The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Thirty-Nine — Darrin from Toronto
Hey, it’s jD — and this week I’m joined by longtime fan, spreadsheet mastermind, and live bootleg legend Darrin from Toronto, who’s got Hip stories so rich and ridiculous you’ll wish we had a five-hour runtime.
From seeing his first show in ’91 to catching the band in obscure U.S. venues and damn near trading war stories with Gord himself, Darrin’s Hipstory is an absolute treasure chest. His dad even bought Up to Here on cassette — and sang along to the wrong lyrics like a true legend.
Darrin walks us through his years on the road, from a sweaty night at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (signed banana shaker and all) to that one time he watched Gord trip and duct-tape his guitar back together. His archive runs deep — both mentally and digitally — and his new site, thehiparchive.com, is quickly becoming the ultimate place for collectors, concert chasers, and audio junkies to relive the band’s live magic.
We also dive into the complexities of World Container, the experimental flair of Man Machine Poem, and the little lyric links that connect “You’re Not the Ocean” to “New Orleans Is Sinking.” If you’ve ever been haunted by a line or floored by a setlist… this episode is your jam.
🎙️ Next week: We head to Maine to catch up with Lynn, who’s got stories that’ll remind you exactly why The Hip matter — especially when life gets loud.
💬 Pull Quote
“I turned around and Gord was standing next to me at a Rheostatics show. He looked at me and said, ‘Hey, Darrin.’ That was four years after we met. Wild.”
👤 About Our Guest
Darrin from Toronto has been chasing Hip shows since 1991 and collecting setlists, bootlegs, and deep cuts like it’s a full-time gig. He’s the creator of TheHipArchive.com, a new fan-powered site hosting hundreds of shows and rare recordings — all curated with love and reverence. He’s also the guy who once watched The Hip in Martha’s Vineyard with maybe 100 people… because a tropical storm scared everyone else off.
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📜 Transcript follows below.
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TTHTop40 - 601
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:00] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.
What did you think of We Want to Be It when you heard it for the first time? Oh, I loved it. I love this
song. From the first listen, I remember listening to this album for the first time and, first of all, loving
the sound of all of it. I remember being surprised also that a lot of, you know, countdowns or top
albums online, blogs or whatnot, would put this one kind of low on the list. Because this album kind
of resonated with me a lot, the soundscape.
[0:51] Hey it's jd here and welcome to the tragically hip top 40 countdown it is an absolute pleasure
to be with you week over week where we're counting down 40 essential tracks by the hip that you
selected with your very own top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a
kazoo orchestra, led by a sentient ham sandwich who insists on being called Maestro Dijon. How
will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in every week to find out. So there's
that. This week I'm joined by tragically hip superfan Darren from Toronto. Darren from Toronto, How
the hell are you doing on this hip-tastic day? I'm doing great, thanks. How are you doing? I'm
actually in the midst of a really good stretch here. So despite the rain and the gray sky today, I'm
feeling all right. Excellent. What do you say we get right into things here and start talking about
Darren from Toronto's origin story or his hip-story, as it were?
[2:03] Sure. No problem. Is there anything in particular you want me to go into or just sort of start
where I... Let's start at the start. Let's start at the start and we'll, you know, we'll wander on through
the trail. Yeah. Right. Well, my history goes back to probably originally hearing songs like Small
Town, Bring Down, and Last American Exit on probably Q107 back in 80, whatever, 87, around that
era. And then when Up To Here was released, it was funny, my dad bought the cassette. I'm 56
right now. My dad is in his 80s. But at that time, he bought the cassette for Up To Here, having
heard songs and liked what he had heard. Cool, dad. Yeah, I know, exactly. So he used to sing the
song, She Didn't Know. And every time it came on the radio, he would sing, She didn't know about
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all the money. And I was like, that's not even the lyrics to the song. And he's like, I don't care.
[3:19] So I actually, the first album I had was his cassette of Up To Here. When it had originally
come out. So the first album I think I bought myself was Road Apples. And I started seeing the
band in 1991. The first show I saw was at the concert hall in July of 91. And then shortly after they
played Ontario Place in Toronto, the Ontario Place Forum in August. So I saw two shows sort of
back like within a month, uh, in 91. And they were probably, I guess it was probably road apples
that it was, uh, in 91. They were kind of, road testing stuff like 100th Meridian at the time. I think it
was, I think it was, it might have, was that called Ouch, I think before, or there was, it was
something else that. I do not know. I think, I think it had. No, it's not Ouch for sure, because Ouch
was a, was on Saskatchewan, right? Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't fully formed as 100th
Meridian. It was a lot of like repeating of the line. I remember Buffalo in it. I remember it, I distinctly
remember it at the, at the concert hall.
[4:38] Um, so those are like the first couple of shows that I saw by them and ended up seeing them
about 34 or 35 times between, between 91 and, and 2016. Um, saw a lot of shows, uh, mostly in, in
Toronto, a lot of like Maple Leaf Gardens and, uh, Molson Park and, um, the ACC kind of stuff, you
know, typical Toronto kind of, kind of big stadium stuff. But I saw a few interesting runs. I saw three
days in a row and on the hen house tour out West in Spokane, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and
Seattle. So very cool. That was cool. Like whatever was that trouble? That was trouble at the hen
house so it was like 95 must have been yeah 95 or 6 yeah um, and then i saw another run in 98 in
the on the east coast of the u.s for phantom power and it was northampton massachusetts where
they had recorded the the um.
[6:02] Something on video before we went into to see the show uh there was northampton there
was, portland maine uh portlands yeah i saw in both portlands i think it was a state theater in both
of them or something i can't remember but uh northampton i'm sorry uh hampton beach casino.
[6:25] Um which i'll tell you a little story about in a minute yeah i was going to follow up on that
anyway yeah so hampton beach casino um there was a show in in um what's it called uh martha's
vineyard okay and it ended with a show at sugar bush in vermont so it was five five shows over like
probably six days or something like that oh i'm so envious of that i never did i did two nights i did
hamilton and toronto back to back but i never did anything more grand than that yeah i'm really
proud of what you did that it was it was really cool like seeing them in small places uh like the the
martha's vineyard show in particular it was there was a uh supposed to be a hurricane it ended up
being a tropical storm so there was like almost nobody at the show it almost got canceled but uh
ended up going to see them at that it was like maybe a hundred people at that show Oh my God.
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So standing at the stage with, you know, people, and half of them were like, don't even know who
the band is kind of thing. It was pretty awesome. The dumb half. Yeah, right.
[7:36] So it was a great, great set. The last show was the Sugarbush show, and it was infamously
one where a lot of people didn't get to see the show because the buses were all delayed coming
over across the mountain. It was on a ski hill in Sugarbush but we had driven so I actually ended up
at the show saw the whole thing but most of the people arrived during the encore and, The
Hampton Beach Casino show was pretty cool because we kind of like interacted with them over the
course of a few days, sort of following them around and, you know, met the band.
[8:18] And this will go on for a little. I have a couple of stories that kind of pivot off of it. But the
Hampton Beach show was cool because it was the show where I had just mentioned on one of the
forums that during the show, there was two things. A friend of mine was with me, and at that show,
Gord used to have a banana shaker that he would shake. And it had broken, and the pellets were
falling out of it. So he gave her, at the end of the show, the banana, and the whole band signed it.
So she has like a signed banana from the whole band that he used to use on stage. Holy shit yeah
and then the the other thing that happened was that that show was that he for a while in the
phantom power tour his acoustic guitar that he used to play had a big piece of like duct tape on the
top edge of it like just black tape on the corner and at that show i distinctly remember this
happening and he had tripped going off stage.
[9:20] And ended up, when they came back on, he came back on with his guitar and it had duct tape
on it because I guess he had tripped and kind of broken it or something. And it was on there for like
years after this show. Like they hadn't gotten it fixed, but it had this duct tape on the corner of it. So
anyhow, cool shows. It was great to meet the band and interact with them. Uh, and the funny thing
was I, um.
[9:50] This has been in 98 and then around 2000, 2001, uh, I was at a real statics show cause one
of the, one of the, we'll get to the websites, but one of the websites I do is a real statics live website.
And so I was on a show at Ted's Wrecking Yard in Toronto. I remember Ted's Wrecking Yard. And
Gord used to go to hip shows. Sorry, he went to all the hip shows. But he would go to rheostatics
shows. And this one night I'm standing there in the crowd on the stage and he's, I turn and he's
standing beside me. Oh my goodness. And I'm like, holy shit, right? Yeah. I had met him a couple
years before, a couple years before. And he turned and looked at me and he said, Hey, Darren. No,
he did not. I was like, how the fuck do you remember my name? And I thought it was like such a
crazy thing. And then I found out years later that that's one of the things he just remembered
people's names and faces and could pull up people's names years later. And, uh, and he did that
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and I was like, holy shit. Um, but what was interesting was we were talking, we were seeing that,
seeing the show and.
[11:01] The Real Statics have this song called Four Little Songs, which is like four songs put
together into like one song. And we were talking about it because they were playing it. And he just
turned and he's like, you know, I'm just so amazed that a band can write a song like this. Like, it's
just so creative and interesting. And then like 10 years later, however long, they ended up with the
Depression Suite. That's right. being these three songs and very similar. And I was like, I always
wondered if it was like, if there was an inspiration to kind of like drawn from that kind of, that kind of
sort of song. Yeah, I have no idea, but. If anybody out there does know, send us an email, tthtop40
at gmail.com. That's right. I mean, it could have just been Bob Rock who threw them together for all
we know. Well, no, I don't know. Maybe I read this in the book or maybe it was in the doc, But I'm
pretty sure it was that Paul's, like, Paul picked the three songs that were going to go together. Oh,
did he? Yeah. When they sort of had the idea to do, you know, a suite. So I'm not sure whether I've
just dreamt this or whether that's factually correct. But I digress. Back to you. Yeah, no problem.
Yeah, but anyhow, interesting little stories. I'm sure you'll get them from everybody you talk to. I do
have one.
[12:26] Infamous show that I was at. Well, infamous in that... I'm intrigued. It was...
[12:33] Only show that they ever performed the song Emergency from Day for Night. Get out of
here. They played it one time, and it was before Day for Night was released, and it was at an
industry benefit show for the family of a gentleman named Brian Eagle, who was part of the MCA
Records Canada group. And he ended up dying at 38 years old of all age. And this is like in May of
1993, I think he died. And they ended up doing a benefit show for him, his family at the Phoenix in
December of that year. And The Hip and The Pursuit of Happiness were the two bands that played.
Nice lineup. show yeah and at that show that was the only show they ever performed emergency
live.
[13:28] Wow so you're one of let's paint the picture of the phoenix it it's maybe a thousand people,
maybe maybe yeah 750 even and probably a lot of like not necessarily hip fans um but sure you
know friends tpoh fans and people who are there for the benefit yeah but wow interestingly i it's
funny i remembered this for years like i distinctly remember hearing them play it and i thought
maybe i had made it up like that it was in my mind for like you know 20 years and then somebody
like i don't know four or five years ago posted the set list like the handwritten set list with the song
on it, and I was like, oh, okay, it wasn't in my mind.
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[14:15] Oh, that's so great. And they played another song called Win as well, which I think they only
played a few times also. I've never heard it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's no recording of that
show. So... Um, yeah, interesting kind of little, little tidbit, uh, kind of thing, but it was nice. Those U
S shows were great because it was, you know, being Canadian and being living in Toronto, a lot of
the shows that they would do in Toronto were always very kind of greatest hits ish kind of shows,
crowd pleasing stuff.
[14:48] And then you would see them go on tour and see all the songs that they were throwing in, in
the States. And it was like, Oh man, I really want to hear these deep cuts. and uh those those u.s
tour dates that i saw were really really like that where they would play sort of stuff that you weren't
necessarily expecting and it was older older albums so there wasn't as much material to draw sure
sure you know it's just uh it's it's a shame they stopped touring when they did and and definitely
why they stopped touring but it's um it's sad to me that some albums like now for plan a and man
machine poem don't get the longevity and the life that they so richly deserve you know by being
played numerous times in a in a set yeah a hundred percent i mean because i mean for a long time
man um now for plan a there was a period where it was absolutely my favorite hip album and it was
one of the only two i think albums that i didn't see them on tour with uh no it was that one and oh
there was one other one what kind of tour did they do for now for planning i know that was the one
where they did the pop-up in kensington right yeah they did those kensington market shows very
cool four or five songs or something something small that they Yeah.
[16:17] Oh yeah. But they were doing it in like a, you know, like out the window of a restaurant
basically. Yeah. Or a shop.
[16:25] Yeah. Find that video online if you can, people. It's pretty fun. I think, I think plan A and in
between evolution were the only two albums. I didn't see them at some point do a show from.
[16:38] And in between Evolution, I was between my first and second daughter who were born, so I
wasn't really seeing much music at that point. Yeah, I guess not. And 2012, it's funny, for Plan A, I
don't remember why, and I haven't gotten to that point in the archive yet, so I'm not sure. I can't
remember how much they toured it.
[17:01] Um but uh so anyhow those those are the two but yeah to your point um you know those last
few albums there really wasn't a lot of public airing of the material even even on the last tour i think
they only did one night where they played any songs from from uh from we are the same no from
we are the same oh it's like i think it was somewhere out west they did one night maybe
somewhere in Alberta, I think, maybe Edmonton. All the other albums were featured multiple nights
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over it, but that one album was only done the one time. Which is interesting, considering if you
watch the documentary, their reflection on it isn't particularly positive either. Their own self-reflection
on the album didn't seem like it was as positive an experience for a variety of reasons. Oh, yeah.
That part of it is just so shocking. So shocking. Did you enjoy the documentary? I loved it. I thought
they did a fantastic job. I think it gave some nice insight into areas that people probably didn't have
visibility into. It was obviously very emotional and upsetting in some ways, but I liked that it was
honest.
[18:25] I'm sure there's lots of honesty that was probably left out of it like everything but they really
kind of got a lot in there that really I think got to the essence of the good and the bad of the band
and how things, you know progressed with them and you could see the emotion and even sort of
the honesty of Rob talking about sort of drinking and some other stuff that was going on and it's so
it was a fairly you know, some warts and all kind of documentary. And I think that over the four
episodes really was a great capture of their arc of their career. Um, so yeah, I loved it. I thought it
was really well done. I could watch another 10 episodes. Yeah. I wish each record got an episode,
you know, even if it's only a 30 minute episode, just each record gets, you know, that sort of time.
But clearly, like you said, some of those later records, they didn't, you know, even despite the
experiences in the studio with like Hugh Pajum and stuff like that, they don't necessarily, you know,
make them make their eyes twinkle, you know? Yeah. Which is sort of disappointing because I love
some of those later records. I love them. Yeah. I think the records are far better than they think they
are. If I had to sort of be my takeaway from it.
[19:52] Because when you sort of listen to all of it, there really isn't the only album that I would say
that, that there was potentially a dip that I could, In my own preference of records would be We Are
The Same, which has great songs, but it doesn't sit as cohesively.
[20:13] It does feel a little bit more like maybe there was some gourd stuff in there that became hip
stuff. Some of the more mellow-ish kind of things. And I love the slow hip stuff. I mean, I'm a huge
fan of All All All All All. It just had a different feel to it. It does. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And I
love how, in listening to the album Man Machine Poem, how it's such a different album in its style.
