2:
[1:18:36] We could definitely overuse the word gorgeous on this record because there's so much gorgeosity on it, you know?
Track 4:
[1:18:45] Nice.
Track 5:
[1:18:46] There is that.
Track 2:
[1:18:48] Right?
Track 5:
[1:18:49] There is that.
Track 2:
[1:18:50] Kirk.
Track 5:
[1:18:51] Yeah. MVP? Thinking about us, man.
Track 3:
[1:18:54] Good call.
Track 5:
[1:18:55] That tune, just thinking about us. It's thinking about us. That's all I need to say.
Track 2:
[1:19:01] You didn't have to hesitate at all. Wow.
Track 5:
[1:19:04] No.
Track 2:
[1:19:06] Justin, how are you going to react to the question? Craig was very concerned and didn't want to say anything. Kirk was very resolute and just put a flag in her. And Justin, where are you on this one? I'm giving you some time to think, so it's not really fair.
Track 4:
[1:19:25] Well, I don't need time to think. I just don't have an answer. I've been thinking about this since the first listen because I knew that this was coming. Um i will i i do have an answer um but i'll tell you the pics that i had wolf's home because it makes me think of my dad bedtime because of just the connection with my daughter and when this song or when this record came out um i love introduce yourself for the reasons that we talked about it's it's a great song about your buddy and and you know get me out of another jam please you know There was some interview that Gord did that he told Billy Ray. He goes, something happened with a guitar. And he goes, I will literally blow you if you fix this. I love Spoon, that song Spoon, because I really like the band. But I also like the story of going to the show with a kid. um but i'm gonna go with love over money because that's why we're all here in the first place yeah right good job justin yeah thank.
Track 2:
[1:20:37] You what bow you put in it love.
Track 4:
[1:20:39] It yeah yeah.
Track 2:
[1:20:42] And that brings us to the end of Introduce Yourself. Just a, you know, what a, I'm going to use the word again, what a gorgeous piece of work. And so memorable and so thoughtful. And, you know, this is the last stuff he recorded. It's really, really quite heavy. And we're sorry if we brought you down a little bit with these last two episodes, um but trust us we're celebrating this music we're not mourning we are celebrating and.
Track 3:
[1:21:23] Jd i want to thank you one more time for bringing me on board for this project because this is the album that i told you right from the start has been sitting on my shelf and i needed i wanted to listen to it. It's been staring at me for years and I just couldn't do it. And I think maybe just having, you know, you guys along with the ride makes it, you know, easier to do.
Track 2:
[1:21:50] Thank you very much. Thank you for doing it.
Track 4:
[1:21:53] Yeah. I a hundred percent. Thank you. I, I didn't know about any other records, um, um that gourd had done um but i knew about this one and i was choosing to not listen to it you know i i wanted nothing to do with it um and i gotta be honest with you i'm glad it's over i'm glad it's behind us um i listened to this this album in its entirety probably 25 to 30 times um it's.
Track 2:
[1:22:22] A lot yeah.
Track 4:
[1:22:23] It's a lot and the last week or so um leading up to recording this i stopped listening completely um i had to stop it was just killing me and i started listening to um some of the older hip stuff and i started listening to some sadie stuff and i listened to conquering sun quite a bit um but i had to get away from the heaviness and go back to being a fan, because this was a hard one.
Track 2:
[1:22:57] Completely agree well on behalf of uh craig and justin and kirk it's me jd and we're saying goodbye for another week we'll be back we've just got a couple episodes left fellas we've got away is mine and we've got luster parfait and then we've got the finale and i'm getting excited about yeah.
Track 4:
[1:23:21] Hell yeah oh yeah yeah and you know it's gonna.
Track 2:
[1:23:26] Be a good time.
Track 4:
[1:23:27] I got it you know we got to give a shout out to our our social media following you guys are really starting to step up and kick ass lately and it's really re-energized all of us a lot um we're our group chat has been on fire the last several days as we record this because we're just like did you see this one did you see the message there did you see the email oh my god you know it's yeah we're obsessing over the rankings and it's it's great it's fun it's a lot of fun well.
Track 5:
[1:23:52] So it was so crazy too to get some like some you know some of the official accounts of these people that we were talking about are.
Track 4:
[1:24:01] Right are.
Track 5:
[1:24:02] Sharing some of the you know the links and stuff to some of these episodes and and uh we're getting just some great amazing comments you know through the right you guys mentioned social media you know instagram facebook and uh just i don't think any of us had that on our bingo cards when we woke up in the morning, you know?
Track 2:
[1:24:22] I didn't.
Track 4:
[1:24:27] Right. And the Sadies messaged you back today, Craig. That's cool.
Track 2:
[1:24:33] Holy shit.
Track 4:
[1:24:34] And JD's putting in the legwork tenfold over what we're doing.
Track 2:
[1:24:38] Stop.
Track 4:
[1:24:39] He's listening. He's throwing everything together and doing interviews and making all this happen. I mean, I don't know if any of us are getting rich off this.
Track 2:
[1:24:48] Oh, not fucking me.
Track 4:
[1:24:50] You know, JD is certainly reaping the benefits of, I think a lot of people are appreciating what you're doing and I know we are.
Track 5:
[1:24:57] Yeah, absolutely.
Track 2:
[1:24:59] It's a group effort, guys. It's a group effort, man. All right, folks. Pick up your shit.
Track 1:
[1:25:07] Thanks for listening to Discovering Downey. To find out more about the show and its host, visit DiscoveringDowney.com. You can email us at discoveringdowney at gmail.com. And hey, we're social. Check us out.
