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.
Springtime In Vienna
The Tragically Hip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Could not have been much more plain
The blues are still required
The blues are still required again
Past territorial piss-posts
Past whispers in the closets
Past screamin' from the rooftops
We live to survive our paradoxes
We live to survive our paradoxes
Men hear of the secret
They pass in upholstered silence
They only exist in crisis
They only exist in silence
Past territorial piss-posts
Past whispers in the closets
Past screamin' from the rooftops
We live to survive our paradoxes
We live to survive our paradoxes
We live to survive our paradoxes
We'll live to survive our paradoxes
We'll live to survive our paradoxes
We'll live to survive our paradoxes
The Tragically Hip's song "Springtime In Vienna" is a reflective and contemplative song that explores the complexities of life and the human condition. The song's lyrics speak to the idea that despite our best efforts and intentions, we often find ourselves confronted with paradoxes and contradictions that we must navigate in order to survive.
The first verse speaks to this idea directly, highlighting the fact that our lives are often governed by instructions and rules that are plain and clear, but that we still find ourselves struggling to understand and follow. The chorus underscores this point, suggesting that we live not just to survive, but to survive paradoxes - those moments in life when things seem to be at odds with one another.
The second verse of the song explores the idea that even our secrets and crises are paradoxical in nature, hidden in silence and only emerging when we are in the midst of a crisis. The song continues to circle around this central theme of paradoxes and contradictions, driving home the point that our lives are complex and difficult to navigate, but that we must continue to persevere in order to survive.
Line by Line Meaning
Could not have been much more plain
The message or instruction is plain and easy to understand.
The blues are still required
Feelings of sadness and melancholy are still necessary and important.
The blues are still required again
Although we have experienced sadness before, it is still necessary and important in this moment.
Past territorial piss-posts
We have moved beyond marking our territory through aggression and hostility.
Past whispers in the closets
We have gone beyond hiding secrets and shame in the darkness.
Past screamin' from the rooftops
We have progressed from the need to loudly proclaim our beliefs or grievances to others.
We live to survive our paradoxes
Our lives are about navigating the contradictions and complications that arise from our own existence.
Men hear of the secret
People become aware of a secret or hidden knowledge.
They pass in upholstered silence
They keep the secret quiet and concealed through comfortable, luxurious living.
They only exist in crisis
The secret or knowledge becomes relevant and meaningful only in times of great stress or difficulty.
They only exist in silence
The secret or knowledge is only acknowledged and recognized when kept quiet and hidden.
We'll live to survive our paradoxes
The struggle with contradictions and complexities in our lives will continue, but we will persevere and overcome them.
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Gordon Downie, Johnny Fay, Joseph Paul Langlois, Robert Baker, Robert Gordon Sinclair
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind