The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song 26 — Alan from Federal Way

Hey, it’s jD — and this week we head west. All the way to Federal Way, Washington, to meet a Hiphead who’s been flying the maple leaf in the Pacific Northwest since Saturday Night Live beamed Gord into his living room back in ’95. Meet Alan, a die-hard fan whose story begins with “Grace, Too” on SNL — and just keeps rolling from there.

From watching that legendary set to yelling at his bank over blocked ticket purchases, Alan’s journey is packed with the kind of fire you only get from someone who’s felt the music. This one’s got it all: karaoke tales, epic setlists, concert roadblocks, poutine mishaps, and more than one fateful nod from Gord himself.

You’ll hear about:

• The heartbreaking ticket fiasco that nearly kept him from The Final Show™
• His run-in (maybe?) with Paul at a venue in Seattle
• Why Lake Fever floored him on a random Tuesday night
• The rainstorm that conjured a lyric in real-time
• And yes… that time he ended up yelling at StubHub

It’s funny. It’s moving. It’s everything this countdown is built to hold.

🎙️ Next week, we flip the dial to Red Deer for a very special guest with a very familiar voice: Ron MacLean. Yes, thatRon MacLean. And yes, it’s everything you hope it is.

💬 Pull Quote

“Their songs made me want to learn about the stars of Algonquin and Tom Thomson and Paris of the Prairie… I just needed to know.”

👤 About Our Guest

Alan from Federal Way is a U.S.-based Hip historian and superfan whose reverence for the band spans decades, cities, tours, and blurry online forums. He’s attended shows across North America, documented setlists with obsessive precision, and once got Gord to point at him from the stage. Yeah. He’s one of us.

🧾 Support the Show

Digging the countdown? Wanna keep the lights on and the vibes high?

buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40 — every donation helps us keep the pod going and raises funds for ALS Canada.

📬 Get Involved

• 🎙️ Leave a voicemail: castfeedback.com/tthtop40
• 📧 Send yer Hipstory: [email protected]

📡 Follow + Stream

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Transcript follows below.

The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown

2025-05-24, 8:52 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 dissect,

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?

[0:58] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.

This is one of those tracks that when Gordy finished the lyrics, he must have grabbed his overcoat,

fedora, and briefcase to leave the office for the day. Because his fucking work is capital D done. Ian

from Maple Ridge, what do you think of Flamenco? Well I thought that the whole album was

absolutely magical flamenco right in the middle of the album, It was such a magical song and kind

of gave a hint, I think, at the experimental nature that the band was kind of moving towards.

[1:56] Hey, it's JB here and I'm ready to go. The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown is now underway.

Week over week, we're going to count down the 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 the good China.

The ones just for guests. No, not them. The good guests. How will your favorite song fare in the

rankings? You'll need to tune in every week to find out. So there's that. This week, I'm joined by

TTH superfan, Alan from Federal Way. How the hell are you doing on this hiptastic day, sir? I'm

doing well. I'm always willing to talk about the greatest band of all time. It's, you know, it's kind of a

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nice thing, right? That here we are at 7.30 on a Sunday night and we get to talk about the Tragically

Hip. Yeah. Yeah. Greatest band of all time. You're allowed to disagree. I mean, this is America, this

is Canada. They allow you to disagree. I do not disagree. If you do, however, you are wrong.

[3:04] I have over, I have, I've listened to over 100,000 hours of music in my life. I have a frame of

reference. I guess so. They're the greatest band of all time. Have you really listened to that much

music? Yeah. I'm old. Holy jeez. That's a lot. I've had 60 years to listen to music. I've listened to a

lot. You sure have. Well, let's get right into this. I want to hear your tragically hip origin story or your

hipstery as it were. Yeah. Shoot. Well, um.

[3:40] Started March 25th, 1995. I had heard of the hip because I'd worked in record stores, but I'd

never heard them directly. Then they came on Saturday Night Live. Dan Aykroyd came out and

said, here from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, home of Walter Frank High, Kirk Muller, and me, my

friends, the Tragically Hip. And they'd pan over to the band and they start doing the intro to Grace

2, and I'm watching Gord, and there's something about him that says, stop what you are doing right

now and pay attention to this. This is amazing. It's going to change your life in ways you will never

understand. So I'm listening to him sing Grace 2, and he says, I'm tragically hit, Which surprised

me Because I wasn't familiar with the song I didn't know they'd put the band name in Like The The

did Or Talk Talk.

[4:45] And it's just something about him There's A ferocity coming off of him It seemed like he was

all over the stage And he never left his spot, And it's like Holy crap Who is this lunatic poet That I'm

watching here I'd never seen anything like it, And then they came back later And did Nautical

Disaster Which I didn't even realize Until fairly recently Has no chorus And does not rhyme But it's

just a tremendously good song, It's so visual Just tell this story about a dream that he had And then

Talking with his girlfriend about how They had this argument And he said Don't worry about it I'm

not going to let that affect our relationship.

[5:38] Our conversation is as faint as sound in my memory As those fingernails scratching on my all,

Oh, what a turn of phrase I'd never heard anything like that before It just blew me away, So, SNL

ends at 1 o'clock I get up real early to get to the record store so that I can buy the album before it

sells out. Because I figured this was such an amazing band that they're going to be clamoring for it

all over the place. Where were you at this time? This was in Seattle. Okay. I lived in northeast

Seattle in an area called Lake City. The mall was less than three miles from my home, so I went to

Musicland and bought the CD, or cassette, rather. It was the only copy they had, so I got it. and the

whole album was just really good um.

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[6:36] Titanic Terrarium, your finger starts to wiggle and landscapes emerge. Yes. I love you even

when I don't even know I'm doing it. Holy crap, this guy's a genius. Who trained this guy? Where

did he get this skill? It's like, I've got to find out more about this band. So I go to their website And I

look at They had a video at the time On their website That was, I think it was filmed during one of

the Another roadside attraction spots The band's in the, Trailer Just jamming away It's not a song

that they ever released And it's really really hard To find the video now but, Just.

[7:31] Not, not anything structured. They're just going and playing this fantastic music. Um, that's,

that's how I discovered them. And, and I, I just like, wow.

[7:45] That is incredible that from that moment, like through the television, they were able to capture

you that, that fully and completely, you know, that's, that's a good turn of phrase. It's like, I think it

was Stone Gossard had that T-shirt at the Pearl Jam tours. Gord fucking Downey. Right. It's just

astounding that somebody that I'd never heard before was that captivating on first glance. Now,

what did you do next? I've never been so affected by something like that, that quickly. What did you

do next? So you got day for night and you listened the hell out of that for sure. Oh yeah. But, but

where did you turn next? What did you, what did you listen to next? Did you wait for the next one to

come out or did you circle back? Well, I didn't, I didn't get, um, any, I didn't have a lot of money to

spend on music. And of course they weren't being played on American radio stations. I just paid as

much attention As I could to the website And Um.

[9:03] The next album that I can remember buying was Live Between Us. Ah, yeah. And then I

found the story of what that is actually about with Davis Manning doing graffiti in Toronto. The hip

live between us. It's actually in Kingston. It's actually in Kingston. Kingston? Yeah. Okay. That

makes more sense. I've just seen Rick Mercer and there's a lot of graffiti in Toronto doing his rants.

Walking down the alleyways in Toronto and just all that graffiti. I figured it was somewhere there.

But how the hip were interfering in their relationship. The hip lived between us. Right. Such an

emotional response to how this job is interfering with his relationship with his girlfriend. Yeah. Wild

to think if things had been different, hmm? Yeah. Well, the only other major band that I can think of

that has a saxophonist is the E Street Band. And, of course, Clarence Clemens has passed away

as well. Right. So I couldn't think of any other major band that also had saxophonists. In excess

had a sax player? Yeah. For a time. They were...

[10:33] They didn't have the longevity that E Street Band and The Hip have had. No, certainly not.

