The group met while in high school at Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute (KCVI) and all attended Queen's University in Kingston. They started as a cover band playing Rolling Stones and Doors covers, and were first represented by a local Kingston agent named Bernie Dobson.
They were first signed in 1987 after Bruce Dickinson, the then VP of A&R at MCA Records saw them perform live at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario. Later that year they released their debut EP The Tragically Hip, though they were largely unrecognized until 1989's Up To Here. Up To Here established them as one of the best and most influential bands in Canada. In 1992, they created the Another Roadside Attraction festival, which tours Canada to promote smaller, unknown emerging bands.
The band is immensely popular in Canada. Although they have never achieved great success in the United States, they have never specifically sought it and have enjoyed their warm Canadian reception. When touring in Canada they typically play to sold-out arenas; when touring in the United States they play smaller venues and clubs. Performances abroad are usually attended by Canadian expatriates. In Europe, The Hip perhaps have their greatest following in the Netherlands.
The band permits recordings of their performances, so an active trading community thrives. The tone and content of much of their music is a paean to the Canadian experience and touches on such themes as small-town life, geography, and hockey.
The Tragically Hip received a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2002, and they were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 2005 Juno Awards. They have performed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and played a three-song set at the worldwide broadcast Live 8 benefit concert on July 2nd, 2005 to help make poverty history for the poor African nations.
On April 7th, 2009, the band's twelfth album We Are The Same was being released in North America, and it immediately rose to Number 1 on the Canadian charts. The album features twelve diverse new recordings produced by Bob Rock who had produced 2007's World Container and is perhaps best known for his work with Metallica, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, The Offspring, Michael Bublé and Simple Plan. This album features songs that range from "levity and light to melancholy and anger" according to the band's website. Recorded primarily at The Bathouse Studio, band's recording studio located in a historical coach house west of their hometown, Kingston, Ontario, and its first single was "Love Is A First", which features the ironical addictive hook, 'love is a curse'.
Despite some side solo projects in the past couple of years, the band has completed a new studio album at The Bathouse Studio and in Toronto with Gavin Brown, who is perhaps best known for his work producing Metric, Three Days Grace, Barenaked Ladies and Billy Talent. The album is entitled Now For Plan A and it was released on October 2nd, 2012. This album's first singles were "At Transformation" and "Streets Ahead" and they are available on iTunes and through the band's website.
Man Machine Poem is the fourteenth studio album which is scheduled to be released June 17th, 2016. The album takes its name from a track on their Gold-selling 2012 release, Now For Plan A, and it was recorded at The Hip’s home studio The Bathouse, produced by Kevin Drew, founding member and producer of Broken Social Scene, Andy Kim (singer, songwriter and Arts & Crafts label co-founder) and Dave Hamelin, songwriter and producer from The Stills and Eight and a Half. Album pre-orders are currently available on either CD or Vinyl through the band's "Gift Shop" on their official website: www.TheHip.com or digitally through iTunes. “In A World Possessed By The Human Mind” and “Tired As Fuck" were its first singles, and both were made immediately available for digital download with the album's pre-order.
Early on May 24, 2016, The Tragically Hip announced via a post on their official website and through e-mail subscribers that its lead singer and primary lyricist, Gord Downie, is suffering from aggressive terminal brain cancer, and that the band will do one final national Canadian tour "For Gord". Concert dates for this final tour were available on-line through Ticketmaster, but sold out in minutes. There was a national outcry from devoted fans who claimed that scalpers had scooped up most of the tour's tickets using "bots". Petitions were filed to successfully encourage Canada's national television network, the CBC, to produce and air Live the final August 20, 2016 concert. Broadcast live from the band's hometown, at Kingston's Rogers K-Rock Centre, a national audience viewed The Tragically Hip's final tour show, The concert opened with "50 Mission Cap" and ended almost two hours later, after a third encore, with "Ahead By A Century". All proceeds from the tour were donated to The Gord Downie Fund, at the Sunnybrook Foundation for Brain Cancer Research. Donations can be sent to: http://sunnybrook.ca/foundation.
For the latest band details, please visit their official website: www.TheHip.com.
Killing Time
The Tragically Hip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When it gets right down to the killing time
I know your heart is bad but it's all
I've ever had we can live our lives on this righteous crime
I got kicked when I was down
And a sailor took my girl to town
Then she licked my wounds with the sea dog's salt I drank a
End I was on that phone
What you call compromise I don't understand what you call compromise I don't understand
How do you walk away? how do you walk away?
How do you walk away from a woman that gone and done you wrong?
The Tragically Hip's song "Killing Time" is a reflection on a turbulent relationship that has gone through some rough times. The singer expresses a desire for his partner's confidence and assurance that they are still committed to one another, even in the darkest moments. The singer recognizes that his partner's heart may not be pure, but he is willing to overlook those flaws and live their lives with the knowledge that they are committing a "righteous crime."
The second verse describes a previous betrayal of the singer's trust. He was down and out, and another man swooped in and took his girlfriend to town. However, she returns to the singer offering him comfort with "the sea dog's salt" - a reference to alcohol. Despite some initial reluctance, the singer eventually takes her back, but he questions whether the compromise was worthwhile. He wonders how one can walk away from someone who has wronged them.
Overall, "Killing Time" is a song about the ups and downs of relationships, the difficulties of compromise, and the complexity of emotions that one experiences in the aftermath of betrayal.
Line by Line Meaning
I need your confidence need to know you're mine
I require your trust to assure me that I have your commitment
When it gets right down to the killing time
When the moment of truth arrives where we must make a tough decision
I know your heart is bad but it's all I've ever had we can live our lives on this righteous crime
I am aware of your flaws but you are all I've ever known and together we can exist with this wrongdoing that we feel justified in
I got kicked when I was down
I experienced misfortune during a vulnerable and unfavorable time
And a sailor took my girl to town
A sailor took my significant other away from me
Then she licked my wounds with the sea dog's salt I drank a Half a bottle of jack swore I'd never take you back by the bottle's End I was on that phone
My partner tended to my wounds but in my inebriated state, I also promised to never reconcile with them, however, I later called them on the phone
What you call compromise I don't understand what you call compromise I don't understand
I do not comprehend what you refer to as compromise
How do you walk away? how do you walk away? How do you walk away from a woman that gone and done you wrong?
How do you find the ability to leave someone who has mistreated you so profoundly?
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: BRIAN BAKER, CHRIS GATES, DAVE ROACH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind