![]() ![]() “Thank you, people, for keeping me pushing and keeping me pushing,” he said from the stage, which prompted a “Gordie!” chant from the audience. and thousands of fans also attended public viewing parties across the country to experience the band’s swan song.Īn impassioned Downie led the group through a nearly three-hour set and acknowledged the country’s enthusiastic support. Downie ultimately had six teleprompters on stage to help him get through the concerts.ĭespite conflicting with its coverage of the Summer Games in Rio, the CBC broadcast the last show of the tour live - in the Hip’s hometown of Kingston, Ont. “He would look at me and say, ‘Billy, what’s that line called?’ and then he would write it down,” Koster said. Dave (Billy Ray) Koster, the Hip’s technical director, recalled Downie’s trouble with the hit “My Music at Work,” a song which repeats its title in the lyrics 18 times. I think I started to cry,” the singer said of the first tour rehearsal. “I actually couldn’t remember a damn thing. In the recently released documentary “Long Time Running,” Downie recalled his struggles with lyrics as he prepared to perform. While the band’s managers assured fans that Downie was prepared to “blow people’s minds,” he was suffering from serious memory issues. Interest was off the charts and tickets sold out nearly immediately. ![]() In the aftermath of the shocking May 2016 announcement that Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer the band said it would mount a tour - which many correctly assumed would be the Hip’s last. So my function in anything I do is to help bring people closer in.” That stuff doesn’t interest me and I don’t even know if I could write that if I tried because I don’t really feel it. “Nor have I written any pro-Canada lyrics, any kind of jingoistic, nationalistic cant…. ![]() “I haven’t written too many political lyrics,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press in 2014. While the Hip was frequently described as quintessentially Canadian, Downie had dismissed the suggestion that he set out to celebrate his homeland in song. This is something I’ve certainly drawn inspiration and strength from.ĭownie, one of Canada’s most revered singer-songwriters, penned a steady stream of 1990s rock radio staples including “New Orleans Is Sinking,” “Blow at High Dough,” “Courage (For Hugh MacLennan),” “Ahead By a Century” and “Bobcaygeon.” While Hip albums released in the 2000s didn’t produce as many hits, the band hung on to its unofficial status as Canada’s favourite rock band. That’s why this last year’s been devoted to Chanie Wenjack and to reconciliation. “He wanted to make it better, he knew as great as we were we need to be better than we are. “He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country,” Trudeau said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in tears as he paid tribute to Downie and how he devoted the last chapter of his life to advocating for the rights of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. ![]()
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