Great stuff. Shabu Shabba was phenomenal stuff. The one thing, the video with the food orgy, very

influential in the early 80s. Yeah.

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[11:00] Tremendous stuff. I went to broadcasting school, and our teacher was a DJ at a local

alternative radio station. And I had an InXS CD, or maybe it was an LP, I don't remember, in the

school. And my teacher, my instructor, asked one of the other students, how do you say this? And

they said, Inkses. They weren't familiar.

[11:33] All those years ago now so take me take me on a trip with you to the first time you saw them

live, that was supposed to have been the um in between evolution tour okay uh that album came

out i was working in yakima washington and they were doing shows in spokane seattle and

portland and i had planned to go to all three of them boom boom boom but i blew my money at the

poker table and couldn't go oh shit um so a couple years later uh they were playing the sasquatch

music festival in central washington okay uh they were like fifth or sixth on the bill and uh it started

hailing, which is not good because this is outside in on a, on a hillside in George Washington. And

my date wanted to leave. So I didn't get to see him there. I found out later that they, the hailing

stopped. They, they took the stage at some point and did five or six songs. And, uh, somebody else

who'd been at the festival said it was a good show, but I, I missed it. And then, uh.

[12:56] The uh world container album came out yeah i bought that the day it came out i was able to

get tickets to their show at the moore theater in seattle and my wife and i went on at the end of our

honeymoon so it was our first time to see them yeah we got fairly good seats um, six or seven rows

back on the left um stage left and um they had an opening band and i I cannot find the name of the

band. It's not on the, uh, it's not on the tickets. And, uh, I can't find any record of it online. Oh. But

Gord came out after they were done. My wife liked the opening band a lot. Uh, and I thought they

were pretty good. But of course I'm there to see the hip. Right. And Gord came out and called them

the best band in the land. And they did their show. And I, I wrote down every song so that I could

post it on the hip story project. So the set list would be out there And of course another great show I

bet But that was in March of 2007 End of March in 2007 was when I finally got to see them live.

[14:11] Wow. Yeah. Have you ever had the opportunity to meet any of the guys? I think, I would say

I'm 90% sure that I ran into Paul at the Showbox Soto in south of downtown Seattle in the industrial

district. They were doing a show for the Now for Plan A tour on December 7th, 2012, Pearl Harbor

Day. I go early because it's General admission And the showbox Soto is a fairly small club So I

want to get as good a spot as I can I get there a couple hours before The show starts and I'm

walking, Past the Back area of the From where I parked the back area of the, Club and there's a

guy smoking There and I asked if he knew I brought my Gus doll I asked if he knew if they were

going to be playing Gus, I thought he was a roadie, but later on I'm thinking, wait a minute, was that

Paul?

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[15:16] I'm about 90% sure it was Paul. I would need to speak with him to figure out if it's something

he remembers. Whoever it was, they said they didn't know if it was on the playlist or not. So they let

us in. We can go into the bar. And then about 40 minutes later, they opened up the podcast. Play

area, and I was able to get front row center right up at the stage. Oh, wow. Behind the fence. I was

no more than 10 feet from where Gord was going to be. That's amazing. And he comes out. They

start the show. He looks right at me and points. It's like, holy crap. Gord Downey noticed me. I had

my Gus doll, of course, but he looked right at me and pointed. And I was like. That was such a

good show. I bet. It would have been good if they, if they had screeched through the set list after

being pointed out like that. That's like a highlight moment. Yeah. And then the third song in was

Gus. Oh, of course they started out that tour. They were starting out with, um, um.

[16:34] At Transformation was the opening song, of course, the lead single off the new album. Right.

And then the third song in was Gus. I tried to film it with my camera, but I was so close to the stage

that the audio was awful. Oh, damn. So I don't have it anymore.

