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Hey, it’s jD — and if you’ve ever wondered just how far Hip fandom reaches, allow me to introduce you to Janet from the Isle of Man. That’s right — this week, we go international, with a guest who’s been flying the flag from across the Atlantic for almost 30 years.
Janet’s Hip origin story starts in 1995, with a vacation to North Bay and a friend who insisted she check out this “band I think you’ll love.” Three songs later — Blow at High Dough, Cordelia, and Locked in the Trunk of a Car — and the bricks were laid. By the time she flew home, she had every record the band had released to date in her bag. Customs probably should’ve stopped her to declare emotional contraband.
We talk about her journey from intrigued tourist to Hip evangelist, the tattoo she proudly sports on her shoulder (Gord, of course), and the way her Canadian music playlist ballooned to over a thousand songs — all sparked by that first hit. We get into concerts in London, pilgrimages to Kingston, unexpected Hip sightings abroad, and a “fan of the year” moment that might just bring a tear to your eye.
Janet doesn’t just like The Tragically Hip — she’s internalized them. The music, the mythos, the vibe. From Phantom Power to Something On, from Horseshoe Tavern visits to online Hip forums, she’s built a fandom life that’s fiercely loyal, globally rooted, and very, very real.
🎙️ Next week: We stay on this side of the Atlantic but head deep into cottage country with Sherry from Midland — a day-one Hip fan with stories from Wasaga Beach, a backstage yell from Gord, and a connection to the music that’ll leave you misty-eyed.
💬 Pull QuoteJanet from the Isle of Man is a longtime Hiphead, tattooed tribute artist (her right shoulder’s got the goods), and international superfan. She’s seen the band in London, walked the pilgrimage through Kingston, and been celebrated by the Hip Fan Forum as Overseas Fan of the Year.
Online, you might know her as HipFanJan — a fixture on Reddit and X, spreading the gospel of The Hip with a cheeky grin and zero chill.
Love what you’re hearing? Want to help keep it rolling while also supporting ALS Canada?
Drop a few bucks at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40.
Every donation helps keep this lo-fi passion project alive — and keeps the countdown ticking. 🧡
Transcript follows below.
TTHTop40 618
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TTHTop40 618
Transcript
[0:02] Hey, it's JD here, and you're probably tired of podcasts asking you for money. I get it, so I'm
not going to ask. I am, however, going to strongly suggest, with love, that you give me money. This
isn't about exclusive perks or gated content, though those exist. It's about supporting something
you believe in. If you've been enjoying the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, If it's made you laugh,
think, feel something, or reconnect with a band that means the world to you, this is your chance to
give back. I make this show because I love the hip, I love this community, and I believe in telling
stories that matter. But it all takes time, energy, and of course, your support. By joining the
membership, you're not just helping to keep the show running, you're also helping to raise money
for the ALS Society of Canada. No minimum, no catch, no problem. BuyMeACoffee.com forward
slash TTH Top 40. Membership. Support the show. Support the cause. Support what you love.
[1:12] A member of the DATC media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. I
have been going on and on and on and on and on about Lake Fever since the first podcast. I love
this fucking song. Colin from Winnipeg. What did you think the first time you heard the song Lake
Fever? I wish I could remember hearing the song itself for the first time. Because, I mean, this was
still definitely the era where first day an album comes out, I'm picking it up and I'm listening to it on
repeat over and over and over again. But, I mean, a lot of those memories are kind of lost. I think
this is one of these songs that has grown on me more and more, and I might say more than any
other hip song that they've ever written. It's the one that grows on me more and more every year
that passes.
[2:08] Hey, it's JD here, and welcome to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is my pleasure to
be with you here week over week counting down the 40 essential songs by the hip that you
selected with your very own top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and three
of the Hellens from the Kids in the Hall sketch. 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 the tragically
hip superfan Janet from the Isle of Man. How the hell are you doing on this hiptastic day, Janet
from the Isle of Man? And then right after you tell me that, tell me about where you're from because
I know nothing about the Isle of Man. Okay. Thank you very much. The Isle of Man is part of Great
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Britain, but not actually part of the United Kingdom. If you think about a map of the UK, an island,
we are between Ireland and the northwest of England.
[3:15] So we have our own government, we have our own language, we're Gaelic, we're Vikings,
we're Celts. We have world-famous motorcycle races, Aledmantiti races, where you can stand and
watch motorbikes go around closed roads at 200 miles an hour and more. Yeah, exactly. They're all
mad. And sidecars as well, with guys hanging off the back. So that's, and cats with no tails,
basically, that's what we're famous for.
[3:49] Yeah. What is the population? About 80,000. Oh, okay. It's small. We're about 15 minutes
flight by fast plane to Liverpool and to Belfast on the other side. Okay. Yeah. Dynamite. Well, you've
given us a geography lesson today and a history lesson as well. So that's really cool. Are you ready
to give us another history lesson? I certainly am. And talk about your Tragically Hip origin story?
Oh, yes. Well, take it away, Jennifer. Thank you.
[4:24] Next year, come autumn next year, I will have been a fan of the Tragically Hip for 30 years. I
visited Ontario, North Bay to be specific, in 1995. Before I went, a friend of mine from Vancouver Is
keeping a lookout for this band The Tragically Hip I think you really like them So after a couple of
days I said come on then, play me some of this band So I can't remember which order now But my
first three songs were Blow, Cordelia, Unlocked So could you get a better intro to The Hip? No, I
don't think you could That's pretty good It was just, oh my God, it was like being hit with a brick. It
was like, who are this band? Where are they? Why haven't I heard of them before? So that started
me off on the massive rabbit hole I've been on for the last 30 years. So within 24 hours, I had
everything they've released up to date, first album, up to here, wrote Apples fully. And then I think
Day for Night had been out for a few months. I had that too. Took them all back and then I made it
my business to get everything else they released. Friend in Vancouver sent me Phantom Power
and I've just loved them every single day since.
[5:51] I have got a few people into them over the years. Awesome. Yeah, and there's a couple of
other guys on the fan forum group, one who's been a fan for longer than I have, and one's a
newbie, and the newbie's working his way through really slowly, and I want him to just like, no, no,
no, listen to it all now. But he's working his way through really slowly, but he loves them too. And,
yeah, they're just the best band for me that I've ever heard. I don't listen i i've always been a rock
fan um you know and i love stereophonics and you obviously know about the connection between
them and the hit yes but maybe our audience doesn't maybe our audience doesn't know share that
well they were they're just super fans um and they i think they were going to call themselves after
one of the song titles or something i can't remember exactly but they're just massive fans and when
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i went to see them and they played um at transformation before they came on stage more excited
about that than anything else me.
[6:55] They can't listen it's the hip it's the hip and then of course um kelly jones went on stage with
them i think one of the gigs in london i think they did um oh god what did they do wasn't long time
running it was oh god i can't remember now but yeah and then when stereophonics played last in
Canada. I think Johnny Fay went on stage with them. Yes. He did. Yeah. So there's that
connection. And then Kelly Jones, I just read an interview after God passed away. He wanted to
give it all up and yeah, it really affected him and quite a lot of us here.
[7:35] Really, but I will just love them forever. When I meet someone last TT week, which is a big
international event, really, somebody went past me, I have a hip shirt on, tragically hip, great band.
So I thought, shall I stalk him? I thought, no, I won't. Oh, that's so neat when you see that, when
you're somewhere abroad and you see, or you're at home in this case, and you see something like
that. That is, it's almost like a beacon, isn't it? Yeah. And then, so when in 2019, went back to
Ontario for a couple of nights in Toronto. So I went to the Shoe, just wandered around, being just
amazed by everything. So we went to the Horseshoe Tavern. Then we had a couple of nights in
Kingston. So we went to the sites. We went to the Toucan, where the landlord took a photograph of
my tattoo and sent it to Paul Langlar, which is the closest I'll ever go to ever meeting any of them.
But I was really chuffed to bits by that. I've got a tattoo of Gord on my shoulder. It's the shirt with the
word hip and him in the middle is the eye.
[8:50] So I've got a small version of that tattooed on my right shoulder. Something will always be on
my shoulder. oh that's so nice and then of course after the visit to Ontario went sort of Kingston
Ottawa went up to Huntsville went to see Tom Thompson had to do that and it was just brilliant I
started listening to Q107 Toronto and one of the Kingston stations online at work and heard a song
by a guy called Matthew Goode, so I went down that rabbit hole. Then I heard his cover of Blown
Wide Open, so I thought, who's this? Love this. Went down that rabbit hole. So I'm just doomed,
basically. I'm just totally and utterly doomed to only be really, really into bands that everyone else
has heard of. This is why this is so fabulous.
[9:42] Yeah, I agree. It's been really cool connecting with people throughout various parts of the
world. It's pretty neat. A pretty cool experience. I have everything. I have all the Gord Downyside
projects, the Sadies, I've got all of that. I just love it. Because I've been in the UK and I only came
across them in 1995, I've missed out on knowing about all the unreleased stuff. Apart from
obviously listening to your Fully Completely podcast, which I did every episode, that was great for
somebody like me. I found out so much. I found out as a I did Google, but I did find out on your
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podcast who Bill Berilco was. Yeah. You know, everything. And so, of course, now when I listen, it
makes a lot more sense when you know who the people are.
[10:37] Yeah, I suppose it would. Yeah, I suppose it would. So, yeah, that was just amazing. And it
just led me to, as I say, this enormous rabbit hole where I just, I listened to maybe a couple of
British bands and my Canadian music playlist, a thousand songs long. Isn't that cool that it started
with the hip, you know, and the hip are your sort of conduit. They're my gateway band. Yeah, into
your Canadian fixation, your Canadian music fixation. But they're just so unique, and I just struggle
even to sort of get it across to people. I said, don't listen to me, listen to them.
[11:19] Oh, that's a great way to put it. Yeah, don't listen to me, listen to them. Listen to Fight,
because that is one, for me, one of God's strongest vocal performances. I love that. Okay, yeah.
And go back, listen to Crack My Spine, because that is just such a great song. And so when that
was released, I think when they re-released Road Apples, that was like, I'd never heard that before.
I think I'd heard it on the Misty Moon video. Yeah. oh right right yeah right yeah so all the the latest
stuff that's been that's come out as unreleased tracks it's just fantastic for me because i knew
nothing about them isn't it cool to just hear like a time in a place but it's still brand new you know
what i mean like like it's like holy shit gorge singing like he did on road apples well that's because it
is road apples you idiot you know yeah and then the last gig in kingston i stayed it was just it was
just so brilliant to have it produced worldwide so i stayed up till i don't know five o'clock in the
morning watching that very bittersweet how did you watch it did you stream it or youtube yeah i just
had it on youtube on my fire tv stick dongley thing um it was great i had speakers wired up so i just
sat.
[12:41] Ugly crying all night but it was had to be done yeah, Have you had a chance to watch the
docu-series? I'm saving it until I've started to watch it. I thought, oh, my God, if I don't stop now, I'm
just going to sit here for hours. So I'm rationing it. I've watched it. Oh, there's a gourd later for you.
I'm rationing that because it's just going to have so much stuff in it, and I just know it's going to
break my heart watching it. Oh, god damn. Totally. I'm almost dreading it in that way because I just
know it is. But I'm looking forward to all the old footage cleaned up. It doesn't really start getting sad
sad until midway through the second episode, to me. And then the third one is like shocking, and
then the fourth one is sad. That's how I would put it.
[13:34] I'm like, we've watched the beginning. I thought that was so great at the very beginning. And
then you just know what's coming, don't you? So it sort of colors your whole view of it. But it's,
yeah, I'm dying to watch it. It's just so fantastic that they've kept everything going and that there's
all this stuff coming out. And when we went to Kingston, it was just great. Went to the town square,
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went and saw the stone. I've got a key ring of that with everyone was in it from miles around. You
know, if I can make a quick sidebar, they need to make that bigger and better, that stone. It's
difficult to see, yeah. It is, that's what I mean. It's very difficult to see, and they're far too important
to have to squint at. Yeah, and it needs to be maybe reflective. So when you walk past at night, you
can see it, just the writing or something. Yeah. Yeah, but being in Kingston was just awesome. Oh,
yeah, it's a great city. For me, anyway, everyone I met was, where are you from? I said, oh, yeah,
I'm from the Isle of Man. This is my pilgrimage for the hip.
[14:47] Well that's shocking People would be shocked by that And of course they're going to be kind
to you They're Canadians, Well they were I will never ever understand And I know sort of why,
They never went further afield with it all But I do not get it Why people who just even listen to a few
songs Just don't go, This is the band I've been waiting for all my life, Oh, yeah. But they don't. And
the musical taste in this country for the Summies, it's quite high. And they just don't know about
them.
[15:24] Unless they get me ranting on about them. No, no. So maybe you need to introduce them to
getting hip to the hip. Because, I mean, that's the whole journey of getting somebody into the
tragically hip. You know, spoon feeding them a little bit more. So it's a little bit different than fully
and completely. Fully and completely can be overwhelming for somebody who's just starting with
the hip. I don't know. Just the thought. Yeah, I didn't. I found it fascinating. Oh, thank you. Actually, I
dragged a guy with me, a friend, when they came to London in 2002 on the Inviolet Light. So
coming to see this band. That was my next question. That was my next question. You get to see
them live. Yeah, on the Inviolet Light Tour in 2002. Oh, great. What kind of venue did they play?
They played the Shepherds Bush Empire. I don't know if you know that. It's a real old classic. It's a
classic old venue.
[16:20] I've seen Alice's... in Chains there and live of throwing copy from about the same era as the
hit yeah um but that's where I saw the hit and it's one of those venues the earlier you get in the
closer you get to the front so right oh my god right up there singing along to everything it was just
yeah they did oh how cool is that so you got right to the front yeah um they did the direwolf and I
got my that's one of my favorite songs i love that song me too me too uh yeah it was just amazing
and i missed that i missed out subsequently due to work commitments and all sorts of things but
um i never got to see them again great regret but i got to see them once and i know there's some
canadians that have never even seen them once that's absolutely true yep and there's new fans
Anybody who comes to them now has missed out. So it's really sort of a bummer if you don't get to.
I don't think you fully and completely get it until you see them live, but maybe not.
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[17:31] No, they lived up to expectations because I'd got tickets and it was literally counting down
the minutes and they were just amazing. So I'm so jealous of everyone that saw them back in the
early 90s. Hate them all. Hate you all. So did you get your hands on one of the books? Which is the
one? The new coffee table book? Hoping Santa Claus might bring one. Ah, that would be great.
Yeah, and I've made it as obvious as I possibly can. So hopefully Santa's listening. You've got a hip
tattoo, for God's sake. It's pretty obvious. Yeah, I guess, yeah. No, I definitely will get that.
[18:23] It's really wonderful. It's so well put together. Yeah, I can't wait to get that. I'm hoping I'll get
that, and then I'll watch the rest of the documentary and sort of immerse myself for a few months.
Ah, 2025, you have a plan. Yeah, I do, yeah, a hit plan. Because it's my 30th anniversary next year.
It's your what, sorry? My 30th anniversary of being into the hit next autumn. Yeah. I mean, they've
only been around 40 years. It's not like you missed. I don't mean they've only been around 40 years
because that's a long time. But I'm saying you only missed 10 years. Like you're pretty early. You
know, if you were there before Day for Night dropped, you were not early to the party, but you were
before they, well, fully is when they exploded, I would say.
[19:14] So, yeah, you didn't miss it by mind. No. I just could not believe what I was hearing and why
weren't they top of everything everywhere forever? I've never figured it out. Neither will I. And I
know people say, you know, they're a Canadian band, but there was just some of Bob Baker's
chord progressions, especially on Grace 2, were just fantastic.
[19:41] So even if there were aspects of some of the other songs you didn't like, just stuff like that is
just quality yeah they're a very good band they're a very good band and i was just talking about this
with a friend the other day you know when they started out they were just kids and they all got
better together you know almost to to paraphrase uh um love over money or money um yeah love
of her money from um introduce yourself it's just really great that you know we got to experience
them and we are fans and we know that there's a big fan base still so you know to hell with the fact
that everybody in the earth didn't get into them you know there's still time there's still time there is
and i you know i give people lifts to work i always make sure the hips are on and i'm sort of
watching them for a reaction um we have q107 on in the office when i have my way so which is
most of the time so yeah um i'm slowly converting the rock fans in the office because they're sort of
saying oh yeah quite you know i like this and so i'm getting there i love it fly the flag fly that i'm
going to.
[21:06] All right janet from the isle of man is it time to listen to the song of the week it is all right we'll
be right back after this to do that hey this is paul.
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[21:17] Langwell from the tragically hip saying hello now on with the countdown 23.
[21:22] Music.
[25:28] I was in Grand Bend, Ontario, at the beer store for a camping trip, picking up supplies for this
camping trip to the Pinery. If you know it, you know it. And that's when I heard the song for the first
time. But Janet from the Isle of Man, talk to me about the first time you heard poets, if you
remember. Oh, I do. My friend who lives in Vernon, British Columbia, He sent me a copy of
Phantom Power out of the blue. I went to the post box, opened this. Oh, what's this? Oh my God, a
new album by the Hickam. Because this was pre-internet everything days. Got it up the road, put it
in the player. And this track starts. And I thought, oh my God, this is an absolute banger because
those drums are just so crisp. And then you get that cheeky, well, I think it's a cheeky little riff, you
know. And you just think, oh, yeah, this is just, yeah. And then when you listen to it first time,
because I listen to every hip album eight or nine times through before I start really digging deep. So
I was at the lyrics and then I sort of read the lyrics and I thought, it's just got more of Gord Downie's
deliciously ironic way of putting things, I think.
[26:53] I just loved it. Deliciously ironic. Yeah, and then you get the sort of verses and the chorus,
and then you get this great chord from Bob Baker. It's so distinctive, that sound. You know, it's just
difficult to explain. It's just so archetypal of the hip.
[27:15] You know, you get the voice, you get the verses, and then you get that fantastic guitar break
with the almost murky sound behind it and the chords, and you've just got that distinctive sound.
You know what I mean? Other guitarists have it. Jerry Cantrell has it. Mike Campbell has it. Bob
Baker has it.
[27:34] Just a certain tone, right? Yeah, it's a certain tone. You hear it again in things like Silver Jet.
um well in fact all most of their stuff but it's really obvious in that one and poets and it's it's just a
great start to an album it really is it's a real thumping intro it's a really good outro because you get
more with that really good guitar work and i just love it it's just a real and i've got a really big 20 foot
kitchen and i stuck it on before on my Alexa and turned it up frightened the cats to death so i could
have a listen do your cats have tails no they don't they're not manks they're minor tails um yeah so
and then i had a good listen and it's just when that thing starts it's spring starts when the heart
beats pounding the track starts with johnny's pounding you know it's it's just brilliant i love it great
it's just one of probably one of the best ones um start to an album that they did i think oh that's
that's tough because you know what they were really good at kicking off record yeah like if you
think blow it high dough little bones courage yeah grace too you know that's four out of the shoot uh
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and what's trouble at the hen house on the first track is oh shit isn't is it gift shop you're right which
is another great opener.
[29:04] They're so good at it. They're so good at sequencing a record.
[29:08] I mean, I actually prefer the really lively ones to start, the bangers, as they call them, you
know, and then I like to sort of, you know, it's like this. Shagrin Falls is on this, isn't it? Yeah. On
Phantom Power and Escape.
[29:25] Because as you get to, that's the other thing I love about them, and they do it on this album.
They start off and you think, yes, it's great, and then you get all these wonderful songs and you
think, well, I'm going to the end of the album now, and then you get a song like Escape. Oh, you're
right. It's the dessert. It's the dessert. It's the liqueur coffee, isn't it?
[29:47] Yeah, yeah. Before you get to put your feet up, grab a cigar, and listen to Emperor Penguin.
Yeah.
[29:56] So, yeah, Poets is just great. I love it. What do you think? Have you got a line on what you
think it's about, or is it a bunch of just random musings? What do you think?
[30:09] Well, I just think it's all about irony and I've had a good look at the lyrics and what I think it's,
as I say, Gould's irony and maybe about priorities to an extent when you get the spring starts with
the heartbeats pounding and then you get his reference to people being focused on the final
accounting rather than the birds singing. So it's priorities it's spring it's the end of the financial year
at least it is in the UK everyone's head down doing the final accounts but outside spring is coming,
so I'm just wondering if that's maybe one of them because he was just so difficult, which is what I
love about him you know you really sometimes had no idea what he was you're totally right yes but
sometimes you just can't you drive you lose your shit trying to, think what does he mean so I just
live it it's just good you know um but that I love about the the pawn splintered um in the regions
could be these news channels that just play to one particular audience and then his little sort of kick
about the withered regions which is quite funny um poets he was a poet so there's the biggest irony
of all.
[31:29] Yeah, that is true, yeah. Yeah, and he's saying possibly people maybe have some apathy
towards big issues. But I didn't know what Super Farmer was. I do now. Oh, tell me. Well, it's the
big, what we call here, massive agribusiness, where you just get huge farms just covering
everything. And it's a business rather than a, it's like factory farming, as we'd say in the UK.
Gotcha, yeah. Yeah. Yeah so and maybe they're sort of like they're not so bothered about that but
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they're sort of focusing on whether it's okay for women to cut the grass with topless.
[32:14] Yes yeah um i just think he's having a bit of a laugh and taking the mick out of what we
would call today influences obviously we didn't have them then because it's 1997 this album wasn't
it This is 99. Say 60. Yeah. Yeah, late 90s. 98. Yeah, 98. 98, yeah, it was actually. Yeah. So it's
before most of that. So I just think he's having a bit of a laugh and taking a bit of, well, as we say
over here, I'm allowed to, taking the piss a bit. Yeah. Yeah. But it's just that and the musicality of the
song is what makes it great for me. It is. It's a really wonderful song. You know, you've really got my
wheels turning about kickoff songs. I don't know. There's a topic you could do. Yeah. Which is the
best kickoff song? Maybe I'll have to do a pole, a straw pole. Yeah. Not a straw pole, but a pole.
Because it is one of my favorites when I saw Poets. Oh, yeah, Poets, Poets. Yeah. Because it is
just such a thumping great track. Yeah. Yeah.
[33:28] And, you know, it's funny because he was working on it for quite a while. Like I can
remember seeing them on the day for night tour, maybe the fully tour, but no, I think it was the day
for night tour and he was doing, don't tell me what the poets are doing. Don't tell me that they're
talking tough.
[33:49] Um, and you know, a bunch of sort of lines about poets that ended up in poets in between,
you know, I think it was a hundredth Meridian at the time is what he did it between. But um
fascinating and then you know to get a record four or five years later and it's the it's the kickoff track
you know you just feel so rewarded with this band that you got that little breadcrumb and then you
get to go see it live and then next thing you know it's on a record it's very neat they did that a lot
though didn't they um i've heard you recording of that gig with that in it yeah they did that a lot so
that that was another unique thing because you just don't see bands doing that really yeah not to
that extent anyway i don't think not not making it working out stuff like that it was almost subliminal
you just think what did i just hear and you almost forget about it and then later think oh yeah
because didn't wasn't there a track on We Are the Same called Man Machine Poem. That's right.
On Now for Plan A. Now for Plan A, yeah. I'm a bit muddy on the later album orders, but there was
on an early album, there was a track called Man Machine Poem.
[35:08] Right. And then that's the title of the last album. Yes. Yeah. So, no, it's just another thing I
love about them. Yeah. And stuff like Killer Whale, because you're never going to hear that
anywhere else. Yeah. And all the little Gord on stage. I've never seen Queen. I turned down the
opportunity because I didn't like 80s Queen. Idiot. But, yeah, I was only really into the early stuff. So
I turned down, and, yeah, Freddie Mercury is a front man, but Gord is in a different class for me.
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[35:50] And that's where I wish people could have experienced them, because I think near
universally, people who have seen them live will come away and say, that is one of the greatest
front men of all time. Yeah. I mean, I went to see Muse for the first time, having been a sort of
reasonable fan, and I came away blown away. I was a big fan after that for a bit. Oh, okay. Yeah, so
it can change, yeah, and it's a shame that a lot of people are never going to experience it in the
flesh, you know, because they did poets when I went to see them.
[36:28] Yeah, so that was on the list in London when I went to see them, so it was a little bonus.
[36:37] Do you remember where you were when Gord passed, when you heard that he passed? I
was at work and I work as an IT system administrator for a hospital. I was at work and I just got a
news thing flash up. I just had to go home really. Take some time and I went home and yeah. So I
was also a big Tom Petty fan and they passed within a week or so of each other. But oh yeah it
was, awful because I'd lost another friend from the same condition in 2015 so that was just double
but yeah, we'll never be as like again we'll never see as like again yeah I don't think so no.
[37:27] And paired with that band paired with that band like the talent in that band and the creativity
in that band And the fact that they were all songwriters, you know, like so interesting. And the fact
that when they, the songs, the everything, the credits for the band, weren't they? Yes. Yeah. So
they were a gang, if you like, a unit. Yeah. A family. You know, no units without its flaws. And, you
know, I'm not saying it was a musical utopia, but to be together that long and sustain the quality of
the music for that long, it's unique. You don't get it these days.
[38:11] Apart from a big wreck in Matthew, you're good. Then you do. But mainly with the Tragically
Hit. Well, Janet from the Isle of Man, do you have anything that you would like to plug today?
Anywhere that people can find you online or any hip groups you're in or anything like that? Or if you
don't want to, that's cool. Yeah, no, it's cool. I'm in the Tragically Hit fan forum on Facebook. I think
that's one of the main groups. They were great, actually. They nominated me one year.
Anonymously as overseas hip fan of the year and spent weeks oh yeah they spent weeks
collecting all this wonderful memorabilia and sent it all to me and it just arrived and i'm like oh my
god cried me oh my god that's amazing they were fantastic so yeah i'm on that um i'm on, On
Reddit, I'm HipFanJan, of course, on Reddit. Yeah, so I'm still on X just about, and I'm the same on
that as well. Excellent. HipFanJan. Cool.
[39:17] Well, that's what we've got for you today, folks. Tune in next week when we do it all again
with somebody else. But for today, I really want to thank you, Janet, from the Isle of Man, for
showing up. And telling us about where you're from and how you got into the hip. And just, you
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know, jamming with me for a little bit. Having a cup of coffee right here with your old friend JD.
You're very welcome. And thank you for having me on. It's been great. Thanks again. Pick up your
shit. Thanks for listening to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. To email us, send an email to
tthtop40 at gmail.com. We're social. Find us on all the socials at TTH Top 40.
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5
5353 ratings
Hey, it’s jD — and if you’ve ever wondered just how far Hip fandom reaches, allow me to introduce you to Janet from the Isle of Man. That’s right — this week, we go international, with a guest who’s been flying the flag from across the Atlantic for almost 30 years.
Janet’s Hip origin story starts in 1995, with a vacation to North Bay and a friend who insisted she check out this “band I think you’ll love.” Three songs later — Blow at High Dough, Cordelia, and Locked in the Trunk of a Car — and the bricks were laid. By the time she flew home, she had every record the band had released to date in her bag. Customs probably should’ve stopped her to declare emotional contraband.
We talk about her journey from intrigued tourist to Hip evangelist, the tattoo she proudly sports on her shoulder (Gord, of course), and the way her Canadian music playlist ballooned to over a thousand songs — all sparked by that first hit. We get into concerts in London, pilgrimages to Kingston, unexpected Hip sightings abroad, and a “fan of the year” moment that might just bring a tear to your eye.
Janet doesn’t just like The Tragically Hip — she’s internalized them. The music, the mythos, the vibe. From Phantom Power to Something On, from Horseshoe Tavern visits to online Hip forums, she’s built a fandom life that’s fiercely loyal, globally rooted, and very, very real.
🎙️ Next week: We stay on this side of the Atlantic but head deep into cottage country with Sherry from Midland — a day-one Hip fan with stories from Wasaga Beach, a backstage yell from Gord, and a connection to the music that’ll leave you misty-eyed.
💬 Pull QuoteJanet from the Isle of Man is a longtime Hiphead, tattooed tribute artist (her right shoulder’s got the goods), and international superfan. She’s seen the band in London, walked the pilgrimage through Kingston, and been celebrated by the Hip Fan Forum as Overseas Fan of the Year.
Online, you might know her as HipFanJan — a fixture on Reddit and X, spreading the gospel of The Hip with a cheeky grin and zero chill.
Love what you’re hearing? Want to help keep it rolling while also supporting ALS Canada?
Drop a few bucks at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40.
Every donation helps keep this lo-fi passion project alive — and keeps the countdown ticking. 🧡
Transcript follows below.
TTHTop40 618
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TTHTop40 618
Transcript
[0:02] Hey, it's JD here, and you're probably tired of podcasts asking you for money. I get it, so I'm
not going to ask. I am, however, going to strongly suggest, with love, that you give me money. This
isn't about exclusive perks or gated content, though those exist. It's about supporting something
you believe in. If you've been enjoying the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, If it's made you laugh,
think, feel something, or reconnect with a band that means the world to you, this is your chance to
give back. I make this show because I love the hip, I love this community, and I believe in telling
stories that matter. But it all takes time, energy, and of course, your support. By joining the
membership, you're not just helping to keep the show running, you're also helping to raise money
for the ALS Society of Canada. No minimum, no catch, no problem. BuyMeACoffee.com forward
slash TTH Top 40. Membership. Support the show. Support the cause. Support what you love.
[1:12] A member of the DATC media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. I
have been going on and on and on and on and on about Lake Fever since the first podcast. I love
this fucking song. Colin from Winnipeg. What did you think the first time you heard the song Lake
Fever? I wish I could remember hearing the song itself for the first time. Because, I mean, this was
still definitely the era where first day an album comes out, I'm picking it up and I'm listening to it on
repeat over and over and over again. But, I mean, a lot of those memories are kind of lost. I think
this is one of these songs that has grown on me more and more, and I might say more than any
other hip song that they've ever written. It's the one that grows on me more and more every year
that passes.
[2:08] Hey, it's JD here, and welcome to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is my pleasure to
be with you here week over week counting down the 40 essential songs by the hip that you
selected with your very own top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and three
of the Hellens from the Kids in the Hall sketch. 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 the tragically
hip superfan Janet from the Isle of Man. How the hell are you doing on this hiptastic day, Janet
from the Isle of Man? And then right after you tell me that, tell me about where you're from because
I know nothing about the Isle of Man. Okay. Thank you very much. The Isle of Man is part of Great
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Britain, but not actually part of the United Kingdom. If you think about a map of the UK, an island,
we are between Ireland and the northwest of England.
[3:15] So we have our own government, we have our own language, we're Gaelic, we're Vikings,
we're Celts. We have world-famous motorcycle races, Aledmantiti races, where you can stand and
watch motorbikes go around closed roads at 200 miles an hour and more. Yeah, exactly. They're all
mad. And sidecars as well, with guys hanging off the back. So that's, and cats with no tails,
basically, that's what we're famous for.
[3:49] Yeah. What is the population? About 80,000. Oh, okay. It's small. We're about 15 minutes
flight by fast plane to Liverpool and to Belfast on the other side. Okay. Yeah. Dynamite. Well, you've
given us a geography lesson today and a history lesson as well. So that's really cool. Are you ready
to give us another history lesson? I certainly am. And talk about your Tragically Hip origin story?
Oh, yes. Well, take it away, Jennifer. Thank you.
[4:24] Next year, come autumn next year, I will have been a fan of the Tragically Hip for 30 years. I
visited Ontario, North Bay to be specific, in 1995. Before I went, a friend of mine from Vancouver Is
keeping a lookout for this band The Tragically Hip I think you really like them So after a couple of
days I said come on then, play me some of this band So I can't remember which order now But my
first three songs were Blow, Cordelia, Unlocked So could you get a better intro to The Hip? No, I
don't think you could That's pretty good It was just, oh my God, it was like being hit with a brick. It
was like, who are this band? Where are they? Why haven't I heard of them before? So that started
me off on the massive rabbit hole I've been on for the last 30 years. So within 24 hours, I had
everything they've released up to date, first album, up to here, wrote Apples fully. And then I think
Day for Night had been out for a few months. I had that too. Took them all back and then I made it
my business to get everything else they released. Friend in Vancouver sent me Phantom Power
and I've just loved them every single day since.
[5:51] I have got a few people into them over the years. Awesome. Yeah, and there's a couple of
other guys on the fan forum group, one who's been a fan for longer than I have, and one's a
newbie, and the newbie's working his way through really slowly, and I want him to just like, no, no,
no, listen to it all now. But he's working his way through really slowly, but he loves them too. And,
yeah, they're just the best band for me that I've ever heard. I don't listen i i've always been a rock
fan um you know and i love stereophonics and you obviously know about the connection between
them and the hit yes but maybe our audience doesn't maybe our audience doesn't know share that
well they were they're just super fans um and they i think they were going to call themselves after
one of the song titles or something i can't remember exactly but they're just massive fans and when
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i went to see them and they played um at transformation before they came on stage more excited
about that than anything else me.
[6:55] They can't listen it's the hip it's the hip and then of course um kelly jones went on stage with
them i think one of the gigs in london i think they did um oh god what did they do wasn't long time
running it was oh god i can't remember now but yeah and then when stereophonics played last in
Canada. I think Johnny Fay went on stage with them. Yes. He did. Yeah. So there's that
connection. And then Kelly Jones, I just read an interview after God passed away. He wanted to
give it all up and yeah, it really affected him and quite a lot of us here.
[7:35] Really, but I will just love them forever. When I meet someone last TT week, which is a big
international event, really, somebody went past me, I have a hip shirt on, tragically hip, great band.
So I thought, shall I stalk him? I thought, no, I won't. Oh, that's so neat when you see that, when
you're somewhere abroad and you see, or you're at home in this case, and you see something like
that. That is, it's almost like a beacon, isn't it? Yeah. And then, so when in 2019, went back to
Ontario for a couple of nights in Toronto. So I went to the Shoe, just wandered around, being just
amazed by everything. So we went to the Horseshoe Tavern. Then we had a couple of nights in
Kingston. So we went to the sites. We went to the Toucan, where the landlord took a photograph of
my tattoo and sent it to Paul Langlar, which is the closest I'll ever go to ever meeting any of them.
But I was really chuffed to bits by that. I've got a tattoo of Gord on my shoulder. It's the shirt with the
word hip and him in the middle is the eye.
[8:50] So I've got a small version of that tattooed on my right shoulder. Something will always be on
my shoulder. oh that's so nice and then of course after the visit to Ontario went sort of Kingston
Ottawa went up to Huntsville went to see Tom Thompson had to do that and it was just brilliant I
started listening to Q107 Toronto and one of the Kingston stations online at work and heard a song
by a guy called Matthew Goode, so I went down that rabbit hole. Then I heard his cover of Blown
Wide Open, so I thought, who's this? Love this. Went down that rabbit hole. So I'm just doomed,
basically. I'm just totally and utterly doomed to only be really, really into bands that everyone else
has heard of. This is why this is so fabulous.
