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The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Twenty-Nine - Dan from Ottawa
The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Twenty-Nine – Dan from Ottawa
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Hey, it’s jD — and this week we’re plugging in and tuning up with Dan from Ottawa: longtime Hip fan, frontman of Little Bones (a Tragically Hip tribute band), and the kind of guy who once played a New Year’s Eve gig opposite Skydiggers and still showed up early for load-in.
Dan’s hipstory takes us back to the early ’90s — garage band jams, cassette tapes passed around like sacred texts, and the moment a slide guitar lick changed the trajectory of his life. He tells the tale of forming Little Bones, a tribute band that’s been gigging for three decades with sell-out crowds and loyal fans across Ontario. They’ve even been featured in a docuseries. (No big deal. Except… yeah, it kinda is.)
We talk about cover bands, copyright, close calls with the real band (including a brush with Gord at the Vancouver airport), and the way singing Escape Is At Hand… during a child’s birth can turn a hospital room into Massey Hall. There’s love here. And reverence. And one absolutely killer overflow brewery show.
Dan also walks us through what it’s like to live inside the music — not just listening but playing it, night after night, for people who know every lyric and expect you to feel every word. No pressure.
🎙️ Next week: We head east to Nova Scotia for a heartfelt hang with Terri, a fan whose late-blooming love for The Hip has turned into something profound. There are nephews, Christmas covers, and a lyric that changed everything. Get ready.
💬 Pull Quote
👤 About Our Guest
Dan from Ottawa has been fronting Little Bones, one of Canada’s longest-running Tragically Hip tribute bands, since 1995. Equal parts frontman and fan, he brings Gord’s spirit to life on stage — not by mimicking the look, but by nailing the feel.
By day, Dan’s a family man. By night, he’s belting out Fully Completely to sold-out rooms, often with his sons in the crowd. (Or sometimes on stage.) He’s met the band. He’s studied the lyrics. And he’s convinced the Meech Lake Accord might just be the key to unlocking Pigeon Camera. Honestly? He might be onto something.
📬 Get Involved
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📧 Send your hipstory: [email protected]
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📡 Follow + Stream
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Instagram: @tthtop40
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/tthtop40
🧠 Support the Cause
We’re raising $25K for the ALS Society of Canada in memory of our dear friend Matt Rona — a Hip fan to the end. If this pod brings you joy, pass a little of it forward.
🎧 Transcript follows below.
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
2025-05-24, 8:50 AM
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
Join jD beginning Monday, January 6th, 2025 while he counts down the top 40 songs by The
Tragically Hip as voted by you! Every week on The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, jD
welcomes a new guest to discuss their TTH origin story (hipstory) and dissec
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:00] On Friday, May 26th, Podlist 6 is coming to you from the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.
Hey, it's JD here, and I am fucking pumped to be filling you in on the latest Podlist. What is a
Podlist, you ask? It's a podcast playlist. In this case, it's a playlist full of Tragically Hip cover songs
by our talented listeners. Here's the deal this year. You can only choose a song that ranked from
169 to 41. To be included in Podlist 6, you'll need to submit your WAV files either by WeTransfer or
by emailing JD at tthtop40 at gmail.com with Podlist in the subject line. Are you ready to shoot your
shot and become podcast famous? What are you waiting for then? and grow.
[0:58] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. If
you've followed along through my podcast journey, you know that The Darkest One is a favorite of
mine. That said, Matt from Portsmouth, what did you think of the song the first time you remember
hearing it? I remember, like I said, I bought my wife the album and we played it. And Darkest One
immediately hit me because it felt slightly tonally different to the rest of the album. And again, I
guess I reference it, Dave, and I had a warmth to it. It's there in the lyrics. It's there in the song. It's
kind of welcoming and it ushers you in. And I don't know, it felt like putting on a cozy jacket.
[1:46] Hey, it's JV here and welcome back to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is my pleasure
to be here with you each and every Monday as we spend some time sharing stories, experiences,
and counting down 40 essential songs by the hip that you chose with your very own top 20 ballads.
I simply tabulated the results using an abacus and a face bidet. A bidet for the face. Think about it.
We still wash our face by splashing water with our hands, like Neanderthals probably did. Face
bidet. Bidet for your face. How have your favorite songs fared in the rankings? Let me know. TTH
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top 40 at gmail.com. This week, I am stoked to be joined by Dan from Ottawa. Dan from Ottawa,
how the hell are you doing on this hip-tastic day? I'm doing great, JD. Hoping the same for you,
man. Yes, the sun is shining here. Is it shining in Ottawa right now? It is. I think the melt is starting,
so we're going to be, you know, beers on the dock soon enough. Soon enough. Ooh, I love the
sound of that.
[2:56] Well, let's get right into things. Let's hear your Tragically Hip Origins story. Yeah, I think the
first song that I heard would have to be either Blow It High Do or New Orleans is Sinking. I was in a
garage band at the time back in early 1990, and one of the guys brought a tape in and said, you
have to hear this new sound out of Kingston.
[3:18] And we loved it. And, you know, from that day forward, really, for the next now 35 years, I've
been playing the music of the tragedy of the last 30 years, just with my friends and little bones from
Ottawa.
[3:33] Right. Okay. So I want to get to Little Bones and I want to hear about your experiences with
that band, but I want to hear a little bit more about, you know, hearing that song for the first time.
And I really loved, there's an interesting sound coming out of Ottawa or coming out of Kingston.
That's cool. Yeah. What, what, what from there? Did you go and buy a record or. Yeah, absolutely.
Try and get out to see the shows.
[3:56] Not the shows probably came a few years later, but we were just doing covers of various
bands at the time. But we soon evolved into pretty much doing a third Pink Floyd, the guitar player's
favorite, a third Neil Young, which was my favorite at the time, and then a third The Hip. And at
some point, like the music, that first album, and it was probably Blow because just that first slide
sound just hooks you. And it's like, okay, check this out. And of course, New Orleans' Stinking
became the anthem. But yeah, I think probably Blow is a thing. And the way it starts with the bass
too is crazy. Well even gorge first lyrics are almost sort of inviting right uh or miss they're
mysteriously inviting they shot a movie once in my hometown and we can sort of oh okay what's
what's this about what's the movie about and it's like some kind of elvis thing what yeah i'm kind of
thinking like is that like did they film a you know an elvis movie at shannonville speedway you know
like close to kingston who knows you can never tell with this guy yeah exactly Exactly.
[5:10] So where from there? Well, I think, like, so the first album was up to here for sure. And as far
as, like, you know, albums that I, you know, go to, whatever, I would say, it varies. It really does.
Like, the band plays stuff up to phantom power mostly. But, you know, I personally enjoy the
diversity of the sound that I feel from the later albums as well. Like others have said here, the hip
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album I put on probably depends more on the mood that I'm in or how long it's been since I played
that particular album. But Day for Nights up there because Nautical Disaster is my absolute
favorite.
[5:59] But We Are the Same has Song 34 of your top 40 and the Depression Suite. And I love
Tyler's interpretation of that on the previous podcast, but I think it's great that art lends itself to
different interpretations based on who's consuming the art. Mine's a bit different for that second of
those three little songs, New Orleans World.
[6:26] Uh yeah well to me it could be that um you know gourd was you know would always write
about things um that's happening with potentially within the live performances of the song new
orleans is sinking it's like the world of new orleans is sinking consider that that song is the world,
because if you think about it right there's no there's no windows in the huge rooms you played and
in the middle often gave birth to other songs like Nautical and Heavy Century. What if the song
does nothing? Would have been maybe that moment when he's sitting in the jam trying one out.
Um so in i don't know okay i love that it seems possible that gourd was surfing the internet in the
day for night room or the day room uh because at the at the bathhouse they have different rooms
that are had the motif of the various albums so he could have been in the day room surfing the
internet looking for new orleans is sinking references while he's trying to figure out some lyrics for
the song so we'll see i you know because and the thing that makes me, think about that, J.D., is
back at the time.
[7:37] Our band Little Bones had demos on the internet, at our website and stuff. And one of the
demos that we had in there was New Orleans is sinking, obviously, and we would often play and
we often, we still do to this day, we end the song with the rodeo song. I'm not sure if you know that.
Really? Yeah, do you know that song? I know it very well. Don't tell if I'm going to hit her in a truck.
Yeah. So we just start, you know, having fun with that at the middle. It's a good bar song, if you will,
too. Absolutely. Anyway, so as we often do, the guys were jamming on this demo we had, and I
was trying to reel them back in to get into the rodeo song. So I said, I said, gimme, gimme, gimme,
gimme some let's go to the rodeo. And I'm riding, I'm riding, and I'm riding along. And in that, if you
look at The lyrics of New Orleans World It's got the gimme, gimme, gimme Put me in the saddle, I'll
ride you'll see I mean, that seems pretty coincidental, You know, that got me down to the thread of
like What? What? Now again, it's probably my wishful thinking But all that to say There's always
room on my playlist for We are the same.
[8:53] I think so, too. Now, have you seen the documentary? The docu-series on Prime? Yeah. I feel
like that record has taken a little bit of shine. Some of the shine has come off that record because
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of that doc. It took me a long time to get into that record. Like, I'm not going to lie to you, but I really
enjoy it now. Like, I really do enjoy it. But hearing that the rest of the boys weren't as involved, it
sort of bummed me out a bit. Yeah, me too. Yeah, me too. Sinclair's quote getting fired from my
own fucking band. Yeah.
[9:32] And yet, I like World Container. I like that Bob Rock record. And I don't know, did you listen to
the Lester Parfait record? I did. With Gordon? Yeah. I thought it was interesting. The little video
clips of him. But you can kind of almost, now that you've watched the doc and And, you know, and I
also, like, you listen to Gord's, you know, Introduce Yourself, you know, there's a song on there with
that. I think it's one of his first son where he talks about being in with Bob in Hawaii and stuff. And
you can kind of actually feel like you're there almost, right? And after the document came out, it
was kind of like shit. You know, I thought they were, like, having, like, a positive experience there
and then you know the fact that you know the guys weren't doing backups and they were surprised
when they got there that they they were already done was uh you know disheartening a bit yeah
yeah me too yeah me too uh it changes the the timbre of the of the records to a certain degree
yeah well let's talk about let's talk about your foray into to tribute them with little bones. When does
that come about?
[10:50] So we were in a band called Conflict of Interest. And like I said, we evolved to the point
where we had a third of our stuff that was the hip. And at the time, you know, Road Apples was
probably the first hip tribute band. And they were— They're out of Kingston, right? Yes. Yeah. And I
think they probably know the guys, if I remember. But uh there's um you know they were they were
actually we were actually in a article in, candlelight magazine that talked is called on the on the
road with tragically hip tribute bands and uh yeah they talked about a few of them in there but
anyway what is it do you remember well i have it i have i can i don't let you know please do yeah i
would like that up at the very end of it so they talked quite a bit about how you know all the money
that the other guys were making and and uh there was a reference at the at the very end of it that
was we think there's one called little bones but we haven't been able to track them down but um
anyway that's so that that an agent basically uh came to us one of the agents we that we dealt with
and said um hey you guys should spin up uh you know there's a market for it they people love it
and we were like well we you know we'd like nothing better than to play that music um so i missed
the neil Young, but we always throw a couple of Neil Youngs in here and there at our show. Oh,
that's great.
[12:10] But yeah, that's how it started. And literally, we had a couple of pretty decent shows. Like
there's one up there, the Jungle 96, that would be 1996, 95 into 96, New Year's Eve. And John
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Coast and the Sky Diggers played on one stage and we played on a different stage. Wow. And that
was early. We were just really, you know, virgins almost at that point. But, you know, fast forward 35
years. But there was one thing that was cool. It was kind of around the time that I met the band. But
we got to be part of a series that was produced by Good Company Pictures. And it aired for a
couple of years on E-Channel. It debuted on E-Channel and aired on a bunch of different channels.
But it was called Tribute Bands, and they had four episodes of it, you know, Rush.
[13:08] Sting like a you know the police rush uh queen and the hip and we were on we're on the hip
one that's it i think it's you can still see it from our littlebones.ca website it i have it there somewhere
i think there's still a you know once you post something on the internet it's there forever right so
unless you need to find it yeah yeah yeah you know it's there but uh that was a fun fun experience i
bet so where where has that taken you in in terms of gigging and stuff like that you guys are still
you guys are still at it right we are we don't i mean we get you know 10 to 12 times a year like we're
for the most part uh the guys in the band all have other musical.
[13:53] Things happening for the most part it's not like this is all we do uh but we um you know
speaking just for myself i do it because i just you know it's a special feeling and not all your
listeners can relate maybe but some probably can but when you're playing the music you're on
stage and the audience is looking back at you with the admiration really because they love the
music so much i mean you have to be able to you know pull it off like you know it's got to be sound
it can't be it can't be campy or crap yeah right but um no but so um yeah so we you know we're
we're fortunate enough actually that the audience is still into it uh and uh we you know the recent
shows have been sellouts and um and again we because we don't gig every week either but uh it's
just a lot of fun it's it's a whole if it's an experience at all you know i don't think i'll ever stop until it
becomes not fun and i can't imagine that happening you know because we've had the same kind of
like the hip like up until like um seven years ago we had the same five guys uh and then and one of
them retired um seven years ago so we brought in a younger guy to bring down the average age of
the band, But for the most part, it's been the same guys since we started.
[15:12] And when did you start, 95? Our first show was in February of 95. So we'd been playing for
five years, evolving towards more and more hip all the time. But I'd say the end of 94 is when we
said, let's get a set together for Little Bones. And the first gig that we got was February. And I'd be
remiss not to ask, what is your role in the band? Who are you? I am Gord Downey. Well, isn't that
fucking cool? Yeah, and I don't, you know, I don't, you know, all the power to the guys that do, but I
don't do the leather suits and the hat and never have. No. You know, Gord's Gord and I'm me and I
love the music and I hope you love what we do. That's, can't say anything different than that. Well
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you have to tell you'll have to tell me i'll you'll have to give me a list of uh dates if you've got any
coming up this year that i can put in the show notes uh and also i'm going to be making a trip to
ottawa so i would like to uh if it lined up that would be really cool may the third is our our next uh big
show and and we play a place called the overflow brewery they're they're great guys you know we
were the first band to play there they have a big you know stage full system It holds about 400
people, and 400 people come. When we play there, it's a hoot.
[16:32] Yeah, the Overflow Brewery, yeah. Overflow Brewery, 400 people jamming out. That would
be so fun. You know, and we're in the shirts. The electricity. It's just amazing. It's beautiful that that's
still happening. And it's also funny, you know, 30 years at it, the people that used to come out and
watch us when they were in university coming out with their buds drinking beers are now coming
out with their kids and some of them their grandkids. Oh my gosh. There was a pause there, right?
Where you have to raise a family and do this and you don't go to shows so much, but it's a full
circle. Absolutely, I was a victim of that. Yeah, it's a full circle. Sure. You'll eventually come back.
Yeah, I missed, I missed, like I completely missed two records, not for plan A and we're the same I
completely flaked out on those records I just wasn't in a place because I had a new baby and a
second baby on the swing and it was like.
[17:32] It changes your life as it should yeah, So, Ed, you play the music live. Have you seen the
band live many times? Oh, yeah, probably 15 or 20 times, probably. I think, again, sometimes, you
know, they're playing on a weekend, and so were we. Right, of course. But basically, yeah, my best
memory of a live show was one that I didn't attend. Oh, tell me that. December the 6th, 2000. It's
easier to remember the date, because it's the date that our son was born. My wife and i knew we
took a chance when we bought the tickets baby was due on the fourth of december but uh nope uh
our son was born that night at 7 32 and uh and and born to escape is at hand for the traveling man
no playing oh yeah it's uh it's um it's one of my wife's favorite hip songs and well your wife is
fucking really cool and it's apparently very calming during labor pains. Just the beat of it, just the
feel. Anyway, we found this out during the birth of our first son the year before. While we had some
hip that night, both our boys were born to escape as an ham for the traveling man, which is kind of
interesting. That's really special. They were escaping.
[19:01] Do they enjoy the song to this day, Or have you let them know that secret? Oh, yeah. No,
they do. I would say they're not as, they like the hip, but they're not as diehard as mom and dad. It's
tough. The generation is tough, right? Yeah. We got much music. Yeah, exactly. You know, we got
roadside attraction. Like, there was no fucking band in Canada or the States, to me, that was
bigger than the Tragically Hip. No. Like in the 90s. 100%. And, you know, and I, again, I grew up on
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Neil and appreciate it. It's all unique. But I'll tell you the one thing, though, that when you bring the
boys into it, and the one thing I'll remember till I die was we were playing a big show. The overflow
was packed, and we were playing fully completely, the song fully completely. And, you know, the
line where I was like, I was down bending, you know, singing to the crowd of my father, you know,
like that line basically, And my boys had run up and kind of, you know, like, kind of like this to me
right when I'm singing it. Like, like, you know, like there's my father right there. Like, fuck. Oh, my
God. That was like, you know. Yeah, lucky you didn't get so choked up. Yeah, I just move on. Yeah.
Anyway, so at that show, so I had a front row seat.
[20:21] For the birth of my son, which I wouldn't give up. And my buddy James is a guitar player in
the band. He was the best man at our wedding as well. And, you know, he got our box tickets for
that show in 2000.
[20:36] And you were at one of the last shows as well, right? Yes. I took the, I got the last two
shows, like Ottawa and Toronto. I just couldn't, I tried, but the whole ticket thing, you know, just
never gone in like a microsecond. Yeah. So, and that was, they were both very, you know, very
emotional. But, and I also, I, somebody had, what the hell is that streaming? I mean, before you
could do live streams on Facebook and everything, there was a streaming software that people had
on their phones. Oh, I don't know. I'm a Luddite, so.
[21:12] I just can't remember. Some guys will know. But anyway, I was able to kind of, somebody
posted it on the fan forum. And so I watched probably most of the shows from my phone or my
iPad or whatever. Somebody was nice enough to transmit. it wow i didn't know that no i was really
sick at the time so i don't remember much but i don't remember much of that but yeah and again
when you see the you know the the film about it it was like yeah you could what was behind that
first show in victoria that moved you know like the stress and, you know the emotions be awesome
i'm so grateful that we have what we have in light of everything that just went down you know we
have we have the national celebration that we can watch we have the docuseries we have long
time running we have this great catalog of records there is.
[22:10] No shortage of live shows on youtube and i have a feeling.
[22:15] Like this band recorded everything like yeah there's lots that johnny's gonna find i think are
we gonna find like lots of live shows like i would love that i also like what um you know gourd paul
and and robbie put you know their little little tutorials that they put out there like fuck that's not great
yeah like i just like ah thanks could use that 20 years ago boys you know it'll be like put your put
your pinky here and it makes it a whole lot easier yeah like oh shit i never thought of that well
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imagine learning you know.
[22:47] Blow it high dough from, you know, cassette tape before YouTube was here. And lyrics? We
didn't have lyrics either? Oh, yeah. I sang songs wrong for years until we, what? That's what that
word is? Yeah. Even when the young lad joined, he's like, Dan, I don't think Encourage Gorge's
singing there. I was like, really? I've been doing that for 20 years. Sure enough, you know, you see
him do a live show on YouTubers. I'm like, Zach, you're right. To retrain my brain to not sing that
line, you know? Yeah. I was doing that yesterday. I was just listening to some songs and there's
some songs that I just have weird words for. Like, and I know they're wrong and I know they're
wrong, but I just, I continued. Can't help it, eh? So Dan, I understand there's a moment where you
interacted with the boys. You got to meet the band. Do you want to tell us about that? Yeah, I was
fortunate enough to meet the hip, all except for Paul, at the Vancouver Airport in March of 207.
[23:47] And I was coming back from a business trip in Redmond, USA, and the boys played Seattle
the night before, and I think they were on their way to the Junos. Anyway, I remember it was during
a time of You're Not the Ocean was released, and I noted to Rob that I picked up on the global
warming theme of the video. I was torn between not bugging them on their personal time, and I was
torn between that and introducing myself, having been playing this stuff for the last dozen years or
so at the time. And Gord Sinclair seemed to be... The one that was less engaged in newspaper or
PDA. So I approached him and introduced myself and that I was in a band that played their music
on weekends, Little Bones from Ottawa. And Igor nodded and said, oh, yeah, like you recognize
the name. But that could just be my wishful thinking again. But I said, yeah, we always wondered if
you guys were pissed off that we're playing your music or whether you know what. And he said, no,
no, thanks. Thanks for doing that.
[24:48] Flying the flag, man. Yeah. Yeah, so, well, there's another little story there where one of the
live release albums, they had a broadcast happening, and Stuntman Stewart of Ottawa, who was a
radio announcer at the time, was to always come up on stage. I'd haul him up at a certain festival
we'd play at all, you know, 20-some years ago, and he'd always ask for Boots at Hearts. So he was
on this broadcast, and he was saying that, you know, Boots at Hearts is my favorite song. It's one
that all the cover bands I asked to play when they come to town. And Gord Downey said, stay away
from those cover bands.
[25:25] And anyway, back in the days of news groups before, you know, the Facebook and
everything else, that prompted a whole bunch of comments about cover bands. That's why I asked
the question. There actually was a reasoning for it. And I'm pretty sure that it's probably Road
Apples. They know those guys. And he was probably looking across the table, looking at Sinclair or
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somebody saying, oh, stay away from those cover bands. Probably that's what it was. That's how I
sleep at night, thinking it was something like that. Anyway, he said thanks, and they signed
autographs for me. And Gord signed Thanks, Dan, Hippo 7, and Gord Downey signed Happy Days,
which was pretty common. And then I saw him again on FaceTime at the Kensington Market show
there in 2012, I think. Just after the show, my nephew got wristbands. He was there, asked me if I
could make it. I couldn't go away my meetings. I was in town, but I couldn't make it. And I said, you
know, get some shit for me signed or whatever. And so he got them to sign the CD for me.
[26:33] And he'd connect on FaceTime when he did. He spun his phone around so I could see the
band. The band could see me. But after you said, hey, yeah, you won't remember, but you met Dan
five years ago in Vancouver. And Johnny Faye leans in and says, Dan, you've gotten smaller.
[26:50] I can't remember what everybody else said. Downey said something like, what, are you on
the moon? like in a Schwarzenegger-like accent. Anyway, and that was, and then they signed the
CD, and when Gord Downey signed it, he scratched out on the CD, he scratched out the Tragically
Hypnophilist Plan A and wrote Dan Plus Little Bones mixtape. And so that's the red one there.
That's so cool. Anyway, that's- You'll have to get a picture of that so I can put it in the show notes.
Okay, I think it's on, if you go to Little Bones on our, I have it on there. It's on the website too? Well,
the website, yes, and Facebook for sure. Okay. I'm lazy. That's why I always say, hey, send me this.
I'll send it to you. This is a handful doing this, Dan. This is a handful doing this. 40 of these things I
do. I'll send it to you. I'll make it easy, man. No, no. I appreciate it. Would you like to get into the
song of the week at this point? Would love to. All right. We'll be right back after this. Hey, this is
Paul Langlois from the Tragically Hip saying hello. Now on with the countdown.
[27:57] Music.
[32:33] Today on The Countdown, we're getting photos from the sky with a pigeon camera. Dan from
Ottawa, tell me about the first time you heard this song. You know, I'm not 100% sure, but it was
probably right after I got the CD. I don't think it had airplay before the album came out. And I, like
others, would just get the CD, stand in line if we had to, on release day. and could not wait until to
hear the album. So I'm pretty sure that's what happened for this. It's been the same for all the
albums for me.
[33:12] Yeah. Wasn't that fun, lining up at midnight on Monday night before Tuesday when records
came out on Tuesdays for whatever reason? Yeah. Now they're on Fridays. Fridays makes a little
bit more sense to me. But I loved that when I moved to Toronto. I did that for Pearl Jam. I did that
for The Tragic Way. Yeah. So great. So great. So do you have a relationship with this song in any
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way?
[33:41] Yeah, well. At this point? I think when I first heard the song, it literally grabbed me after
hearing the first four notes. The groove hit me right away. Like just right away the groove hit me
and I was like, whoa. And then you pay attention. Um you know and it's funny i think i remember
um hearing um uh paul talk about when uh your favorites came out um and uh you know like i he
goes i was surprised prison camo didn't didn't make it which is kind of funny i thought anyhow um
yeah it hit me right away um over the years it's it became one of my favorites it's also one of my
wife's favorites again and uh so i get to put our set list often and uh i feel so lucky to be able to uh
to to be experienced it and it is such a groove it's it's you know it does you know you know pigeon
you know like nautical it and i'll often say this it'll it'll take you to a different place if you let it you just
gotta let it go let it take you there.
[34:44] You know anyway um yeah yeah picture camera can be sort of mesmerizing i love that
outro, to me is that one of the fully completely is one of the first real records where they really start
playing with outros you know looking looking for a place to happen i think it fades but it's an outro
that fades pigeon camera is definitely an outro yeah after we burned our boots for no contingency
plan you get that really cool jammy outro that you're right i can see i can see even without the use
of any substances you could go on a magic carpet you know you could be on a magic carpet ride
yeah for sure i do it all the time without help oh that's good what is it like singing this song uh you
know i i love it that it um i mean it depends like sometimes if a guitar player has a bad day and he
misses that first beginning yeah but normally and that's really it's really that happens but when
normally it's just like i'm hooked right away and like and the audience is into it too like normally
they're it's it's one of those songs that uh it's um it's kind of deep cut-ish, but everybody comes,
people that come to see the shows, they know all the hip songs anyways.
[36:10] But what we do typically play, the more popular ones, this is one that we, it's for me. It's for
you. And there's a couple, that and Nautical, which is the only song without a chorus.
[36:25] But those songs, they'll never not be on the setlist. Because I make the setlist.
[36:37] So, when you play this song live, do you have the big gong? Like, what do you use? No, no,
you have to. Is it a crash symbol? No, you have to be, I mean, over the years, I think there's been
times we have. I think we used a fire bell or something, you know. Okay. But for the most part, as
we got older, you know, we've been doing it for 30 years, you just, you don't carry your shit
anymore. And you have setups that's reasonably, you know. So, you make a few trade-offs like
that. Yeah. But, you know, but we'd all love to have all that, like even a little sound, you know, like
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that's in there. Like sometimes a drummer would use a little, I'm not sure even what it is, but it's a
little thing with pads that he makes different sounds when he hits it.
[37:23] And so when those moments happen, it takes you even closer to it. So it's pretty cool. But
no, for the most part, we try to be efficient about it, I guess. But I'll tell you get into it and you look
around and everybody's playing their part and you look at the audience and they're like looking up
at you and they're, they're fucking singing every word it's so cool it really is, there's nothing like
playing live no and nothing like the audience into it there's times when you play and it's like thank
you both.
[38:01] Every musician had that you know like depending on where you play but even they have if I
remember their stories about Renfrew, Yeah, they've definitely talked about it. Even in the song,
Love Over Money, right? Yeah, exactly. They talked about it. So do you have a line at all on what
this one's about? I mean, the museum has some interesting things to say about it, but I'm
interested in what Dan from Ottawa has to say. Yeah, I think over the years, I think, first of all, Gord
does, you know, he captures all the thoughts in his little book and has his multicolored pen, and he
captures things and he applies them, you know, whenever the opportunity presents itself, I think.
But this one, I think, over the years, I think there's been at least three different themes, if you will, to
it. The actual spy camera that apparently was seen by Gordon, Tripped to Washington Museum
and all that. The reference to incest. And finally, the other one about the relationship between
Quebec and the rest of Canada at the time. I think that's… That's where I always leaned in. Yeah.
That's where I always leaned in. Yeah. You'll see that's where I leaned to. Depending on the
listener, you could probably thread these three together differently. So it could be a combination,
but I'd have to say the national unity theme fits it best, in my opinion.
[39:19] Anyway, and the reason for that is, you know, remember in 1981, Quebec was led by René
Levesque, the Parti Québécois at the time. I mean, he refused to sign the Canadian Constitution
that was repatriated from Britain. And later on, when the Quebec Liberal Party was leading the
province in the mid-80s, Brian Mulroney attempted to address it through the Meech Lake Accord.
And the Accord looked to bring Quebec into the Constitution. And it also recognized Quebec as a
distinct society, which did not fit well with all, including Pierre Trudeau. To be successful, the accord
had to be approved by mid-1990, but it failed. It was not ratified. So Quebec and national unity was
no doubt still topical at the time when Pigeon Camera was written, as it was as well the year
previous. It was Rhode Apples and Born in the Water. Some references there, right?
[40:24] So if you actually look at the lyrics and put it through a national unity lens, if you will, You
know, it was handsome for the auction. When we got home, it grew up into something we could no
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longer contain, you know. Bilingual country made a lot of sense back when the Constitution was
conceived. But there were folks thinking that, you know, that comes at a financial cost, you know,
that's hard to contain. It's almost like you thought you were getting one thing. It turned out to be not
as expected, you know.
[40:55] Whereas our prison camera, by now it could be anywhere. And after all that training, that
was something we can no longer contain. It might be a stretch, but potentially the camera is
somehow a metaphor for the golden ring of national unity. And that the effort and investment were
lost with a failed Meech Lake Accord. It's boring. I'm embarrassed. Don't endorse that. Stand on my
face. I didn't want this. These lyrics appear more than once in the song. And, you know, things that
are mundane and repetitive could lead to being dull and embarrassing, could fit the national unity
theme since the Accord failed, you know, 1990, just two years before the release of Pigeon
Camera. But it was after about a decade of, you know, tough discussions on regarding unity. This
house has politics over there. That's my room. That's my sister. It was something we could no
longer contain. And again, they keep coming back to something you couldn't contain. The incest
theme fits on that one, but it also fits the national unity theme. If you see Quebec as your sister
province to the rest of Canada, to the rest of the family. And it's like, you know, we burned our boots
with no contingency plan. I think that's pretty simple to me. It's just so much time and effort went
into, you know, bringing Quebec and the rest of Canada together. that when the Meech Lake
Accord failed, you know, there was no plan B.
[42:22] So, you know, all in all, I think National Unity is probably the closest fit for me. But again, the
beauty of Gore's lyrics is that there may be multiple interpretations. Oh, that's right. If I had 40
people do this episode, there'd likely be 40 different nuances. You know, maybe not straight up
themes, but different nuances to those themes, I think. And that's the beauty of this fucking band.
Yeah, exactly.
[42:49] 100%. Really? Yeah. You know, and, you know, we always talk about Gord's lyrics, but the
music, you know, and how they thread it together. Yeah. Whatever way they, they did. It's just, it's
just, you know, again, Neil was my favorite. I think they're my favorite. You know, but it's, you're
allowed to have more than one favorite, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Well, on that note, Mr. Dan
from Ottawa, I am going to bid you adieu. It has been wonderful to talk to you today, and I really
appreciate your time. You've got some homework to do for me. You've got to get those gigs, and
you've got to get me that picture so I can put it in your show notes for you. Will do. But other than
that, I really want to thank you and wish you good luck in the future. And hopefully, maybe we'll see
you at the October 4th show in Toronto. But definitely, seeing as you're part of a band, I hope we
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see you represented on Podlist 6. Which is where we solicit cover songs from bands and then we
put them in a podcast. So it's a lot of fun. Yeah. I was kind of thinking about maybe Thompson girl. I
saw it on the list. Do it. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Thanks. Well, thanks for stopping by. Take up your
shit.
[44:11] 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.
[44:40] Music.
