Shapiro - What is Hip?: The Life and Times of The Tragically Hip

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Digital ISBN: 978-1-62601-365-0

Print ISBN: 978-1-62601-366-7

First Edition April, 2017

When I was in high school anduniversity, we would celebrate [The Tragically Hip] as our local bandat onepoint we were sure theyre going to break out, but you know what, I am so gladtheyre all oursTragically Hip is inexorably part of who and what we are as acountry.

--Justin Trudeau, CanadianPrime Minister

The Tragically Hip is certainly oneof the greatest bands weve ever produced in this country.

- Geddy Lee of Rush

All the peoplewho keep me sane.

Always number one is my wife Nancy.Let me tell you about Nancy. Shes beautiful. Shes bright, intelligent, andinsightful and has a firmer grasp on reality than I can ever hope to have. WhenIm bouncing off the walls she brings me back down to earth, with a lovingdeal with it or the lawn needs mowing. She has never discouraged me but,rather, has been quick with encouragement. Weve been together forever. We makethe wheels turn in the best possible way. When she needs space, I can sense it.If I cant sense, it she tells me. Weve been together forever and werelooking forward to a whole lot more.

Love you Nancy with all my heart.

Marc

EnigmaUnder the Radar

Canadian rock for dummies. Rush, TheGuess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Neil Young, Bryan Adams and Joni Mitchell.And for extra credit theres Gordon Lightfoot who is not really rock, but he ismost definitely Canadian. If you think you aced this quizwell, Ill give you agenerous B. An A would have required you to dig a bit deeper. It would haverequired you to be hip to The Tragically Hip.

The Tragically who? Thats what I figured. Just a bandthat only a small fraction of the planet even knew existed despite the factthat the band has the distinction for having opened for both The Rolling Stonesand Led Zeppelin. But as I did the requisite research and made my attempts attracking down those who knew the band, I discovered a salient bottom line. TheTragically Hip were a decent bunch of guys, good to fans and family to a fault,made heartfelt and thoughtful music and have ultimately been loyal to theirCanadian roots. They are rock musicians, so nobody is ever going to mentionthem in the same breath as boy scouts and choirboys. But what I discovered as Idug deep into the life and history of the band was that they were awfullydamned close.

The Tragically Hip (Gord Downie, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair,Paul Langlois and Johnny Faye) are an enigma on a grand scale. Together morethan 30 years (without a lineup change unless you count the sax player whosplit very early on). Few, if any, had ever heard of them outside of theirnative Canada and those who have only know them by way of Canadian rockstations whose signals have managed to leak across to the USs PacificNorthwest or the occasional live foray across the border. But The TragicallyHips seemingly manic determination to stay close to home has definitely had anupside.

Their musical output, to date, includes 14 studio albums,two live albums, one EP, 54 singles, nine of which have reached #1 on Canadiancharts and 14 Juno awards (Canadas Grammys). The Tragically Hip are Canadasequivalent of Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin rolled into one. At last count, theband reportedly has approximately 11 million Internet followers, who, to adegree buy into a tribal, Grateful Dead vibe, the presence of which hasregularly resulted in sold-out concerts and club dates since 1983.

Musically the bands bread and butter has been described asan often ethereal, introspective mixture of rock, blues and country. A lot ofcritics have been quick to describe what The Tragically Hip do as alt this oralt that. What is known for a fact is that the band has always been a bunchof good old fashioned team players; each member taking a swing during a song,often so subtle or low key as to inspire questions of what audiences hadactually heard, en route to a group interpretation of their material.

This is a lot of music cred from a band which has maintainedsuch a low key personal and professional profile that, if youre in Torontowhile youre reading this, the chances are good that you just passed members ofthe band on the street without batting an eye. Consequently, there are endlessquestions to be asked and answered.

Such as

Why has there not been a biography of The Tragically Hipbefore and why, all of a sudden, is there this book now? I dont know why therehas never been another book on The Tragically Hip. Loyalty to the bandsprivacy? A lack of pop culture hipness on the part of the publishing industry?How can anyone write a book about a band a large percentage of the world doesnot even know exists? The hows and whys surrounding the lack of a TragicallyHip book until now are endless.

As to the why now?

The band recently announced that their lead singer, GordDownie, has brain cancer and, as of this book, his and the bands future areclouded by uncertainty. So, in the all business lexicon of the world of the popculture/celebrity publishing industry, what better time to cash in?

Lets get the obvious out of the way before you startthrowing the brickbats and Internet invective. Im not overly fond of doingbooks that have even the perception of a death watch attached to them. But Ihave done them.

My book on George Harrison, Behind Sad Eyes: The Life andCareer of GeorgeHarrison, was actually written well in advance ofThe Beatles guitarists passing but with the knowledge that he was not in thebest of health. It was only due to the proclivities of book publishing that thebook came out shortly after Harrisons actual death and I took some heat forthat. Less than eight hours after the plane carrying singer Jenni Rivera crashedinto a Mexican mountain range, I had a deal in place to write the story of herlife and subsequent passing. Also took some heat for that one. Not so much heatfor that one but guilty as charged. And finally there was that marathon of myAnnette Funicello book that was commissioned, at least initially, to coincidewith her death. The book sat with the original publisher for eight years beforeeverybodys favorite Mousketeer passed.

But before you get out the tar and feathers, there was onething that drove me to do all three of those books. Each person I chronicledhad an amazing life worth writing about. That I was writing the book either ator near the end of their respective lives was admittedly part calculating andpart homage.

Which leads me to the reason de jour why I wanted to write WhatIs Hip? The Life andTimes of the Tragically Hip. Quite simply Iwanted the whole story of a group that is considered a ghost to many but thatultimately has had a living, breathing story to tell.

As always, research was an overriding challenge. Canadianmedia was quick to pick up on the Hip, literally covering them from theirinception on to the present. US and most international press? Not so much.Getting people to talk on the record about the band was a crapshoot. Sometalked. One or two danced around it. Some ignored my interview requests and onesaid he would send me some pertinent information on the condition that his namenot appear anywhere in the book. Needless to say, the information was good andhis name is nowhere to be found. Others bluntly refused to be involved. In amatter of hours, another went from enthusiastically saying they were all in toI dont feel comfortable doing this.