And I think a lot probably was influenced by Kevin Drew, who I love. I'm a huge Broken Social
Scene fan. And I love his work, and I think that he brought a little bit of different kind of fairy dust to
it. And so I think that, you know, Kevin Drew added a bit of his own sort of fairy dust to the sort of
style of and sound of that record. And it would have been really interesting to see where they
potentially would have gone, kind of getting into a bit more of an experimental area for them.
Agreed. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Like, we can only imagine. Yeah.
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[21:25] Yeah, I mean, because there's a lot of really, like Man and Machine, both of those songs,
and Great Soul and Hot Mic, like it just had a different sound. It sounded like they were writing from
a different, I don't know, different place than maybe they had historically, or at least there was a
sound that was different. I love that album. It's a very concise record as well, right? Ten tracks, you
know, it's a quick hit. It's, I think, 38 minutes long. And it just goes in your veins so nice. And it's got
a really good concise style to it. Yeah. Yeah. And it's unique in that there's, None of the songs
sound like other hip songs to me, for the most part. They have a different kind of feel to them. Yeah,
I would agree with that. I'm trying to think right now. Whereas up to that album, there was a lot of
things that they did that had variations on a theme. But you think about things like Streets Ahead,
and that sounds like a hip song from Afroplan A. They have a hip. quality to them yeah agreed
anyhow um i don't know i don't know what it was about that record maybe it was kevin's influence
uh maybe it was them but there was something interesting about it that was different and heading
off in a different direction so for sure it'll be interesting to see if when they get to those later albums.
[22:52] What kind of art what kind of, unreleased studio stuff they have that will uh come out if
there's any i really hope they do the reissue for every record uh that's my that's my dream my gut
tells me just based on a random conversation i had with johnny on the like we had with johnny on
the last year's podcast discovering downy and i i made mention right at the inner right at the end of
the interview i said oh i can't wait for your reissue of music at work i love that record and johnny
was like uh we don't and then he said but i will tell you something i've been listening the hell out of
inviolate light.
[23:35] And uh i think that's a really underrated record now was he listening to it because he's going
through the archival process i don't know but that was my gut that that's going to be the next one
we see or maybe they're a record ahead even you know that might be the next one that we see
after after up to here who knows yeah i can talk about hip all day i know um but i but to the point
about music at work it's funny because that album for a lot of years was my favorite hip album and
then um like i think because it's so different and not it's all like deep cuts you know things like the
completists and train overnight and like that kind of stuff which you know wild mountain honey or uh
which i love that kind of stuff yeah the stuff that you go to shows hoping that they'll play and they
never do but you will get music at work that's right exactly or it's my music at work darren what do
you say we uh spin the record the other way and talk about the song of the week, sure absolutely
let's go for it all right we'll be right back after this, hey this is paul langwell from the tragical hip
saying hello now on with the countdown Thirty-nine!
[24:51] Music.
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[28:26] I can remember Greg pointing me in the direction of You're Not the Ocean when I was
initially doing research for my first podcast based on The Hip, Fully and Completely. I loved it, and it
stuck. Darren from Toronto, what did you think of You're Not the Ocean when you heard this kickoff
track the first time? I loved the whole album from the beginning, the whole World Container album.
It was definitely more polished, but I love the track. You're Not the Ocean was another in a long line
of amazing opening songs for hip albums. Agreed. Agreed. It's uncanny, their abilities.
[29:10] They had a great ability to begin and end albums with great, great songs. Um so it's uh it's
sometimes hard it's like trying to pick a favorite opening track from an album it's like there's
probably seven of the however many albums they had 14 or eight i can't remember yeah uh that i
could pick as like my favorite openers but it is right up there it is a really great song and it starts it
kind of sets this tone for the album that i think is it's interesting because i listened to your your your
and greg's podcast about this recently as well the the the world container album oh okay uh to get
to just to refresh sort of that perspective on it it was interesting hearing you guys talk.
[29:58] About it and it you know it's it's an interesting album because the song itself is sort of an
encapsulation of the style like there's an aggression to it and an anxiety but it's all for the most part
it's a very upbeat sounding so sounding record uh but there's an intensity to it like something going
on on this during the creation of the album there's a lot of deep lyrics and a lot of like if i read into it
there's a lot of like interpersonal things going on family or friends or something in there that sort of
drove a lot of the lyrics that were that like many hip songs you know they have they you can read
them at face value or you can read them as an interpretation and sometimes there's three versions
of what the song might be about oh my gosh you're totally right and this is one of those songs it's
like that it's uh it's a pretty i mean i love it's it's short like like everything on the album like i think it's
three and a half minutes or something along those lines yeah but But a great, great opening song
to what I think is definitely one of their strongest albums. Interesting take. I haven't heard – I don't
disagree with you necessarily. It would be in my middle third. Yeah.
[31:22] Of the middle third of your favorite albums? Yeah. Like, I can't rank them, but I have thirds,
sort of, you know? And it's in my middle. It's in my middle third. Yeah. I mean, I'd say it's in my top,
but it probably would end up in my middle if I actually had to do the math on all of it. Yeah. It's
tough, man. I don't know how you guys all picked your top 20. For me, it took me like a day. And
there was like whittling down. I basically wrote like as many songs as I loved. And then I started to
like, okay, who gets to go? Who gets to stay? I think impossibilium is the word to how you actually
are able to try to come up with your top songs.
[32:04] So talk to me a little bit more about You're Not the Ocean. Did you get to see it live? I did,
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yeah. Actually, I missed the first time they ever played it live. I was looking because I've been doing
this archive. And, uh, it was at the Fort York, the second Fort York show in June of 2006. I went to
the first night, so I didn't, I didn't see them debut that. Uh, but I did see it on other tours. So yeah, I
always thought it was a really great, great opener. Um, it's funny, you know, I, I love, I, as a music
fan, I love, I'm, I'm, I sing in a band and I've sang, I love music. I sing along. I make up words. I pay
attention to lyrics half the time. I'm a big fan of how music sounds, how the words sound. What's
the cadence of the vocal, like an instrument. So often, I don't even necessarily know what the song
is about. I may not even be singing it right. But I like how the words sound to me phonetically. Yes.
So...
[33:15] With the hip songs, I always find that whenever I actually have to dig in and try to think about
what does this song mean, I usually have no idea. And I have to kind of like really think about what
are the words saying. And every time I do, it's like trying to tear apart an onion. Like there's just
layers to it. It's really hard to understand the poetry of where it's coming from. But there's also like
universal themes to it. So you get the essence of the vibe of it and what the, you think it's about.
And then the reality is probably something else entirely to the, to Gord, to the writer. So I just same
with like a band like, yes, like John Anderson stuff. Like, I don't know what the hell he's talking
about, but I love how it sounds.
[34:03] So, so, so, so when I, but when I looked into, when I sort of was reading through the lyrics to
it, I was like, okay, I kind of get the gist of this. The metaphor of the song you know it's a it's at face
value it's he could be literally standing on a on the on the beach and talking about a lake and an
ocean and actually talking about maybe there's a water theme and his whole involvement with,
pure water and clean water and maybe there's a piece of that, it's but I mean the song itself is in as
it's as I would interpret it as a really a metaphor for like how people try to, uh, to, uh.
[34:52] It's like about an antagonistic relationship or something in a relationship where you are trying
to hold off somebody else in some way. You're trying to stave off their impact on you. That's sort of
my take on it.
[35:12] It's funny, when I was listening to some of the live tracks, every time he introduced the song,
he would say, he would say this is called you're not the ocean and it's a compliment i don't you
know it's it's not an insult it's a compliment you're not the ocean um and that was kind of his sort of
wow but he would how he would introduce it at many shows he wrote i wrote down once he wrote
uh he said it's a song of defiance and willful denseness and what else do you need to get through
the day, that was in Toronto in 2009 but he would often refer to it sort of being as a song that was
supposed to be a compliment saying you're not the ocean.
