The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Forty — Yanik from Toronto
Hey, it’s jD — and welcome to the very first official episode of The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown. Buckle up, friends. We’re kickin’ this thing off in true Hip fashion: with deep reverence, a little mischief, and a brand-new fan-turned-superfan.
This week I’m joined by Yanik from Toronto — an opera singer, a self-confessed late bloomer when it comes to The Hip, and the creator of the Instagram gem Dance Like Gord. (If you’re not following that, fix your life.) His journey into the band’s music didn’t start in the ‘80s or ‘90s — it started in the wake of Secret Path and grew in tandem with personal loss, national mourning, and the unmistakable call of Gord’s later solo work.
Together, we unpack what it means to fall in love with The Hip after the final tour. How the layers of Gord’s lyricism reveal themselves like old film negatives — better with time, stronger in grief, and loudest when things go quiet. We talk bro culture vs. art school snobbery, radio station trauma, and how one pandemic-fueled discography binge turned into a full-on spiritual awakening. Spoiler: He’s one of us now.
Yanik brings humility, honesty, and some beautiful insights into the band’s evolution — plus a fresh lens on Now For Plan A that might just make you re-listen this week. Trust me.
🎙️ Next week: We stay in the 6ix with Darrin from Toronto, whose Hip archive might actually be deeper than the Rideau Canal. He’s got receipts. He’s got tapes. He’s got stories you won’t believe. Don’t miss it.
💬 Pull Quote
“I was the snob who changed the station when Gord came on. Now I run an Instagram page dedicated to how he danced. That’s growth, baby.”
👤 About Our Guest
Yanik from Toronto is a classically trained opera singer who’s making his way into the hearts of Hip fans one stage dive at a time. He’s the voice behind Dance Like Gord, a celebration of Downie’s magnetic stage presence, and a living reminder that fandom is about discovery — not seniority. When he’s not belting out arias or unpacking Man Machine Poem, Yanik’s building bridges between musical genres and keeping Gord’s spirit alive in new, creative spaces.
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📜 Transcript follows below.
TTHTop40 - 601
2025-05-23, 6:33 PM
TTHTop40 - 601
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:00] Music.
[0:16] It's J.D. here and welcome to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is my absolute pleasure
to be here 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 ballots. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a
psychic ferret that only communicates in riddles about tax evasion. And that's how they always get
you. Rico, baby. Rico.
[0:48] How will your favorite songs 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 super fan Yannick from Toronto. Yannick, how
are you doing, man? I'm good. I'm doing great. How are you? I'm really good. I'm really good. Yeah,
this is a lot of fun. So I want to welcome everybody to the first episode and I want to welcome you
to the first episode. We're celebrating here because this is the kickoff. Of course. Yeah. Very
exciting. Thank you for having me. This is an honor. I'm happy to kick it off and with you. And like
we said before, no pressure, you know, it's just fun. That's right. We're just talking about our favorite
band here. We're just talking about our favorite band. All we need is a pint and a table between us,
really. You know, totally. I mean, I've got a table in front of me. I've got a pint of water, if that works.
I've got, yeah, yeah. Well, what do you say we get right into things? The format of the show
basically is going to be me talking to a guest about their tragically hip origin story. And I'm really
curious to hear yours, Yannick, from Toronto. Yeah. Let's do it. Yeah. Should I just jump right into it?
Jump right in. Okay.
[2:03] Yeah. Well, my story, I guess, my hip story is, I would say, maybe an unconventional one,
though I've realized by talking with people, by fans and with fans and whatnot, it's not a rare one. I
was not really into the hip at all when I was growing up, when I was younger. I know, I know.
Shocking. I came to them kind of later, more recently. Of course, kind of during their last tour, it was
covered everywhere and you could see it on the news. I was kind of forced maybe or encouraged
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to learn about them. And I'm thankful I did.
[2:51] And then since then, it's kind of been a love story since. But yeah, so definitely
unconventional, I think. And interesting that I'm the one maybe kicking it off. But yeah, I told myself
I'd chat with you and I would not be ashamed of my own unique story. No, of course not. I want to
know, though. I want to start at the start. I want to know... What the process of hippicizing yourself
looked like. You know, people listened to Getting Hip to the Hip a couple years back, and they
heard me indoctrinate Tim and Pete.
[3:36] What did you do to, you know, get it in your blood? Yeah, yeah, no. I mean, it was, like I
mentioned, it was not, even though I'm Canadian like you, And it seems like it's in our blood, just
like Tim Hortons, but it wasn't in mine, I guess, growing up. And I remember even listening to, in my
high school days, undergrad, when I would drive around, I would turn on the local classic rock
station. And even sometimes, you know, and I'll be honest with you, I would change station if
Gord's voice would come on. What? I know, I know. And, you know, I told you I'd be honest, but
there was just something about, I guess I was, I mean, I've thought about it since. I was definitely
kind of a snobbish little kid.
[4:32] I was starting to study classical music in my undergrad. I think I was, you know, my head was,
though I do come from a rock background. I was really into the 70s stuff and the 60s. But there was
just something about, I don't know if it's kind of the culture that was presented around maybe the
hip, this kind of, you know, the people often quote the bro culture that came. And I really didn't
identify it. What I did identify with was that lyric in Fireworks where he said, you didn't give a fuck
about hockey. Well, that resonated with me because that also wasn't really in my blood. But I've
always been kind of more of an artist than a sporty person.
[5:19] But so my only exposure to the hip was through the radio, and it just kind of sounding like,
you know, not that impressive to me maybe at first. And my head was full of these ideas about what
art was and what I was into the progressive rock stuff. So I had kind of, bigger ideas of what, you
know, the theatricality of it all. Anyways, fast forward some years, you know, to their last tour. And
then I finally had the chance to kind of see what they were about, to see Gord perform, to see the
band performing through video footage that was.
[6:05] Circulating all over the news. And I had realized I'd never even taken the time to, you know,
even YouTube, a performance of them.
[6:14] Yeah. Yeah. Which is, which I don't have, I think that's my, you know, biggest regret in life
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would be to not have given them a chance earlier, but I'm thankful that I have since. And, and, and
yeah, I've, I've kind of discovered more of, and, and I've discovered, discovered more, but also
dove deep. What does the deep dive look like what it what did it consist of like what record did you
go to first sure yeah yeah um uh i guess the first well like i mentioned i we we connected we we we
connected through your your last podcast discovering downy and that one uh resonated with me i
found interesting because uh because of the concept of it people uh guests discovering Gore
Downey's solo career, coming in as hip superfans and for me it was kind of the reverse of course
with the last tour and then the work he did afterwards The Secret Path and all the work around that
I kind of got into his music through his solo work so after I kind of took the time to really the.
[7:35] Soak in The Secret Path and what it was all about. Then I fell in love with the rest of his
discography solo stuff and was kind of flirting a little bit with the Hips discography a bit more.
[7:53] Especially the more recent stuff, I was seeing kind of the evolution of the sound that they had
That was maybe a bit more in line with my tastes at that point, a bit more alternative, a bit more
maybe, yeah, especially Now for Plan A, especially the final album. Those kind of spoke to me at
first, and then getting to know their work and what they were all about, then I kind of jumped in. And
the pandemic, early pandemic, was a time for me to discover. I told myself I would go through my
favorite artists' discographies or artists I wanted to learn more about. So they were one that I
decided to binge kind of from the beginning.
[8:38] And then that's when, yeah, I kind of saw the whole arc of their work. And since then, yeah, I
have not stopped discovering and listening and just enjoying it.
[8:50] There is such a treasure trove of video on youtube have you have you accessed some of that
now to see some of these live performances oh totally yeah yeah now i'm just you know eating it up
all the time uh and and especially like i mentioned if i had even just taken the chance to do a
youtube search earlier on i would have seen what they were all about live and i feel A lot of
discussions that I have with hip fans, it's all about the live performance, right? It's that energy that
they brought, the kind of showman that Gord is or was. And I was being in love with the theatricality
of rock and roll. I if I had just given that a chance I would have noticed oh you know he's just like
Jim Morrison he's just like David Bowie he's he's you know Peter Gabriel all those people that I
loved he was his own version of that and uh and so now yeah now I'm soaking it all in I love his
stage craft I love his the way his unique way of performing and uh and yeah of course the the
getting to see the final concert as well in Kingston, you know, that's one that I often go back to since
it was released and yeah, just always YouTubing what I missed, I guess.
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[10:17] It's nice that you can do that though. It's so nice that you can do that. Totally. This is the
beautiful thing about art. Like it doesn't always get context.
[10:30] Um, that it was conceived in, you know, it doesn't always get to have the context that it was
conceived in is what I'm trying to say. Let me try that one more time. My voice is going, it doesn't
always get the context that it's conceived in. Sometimes it could be years later that you discover
this art and you bring with it your own, you know, unique perspectives and, you know, voila,
suddenly you've just got this great, uh, like I said, treasure trove of work to go through. Yeah,
absolutely, for sure. And I think, I mean, of course, the story, I keep going back to the year of the
final tour, but for me, that was a pivotal moment. You know, it was my first taste of them, the first
time I saw them, but it was also, you know, the year that we lost, I think it was the same year as
Prince, David Bowie, that same year. And even personally, I have an aunt who got diagnosed, re-
diagnosed, I guess, with cancer that year, around that same time. So I think that the kind of public
grieving or the public kind of the way that.
[11:43] I could see this artist and this band going through it together and so publicly and so willing to,
you know, to fight, but also celebrate life and what they've done, that really resonated with me. and
it helped me. And then to just hear him talk about all of it, Gord, that last Peter Mansbridge
interview.
[12:11] Is just so touching and moving and heartbreaking, but also just so inspiring. Yeah, good
choice of words.
[12:24] I agree. There's something about.
[12:28] That vision I have of Gord wearing the First Avenue hat, you know, the, the, the jean jacket
that just looks so fucking cool. Yeah. Um, he's just a different version of Gord. Uh, then like I was
inspired by him as an artist growing up. I wanted to be, you know, he was my hero. Sure. Um, but
he became a different sort of hero as I got older and that's the hero that I envision now. You know,
that late version of Gore, that guy who showed up on Peter Mansbridge and was inspiring to a
whole different set of people in a whole different context. Totally, totally. And how beautiful as well
that, and if the listeners are, I'm sure you have watched the recent documentary. I was just going to
ask you about that. Okay, okay. But I'm sorry, I was just going to say how beautiful that throughout
his career, throughout their career, the band changed with their age, right? They grew up. We got to
see them. Their music grew up. Their music matured. Their music changed. Uh and and and as
sad as the end always is um how inspiring how how kind of amazing that we kind of got the chance
to have this kind of full cycle with them yeah i don't know.
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[13:55] You know they they there's that expression you know we were born in the right time you
know sure like we got to it we were born we lived at the same time that he lived and that was That
was really great. And it does make you wonder how he'll be remembered, how his legacy will be
remembered, you know, generations down the road. Yeah, yeah. And the bands as well, like for
their importance in Canadian culture and in some cases people, you know, identifying with them to
a very deep degree, far more so than hockey and Tim Hortons. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And those are also things that make us unique and that are worth celebrating, for sure. We kind of
embrace those as part of our identity. But I think, yeah, the fact that the only thing in life that really
brings us that is common is taxes and death, as they always say. So yeah seeing them kind of
embrace that and celebrate that really was to me kind of my way in then I was like okay this band
is, serious art I really was sleeping on them and did not give them a chance early.
[15:15] Unfortunate that it had to take this tragic moment but, I guess it was tragically hip after all. I
don't know.
[15:27] It was bound to happen at least once in 40 years. Yeah, I guess. So you may as well get it
out of the way in the first one.
[15:36] Yannick from Toronto, I'm curious about the record that you go to when you're looking for
that art. You mentioned before Man Machine Poem and now for Plan A. Let's exclude those two
from this equation. And what's sort of your go-to right now? Yeah, yeah. I mean, like any good
artist, you know, it's, there's, the beauty is kind of the variety of it all. I think in the moment, if I have
to answer in the moment, I've been kind of more into Rhode Apple, fully, completely kind of that
era. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's good stuff. It is good stuff. It's so good. It's just rock and roll, you know, just
with so much depth to it. And I guess, excuse me.
[16:32] There's also depth through the lyrics, but the kind of simplicity maybe, not that their music
was simple, but that era really feels like just a good jamming band. At the peak of, of, of, at, at a
certain peak, not to say at the peak of their career, but at a peak of, at a, at, at maybe a first peak
before the next one. Right. Yeah. Greg used to always say they were like the best bar band, like
they were the best bar band. And those, you know, I feel like fully completely was the, was the, um.