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The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song Twenty-Nine – Dan from Ottawa
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Hey, it’s jD — and this week we’re plugging in and tuning up with Dan from Ottawa: longtime Hip fan, frontman of Little Bones (a Tragically Hip tribute band), and the kind of guy who once played a New Year’s Eve gig opposite Skydiggers and still showed up early for load-in.
Dan’s hipstory takes us back to the early ’90s — garage band jams, cassette tapes passed around like sacred texts, and the moment a slide guitar lick changed the trajectory of his life. He tells the tale of forming Little Bones, a tribute band that’s been gigging for three decades with sell-out crowds and loyal fans across Ontario. They’ve even been featured in a docuseries. (No big deal. Except… yeah, it kinda is.)
We talk about cover bands, copyright, close calls with the real band (including a brush with Gord at the Vancouver airport), and the way singing Escape Is At Hand… during a child’s birth can turn a hospital room into Massey Hall. There’s love here. And reverence. And one absolutely killer overflow brewery show.
Dan also walks us through what it’s like to live inside the music — not just listening but playing it, night after night, for people who know every lyric and expect you to feel every word. No pressure.
🎙️ Next week: We head east to Nova Scotia for a heartfelt hang with Terri, a fan whose late-blooming love for The Hip has turned into something profound. There are nephews, Christmas covers, and a lyric that changed everything. Get ready.
💬 Pull Quote
👤 About Our Guest
Dan from Ottawa has been fronting Little Bones, one of Canada’s longest-running Tragically Hip tribute bands, since 1995. Equal parts frontman and fan, he brings Gord’s spirit to life on stage — not by mimicking the look, but by nailing the feel.
By day, Dan’s a family man. By night, he’s belting out Fully Completely to sold-out rooms, often with his sons in the crowd. (Or sometimes on stage.) He’s met the band. He’s studied the lyrics. And he’s convinced the Meech Lake Accord might just be the key to unlocking Pigeon Camera. Honestly? He might be onto something.
📬 Get Involved
🎙️ Drop your hot take: castfeedback.com/tthtop40
📧 Send your hipstory: [email protected]
💸 Buy us a coffee and support ALS research: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40
📡 Follow + Stream
Spotify | Apple | YouTube | dewvre.com/tthtop40
Instagram: @tthtop40
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/tthtop40
🧠 Support the Cause
We’re raising $25K for the ALS Society of Canada in memory of our dear friend Matt Rona — a Hip fan to the end. If this pod brings you joy, pass a little of it forward.
🎧 Transcript follows below.
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
2025-05-24, 8:50 AM
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
Join jD beginning Monday, January 6th, 2025 while he counts down the top 40 songs by The
Tragically Hip as voted by you! Every week on The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, jD
welcomes a new guest to discuss their TTH origin story (hipstory) and dissec
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:00] On Friday, May 26th, Podlist 6 is coming to you from the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.
Hey, it's JD here, and I am fucking pumped to be filling you in on the latest Podlist. What is a
Podlist, you ask? It's a podcast playlist. In this case, it's a playlist full of Tragically Hip cover songs
by our talented listeners. Here's the deal this year. You can only choose a song that ranked from
169 to 41. To be included in Podlist 6, you'll need to submit your WAV files either by WeTransfer or
by emailing JD at tthtop40 at gmail.com with Podlist in the subject line. Are you ready to shoot your
shot and become podcast famous? What are you waiting for then? and grow.
[0:58] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. If
you've followed along through my podcast journey, you know that The Darkest One is a favorite of
mine. That said, Matt from Portsmouth, what did you think of the song the first time you remember
hearing it? I remember, like I said, I bought my wife the album and we played it. And Darkest One
immediately hit me because it felt slightly tonally different to the rest of the album. And again, I
guess I reference it, Dave, and I had a warmth to it. It's there in the lyrics. It's there in the song. It's
kind of welcoming and it ushers you in. And I don't know, it felt like putting on a cozy jacket.
[1:46] Hey, it's JV here and welcome back to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is my pleasure
to be here with you each and every Monday as we spend some time sharing stories, experiences,
and counting down 40 essential songs by the hip that you chose with your very own top 20 ballads.
I simply tabulated the results using an abacus and a face bidet. A bidet for the face. Think about it.
We still wash our face by splashing water with our hands, like Neanderthals probably did. Face
bidet. Bidet for your face. How have your favorite songs fared in the rankings? Let me know. TTH
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top 40 at gmail.com. This week, I am stoked to be joined by Dan from Ottawa. Dan from Ottawa,
how the hell are you doing on this hip-tastic day? I'm doing great, JD. Hoping the same for you,
man. Yes, the sun is shining here. Is it shining in Ottawa right now? It is. I think the melt is starting,
so we're going to be, you know, beers on the dock soon enough. Soon enough. Ooh, I love the
sound of that.
[2:56] Well, let's get right into things. Let's hear your Tragically Hip Origins story. Yeah, I think the
first song that I heard would have to be either Blow It High Do or New Orleans is Sinking. I was in a
garage band at the time back in early 1990, and one of the guys brought a tape in and said, you
have to hear this new sound out of Kingston.
[3:18] And we loved it. And, you know, from that day forward, really, for the next now 35 years, I've
been playing the music of the tragedy of the last 30 years, just with my friends and little bones from
Ottawa.
[3:33] Right. Okay. So I want to get to Little Bones and I want to hear about your experiences with
that band, but I want to hear a little bit more about, you know, hearing that song for the first time.
And I really loved, there's an interesting sound coming out of Ottawa or coming out of Kingston.
That's cool. Yeah. What, what, what from there? Did you go and buy a record or. Yeah, absolutely.
Try and get out to see the shows.
[3:56] Not the shows probably came a few years later, but we were just doing covers of various
bands at the time. But we soon evolved into pretty much doing a third Pink Floyd, the guitar player's
favorite, a third Neil Young, which was my favorite at the time, and then a third The Hip. And at
some point, like the music, that first album, and it was probably Blow because just that first slide
sound just hooks you. And it's like, okay, check this out. And of course, New Orleans' Stinking
became the anthem. But yeah, I think probably Blow is a thing. And the way it starts with the bass
too is crazy. Well even gorge first lyrics are almost sort of inviting right uh or miss they're
mysteriously inviting they shot a movie once in my hometown and we can sort of oh okay what's
what's this about what's the movie about and it's like some kind of elvis thing what yeah i'm kind of
thinking like is that like did they film a you know an elvis movie at shannonville speedway you know
like close to kingston who knows you can never tell with this guy yeah exactly Exactly.
[5:10] So where from there? Well, I think, like, so the first album was up to here for sure. And as far
as, like, you know, albums that I, you know, go to, whatever, I would say, it varies. It really does.
Like, the band plays stuff up to phantom power mostly. But, you know, I personally enjoy the
diversity of the sound that I feel from the later albums as well. Like others have said here, the hip
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album I put on probably depends more on the mood that I'm in or how long it's been since I played
that particular album. But Day for Nights up there because Nautical Disaster is my absolute
favorite.
[5:59] But We Are the Same has Song 34 of your top 40 and the Depression Suite. And I love
Tyler's interpretation of that on the previous podcast, but I think it's great that art lends itself to
different interpretations based on who's consuming the art. Mine's a bit different for that second of
those three little songs, New Orleans World.
[6:26] Uh yeah well to me it could be that um you know gourd was you know would always write
about things um that's happening with potentially within the live performances of the song new
orleans is sinking it's like the world of new orleans is sinking consider that that song is the world,
because if you think about it right there's no there's no windows in the huge rooms you played and
in the middle often gave birth to other songs like Nautical and Heavy Century. What if the song
does nothing? Would have been maybe that moment when he's sitting in the jam trying one out.
Um so in i don't know okay i love that it seems possible that gourd was surfing the internet in the
day for night room or the day room uh because at the at the bathhouse they have different rooms
that are had the motif of the various albums so he could have been in the day room surfing the
internet looking for new orleans is sinking references while he's trying to figure out some lyrics for
the song so we'll see i you know because and the thing that makes me, think about that, J.D., is
back at the time.
[7:37] Our band Little Bones had demos on the internet, at our website and stuff. And one of the
demos that we had in there was New Orleans is sinking, obviously, and we would often play and
we often, we still do to this day, we end the song with the rodeo song. I'm not sure if you know that.
Really? Yeah, do you know that song? I know it very well. Don't tell if I'm going to hit her in a truck.
Yeah. So we just start, you know, having fun with that at the middle. It's a good bar song, if you will,
too. Absolutely. Anyway, so as we often do, the guys were jamming on this demo we had, and I
was trying to reel them back in to get into the rodeo song. So I said, I said, gimme, gimme, gimme,
gimme some let's go to the rodeo. And I'm riding, I'm riding, and I'm riding along. And in that, if you
look at The lyrics of New Orleans World It's got the gimme, gimme, gimme Put me in the saddle, I'll
ride you'll see I mean, that seems pretty coincidental, You know, that got me down to the thread of
like What? What? Now again, it's probably my wishful thinking But all that to say There's always
room on my playlist for We are the same.
[8:53] I think so, too. Now, have you seen the documentary? The docu-series on Prime? Yeah. I feel
like that record has taken a little bit of shine. Some of the shine has come off that record because
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of that doc. It took me a long time to get into that record. Like, I'm not going to lie to you, but I really
enjoy it now. Like, I really do enjoy it. But hearing that the rest of the boys weren't as involved, it
sort of bummed me out a bit. Yeah, me too. Yeah, me too. Sinclair's quote getting fired from my
own fucking band. Yeah.
[9:32] And yet, I like World Container. I like that Bob Rock record. And I don't know, did you listen to
the Lester Parfait record? I did. With Gordon? Yeah. I thought it was interesting. The little video
clips of him. But you can kind of almost, now that you've watched the doc and And, you know, and I
also, like, you listen to Gord's, you know, Introduce Yourself, you know, there's a song on there with
that. I think it's one of his first son where he talks about being in with Bob in Hawaii and stuff. And
you can kind of actually feel like you're there almost, right? And after the document came out, it
was kind of like shit. You know, I thought they were, like, having, like, a positive experience there
and then you know the fact that you know the guys weren't doing backups and they were surprised
when they got there that they they were already done was uh you know disheartening a bit yeah
yeah me too yeah me too uh it changes the the timbre of the of the records to a certain degree
yeah well let's talk about let's talk about your foray into to tribute them with little bones. When does
that come about?
[10:50] So we were in a band called Conflict of Interest. And like I said, we evolved to the point
where we had a third of our stuff that was the hip. And at the time, you know, Road Apples was
probably the first hip tribute band. And they were— They're out of Kingston, right? Yes. Yeah. And I
think they probably know the guys, if I remember. But uh there's um you know they were they were
actually we were actually in a article in, candlelight magazine that talked is called on the on the
road with tragically hip tribute bands and uh yeah they talked about a few of them in there but
anyway what is it do you remember well i have it i have i can i don't let you know please do yeah i
would like that up at the very end of it so they talked quite a bit about how you know all the money
that the other guys were making and and uh there was a reference at the at the very end of it that
was we think there's one called little bones but we haven't been able to track them down but um
anyway that's so that that an agent basically uh came to us one of the agents we that we dealt with
and said um hey you guys should spin up uh you know there's a market for it they people love it
and we were like well we you know we'd like nothing better than to play that music um so i missed
the neil Young, but we always throw a couple of Neil Youngs in here and there at our show. Oh,
that's great.
[12:10] But yeah, that's how it started. And literally, we had a couple of pretty decent shows. Like
there's one up there, the Jungle 96, that would be 1996, 95 into 96, New Year's Eve. And John
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Coast and the Sky Diggers played on one stage and we played on a different stage. Wow. And that
was early. We were just really, you know, virgins almost at that point. But, you know, fast forward 35
years. But there was one thing that was cool. It was kind of around the time that I met the band. But
we got to be part of a series that was produced by Good Company Pictures. And it aired for a
couple of years on E-Channel. It debuted on E-Channel and aired on a bunch of different channels.
But it was called Tribute Bands, and they had four episodes of it, you know, Rush.
[13:08] Sting like a you know the police rush uh queen and the hip and we were on we're on the hip
one that's it i think it's you can still see it from our littlebones.ca website it i have it there somewhere
i think there's still a you know once you post something on the internet it's there forever right so
unless you need to find it yeah yeah yeah you know it's there but uh that was a fun fun experience i
bet so where where has that taken you in in terms of gigging and stuff like that you guys are still
you guys are still at it right we are we don't i mean we get you know 10 to 12 times a year like we're
for the most part uh the guys in the band all have other musical.
[13:53] Things happening for the most part it's not like this is all we do uh but we um you know
speaking just for myself i do it because i just you know it's a special feeling and not all your
listeners can relate maybe but some probably can but when you're playing the music you're on
stage and the audience is looking back at you with the admiration really because they love the
music so much i mean you have to be able to you know pull it off like you know it's got to be sound
it can't be it can't be campy or crap yeah right but um no but so um yeah so we you know we're
we're fortunate enough actually that the audience is still into it uh and uh we you know the recent
shows have been sellouts and um and again we because we don't gig every week either but uh it's
just a lot of fun it's it's a whole if it's an experience at all you know i don't think i'll ever stop until it
becomes not fun and i can't imagine that happening you know because we've had the same kind of
like the hip like up until like um seven years ago we had the same five guys uh and then and one of
them retired um seven years ago so we brought in a younger guy to bring down the average age of
the band, But for the most part, it's been the same guys since we started.
[15:12] And when did you start, 95? Our first show was in February of 95. So we'd been playing for
five years, evolving towards more and more hip all the time. But I'd say the end of 94 is when we
said, let's get a set together for Little Bones. And the first gig that we got was February. And I'd be
remiss not to ask, what is your role in the band? Who are you? I am Gord Downey. Well, isn't that
fucking cool? Yeah, and I don't, you know, I don't, you know, all the power to the guys that do, but I
don't do the leather suits and the hat and never have. No. You know, Gord's Gord and I'm me and I
love the music and I hope you love what we do. That's, can't say anything different than that. Well
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you have to tell you'll have to tell me i'll you'll have to give me a list of uh dates if you've got any
coming up this year that i can put in the show notes uh and also i'm going to be making a trip to
ottawa so i would like to uh if it lined up that would be really cool may the third is our our next uh big
show and and we play a place called the overflow brewery they're they're great guys you know we
were the first band to play there they have a big you know stage full system It holds about 400
people, and 400 people come. When we play there, it's a hoot.
[16:32] Yeah, the Overflow Brewery, yeah. Overflow Brewery, 400 people jamming out. That would
be so fun. You know, and we're in the shirts. The electricity. It's just amazing. It's beautiful that that's
still happening. And it's also funny, you know, 30 years at it, the people that used to come out and
watch us when they were in university coming out with their buds drinking beers are now coming
out with their kids and some of them their grandkids. Oh my gosh. There was a pause there, right?
Where you have to raise a family and do this and you don't go to shows so much, but it's a full
circle. Absolutely, I was a victim of that. Yeah, it's a full circle. Sure. You'll eventually come back.
Yeah, I missed, I missed, like I completely missed two records, not for plan A and we're the same I
completely flaked out on those records I just wasn't in a place because I had a new baby and a
second baby on the swing and it was like.
[17:32] It changes your life as it should yeah, So, Ed, you play the music live. Have you seen the
band live many times? Oh, yeah, probably 15 or 20 times, probably. I think, again, sometimes, you
know, they're playing on a weekend, and so were we. Right, of course. But basically, yeah, my best
memory of a live show was one that I didn't attend. Oh, tell me that. December the 6th, 2000. It's
easier to remember the date, because it's the date that our son was born. My wife and i knew we
took a chance when we bought the tickets baby was due on the fourth of december but uh nope uh
our son was born that night at 7 32 and uh and and born to escape is at hand for the traveling man
no playing oh yeah it's uh it's um it's one of my wife's favorite hip songs and well your wife is
fucking really cool and it's apparently very calming during labor pains. Just the beat of it, just the
feel. Anyway, we found this out during the birth of our first son the year before. While we had some
hip that night, both our boys were born to escape as an ham for the traveling man, which is kind of
interesting. That's really special. They were escaping.
[19:01] Do they enjoy the song to this day, Or have you let them know that secret? Oh, yeah. No,
they do. I would say they're not as, they like the hip, but they're not as diehard as mom and dad. It's
tough. The generation is tough, right? Yeah. We got much music. Yeah, exactly. You know, we got
roadside attraction. Like, there was no fucking band in Canada or the States, to me, that was
bigger than the Tragically Hip. No. Like in the 90s. 100%. And, you know, and I, again, I grew up on
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Neil and appreciate it. It's all unique. But I'll tell you the one thing, though, that when you bring the
boys into it, and the one thing I'll remember till I die was we were playing a big show. The overflow
was packed, and we were playing fully completely, the song fully completely. And, you know, the
line where I was like, I was down bending, you know, singing to the crowd of my father, you know,
like that line basically, And my boys had run up and kind of, you know, like, kind of like this to me
right when I'm singing it. Like, like, you know, like there's my father right there. Like, fuck. Oh, my
God. That was like, you know. Yeah, lucky you didn't get so choked up. Yeah, I just move on. Yeah.
Anyway, so at that show, so I had a front row seat.
[20:21] For the birth of my son, which I wouldn't give up. And my buddy James is a guitar player in
the band. He was the best man at our wedding as well. And, you know, he got our box tickets for
that show in 2000.
[20:36] And you were at one of the last shows as well, right? Yes. I took the, I got the last two
shows, like Ottawa and Toronto. I just couldn't, I tried, but the whole ticket thing, you know, just
never gone in like a microsecond. Yeah. So, and that was, they were both very, you know, very
emotional. But, and I also, I, somebody had, what the hell is that streaming? I mean, before you
could do live streams on Facebook and everything, there was a streaming software that people had
on their phones. Oh, I don't know. I'm a Luddite, so.
[21:12] I just can't remember. Some guys will know. But anyway, I was able to kind of, somebody
posted it on the fan forum. And so I watched probably most of the shows from my phone or my
iPad or whatever. Somebody was nice enough to transmit. it wow i didn't know that no i was really
sick at the time so i don't remember much but i don't remember much of that but yeah and again
when you see the you know the the film about it it was like yeah you could what was behind that
first show in victoria that moved you know like the stress and, you know the emotions be awesome
i'm so grateful that we have what we have in light of everything that just went down you know we
have we have the national celebration that we can watch we have the docuseries we have long
time running we have this great catalog of records there is.
[22:10] No shortage of live shows on youtube and i have a feeling.
[22:15] Like this band recorded everything like yeah there's lots that johnny's gonna find i think are
we gonna find like lots of live shows like i would love that i also like what um you know gourd paul
and and robbie put you know their little little tutorials that they put out there like fuck that's not great
yeah like i just like ah thanks could use that 20 years ago boys you know it'll be like put your put
your pinky here and it makes it a whole lot easier yeah like oh shit i never thought of that well
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imagine learning you know.
[22:47] Blow it high dough from, you know, cassette tape before YouTube was here. And lyrics? We
didn't have lyrics either? Oh, yeah. I sang songs wrong for years until we, what? That's what that
word is? Yeah. Even when the young lad joined, he's like, Dan, I don't think Encourage Gorge's
singing there. I was like, really? I've been doing that for 20 years. Sure enough, you know, you see
him do a live show on YouTubers. I'm like, Zach, you're right. To retrain my brain to not sing that
line, you know? Yeah. I was doing that yesterday. I was just listening to some songs and there's
some songs that I just have weird words for. Like, and I know they're wrong and I know they're
wrong, but I just, I continued. Can't help it, eh? So Dan, I understand there's a moment where you
interacted with the boys. You got to meet the band. Do you want to tell us about that? Yeah, I was
fortunate enough to meet the hip, all except for Paul, at the Vancouver Airport in March of 207.
[23:47] And I was coming back from a business trip in Redmond, USA, and the boys played Seattle
the night before, and I think they were on their way to the Junos. Anyway, I remember it was during
a time of You're Not the Ocean was released, and I noted to Rob that I picked up on the global
warming theme of the video. I was torn between not bugging them on their personal time, and I was
torn between that and introducing myself, having been playing this stuff for the last dozen years or
so at the time. And Gord Sinclair seemed to be... The one that was less engaged in newspaper or
PDA. So I approached him and introduced myself and that I was in a band that played their music
on weekends, Little Bones from Ottawa. And Igor nodded and said, oh, yeah, like you recognize
the name. But that could just be my wishful thinking again. But I said, yeah, we always wondered if
you guys were pissed off that we're playing your music or whether you know what. And he said, no,
no, thanks. Thanks for doing that.
[24:48] Flying the flag, man. Yeah. Yeah, so, well, there's another little story there where one of the
live release albums, they had a broadcast happening, and Stuntman Stewart of Ottawa, who was a
radio announcer at the time, was to always come up on stage. I'd haul him up at a certain festival
we'd play at all, you know, 20-some years ago, and he'd always ask for Boots at Hearts. So he was
on this broadcast, and he was saying that, you know, Boots at Hearts is my favorite song. It's one
that all the cover bands I asked to play when they come to town. And Gord Downey said, stay away
from those cover bands.
[25:25] And anyway, back in the days of news groups before, you know, the Facebook and
everything else, that prompted a whole bunch of comments about cover bands. That's why I asked
the question. There actually was a reasoning for it. And I'm pretty sure that it's probably Road
Apples. They know those guys. And he was probably looking across the table, looking at Sinclair or
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somebody saying, oh, stay away from those cover bands. Probably that's what it was. That's how I
sleep at night, thinking it was something like that. Anyway, he said thanks, and they signed
autographs for me. And Gord signed Thanks, Dan, Hippo 7, and Gord Downey signed Happy Days,
which was pretty common. And then I saw him again on FaceTime at the Kensington Market show
there in 2012, I think. Just after the show, my nephew got wristbands. He was there, asked me if I
could make it. I couldn't go away my meetings. I was in town, but I couldn't make it. And I said, you
know, get some shit for me signed or whatever. And so he got them to sign the CD for me.
[26:33] And he'd connect on FaceTime when he did. He spun his phone around so I could see the
band. The band could see me. But after you said, hey, yeah, you won't remember, but you met Dan
five years ago in Vancouver. And Johnny Faye leans in and says, Dan, you've gotten smaller.
[26:50] I can't remember what everybody else said. Downey said something like, what, are you on
the moon? like in a Schwarzenegger-like accent. Anyway, and that was, and then they signed the
CD, and when Gord Downey signed it, he scratched out on the CD, he scratched out the Tragically
Hypnophilist Plan A and wrote Dan Plus Little Bones mixtape. And so that's the red one there.
That's so cool. Anyway, that's- You'll have to get a picture of that so I can put it in the show notes.
Okay, I think it's on, if you go to Little Bones on our, I have it on there. It's on the website too? Well,
the website, yes, and Facebook for sure. Okay. I'm lazy. That's why I always say, hey, send me this.
I'll send it to you. This is a handful doing this, Dan. This is a handful doing this. 40 of these things I
do. I'll send it to you. I'll make it easy, man. No, no. I appreciate it. Would you like to get into the
song of the week at this point? Would love to. All right. We'll be right back after this. Hey, this is
Paul Langlois from the Tragically Hip saying hello. Now on with the countdown.
[27:57] Music.
[32:33] Today on The Countdown, we're getting photos from the sky with a pigeon camera. Dan from
Ottawa, tell me about the first time you heard this song. You know, I'm not 100% sure, but it was
probably right after I got the CD. I don't think it had airplay before the album came out. And I, like
others, would just get the CD, stand in line if we had to, on release day. and could not wait until to
hear the album. So I'm pretty sure that's what happened for this. It's been the same for all the
albums for me.
[33:12] Yeah. Wasn't that fun, lining up at midnight on Monday night before Tuesday when records
came out on Tuesdays for whatever reason? Yeah. Now they're on Fridays. Fridays makes a little
bit more sense to me. But I loved that when I moved to Toronto. I did that for Pearl Jam. I did that
for The Tragic Way. Yeah. So great. So great. So do you have a relationship with this song in any
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way?
[33:41] Yeah, well. At this point? I think when I first heard the song, it literally grabbed me after
hearing the first four notes. The groove hit me right away. Like just right away the groove hit me
and I was like, whoa. And then you pay attention. Um you know and it's funny i think i remember
um hearing um uh paul talk about when uh your favorites came out um and uh you know like i he
goes i was surprised prison camo didn't didn't make it which is kind of funny i thought anyhow um
yeah it hit me right away um over the years it's it became one of my favorites it's also one of my
wife's favorites again and uh so i get to put our set list often and uh i feel so lucky to be able to uh
to to be experienced it and it is such a groove it's it's you know it does you know you know pigeon
you know like nautical it and i'll often say this it'll it'll take you to a different place if you let it you just
gotta let it go let it take you there.
[34:44] You know anyway um yeah yeah picture camera can be sort of mesmerizing i love that
outro, to me is that one of the fully completely is one of the first real records where they really start
playing with outros you know looking looking for a place to happen i think it fades but it's an outro
that fades pigeon camera is definitely an outro yeah after we burned our boots for no contingency
plan you get that really cool jammy outro that you're right i can see i can see even without the use
of any substances you could go on a magic carpet you know you could be on a magic carpet ride
yeah for sure i do it all the time without help oh that's good what is it like singing this song uh you
know i i love it that it um i mean it depends like sometimes if a guitar player has a bad day and he
misses that first beginning yeah but normally and that's really it's really that happens but when
normally it's just like i'm hooked right away and like and the audience is into it too like normally
they're it's it's one of those songs that uh it's um it's kind of deep cut-ish, but everybody comes,
people that come to see the shows, they know all the hip songs anyways.
[36:10] But what we do typically play, the more popular ones, this is one that we, it's for me. It's for
you. And there's a couple, that and Nautical, which is the only song without a chorus.
[36:25] But those songs, they'll never not be on the setlist. Because I make the setlist.
[36:37] So, when you play this song live, do you have the big gong? Like, what do you use? No, no,
you have to. Is it a crash symbol? No, you have to be, I mean, over the years, I think there's been
times we have. I think we used a fire bell or something, you know. Okay. But for the most part, as
we got older, you know, we've been doing it for 30 years, you just, you don't carry your shit
anymore. And you have setups that's reasonably, you know. So, you make a few trade-offs like
that. Yeah. But, you know, but we'd all love to have all that, like even a little sound, you know, like
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that's in there. Like sometimes a drummer would use a little, I'm not sure even what it is, but it's a
little thing with pads that he makes different sounds when he hits it.
[37:23] And so when those moments happen, it takes you even closer to it. So it's pretty cool. But
no, for the most part, we try to be efficient about it, I guess. But I'll tell you get into it and you look
around and everybody's playing their part and you look at the audience and they're like looking up
at you and they're, they're fucking singing every word it's so cool it really is, there's nothing like
playing live no and nothing like the audience into it there's times when you play and it's like thank
you both.
[38:01] Every musician had that you know like depending on where you play but even they have if I
remember their stories about Renfrew, Yeah, they've definitely talked about it. Even in the song,
Love Over Money, right? Yeah, exactly. They talked about it. So do you have a line at all on what
this one's about? I mean, the museum has some interesting things to say about it, but I'm
interested in what Dan from Ottawa has to say. Yeah, I think over the years, I think, first of all, Gord
does, you know, he captures all the thoughts in his little book and has his multicolored pen, and he
captures things and he applies them, you know, whenever the opportunity presents itself, I think.
But this one, I think, over the years, I think there's been at least three different themes, if you will, to
it. The actual spy camera that apparently was seen by Gordon, Tripped to Washington Museum
and all that. The reference to incest. And finally, the other one about the relationship between
Quebec and the rest of Canada at the time. I think that's… That's where I always leaned in. Yeah.
That's where I always leaned in. Yeah. You'll see that's where I leaned to. Depending on the
listener, you could probably thread these three together differently. So it could be a combination,
but I'd have to say the national unity theme fits it best, in my opinion.
[39:19] Anyway, and the reason for that is, you know, remember in 1981, Quebec was led by René
Levesque, the Parti Québécois at the time. I mean, he refused to sign the Canadian Constitution
that was repatriated from Britain. And later on, when the Quebec Liberal Party was leading the
province in the mid-80s, Brian Mulroney attempted to address it through the Meech Lake Accord.
And the Accord looked to bring Quebec into the Constitution. And it also recognized Quebec as a
distinct society, which did not fit well with all, including Pierre Trudeau. To be successful, the accord
had to be approved by mid-1990, but it failed. It was not ratified. So Quebec and national unity was
no doubt still topical at the time when Pigeon Camera was written, as it was as well the year
previous. It was Rhode Apples and Born in the Water. Some references there, right?
[40:24] So if you actually look at the lyrics and put it through a national unity lens, if you will, You
know, it was handsome for the auction. When we got home, it grew up into something we could no
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longer contain, you know. Bilingual country made a lot of sense back when the Constitution was
conceived. But there were folks thinking that, you know, that comes at a financial cost, you know,
that's hard to contain. It's almost like you thought you were getting one thing. It turned out to be not
as expected, you know.
[40:55] Whereas our prison camera, by now it could be anywhere. And after all that training, that
was something we can no longer contain. It might be a stretch, but potentially the camera is
somehow a metaphor for the golden ring of national unity. And that the effort and investment were
lost with a failed Meech Lake Accord. It's boring. I'm embarrassed. Don't endorse that. Stand on my
face. I didn't want this. These lyrics appear more than once in the song. And, you know, things that
are mundane and repetitive could lead to being dull and embarrassing, could fit the national unity
theme since the Accord failed, you know, 1990, just two years before the release of Pigeon
Camera. But it was after about a decade of, you know, tough discussions on regarding unity. This
house has politics over there. That's my room. That's my sister. It was something we could no
longer contain. And again, they keep coming back to something you couldn't contain. The incest
theme fits on that one, but it also fits the national unity theme. If you see Quebec as your sister
province to the rest of Canada, to the rest of the family. And it's like, you know, we burned our boots
with no contingency plan. I think that's pretty simple to me. It's just so much time and effort went
into, you know, bringing Quebec and the rest of Canada together. that when the Meech Lake
Accord failed, you know, there was no plan B.
[42:22] So, you know, all in all, I think National Unity is probably the closest fit for me. But again, the
beauty of Gore's lyrics is that there may be multiple interpretations. Oh, that's right. If I had 40
people do this episode, there'd likely be 40 different nuances. You know, maybe not straight up
themes, but different nuances to those themes, I think. And that's the beauty of this fucking band.
Yeah, exactly.
[42:49] 100%. Really? Yeah. You know, and, you know, we always talk about Gord's lyrics, but the
music, you know, and how they thread it together. Yeah. Whatever way they, they did. It's just, it's
just, you know, again, Neil was my favorite. I think they're my favorite. You know, but it's, you're
allowed to have more than one favorite, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Well, on that note, Mr. Dan
from Ottawa, I am going to bid you adieu. It has been wonderful to talk to you today, and I really
appreciate your time. You've got some homework to do for me. You've got to get those gigs, and
you've got to get me that picture so I can put it in your show notes for you. Will do. But other than
that, I really want to thank you and wish you good luck in the future. And hopefully, maybe we'll see
you at the October 4th show in Toronto. But definitely, seeing as you're part of a band, I hope we
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see you represented on Podlist 6. Which is where we solicit cover songs from bands and then we
put them in a podcast. So it's a lot of fun. Yeah. I was kind of thinking about maybe Thompson girl. I
saw it on the list. Do it. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Thanks. Well, thanks for stopping by. Take up your
shit.
[44:11] 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.
[44:40] Music.
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