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[35:56] Because I think the ocean is the bad guy essentially the bad person in this, that's trying to
creep up and if you listen to the lyrics how it develops, initially it's you're up to my toes, and then it's
you're not even close and then I'm standing on my toes, which is like what somebody does when
you're trying to sort of stand up above the water, like if you're on your toes, because it's like the
water's rising. There's a level of anxiety there that comes with that. And then it gets to, you know,
you're up to my chin, you're not coming in. And when he gets to those lines, it's a very, he changes
how he sings it also. It gets to, there's that desperate sound to how he's singing that, that stress.
Well put.
[36:44] So it's, you know, it's this sort of, This, you know, drowning, this potential drowning scene,
you know, metaphor of like the water rising and it's like you're trying to like do whatever you can to
you're not getting in, you know, about whatever this situation is with another person, assuming that
that's what it's about. But that's kind of how I interpreted the song. I'm probably not. It's probably
obvious. I'm really shitty with metaphors. No, you put yourself out there. You put yourself out there.
That's a stop. That's more than a lot of people will do, you know?
[37:21] So I appreciate that. Thanks. It has some interesting lines as well, just about, you know,
Brittany Invisible and The Stranger and Myself. And I think you guys talked about it on your old
podcast as well. But it's funny because when I looked at it, I'm like, as I look through lyrics and read
lyrics that, through the lyrics, It's like there's an immense amount of quotes that he uses in his lyrics
to songs and references to things that you think you understand what it is. But then, you know, it's
like in, what's the one where he talks about Canada Lee? Is that Direwolf, I think? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
And, you know, until I had heard, until I looked at the lyrics, I'm like, I thought Canada Lee was
some kind of reference to Canada. And then I realized it was a person. And there's this whole story
that these characters are sort of drawn into the metaphor. Anyhow, a couple of interesting lines in
this song as well that you can look up to try to understand the context. But they're maritime
references. Well, one's a maritime reference. And the other one relates to a German soldier in
World War II, I think, in his memoirs. But they're anxiety-related references.
[38:40] You know sort of what's happening around you and trying to have some control over the
environment you're in for things that you may not necessarily be able to control and i think that's
what he was probably getting at with those references um so i like it yeah i have one other thing i
was going to say about this song because it's funny i was um you know how gord right you know
will use lyrics in he'll use the same lines in multiple songs yes yeah on many records and in this
song he refers to take and take and take and.
[39:21] And I didn't realize until later that, in fact, he uses that same line in If New Orleans' beat from
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In Between Evolution, where he's talking about the river takes and takes and takes. The river takes
and takes and takes. And then in this song, he talks about the lake takes and takes and takes. So
it's a different album, but same line reference. The man loved his water themes. That's for certain.
But I love how he used those. He would use similar, the same lines in multiple songs. I always
thought that was really. Oh, I love that too. Because to me it was like, is he underscoring this? Is
this more important? You know, like a super farmer. What's the super farmer? Garbage bag trees,
you know, like these lines that just repeat themselves in your lockdown. Garbage bag trees, you
know, garbage bag. It's funny. I remember hearing about that. I was like, oh, garbage bag trees.
That's like where you walk around in the winter and there's plastic bags stuck in trees everywhere,
right? Yeah. But who would throw that into a song, right?
[40:26] Oh, man. Yeah. Well, Darren, it's been an absolute pleasure hearing your hipstery and
breaking down this song with you. But I'm wondering if you have anything you'd like to plug. Yeah. I
mean, I guess I probably came to your attention a bit because of this new archive that I've been
doing. Yeah. The new hip archive, which is basically identical and looks to many other sites that I
do. This is just a fan of music kind of thing. I just do it because I have either material or pack rat
stuff. But I started years ago, probably back in the early, mid-2000s, doing some archive stuff. It
was actually a band called Wheat that were from the United States, from Massachusetts. Um, and
at the time there was, everybody had like FTP archive sites. You could get a login, you can go in
and pull down MP3s of shows and that. And it was kind of like the first digital trading kind of
process after people were trading, you know, cassettes. Right. And then they started to kind of get
shut down. So with this one set, with this one group, I had asked them about it and they ended up
saying, it's cool. Go ahead. You can set up a site. And I did that with them. and then I did
something with the spoons and then I did something with a huge site with the Rio statics live
archive where.
[41:52] You know, people would send me shows, the band would send me, give me cassettes and
videos and all sorts of stuff. And it kind of like just evolved.
[42:02] I set one up for the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir and Thomas Trio and the Red Albino. So
there's like a bunch of like sort of mostly Canadian bands that I use the same format. And really the
idea was just to be able to provide some live music content that used to be available on these FTP
sites, but it disappeared at that point. And wanting to have it available somewhere and always with
the blessing of the bands that I kind of have done it with. Oh, that's great. That's great to hear. So
this one was, you know, recently watching the documentary.
[42:43] I was like, you know, there used to be a hip bass archive that was up and it disappeared.
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And I think it might just be on torrents right now. So some people have stuff that if they send you a
link, you can kind of get things, but there isn't like a site. And I thought there probably, hopefully
should be something that's just got everything potentially available. Pull it all into one place, make it
easy to just download an MP3 or a FLAC file and give some basic information, a link to the set list,
the information text file, just so that people who are collecting can kind of get an idea and i've been
putting like a rating of what i think this or overall quality is oh okay that kind of thing so it's really just
like by year this archive that i'm working on i'm almost through it i'm at 2009 i just put up today that
we are the same tour um there's still a bunch more to go and then i'm hope i have some people
that have reached out that have more content that may or may not be out there that they're gonna
say exciting so So yeah, hopefully it will like pull in as much stuff that's out there and be like a one
spot stop shop for like, not shop cause there's no, you don't have to pay anything for it. Um, it's all,
it's all free and sort of stuff that's been out there. So, uh, so just one place to kind of go to and
hopefully have a majority of what used to be available around. Um, and that was kind of the
intention of it. Um. People who collect live music love that kind of thing. Absolutely.
[44:12] So yeah, it's been amazing sort of putting it together. There's a lot of stuff. I think it's
probably, I think I put up 40 plus shows today from 2009. I mean, there's probably over 300 or 350
shows up there already.
[44:28] That's extraordinary. Wow. Yeah. So it's been, it's a lot of time to do it. I bet. Yeah, but I
figured out a way to kind of do it quickly, relatively quickly. And yeah, I think it's... High-speed
dubbing, right? Well, it's more about process and how do I do the same thing over and over again
as fast as possible. So it's kind of like coming up with a way to kind of put things together. Right.
And I've kind of got my style on how I do that. And then, yeah, so it's coming together nicely. Can
you give us the URL?
[45:08] Yes, it's www.thehiparchive.com. I love it. You even gave it a nice cadence there. So it's
right. I didn't even know it had it until then. But yeah, and then there's a link you can send on.
There's a got content link, and I've got an email. I think it's info at thehiparchive.com. Archive.com,
which comes to me. And if you have anything you want to provide or have suggestions where to
look, then yeah, people can send me emails there as well. And I've been posting on Facebook and
things like that as well as I've been doing each year. Keep flying the flag, Darren from Toronto.
Keep flying the fucking flag. I love it. Can I say thank you for all of these hip shows that you do?
Because it's really awesome and it's really nice having all this out there. Oh, thanks, man. Thank
you so much. Much appreciated. That's what we've got for you this week. I want to thank Darren
from Toronto for stopping by and sharing. I want to thank you for listening. Pick up your shed.
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Thanks for listening to the Tragically Hit Top 40 Countdown. To email us, send an email to tthtop40
at gmail.com. Or social. Find us on all the socials at tthtop40.
[46:34] Podcasts and such.
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