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.
Use It Up
The Tragically Hip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Use it all up
Don't save a thing for later
If there's music out there laying in wait
To pounce and drain every ounce if you
Wait or hesitate
And music that'll help you be tough
And come together on more than
Though most days it's been enough
Then there's music that can take you away
Away
Away
Away
So use it up
Use it all up
Don't save a thing for later
Use it up
Use it all up
Don't save a thing for later
If there's music out there staying awake
To cry and drain every eye until
Hatred's eliminated
And music that can help you feel great
And come together in 'the fictive dream'
With a kind of Randy Newman take
There's music that can take you away
Away
Away
Away
Where we can jump to our feet, agape
Cause nothing is cruel
And even if it is or was
Indefeasibly cruel
We don't care because
Yer a fool
I'm a fool
Yer a fool
And I'm a fool
For music that can take you away
For music that can take you away
For music that can take you away
So use it up
Use it all up
Don't save a thing for later
The Tragically Hip's "Use It Up" is a song about the power of music and the importance of living in the moment, utilizing all of the opportunities presented to us. The lyrics encourage us to "use it all up" and not save anything for later, especially when it comes to the powerful emotions and experiences that can be sparked by music.
The opening lines tell us to not hold back and to fully immerse ourselves in the power of music. The lyrics then go on to describe the different types of music that can have a profound impact on our lives, from music that can make us tough, to music that can take us away to another world.
The song suggests that even in the face of cruelty and hatred, music has the power to bring people together and help us feel great. The repetition of the phrase "Use it up" throughout the song reinforces the idea that we should take advantage of the present moment and not wait for tomorrow to experience everything that life has to offer.
Line by Line Meaning
Use it up
Make the most of what you have
Use it all up
Fully exhaust your resources
Don't save a thing for later
Don't hold back for future use
If there's music out there laying in wait
If there's potential for enjoyment waiting to be discovered
To pounce and drain every ounce if you
To consume and fully experience every bit of enjoyment possible
Wait or hesitate
Delaying will cause you to miss out
And music that'll help you be tough
Music can help you find strength
And come together on more than Springsteen
Music can bring people together beyond one popular artist
Though most days it's been enough
Despite any hardships, music is usually enough
Then there's music that can take you away
There's music that can transport you somewhere else
Away
To a different place, both physically and mentally
So use it up
Make the most of music's power
If there's music out there staying awake
If there's music with a message that needs to be heard
To cry and drain every eye until
To bring about emotions and make people feel until
Hatred's eliminated
Hate is eradicated
And music that can help you feel great
Music can help improve your mood
And come together in 'the fictive dream'
Music can help create a shared, imaginative experience
With a kind of Randy Newman take
Similar to the songwriting style of musician Randy Newman
Where we can jump to our feet, agape
Where we can be moved to dance and awe-filled amazement
Cause nothing is cruel
Because there is beauty and hope to be found even in cruelty
And even if it is or was
Even if there is suffering
Indefeasibly cruel
Unalterably, devastatingly cruel
We don't care because
We find solace in music regardless
Yer a fool
A playful, self-deprecating acknowledgement of enjoying music to the fullest
I'm a fool
Acknowledging one's own enjoyment of music without shame
For music that can take you away
For the power of music to transport and engage us
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: GORDON DOWNIE, JOHNNY FAY, JOSEPH PAUL LANGLOIS, ROBERT BAKER, ROBERT GORDON SINCLAIR
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind