The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: 'We Want To Be It'

Hey, it's jD here.

Every once in a while, the shuffle lands on a song that feels like it found you on purpose. This was one of those weeks.

'We Want To Be It' - track four off "Now For Plan A" - doesn't get talked about the way

'Bobcaygeon' does. It doesn't get the bar rock reverence of the early records. But spend a week with it, really spend a week with it, and something starts to happen. Layers. Lots of them.

This week, jD is joined by Steph from Winnipeg, Andrew from Tampa, and Tyler from Etobicoke for what turned into one of the more surprising discussions the show has had. The song is three minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The conversation ran nearly an hour. That ratio should tell you everything.

We dig into what "Now For Plan A" actually is as a record - the shortest album in The Hip's catalog, a band quietly fracturing while somehow still playing out of their minds, produced by Gavin Brown under conditions that, as Tyler points out, sound a lot like band therapy.

Andrew came in with ten shows under his belt from that tour. Tyler revisited the record for the first time in years and kept finding new things. Steph brought the kind of insight that makes you stop mid-sentence and say yes, exactly that.

And then there's the drip, drip, drip.

Is the song about Laura Downie? About the band itself? About wanting to dissolve into the music instead of having to manufacture it over and over? Tyler brings a genuinely hot take - sourced from an Alan Gregg interview on Toronto Mike's podcast and Michael Barclay's book - that reframes the whole thing. Andrew adds the Alan Arkin connection Gord himself referenced in early live intros of the song. And jD talks about the three layers of crust this song has developed for him personally over the years.

It's a choose your own adventure lyric written by a guy who never gave you the map. That's the feature. Big thanks to Steph, Andrew, and Tyler for bringing the goods on this one. Next week, we hit shuffle again - no idea what's coming, and that's exactly the point.

From Our Guests"I'm in season three of Pocket Full of Mojo - wherever you enjoy your podcasts. I help recovering people pleasers like me remember how to get out of our own way and figure out that there's way fewer rules in this life than we're told."

- Steph from Winnipeg | Pocket Full of Mojo Podcast

"If you can't make it out to the event, get on the page and get into the GoFundMe for Sarah. And you don't have to be in Toronto - you can always fly in."

- Andrew from Tampa

"I'll be appearing on Toronto Mike's podcast in early April to do a Q1 recap. Other than that, just keeping my head down and trying to stay out of trouble."

- Tyler from Etobicoke | Toronto Mike'd Podcast



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