[17:13] The moment that that was like realized like you know like the the depth of their powers in
that sort of realm and then from there you get another arrow with day for night you know it's it's sort
of that yeah that record is so much more moody and atmospheric yeah and then you go and i love
the hen house and it's you know so yeah those first three uh those first three records not counting
baby blue But those first three records are, you know, them just swaggering with coolness and
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swaggering with bravado, just how goddamn good they are as a fucking bar band. Like, it's unreal.
And they could play a stadium at that time if they wanted to. Sure. Yeah, yeah. Yannick from
Toronto, do you think we should maybe talk about the song of the week? Let's do it. Yeah. Let's
rock. We'll be right back after this. Hey, this is Paul Langloff from the Tragically Hip saying hello.
Now on with the countdown.
[18:19] Music.
[21:43] Well, the cat is out of the bag. The first song on the top 40 countdown coming in at number
40 from the tremendous 2012 long play now for plan A, Yannick from Toronto. 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. um there's from
the first listen i remember i remember listening to this album for the first time and first of all loving
the the sound of all of it i remember being surprised also that uh that a lot of you know um
countdowns or top albums online blogs or whatnot would put this one kind of low on the list uh
because this this album kind of resonated with me a lot the soundscape.
[22:34] The and um and the depth of it's on my turntable right now oh cool yeah i think it's i i people
always talk about it being an underestimated album and i and i would have to say so as well i think
it's going to um and i i already see it kind of getting more attention but it definitely does deserve
everybody's uh re-listening and re-re-re-re-listening as well but specifically this song going back to
this song there's so much so much to it there's so much uh as i mentioned that the sound the band
sounds amazing to me my first impression uh it had kind of this a similar sound that uh uh david
bowie kind of gets in his the next day album around the same i think that's 2013 okay but i'm not
familiar with it so oh okay okay yeah sure yeah so he has that kind of alternative uh i don't know
there was just something about it that that i kind of yeah thought oh this this is kind of what bowie
was doing in this era and and um and i thought that was cool yeah that's wild then because if
bowies came out in 2013 they would have recorded this in 2011 sure yeah yeah i guess that's true
yeah, That's a neat thought to think about, right? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. It makes you wonder. Yeah.
Yeah. Conspiracy theories out there.
[23:58] No, I don't even mean that. I just mean, you know, great artists being inspired by great
artists, right? Of course. Yeah. Of course. No, no, totally. And that's, you know, if I'd go back and
listen and compare them back to back, there might not be that many similarities, but for me it was
just... It was just the vibe that you got. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Kind of how the band sounds. And of
course, it was very different than what I remembered hearing from on the radio, a lot of up to here,
a lot of Rhode Apple, like we mentioned, the kind of bar rock stuff. And this was very different. And
yeah, closer to maybe what he did in his solo career. So I remember, yeah, feeling, but anyways,
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going back to this song, there was just the mystery of the story. Who are these people? Where are
they in their life? And you get that, I guess, with lots of Gord songs. But it just, I saw there was a
whole movie in my mind listening to this song for the first time. Oh, wild. Did you ever feel like that
with this one?
[25:05] It's very, it is definitely evocative, right? Like there, there are, there's some great imagery,
even with the drip, drip, drips repeating and the click, click, clicks. Um, like I can see the doctor in
the white coat, you know, being the smartest person in the room. I can, I can visualize that so that's
that's triumphant triumphant for me um but the music is also so uh moody you know you know it's
just so nice and and then you build up to that big bold chorus oh i love it Gord just unleashes the
vocals. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, totally. There's something about, it's amazing to hear him go there,
right? Not that he was never, not that he never released the kind of rawness, but there's something
about the range he's in. There's something about the intensity of it with the band joining along. It's,
yeah, it's a different, it's a.
[26:15] Next level kind of singing for sure. I love that. Next level. You mentioned The Doctor and that
and I've definitely read that or heard about this and of course this album being considered the
cancer album.
[26:35] Was that your first impression? Did that cross your mind the first time you listened to this? I
had no idea the drip drip and the chemotherapy but I did. I pictured a like a a white coat like a
doctor in a white coat with the oh okay being the smartest person in the room that's totally not at all
my my first i was not um i i just kind of uh i think i think maybe well in in your podcast yeah
definitely you guys talked about that and then of course you know people have mentioned this uh
this interpretation and i think it it's it makes perfect sense but That was not my first impression of
this song. I think the drip drip was just to me kind of the, the faucet, like a leaky faucet or
something. Okay. There was something very kind of, wow.