[9:42] Yeah, I agree. It's been really cool connecting with people throughout various parts of the
world. It's pretty neat. A pretty cool experience. I have everything. I have all the Gord Downyside
projects, the Sadies, I've got all of that. I just love it. Because I've been in the UK and I only came
across them in 1995, I've missed out on knowing about all the unreleased stuff. Apart from
obviously listening to your Fully Completely podcast, which I did every episode, that was great for
somebody like me. I found out so much. I found out as a I did Google, but I did find out on your
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podcast who Bill Berilco was. Yeah. You know, everything. And so, of course, now when I listen, it
makes a lot more sense when you know who the people are.
[10:37] Yeah, I suppose it would. Yeah, I suppose it would. So, yeah, that was just amazing. And it
just led me to, as I say, this enormous rabbit hole where I just, I listened to maybe a couple of
British bands and my Canadian music playlist, a thousand songs long. Isn't that cool that it started
with the hip, you know, and the hip are your sort of conduit. They're my gateway band. Yeah, into
your Canadian fixation, your Canadian music fixation. But they're just so unique, and I just struggle
even to sort of get it across to people. I said, don't listen to me, listen to them.
[11:19] Oh, that's a great way to put it. Yeah, don't listen to me, listen to them. Listen to Fight,
because that is one, for me, one of God's strongest vocal performances. I love that. Okay, yeah.
And go back, listen to Crack My Spine, because that is just such a great song. And so when that
was released, I think when they re-released Road Apples, that was like, I'd never heard that before.
I think I'd heard it on the Misty Moon video. Yeah. oh right right yeah right yeah so all the the latest
stuff that's been that's come out as unreleased tracks it's just fantastic for me because i knew
nothing about them isn't it cool to just hear like a time in a place but it's still brand new you know
what i mean like like it's like holy shit gorge singing like he did on road apples well that's because it
is road apples you idiot you know yeah and then the last gig in kingston i stayed it was just it was
just so brilliant to have it produced worldwide so i stayed up till i don't know five o'clock in the
morning watching that very bittersweet how did you watch it did you stream it or youtube yeah i just
had it on youtube on my fire tv stick dongley thing um it was great i had speakers wired up so i just
sat.
[12:41] Ugly crying all night but it was had to be done yeah, Have you had a chance to watch the
docu-series? I'm saving it until I've started to watch it. I thought, oh, my God, if I don't stop now, I'm
just going to sit here for hours. So I'm rationing it. I've watched it. Oh, there's a gourd later for you.
I'm rationing that because it's just going to have so much stuff in it, and I just know it's going to
break my heart watching it. Oh, god damn. Totally. I'm almost dreading it in that way because I just
know it is. But I'm looking forward to all the old footage cleaned up. It doesn't really start getting sad
sad until midway through the second episode, to me. And then the third one is like shocking, and
then the fourth one is sad. That's how I would put it.
[13:34] I'm like, we've watched the beginning. I thought that was so great at the very beginning. And
then you just know what's coming, don't you? So it sort of colors your whole view of it. But it's,
yeah, I'm dying to watch it. It's just so fantastic that they've kept everything going and that there's
all this stuff coming out. And when we went to Kingston, it was just great. Went to the town square,
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went and saw the stone. I've got a key ring of that with everyone was in it from miles around. You
know, if I can make a quick sidebar, they need to make that bigger and better, that stone. It's
difficult to see, yeah. It is, that's what I mean. It's very difficult to see, and they're far too important
to have to squint at. Yeah, and it needs to be maybe reflective. So when you walk past at night, you
can see it, just the writing or something. Yeah. Yeah, but being in Kingston was just awesome. Oh,
yeah, it's a great city. For me, anyway, everyone I met was, where are you from? I said, oh, yeah,
I'm from the Isle of Man. This is my pilgrimage for the hip.
[14:47] Well that's shocking People would be shocked by that And of course they're going to be kind
to you They're Canadians, Well they were I will never ever understand And I know sort of why,
They never went further afield with it all But I do not get it Why people who just even listen to a few
songs Just don't go, This is the band I've been waiting for all my life, Oh, yeah. But they don't. And
the musical taste in this country for the Summies, it's quite high. And they just don't know about
them.
[15:24] Unless they get me ranting on about them. No, no. So maybe you need to introduce them to
getting hip to the hip. Because, I mean, that's the whole journey of getting somebody into the
tragically hip. You know, spoon feeding them a little bit more. So it's a little bit different than fully
and completely. Fully and completely can be overwhelming for somebody who's just starting with
the hip. I don't know. Just the thought. Yeah, I didn't. I found it fascinating. Oh, thank you. Actually, I
dragged a guy with me, a friend, when they came to London in 2002 on the Inviolet Light. So
coming to see this band. That was my next question. That was my next question. You get to see
them live. Yeah, on the Inviolet Light Tour in 2002. Oh, great. What kind of venue did they play?
They played the Shepherds Bush Empire. I don't know if you know that. It's a real old classic. It's a
classic old venue.
[16:20] I've seen Alice's... in Chains there and live of throwing copy from about the same era as the
hit yeah um but that's where I saw the hit and it's one of those venues the earlier you get in the
closer you get to the front so right oh my god right up there singing along to everything it was just
yeah they did oh how cool is that so you got right to the front yeah um they did the direwolf and I
got my that's one of my favorite songs i love that song me too me too uh yeah it was just amazing
and i missed that i missed out subsequently due to work commitments and all sorts of things but
um i never got to see them again great regret but i got to see them once and i know there's some
canadians that have never even seen them once that's absolutely true yep and there's new fans
Anybody who comes to them now has missed out. So it's really sort of a bummer if you don't get to.
I don't think you fully and completely get it until you see them live, but maybe not.
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[17:31] No, they lived up to expectations because I'd got tickets and it was literally counting down
the minutes and they were just amazing. So I'm so jealous of everyone that saw them back in the
early 90s. Hate them all. Hate you all. So did you get your hands on one of the books? Which is the
one? The new coffee table book? Hoping Santa Claus might bring one. Ah, that would be great.
