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.
Vapour Trails
The Tragically Hip Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
By interstate, brick face and Coffee-Mate
And by a list of phone calls
You'll like to make
Where you could sit on the edge of your bed
And you could stare into your own shoes
And in the pools of light there
Go wherever you choose
Just rig up a complication
And if it derails
You can throw away the rudder
And float away like vapour trails
There's nothing funnier than pride
In an utterly confident stride
So I pulled the car on over
To give you a ride
Damn this sleepy weather he said
As he marched in sopping wet shoes
Through rain pools evaporating
He says in this sign I'll conquer you
I pulled the car on over
To give you a ride
But there's nothing uglier
Than a man hitting his stride
Past Mexicans all dressed in beige shirts
Leaning over their hoes
Now the morning's over
It's time to let them sprinklers hose
Past hills of chambermaids' dark bare arms
And fields of muscle quilted to the bone
Right now I'm flying over
Yeah, right now I'm flying home
Where I can sit on the end of my bed
And I can stare into my own shoes
And in the pools of light years
Go wherever I choose
And throw away the rudder
And float away on vapour trails
(Mexicans dressed in beige shirts)
I rigged up a complication (leaning over their hoes)
Totally derailed
So I throw away the rudder
Float away like vapour trails (now the morning's over)
I pulled the car on over
(It's time to let them sprinklers hose)
Throw away the rudder
Throw away the rudder
Throw away the rudder (float away on a vapour trail)
Throw away the rudder
Throw away the rudder (float away on a vapour trail)
Throw away the rudder
Throw away the rudder (float away on a vapour trail)
The song "Vapour Trails" by The Tragically Hip is a poignant and introspective piece about the monotony and emptiness of modern life. The opening lines suggest that the excitement and allure of life has been replaced by mundane and superficial things such as interstates, brick buildings, and instant coffee. The list of phone calls that one likes to make suggests that even our human interactions have become perfunctory and scripted.
The imagery of sitting on the edge of one's bed and staring into one's own shoes creates a sense of solipsism and introspection, as if one is disconnected from the outside world. The idea of rigging up a complication suggests that we create our own problems in order to add some excitement to our lives, but the consequences can be destructive. However, the singer seems to suggest that sometimes it's worth it to throw away the rudder and float away like vapor trails, even if it means losing control.
The final stanza offers a moment of respite from the chaos of modern life as the singer flies over the countryside, observing the world from a distance. The hills of chambermaids' dark bare arms and fields of muscle quilted to the bone suggest the laboriousness of life, but also its beauty. The final repetition of "throw away the rudder, throw away the rudder, throw away the rudder" suggests that we need to let go of our need for control and just let life take us where it will.
Line by Line Meaning
Titillation's been replaced
By interstate, brick face and Coffee-Mate
And by a list of phone calls
You'll like to make
Where you could sit on the edge of your bed
And you could stare into your own shoes
And in the pools of light there
Go wherever you choose
Gone are the exciting days of adventure, now replaced by mundane familiarity. Even our conversations are scripted and predictable. We sit idly, lost in thought, and let the light take us wherever we want.
Just rig up a complication
And if it derails
You can throw away the rudder
And float away like vapour trails
If life feels too mundane, we can just add some drama, invite disaster and ignore the consequences. We can let ourselves be carried by the wind and escape from our issues like out-of-control steam.
There's nothing funnier than pride
In an utterly confident stride
So I pulled the car on over
To give you a ride
Damn this sleepy weather he said
As he marched in sopping wet shoes
Through rain pools evaporating
He says in this sign I'll conquer you
I pulled the car on over
To give you a ride
But there's nothing uglier
Than a man hitting his stride
We often deceive ourselves into thinking that we're better than others but those same qualities result in an arrogance that ultimately keeps others at bay. Even with a confident stride we cannot hide the ugly truth about ourselves that eventually surfaces to remind us of our smallness.
Past Mexicans all dressed in beige shirts
Leaning over their hoes
Now the morning's over
It's time to let them sprinklers hose
Past hills of chambermaids' dark bare arms
And fields of muscle quilted to the bone
Right now I'm flying over
Yeah, right now I'm flying home
Where I can sit on the end of my bed
And I can stare into my own shoes
And in the pools of light years
Go wherever I choose
As I travel, I see people going about their day-to-day lives in humble circumstances. It's time for them to unwind and relax while the sprinklers mist their crops. Away from all that, as I fly home, I'm reminded that I have the power to be whomever I want and do anything I want as long as I am under the light.
And throw away the rudder
And float away on vapour trails
(Mexicans dressed in beige shirts)
I rigged up a complication (leaning over their hoes)
Totally derailed
So I throw away the rudder
Float away like vapour trails (now the morning's over)
I pulled the car on over
(It's time to let them sprinklers hose)
Throw away the rudder
Throw away the rudder (float away on a vapour trail)
Throw away the rudder
Throw away the rudder (float away on a vapour trail)
Throw away the rudder
Throw away the rudder (float away on a vapour trail)
The repeated message is to let life carry us along with no specific direction or purpose. Float like steam and let the wind take you wherever it goes. Ignore the need for a set direction in life and let the opportunities of today guide you like the wind.
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Robert Baker, Gordon Downie, Johnny Fay, Joseph Langlois, Robert Gordon Sinclair
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind