Elvis, Lennon, Cobain, MJ, Bowie, Prince — the death of these cultural icons left a seismic hole in the hearts of music fans. In Canada, north of the 49th parallel’s thin divide, one more name is added: Downie, as in Gord Downie, the late frontman for rock band the Tragically Hip.
On October 17 seven years ago, the 53-year-old died from aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma — a remember-where-you-were moment for most Canadians. The flag was lowered to half-mast on Parliament Hill’s Peace Tower, as well as on many other government buildings. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, a friend and fan, addressed the nation in tears.
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It wasn’t a surprise, unlike the deaths of the aforementioned six. A little more than a year earlier, on May 24, 2016, a statement was posted on The Tragically Hip’s web site that began, “We have some very tough news to share with you today, and we wish it wasn’t so.”
Remarkably, with their 14th studio album, Man Machine Poem, set for release the following month, they announced one more tour. Their swan song, August 20, 2016, at Rogers K-Rock Centre in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, was broadcast and streamed live by the country’s public broadcaster CBC and watched by an estimated 11.7 million people … Canada’s entire population is only 41.2 million.
Since then, the band Downie fronted for 33 years with high school friends Rob Baker (guitar), Johnny Fay (drums), Paul Langlois (guitar) and Gord Sinclair (bass) has become even more beloved, if that’s possible, cemented as Canada’s band, and the purple hat the singer wore on that final tour became a symbol for his dying mission and legacy: reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples facilitated and encouraged through the Downie Wenjack Fund.
Native Canadian activist Pearl Wenjack looks on as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau embraces a dying Gord Downie at We Day Canada at Parliament Hill on July 2, 2017 in Ottawa, Canada. Downie was dead within three months. (Credit: Mark Horton via Getty Images)
A new 4-part Amazon Prime docuseries, No Dress Rehearsal, directed by Gord’s brother Mike Downie, explores all that and more. Without glossing over difficult periods in The Tragically Hip’s career, it tracks their rise from bar band to arena stature, selling more than 12 million albums domestically along the way, and 1.5 million in the U.S.
“I don’t think anybody else could really have done it,” Sinclair tells SPIN of the doc. “Mike was in the same [school] grade that Rob and I were in, so I’ve known him since the 70s. He was very sensitive to us as the group and knew our families and, obviously, he’s got to deal with the sensitivities of not only his family, but his own sensitivities to making a documentary about his brother and his brother’s band. He just handled it with so much grace.”
No Dress Rehearsal was the official gala opener of September’s prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, shown in its entirety, all four-plus hours, and won the People’s Choice Documentary Award (Will & Harper was first runner up). Among the plentiful candid finds and unearthed historical footage, it features soundbites and perspective by famous fans Dan Aykroyd (who got the Hip on SNL in 1995 and introduced them), Geddy Lee, Will Arnett, Jay Baruchel, Bruce McCulloch, Dallas Green, and, of course, Trudeau.
Amid tight security, the Prime Minister made a surprise appearance onstage with the band after the screening, telling the audience, “I finally get through this extraordinary film to share with people who never quite got The Hip why you matter, share with my kids why you matter, to share with them, with everyone, the thing that you brought together around Canadian identity and pride that is so difficult to explain.”
Sort of Canada’s Pearl Jam: bassist Paul Langlois and drummer Johnny Fay of the Tragically Hip on stage in New York City, February 1992. (Credit: Bob Berg via Getty Images)
He’s got a point. The Hip are unlikely rock stars. Normal. Nice. No airs. Sort of Canada’s Pearl Jam, which has been said before. A band of brothers, with no care or interest in imitation or what’s trending. Never a revolving drum kit, face makeup, trap doors, cranes or even fancy stage clothes (if you don’t count the bespoke colorful metallic leather suits and hats Downie wore on the final tour). But you learn shit listening to the Hip — about language, its beauty and fun and stories stored. Downie was special. Just one of those unique minds: for example …
Perhaps antiquated now in the cell phone era, but “drop a caribou,” from “Long Time Running,” means make a phone call (that’s the design on the 25-cent coin), or the entire lyric to “Fifty Mission Cap” cementing the magical history of Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Bill Burilko. There are also likely countless fans who have driven to “Bobcaygeon” in Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes to see “the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time.”
Sinclair knows this. “Gord’s ability, as a lyricist, he wasn’t a ‘yummy, yummy, yummy, I got love in my tummy’ kind of guy; he was a profound thinker,” he tells SPIN, adding, “And, even more so, he was a real profound feeler.”
Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II meets Robbie Baker (right) and Paul Langlois of the Tragically Hip at Roy Thomson Hall following a gala performance in Toronto 10 October, 2002. (Credit: Frank Gunn/AFP via Getty Images)
No Dress Rehearsal and the brand new 312-page coffee table book, This Is Our Life, put out by Genesis Publications (a top 10 bestseller in books on Amazon Canada) — featuring 1,200 bits and pieces such as photos, vintage posters, concert tickets, tour passes, handwritten lyrics, setlists and artwork — which offers a signed, numbered, deluxe edition, come as close as you’re going to get to explaining the Tragically Hip’s 40-year legacy and multi-generational appeal.
Sinclair now has some bigger-picture type perspective. “I’m trying not to sound too humble, but I think it’s amazing what we experienced and what we had as a band. We’re the product of this country. We played the same road that many, many, many artists have built before us. I think of groups that I saw as a youngster in Kingston, which wasn’t a big concert town, so when someone came to town, like Rush, it was big. So, we were conscious of that when we were driving across Canada and stopping in, pick a town, Brandon or Red Deer or St. John and know that it’s important to the kids who we are and, particularly, how we broke.
“And then you get to the end of our career, and Gord had this horrible cancer that required surgery and the surgery left him unable to remember his own words. We used teleprompters.
But when he would stumble, the audience was singing along, and he was able to pick up the train of thought and carry on with the singing. And as we progressed across the country, he got stronger and stronger and stronger to the point where he wasn’t using those teleprompters as much. And so,” he reflects, “we got back from this country as much as we tried to contribute to it.”
“Courage — it couldn’t come at a worst time.” The Hip in 1993.
Mike Downie previously worked with his brother on music videos for “Bobcaygeon,” “Something On” and “Poets,” and did his first ever documentary back in 1993 on the Tragically Hip’s curated touring festival, Another Roadside Attraction, and during Gord’s illness the Secret Path film for his multimedia solo project about Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Anishinaabe boy who died in 1966 after escaping from a residential school in an attempt to get back home.
“I don’t have any anecdotes for you about people becoming aware of the band through the documentary,” Downie says. “I’m quite sure it’s going to happen. That was part of what I was thinking as we were constructing this. Part of the challenge was we needed to create something that is for the hardcore fan. We want them to hear stories they haven’t heard before and unseen footage and performances, so I definitely checked that box.”
“And then, there’s the casual fans or lapsed fans of the Hip, people that got on board early and then didn’t pay attention for a good chunk of time. I want to let them know this is an amazing band that you know about and it goes a lot deeper than you ever imagined.”
“And then there’s the new fan. We wanted them to take them from zero to 100 in four hours and 20 minutes and create an opportunity for them to get to know the band, why they mattered to so many Canadians and people around the world at different times. But, also, the musical journey. There’s 14 studio albums. Maybe after four hours of listening to this, you’ll just start your own Hip journey. There’s a lot there waiting for you as well.”
“So, I hope that it’s an on-ramp to that deeper dive or discovery of the music itself.”
The Tragically Hip perform during 2014 Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off at Dundas Square October 8, 2014 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Credit: Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)
The Tragically Hip’s current and original manager Jake Gold — a story unto itself in the docuseries previously untold in such detail, including signing the band in 1986 and guiding their careers to the top for 17 years, before receiving the most eloquent firing letter ever written — was hired once again back in June 2020 after another 17 years. After all, who better to mine the vaults than the guy who knows the combination?
“The first thing we did was let’s figure out what we have,” Gold tells SPIN. “So we built this really amazing archive of ephemera, hired a company of archivists to come in and do that, which became a very useful tool for the documentary team, and also for the team that built the book, to buy all the old posters, and ticket stubs, and photos, and you name it. And at the same time, working with Johnny Faye, who took the lead on the music side, working with Universal on digitizing all the tapes. There’s tons and tons and tons of music that’s on tape. So that’s a big process.”
There’s already been the Saskadelphia EP, Road Apples and Phantom Power box sets, Live at the Roxy release, and vinyl offerings of Yer Favourites greatest hits compilation and the Fully Completely box set. In 2023 alone, following the diamond (1 million) certification in Canada of their 2005’s Yer Favourites, the 25th anniversary box set edition of 1998’s Phantom Power came out, which includes five never before heard songs from the original Steve Berlin sessions. Outside of music, there was also the release of the Tragically Hip ABC picture book (Penguin Random House Canada), as well as licensed merch up the ying yang from canoes to Adirondack chairs to disc golf, and lager and cider. They already had wine.
In three years, it will be a decade since Downie’s passing and there’s still so much more in the vault that could see the light of day.
Following Gord Downie’s terminal cancer diagnosis, the Tragically Hip toured one last time. This 2016 footage shows Canadians in multiple locations watching the final song of the final concert.
Earlier this year, for Record Store Day, a limited edition Live at CBGB’s vinyl from 1994 was released. On Nov. 8, a box set for their 1989 Don Smith-produced debut album, Up To Here, comes out, which includes five previously unreleased songs: “She’s Got What It Takes,” “Rain, Hearts And Fire,” “Hailstone Hands of God,” “Get Back Again,” which was serviced to Canadian radio in late June and became the Tragically Hip’s first No. 1 in 15 years, and “Wait So Long,” which goes to radio next week. The collection also includes other goodies, such as the MuchMusic-filmed Live at Misty Moon concert in Halifax from 1990, and demos of five songs produced by Chris Wardman.
“We’re constantly going through all the archives of the music, and there’s a lot of film archives out there. We have at least three full concert films that we have access to that we have to decide what we want to do with them. One of them was shot on 16-millimeter film,” says Gold. “And then, obviously, potential live records from those films. And, there’s a lot of unreleased material in the vaults that we’re still mining and deciding on what we’re going to do with it.”
New York City, 1992: (L-R) lead singer Gordon Downie (1964-2017), guitarist Rob Baker, drummer Johnny Fay, guitarist Gord Sinclair and bassist Paul Langlois of the Tragically Hip. (Credit: Bob Berg via Getty Images)
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