[16:54] I was able to record during the fully completely reissued tour. Yeah. They hadn't announced

any dates For the western part of the US So I figured, okay, well they're not coming to Seattle So I

went to the Vancouver show Which was on Gord's birthday In 2015, February 6th Oh, that's great

And, uh, man I should have had a much better seat than I got I was, uh, I called my bank The night

before and I said, look I'm gonna be making a purchase, Uh, online Through Canada tomorrow

please please please don't disallow the purchase as as i don't want to have a hassle getting a ticket

so i get online i'm able to get second row center and they disallow my card oh and i'm freaking out

my wife finally gets me another one um i was able to use that to get a seat, it was fourth row, way

off to the stage left. So not as, I mean, fourth row is pretty good, but the Rogers Arena is really wide

at the stage. So I was not...

[18:19] It wasn't as good a seat by any stretch. I would have been much happier if I'd gotten 10th

row center than 4th row way off to the stage left. Dude, you were tucking row center. Like, you, by

all rights, should have had those seats. Yeah, my stupid bank. And I called him after it was all done

and yelled at him again. I was like, how dare you? I told you! I'm trying to see the tragically hip, the

best seat I can get. You ruined this for me. Of course, they didn't understand.

[18:48] Uh and then i got my first poutine that day oh what i never had poutine and uh, a lady sitting

next to me i asked her where should i go and she recommended la belle patate on uh davie street

in vancouver and it was really good but i i ordered too big a size i i got the large and it was large oh

dude poutine is not something to be to be messed with That's for sure. But I loved it. I thought it

was great. I took about half of it home with me and had it another day. Of course, it's not as good

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reheated as it would have been, as it was when I started doing it. A little soggy. A little soggy. I got

in, I told the counterman that I just got out of the Tragically Hip show, and he put the hip on

whatever audio system he was using, so they were playing as long as I was there. Oh that's great

yeah that's really good um and then about two weeks after that they announced shows in seattle so

i went to that one too oh and i got being seattle and not vancouver i was able to get second row

center aisle seat that's amazing that's very impressive it was a lot less expensive because the U.S.

[20:12] Site, not Canada. Right. Paramount Theater in Seattle is a lot smaller than Rogers Arena.

Right. But I was able to get center aisle, second row, and on the right side of the aisle. And that's,

again, for the Foley tour, right? Yeah. For the reissue. Yes. And I recorded that whole thing and put

it up online. I can get you the YouTube link so you can check it out. I would love it if you do. If you

would do that. Yeah. I could even include it in the show notes. Yeah. And that was on my brother's

birthday, September 29th, 2015. Hmm. And that was another really good show. Not as good as

Now for Plan A. That was the best one that I'd gone to. All right.

[21:03] Really good show. Yeah. Sounds like it. And then in March of 2016, they're starting to

promote Man Machine Poem and In a World Possessed by the Human Mind. And they say it's

going to come out 8-4. And being American, I thought, I got to wait till August for the new album.

But it turned out to be uh march or april 4th april 8th april 8th april 8th when they released that song

it became my most listened to song on my uh ipod or iphone that day i listened to it great fucking

song yeah uh it's hard to understand what it's about uh but man it it.

[21:54] Uh it became my most listened to song. I listened to it about 30 or 40 times that day. The

beautiful thing about the hip and Gord's lyrics though, is you can, you know, like you just get to

keep listening to try and figure out what it's about. Like, and even once you crack it, you probably

haven't cracked it, you know, like, like he's, he's that damn good. What's it about? I don't know,

man. Read King Lear. Right. Exactly. Yeah. That's a great, that's a great, uh, little life tidbit. Yeah.

He's, He was a really literate writer. Incredible. I mean, who else would come up with a rhyme, it

quits you in situ? That's bloody brilliant. I mean, I'm a smart guy, but I've never been close to that

intelligent. He's of another realm for sure. Yeah. and then um.

[22:59] Shortly after that, they announced that they're going to go on tour. And, oh, by the way, Gord

has terminal brain cancer. And I'm reading this just before I go to work. I decided to check my email

just before I went to work. I said, holy fuck. What? This cannot be. That's how I felt. Anger, denial,

bargaining, depression, and acceptance all in 12 seconds. What? Gord Downey's dying? Where's

the justice in that?

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[23:33] It really. Just hearing you say that makes me bummed all over again, you know? Yeah, well,

it's like the bare naked ladies, Canada Dry. Listen to Gord is making me cry. Yeah. And um so i i get

tickets to the vancouver show of course we all know that debacle they said okay you got to have

this this password it's only available to fan members of the fan club you'll have a couple of days to

get tickets before they're released to the public and i'm ready to go i they're going to go on sale at

10 a.m pacific time for vancouver and um i'm ready 9 15 i've called my bank i said i'm different bank

this time i said i'm going to be buying this this ticket it's going to show up as a canadian purchase

please don't disallow it 10 o'clock rolls around the, Ticketmaster screen flashes, and it's sold out.

What? How can it be sold out? It just went on sale two seconds ago.

[24:50] I know the hip are big in Canada, but let's be real. That's not possible. And I'm refreshing the

page, hoping that they release more tickets. My wife is looking at StubHub. She finds tickets on

StubHub 19 times face value. Holy shit. Went from $150 for floor seats to $3,000. $2,900. hundred

dollars it's just some insane amount of money and that's canadian dollars so for it's just a lot of

money and i'm refreshing the screen and finally i get seats or i get a seat, um oh there were more

tickets so there were more tickets though popped up more tickets popped up but it took me about

15 or 20 minutes and i'm way in the back high up the bowl i'm pretty center But still, Far away from

the stage I was there on time I should have gotten front row center Gord should have been able to

look at me And point again.

[26:00] And I've And then StubHub says Well we're going to donate some of this money To the

Channing Winjack Fund Or Gord's Cancer Fund I was like You know that's all well and good Give

them as much money as you As you can, But you have stolen from the fans of that band The

greatest band of all time You have stolen, for many of them Their last opportunity to see this band

live, Who the fuck are you to do that? How dare you say we're going to donate money to his cancer

fund? That doesn't make up for it, I was pissed. Yeah. There were a lot of people very pissed.

When Gord announced that he was dying, of course, that led the National for half an hour, which

shocked the hell out of me. There's no band in America that if they came out today, if Bob Dylan

and Bruce Springsteen both came out today and said they're dying and they're going to do one last

tour, that would not lead the National News here in the United States. And certainly they wouldn't

spend half the show talking about it And then when the ticket fiasco happened That led the national

news as well.

[27:25] There's no band in the world That has this kind of, other than the hip That has this kind of

reaction among their hometown crowd Right, I was so mad I'm glad I was able to go and see them

but i should have had a much much better seat and that early on in the tour, even from far away i

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could tell gourd was diminished he he wasn't the same as he had been at all the times i'd seen him

before before he was like.

[28:08] Much more energetic, and of course, this is easy to understand, but it wasn't the same. No.

And I'm told that as he got further into the tour, he became more like his old self. I would say that

was the case, because I saw the second Toronto show. That would have been around August

15th? Close to, yeah Yeah, I would say Because they only played another Toronto show And then

Ottawa And Kingston, I think, after Yeah, Kingston was the 20th Right, August 20th, 2016 Yeah,

And then we find out that the CBC Are going to interrupt The Olympics To show this final, Concert

Of this band There is no way in hell that NBC, who has the rights to the Olympics here in America,

there is no way in hell that they would interrupt the Olympics to show Bruce Springsteen's final

concert. It would not happen.

[29:22] That they were willing, and not only willing, but overjoyed to have done so on all of their

channels. And to set up TV screens in town squares and parks and bars and theaters to show this

so people could come together all across the country and watch this as a country. That just says an

awful lot about how beloved this band was. I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen

anything like it. Yeah. Yeah. A third of the country watched it live on CBC. It would not happen in

the US. It would not happen in Iceland or Germany or France or England. The hip were, for me...

