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.
Sharks
The Tragically Hip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's mostly Australians.
There's nothing accomplished
By these splashing citizens.
From the Moon down to the surface
Of the Mariana's Trench
I won't send you in a cab when
I can take you there myself then steal a look
The distant lights of your firmament.
When the sharks finished the Irish
And those people from Berlin.
We left our look of the landed
With one of rescue's imminent
From the Moon down to the surface
Of the Mariana's Trench
I won't send you in a cab when
I can take you there myself then steal a look
Over your shoulder at
The chandeliers of your firmament.
It's your firmament, baby.
The song "Sharks" by The Tragically Hip seems to be a commentary on the futility of humanity's attempts to conquer nature. The opening lines - "Sharks don't attack the Irish, it's mostly Australians" - establish a sense of arbitrary chaos in the world. The fact that sharks don't discriminate against any particular nationality suggests that the world is a dangerous and unpredictable place, and no amount of human intervention can really change that. The following lines - "There's nothing accomplished by these splashing citizens" - further reinforce this idea. Humans might enjoy swimming in the ocean or exploring the depths of the Mariana Trench, but ultimately, what does it accomplish? The vastness and power of the natural world is humbling, and the song suggests that perhaps we should respect it more than we do.
The chorus - "From the Moon down to the surface of the Mariana's Trench / I won't send you in a cab when I can take you there myself" - has a sense of grandiosity, as if the singer is capable of great feats. But the final lines - "Over your shoulder at the distant lights of your firmament / It's your firmament, baby" - suggest a more personal connection to the world around us. The firmament can be seen as both the physical sky and the larger universe that surrounds us. Rather than trying to conquer or control it, the singer seems to be urging the listener to appreciate it for what it is.
Overall, "Sharks" is a complex and thought-provoking song that touches on themes of human hubris, natural chaos, and the beauty of the universe. It suggests that we should be less concerned with trying to bend the world to our will and more focused on appreciating the wonder that already exists.
Line by Line Meaning
Sharks don't attack the Irish,
Irish people are less likely to be attacked by sharks compared to Australians.
It's mostly Australians.
Australians are more likely to be attacked by sharks compared to Irish people.
There's nothing accomplished
Splashing in the water doesn't really achieve anything.
By these splashing citizens.
People who splash around in the water don't really achieve anything.
From the Moon down to the surface
From outer space all the way down to the deepest part of the ocean.
Of the Mariana's Trench
Referring to the deepest part of the ocean, located in the Pacific Ocean.
I won't send you in a cab when
I won't just let you go without me, I want to be there with you.
I can take you there myself then steal a look
I want to take you there personally and not just show you a picture or describe it.
Over your shoulder at
Looking at something behind you.
The distant lights of your firmament.
Looking at the stars, far away in the sky.
When the sharks finished the Irish
Referring to a hypothetical situation where sharks attack Irish people.
And those people from Berlin.
Referring to another hypothetical situation where sharks attack people from Berlin.
We left our look of the landed
We looked like we were about to land, but didn't.
With one of rescue's imminent
We looked like we were about to rescue someone.
Over the chandeliers of your firmament.
Looking at the bright and beautiful stars in the sky, comparing them to chandeliers.
It's your firmament, baby.
The beautiful stars belong to you, my love.
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: GORDON DOWNIE, JOHNNY FAY, JOSEPH PAUL LANGLOIS, ROBERT BAKER, ROBERT GORDON SINCLAIR
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind