Farewell to the soundtrack of my life

With the Tragically Hip playing their last show ever tonight in Kingston (and across the country on CBC), I'm going to attempt to put together my top 50 favourite songs. This is a tough thing to do, because they have a huge library of great music, and also because this list could be completely different tomorrow. But I'll give it a shot.

50. The Wherewithal

Richard talks too slow
He'd get interrupted long before
I always loved that guy
And he's not on TV any more

49. Tired As Fuck

Tired as fuck
It’s so hard to wonder why when you don’t feel worthy of being alone
Whatever wind may blow
You don’t let your balloon touch the ground
Or get so high that you can let go

48. Lionized

Smoking just a little too violently
I know that fact I've got and I know it single-mindedly
Stupid, stoned, cause and effect
I know a lack you've got and you don't even lack it yet

47. Speed River

This house
Sounds just like a bomb hit it
It's an old sound
That says, "If you asked me to I'd relive it"

46. Springtime in Vienna

We live to survive our paradoxes

45. Don't Wake Daddy

Sled dogs after dinner
Close their eyes on the howling wastes
Kurt Cobain reincarnated
Sighs and licks his face
Then they drift past strips of Serengeti
And the gates of Sleepy Hollow too
You can pause in wonder, they paused in wonder
And, yeah, I paused in wonder too

44. Country Day

So God keep our land
Because we certainly can't
Until the darkness ends
Until the sun tries again
Our dreams are where we're at
What we can smell and touch
Work we understand
We don't want too much

43. Family Band

We'll load out through the snow
Through small groups of people smoking
Hey, get that kick drum loaded
Into the backseat folded down
We'll go virtually unnoticed
What's gripping the city ain't hitting the town

42. Fiddler's Green

September seventeen

For a girl I know it's Mother's Day
Her son has gone alee
And that's where he will stay

41. In A World Possessed By The Human Mind

Then I hope I smiled
Then I'm sure you said, "It's fine"
They got no interest in a world completely possessed by the human mind

40. The Bastard

Then you turned all Billy Sunday

Shouting, "Philadelphia for Christ and Christ for Philadelphia"
As the sun groomed the plane with crepuscular rays, when I saw you

39. No Threat

The past is no place to
Try, but I'll get my mind's armies moving at full stride
Singing in one voice, preoccupied
And with nothing to say, I'll sing it bright, that's right

38. It Can't Be Nashville Every Night

He sang, "I'll die before I quit"
And this guy's the limit
Stares into the queer of the firefight
It can't be Nashville every night

37. We'll Go Too

What can you do

They've all gone, we'll go too

36. Something On

I know you're standing at the station
I know there's nothing on
I know that alienation
I know the train's long gone

35. Gift Shop

And after a glimpse

Over the top
The rest of the world
Becomes a gift shop

34. Last American Exit

I'm on the last American exit to the northland
I'm on the last American exit to my homeland
I'm on the last American exit to my last chance
They keep calling out my name, I shout it down

33. Cordelia

It takes all your power

To prove that you don't care
I'm not Cordelia
I will not be there

32. Love is a First

I've been interpreted and shrunk
I've been as touchless as a drunk
This is as bad as or worse

31. It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken

For a good life we just might have to weaken
And find somewhere to go
Go somewhere we're needed
Find somewhere to grow
Grow somewhere we're needed

30. So Hard Done By

One day you'll just up and quit
And that'll be it
Just then the stripper stopped in a coughing fit
She said, "Sorry, I can't go on with this"
Yeah, that's awful close but that's not why
I'm so hard done by

29. My Music At Work

Everything is bleak
It's the middle of the night
You're all alone
And the dummies might be right

28. Vaccination Scar

One thing I remember is

This tear on your bare shoulder
This little silver boulder
This slowly falling star
We're rolling, so what
Never getting older, where the moon-shocked curtains part
At the start of enough
A tear dropped in a vaccination scar

27. At Transformation

But as the Earth revolves around the sun
I can see it all at once
And, oh, what a glittering chance
In my head the game goes quiet
And I can see it all at once
Figuring you're not the goods
A kid before the rapids
But in my head the game is quiet

26. Scared

If you can make me scared, if that's what you do
If I'm unclear, can I get out of this thing with me and you
If you feel scared, and a bit confused
I got to say, this sounds a little beyond anything I'm used to
Now there's a precious few that can prove at the root
This is all nothing but cold calculation

25. Poets

Don't tell me what the poets are doing

Don't tell me that they're talking tough
Don't tell me that they're anti-social
Somehow not anti-social enough, all right

24. World Container

There's a world container with your name on it

And a billion ways to go berserk
When the country quits on you it must be dinner
And the Himmler on this one is there's no dessert

23. Escape is At Hand For the Travelling Man

It was our third time in New York
It was your fourth time in New York
We were fifth and sixth on the bill
We talk a little about our bands
Talk a little of our future plans
It's not like we were best of friends

22. Highway Girl

Throwing rocks at her window, what could she do?
If you throw enough rocks one might break through
Well she looked out her window when the police came
Yeah, to see a big tin man dancing in the rain

21. Locked in the Trunk of a Car

Then I found a place, it's dark and it's rotted
It's a cool sweet kind of place where the copters won't spot it
And I destroyed the map, I even thought I forgot it
However every day I'm dumping the body
It'd be better for us if you don't understand
It'd be better for me if you don't understand

20. The Lonely End of the Rink

I learned not long ago that this song is about Gord's dad, who was busy with his job and only had time to stop by his games for a few minutes. He'd sit at Gord's end (he was a goalie) and put his fist in the air toward him.

I looked up and you were there
Just sitting there all alone
Holding your fist in the air
Like if you need me you're on your own

19. Fully Completely

Bring me back in shackles

And hang me long out in the sun
Exonerate me
Then forget about me
Wait and you'll see
Just wait and you'll see
Fully and completely

18. The Darkest One

(greatest music video of all time, by the way)

Where you don't complain but you still do
And you don't explain if you want to explain
What you believe you say without shame, "I just do"
To say what you mean you don't mean what you say or you do

17. Pigeon Camera

Where's our pigeon camera
By now he could be anywhere
And after all that training
And after all that training
Was something we could no longer contain

16. Three Pistols

Well, Tom Thomson came paddling past

I'm pretty sure it was him
And he spoke so softly in accordance
To the growing of the dim
He said, "Bring on a brand new renaissance
'Cause I think I'm ready
Well, I've been shaking all night long
But my hands are steady"

15. Boots or Hearts

Fingers and toes, fingers and toes, 40 things we share
41 if you include the fact that we don't care
Now you've blocked off most of Main Street
For your faith parade
Well, everyone in town now, they probably all agree
I'm lying in the bed I made

14. Looking For a Place to Happen

Jacques Cartier, right this way
I'll put your coat up on the bed
Hey man, you've got the real bum's eye for clothes
And come on in, sit right down
No you're not the first to show
We've all been here since God who knows

13. Fireworks

You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey

And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

12. Twist My Arm

You just hit me where I live
I guess it looked quite primitive
What was that supposed to prove
Throw the calf or he'll throw you

11. Little Bones

It gets so sticky down here
Better butter your cue finger up
It's the start of another new year
Better call the newspaper up
2.50 for a highball
And a buck and a half for a beer
Happy hour, happy hour
Happy hour is here

10. Courage

Courage, my word
It didn't come, it doesn't matter

9. Grace, Too

I come from downtown, born ready for you
Armed with will and determination, and grace, too

8. Bobcaygeon

That night in Toronto
With its checkerboard floors
Riding on horseback
And keeping order restored
Till the men they couldn't hang
Stepped to the mic and sang
And their voices rang
With that Aryan twang

7. Fifty Mission Cap

Bill Barilko disappeared that summer (in 1951)

He was on a fishing trip (in a plane)
The last goal he ever scored (in overtime)
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another till 1962
The year he was discovered

6. Wheat Kings

Late breaking story on the CBC

A nation whispers, "We always knew that he'd go free"
They add, "You can't be fond of living in the past
'Cause if you are then there's no way that you're gonna last"

5. Small Town Bringdown

It's a sad thing, bourbons all around
To stop that feeling when you're living in a small town
You're long and lean but things don't get you down
You're a top ten kingpin in the borders of your hometown

4. Nautical Disaster

It was as though I'd been spit here
Settled in, into the pocket
Of a lighthouse on some rocky socket
Off the coast of France, dear
One afternoon four thousand men died in the water here
And five hundred more were thrashing madly
As parasites might in your blood

3. New Orleans is Sinking

I had my hands in the river, my feet back up on the banks

Looked up to the lord above and said hey man, thanks
Sometimes I feel so good I got to scream
She said Gordie baby, I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to God she said
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't want to swim

2. At The Hundredth Meridian

If I die of vanity, promise me, promise me

If they bury me some place I don't want to be
You'll dig me up and transport me, unceremoniously
Away from the swollen city breeze, garbage bag trees
Whispers of disease and the acts of enormity
And lower me slowly and sadly and properly
Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy

1. Blow at High Dough

I was first introduced to this song by the show Made In Canada in the late 90s (I was two or three when Up To Here came out). It's not as deep lyrically as many songs Gord's written, but if I'm on the highway on a hot day, there's no song I'd rather have blasting in the car at ear-damaging volume.

They shot a movie once, in my hometown

Everybody was in it, from miles around
Out at the speedway, some kind of Elvis thing
Well I ain't no movie star
But I can get behind anything
Yeah I can get behind anything