[30:24] They were Canada. They embodied the spirit of the country. And that's probably why they

never really broke big outside of Canada. But I didn't care about any of that. I didn't care I wasn't

Canadian. Their songs made me want to learn about the stars of Algonquin and Tom Thompson

and Paris of the Prairie and the men they couldn't hang And all these stars of Algonquin It's like,

what is this? I need to find out, what is this? This is important to know Yeah For them to write these

eloquent songs about whatever they were about It's like, I need to find out Because they present it

in such a way that it seems like this is something, everyone should know about.

[31:26] And I did everything I could to find out as much as I could. And you're still doing it, it seems.

Yeah. That's great. Fly the flag. I got the book a couple days ago. It's very heavy. It is. I need to

clear table space off to be able to read it because I don't have a comfy chair to sit in and read the

book. Oh, it's so nice. And, of course, they've got the documentary, No Dress Rehearsal, a

reference to their final live song, which is, and the book is, blanking on the name of the book, but

it's from- This Is Our Life. Yeah, This Is Our Life, from the same song.

[32:23] Man, what a great lyric. Yeah. What a great thought. Pay attention, people. Live your life to

the full. This is not a dress rehearsal. This is your life. And use it up. Use it all up. Don't save a thing

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for later. Live life as fully as you can while you can. Because you never know somebody might tell

you tomorrow that you have glioblastoma multiform and you're going to be gone in a couple of

years, ah i just oh man felt this way i mean i love the talking heads second greatest band of all

time, until i they they were the first greatest until i heard the hip um they never they never instituted

the, or, they never made me feel this emotional about their music. It was great music. It still is. No,

it's very apparent. But it's not, it's not the same as Gord Downie and The Hip. No, it's very

apparent. They got under your skin in a big way.

[33:42] Yeah, it's, uh, I never get to, got to meet Gord, but man, his music spoke to me As if he were

my brother. Gee whiz. I can't explain it. Just listen to it. Yeah. Listen to it. It's so strange in this

country because everybody is the biggest Tragically Hip fan and everybody cleaves to them in such

a unique way. So just, just know that you, you know, you are part of a community that, that

celebrates and appreciates and completely understands where you're coming from. And you don't

even have to use, you know, all the words. You could just utter a couple of the words and they

would know exactly where you're coming from. But Alan, let's, so Alan, what we're going to do now

is we are going to flip the record. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back

with the track of the week, the song on the countdown. Are you ready for this? Yeah. All right, let's

do it. We'll be back right after this. Hey, this is Paul Langloff from the Tragically Hip saying hello.

Now on with the countdown. 26.

[34:59] Music.

[38:00] Today, we are talking all about the somewhat title track of the album Music at Work. It's My

Music at Work. Alan from Federal Way, what are your initial thoughts about this particular song, My

Music at Work? Man, it's a great song. It really is. It's got a good beat and you can dance to it, so I

gave it a 93. It's just a really good song it's.

[38:34] Like a lot of Gord's stuff it's hard to understand what he's talking about I found out later that

it's referring to an ad that a Canadian station had, for promoting their station, Easy 107 or

something My Music at Work Easy Rock Yeah. And there's a station here in Seattle that's very

much the same, very popular in office spaces for the overhead music. And that's how they

promoted it. More offices have our station on their music than anybody else. So, okay, fine. But it's

a really good, upbeat song. I love singing along to it. me too my wife doesn't like it so much she

thinks it's a bit repetitive with uh my music at work said so often but hey that's the title of the song

yeah that's that's how it goes um.

[39:34] And you feel like a jerk my music at work the rain fell fell down berserk i've had times where

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that's happened to me i was going to chicago and i got picked up by a uh transportation service and

it was raining so hard. That was my first thought. The rain fell down berserk. I've had that same

vibe before. Yeah. And when I'm driving it, it's like that, okay, I'm going to stop because I don't want

to die. Yeah. And let this rain pass. I knew exactly what he was talking about. It's when it's like

sideways almost, you know? Yeah. And 74 gallons a minute falling down on your screen. It's time

to stop and, Stay off the road. That's right. Yeah. But then the music video with this working in what

appears to be a really oppressive work environment. Sure seems to. Where all the phone calls are

synchronized with everybody and Paul putting the flyer for the filters on the company bulletin board

and the manager looking over and like, what? What are you doing? That doesn't seem appropriate

for this workplace. Really good stuff.

[40:56] It's one of those songs that you may not be hunting it down, but you never overlook it when it

plays. I'm with you. You don't change the station. further to that i think it's a great kickoff to a record

that is um not you know in the upper third of a lot of people's uh hip discography rankings well i

would certainly put it in my top 20, well i would hope the song the song my music at work or the

album okay no i thought you were top 20 easily yeah oh in fact my my all-time favorite song from

the hip is on that album, lake fever great yeah i had never heard it before because i didn't have the

album yet it took me a while to build up my collection but i was on the hip.com and they had a song

of the day thing and one day lake fever was the song of the day and i listened to that i was um.

[42:12] Online on a dating site at the time and with the the lady i was communicating with i was

saying i'm listening to this music why don't you tune in and uh to the website and we'll listen to it

together uh and i said oh man that is that is an incredible song and we sat there and i i had her

listened to it four or five times in a row because it was it made a big impression on me um.

[42:40] Just a very literate song. And then, of course, I do research on it and find out he's talking

about the cholera outbreak in the Toronto area in like 1820 or something. Isn't that incredible? And

government's reaction to that. You don't find many other bands discussing long-ago history of their

home country in their music. Or sicknesses. Yeah. And making it work for modern-day listeners.

[43:25] It's not for nothing that I say the hip are the greatest band of all time. And if you disagree,

you're just wrong.

[43:35] I think we'll leave it at that. I think that's a great place to button this up, Alan, from Federal

Way, Washington. Federal Way. I think that's a good way to wrap it up, Alan, from Federal Way. Did

you have anything else that you want to say to the assembled masses at this point about the song,

My Music at Work? Um again it's it's not one of my all-time favorite songs it's not one that i would

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just, start out a playlist with but it's it's a really good song um great rhyme schemes, gord was was

really good at that i mean the rain the rain came down berserk no one else would come up with that

line no it's just uh it's very gordian extremely um, he he was just such a good lyricist uh having

watched the documentary of several days ago on prime and and how he said you know i i want to

sing my words right and the band acquiescing to that but still giving them writing credits so that

everybody profited equally.

[45:02] They knew each other since they were in high school. They were lifelong friends. And to

grow up together, to live their lives wrapped up in each other's lives and going on tour and staying

friends for 50 years.

[45:27] It's not something you see much. You, you, bands last four or five years or maybe 10, but

there's lineup changes and, um, fights like with, with Oasis, with the, the Liam and his brother, I'm

amazed they got back together to do another tour. We'll see. Um, uh, with the hip, I, I never worried

about that. I just, their, their camaraderie came through watching them on stage is like, you could

tell they cared about each other and it, it, in their, it, it showed in their performances. It really did.

Like even thinking, even thinking of that last performance, just the five of them on stage at the end,

basking in that adulation, you know? Uh and just knowing that they did it together and they did it

their way um what a powerful what a powerful statement and moment that was august 20th 2016

yeah i've got the the blu-ray and and i watch it from time to time can't watch it too much because

listening to gourd is making me cry yeah but uh man i i will i will be a hip head until i die.

[46:54] Well, hopefully that's not for a long time, Alan, for a literal way. Thanks for having me on. Oh,

dude, it's my pleasure to have you on. It's so cool to just listen to, you know, people from all over

the world, basically, come on here and share their origin stories. And they're all different, you know,

and they all start at different periods of time. But the one commonality is the passion for which

people abuse about this band and it's, palpable and it's wonderful so there's that Alan be well

thanks for doing this and of course pick up your shit thanks for listening to the tragically hip top 40

countdown to email us send an email to tth top 40 at gmail.com we're social find us on all the

socials at tth top 40.

[48:09] Music.

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