[27:23] Yeah, exactly. The kind of the noises to me, all the noises were just kind of the, the mundane
everyday sounds that kind of fill the silence. You know what I mean? I like that. In a, in, cause to
me, my first impression of this song was very much just a, Just a couple at a point in their life where
they're, you know, maybe at a crossroads, maybe something tragic is happening, maybe. But I
wasn't reading. I didn't think about that immediately. I don't think I went into this album also knowing
what was going on in Chord's life at that point. No, me neither. Okay, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, so I
think it was. And then the smartest guy in the room, to me, it felt like, you know, the guy at the bar
who thinks he's got all the moves and he's got over-talking. And are at the party and trying to, an
attention grabber while the main character is kind of just distracted by his partner, just saying, you
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know, whatever he says, whatever he tries to do, I can't stop hearing you, can't stop looking at you.
Yeah, yeah.
[28:32] But I guess that's the beauty. I guess that's the beauty of his, of their work. Hey, it's the, so
many layers to it. I think so. Yeah, I think so. Um, because my first question to you would be like,
you know, there's the, the cancer theory and then there's your theory about the, you know, the
couple sort of falling out of favor to, to, for lack of a better phrase.
[28:55] Um, why can't both be true? like we we now know in hindsight that that's what ended up
happening with gorge relationship maybe they weren't in a good place before then and i don't really
want this podcast to be a place where we you know speculate about this so i'll just you know that's
his private life and his personal life but it's there in his art so for this one song we're sort of making
an exception and discussing this kind of thing um but this won't be a habit listeners don't worry
we're you know it's not going to be the tmz of the tragically hip yeah yeah so is this one of your top
tracks on now for plan a at this point or talk to me about the rest of that record like where does it fit
in with the rest of the record for you uh-huh uh-huh uh i'd say so i think i think this one and man
machine poem would be up there um it's it's the i don't know there's something about the uh the
how aggressively loving these songs are it's kind of this angry commitment to something it's it's
there's so much passion to them both they're both kind of there's.
[30:18] There's you just get a feeling of there's stakes there's high stakes and and and you can hear
it in his voice you can hear it in the band um musically and also yeah lyrically there's yeah i think
those two to me on this album and i and i love lots of them uh at transformation's great the look
ahead is great um there's some a beautiful variety for a short album as well, but I think yeah those
two Man Machine Poem and this song are definitely kind of on my own top maybe even on my own
top ten I'd say oh yeah.
[30:59] Interesting. So, so you've knowing that this came in at number 40, like you said off the top,
you're feeling a little bit miffed maybe that it's, that it's as low in the countdown as it is. I, but I
understand there are so many, so many songs, you know, if you're going to pick 40, at least it made
the 40, you know, I could have, it could have, it could have been, it could have been out of the
game. So I'm happy that it is. So, yeah, I guess I guess let's let's that'll be this. That'll be the
headline. The song made the top 40. Yes. OK, Yannick from Toronto. It has been dynamite talking
to you this afternoon. But before we part ways, I'm wondering if you have anything you would like to
plug. Yeah, thanks so much. This has been so much fun. And I'm so happy to be to be here with
you and to kick this off. Yeah, I look forward to hearing the tuning in every week. But yeah, I guess I
myself, I do music. I'm an opera singer. I work in opera mostly. So, you know, follow me, Yannick
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Gosselin, on the socials if you want, or not, if you're into that. And I'd love to, you know, I always
love to kind of, a lot of the work I do kind of, I aim to kind of bridge gaps between music genres and
disciplines and different artistic disciplines. So I'm looking forward to, yeah, connecting with people
and making art.
[32:27] And I also, as a hip fan, I have a small Instagram page called Dance Like Gord. If you're into
dancing Gord, if you're into his onstage shenanigans and as much as I am, then go give that a
follow. I'd appreciate it too. Yeah, grow the love for the band. Absolutely. Yeah, flying the flag. That's
what we're doing here, man. Exactly. That's what we're doing here. That's it. And we'll keep doing it
every week until we hit number fucking one. Can't wait. Thanks for stopping by, everybody. Pick up
your shit. Thanks for listening to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. To email us, send an email
to tthtop40 at gmail.com. We're social. Find us on all the socials at TTH Top 40. .
[33:31] Music.
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