Yeah, and I've made it as obvious as I possibly can. So hopefully Santa's listening. You've got a hip
tattoo, for God's sake. It's pretty obvious. Yeah, I guess, yeah. No, I definitely will get that.
[18:23] It's really wonderful. It's so well put together. Yeah, I can't wait to get that. I'm hoping I'll get
that, and then I'll watch the rest of the documentary and sort of immerse myself for a few months.
Ah, 2025, you have a plan. Yeah, I do, yeah, a hit plan. Because it's my 30th anniversary next year.
It's your what, sorry? My 30th anniversary of being into the hit next autumn. Yeah. I mean, they've
only been around 40 years. It's not like you missed. I don't mean they've only been around 40 years
because that's a long time. But I'm saying you only missed 10 years. Like you're pretty early. You
know, if you were there before Day for Night dropped, you were not early to the party, but you were
before they, well, fully is when they exploded, I would say.
[19:14] So, yeah, you didn't miss it by mind. No. I just could not believe what I was hearing and why
weren't they top of everything everywhere forever? I've never figured it out. Neither will I. And I
know people say, you know, they're a Canadian band, but there was just some of Bob Baker's
chord progressions, especially on Grace 2, were just fantastic.
[19:41] So even if there were aspects of some of the other songs you didn't like, just stuff like that is
just quality yeah they're a very good band they're a very good band and i was just talking about this
with a friend the other day you know when they started out they were just kids and they all got
better together you know almost to to paraphrase uh um love over money or money um yeah love
of her money from um introduce yourself it's just really great that you know we got to experience
them and we are fans and we know that there's a big fan base still so you know to hell with the fact
that everybody in the earth didn't get into them you know there's still time there's still time there is
and i you know i give people lifts to work i always make sure the hips are on and i'm sort of
watching them for a reaction um we have q107 on in the office when i have my way so which is
most of the time so yeah um i'm slowly converting the rock fans in the office because they're sort of
saying oh yeah quite you know i like this and so i'm getting there i love it fly the flag fly that i'm
going to.
[21:06] All right janet from the isle of man is it time to listen to the song of the week it is all right we'll
be right back after this to do that hey this is paul.
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[21:17] Langwell from the tragically hip saying hello now on with the countdown 23.
[21:22] Music.
[25:28] I was in Grand Bend, Ontario, at the beer store for a camping trip, picking up supplies for this
camping trip to the Pinery. If you know it, you know it. And that's when I heard the song for the first
time. But Janet from the Isle of Man, talk to me about the first time you heard poets, if you
remember. Oh, I do. My friend who lives in Vernon, British Columbia, He sent me a copy of
Phantom Power out of the blue. I went to the post box, opened this. Oh, what's this? Oh my God, a
new album by the Hickam. Because this was pre-internet everything days. Got it up the road, put it
in the player. And this track starts. And I thought, oh my God, this is an absolute banger because
those drums are just so crisp. And then you get that cheeky, well, I think it's a cheeky little riff, you
know. And you just think, oh, yeah, this is just, yeah. And then when you listen to it first time,
because I listen to every hip album eight or nine times through before I start really digging deep. So
I was at the lyrics and then I sort of read the lyrics and I thought, it's just got more of Gord Downie's
deliciously ironic way of putting things, I think.
[26:53] I just loved it. Deliciously ironic. Yeah, and then you get the sort of verses and the chorus,
and then you get this great chord from Bob Baker. It's so distinctive, that sound. You know, it's just
difficult to explain. It's just so archetypal of the hip.
[27:15] You know, you get the voice, you get the verses, and then you get that fantastic guitar break
with the almost murky sound behind it and the chords, and you've just got that distinctive sound.
You know what I mean? Other guitarists have it. Jerry Cantrell has it. Mike Campbell has it. Bob
Baker has it.
[27:34] Just a certain tone, right? Yeah, it's a certain tone. You hear it again in things like Silver Jet.
um well in fact all most of their stuff but it's really obvious in that one and poets and it's it's just a
great start to an album it really is it's a real thumping intro it's a really good outro because you get
more with that really good guitar work and i just love it it's just a real and i've got a really big 20 foot
kitchen and i stuck it on before on my Alexa and turned it up frightened the cats to death so i could
have a listen do your cats have tails no they don't they're not manks they're minor tails um yeah so
and then i had a good listen and it's just when that thing starts it's spring starts when the heart
beats pounding the track starts with johnny's pounding you know it's it's just brilliant i love it great
it's just one of probably one of the best ones um start to an album that they did i think oh that's
that's tough because you know what they were really good at kicking off record yeah like if you
think blow it high dough little bones courage yeah grace too you know that's four out of the shoot uh
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and what's trouble at the hen house on the first track is oh shit isn't is it gift shop you're right which
is another great opener.
[29:04] They're so good at it. They're so good at sequencing a record.
[29:08] I mean, I actually prefer the really lively ones to start, the bangers, as they call them, you
know, and then I like to sort of, you know, it's like this. Shagrin Falls is on this, isn't it? Yeah. On
Phantom Power and Escape.
[29:25] Because as you get to, that's the other thing I love about them, and they do it on this album.
They start off and you think, yes, it's great, and then you get all these wonderful songs and you
think, well, I'm going to the end of the album now, and then you get a song like Escape. Oh, you're
right. It's the dessert. It's the dessert. It's the liqueur coffee, isn't it?
[29:47] Yeah, yeah. Before you get to put your feet up, grab a cigar, and listen to Emperor Penguin.
Yeah.
[29:56] So, yeah, Poets is just great. I love it. What do you think? Have you got a line on what you
think it's about, or is it a bunch of just random musings? What do you think?
[30:09] Well, I just think it's all about irony and I've had a good look at the lyrics and what I think it's,
as I say, Gould's irony and maybe about priorities to an extent when you get the spring starts with
the heartbeats pounding and then you get his reference to people being focused on the final
accounting rather than the birds singing. So it's priorities it's spring it's the end of the financial year
at least it is in the UK everyone's head down doing the final accounts but outside spring is coming,
so I'm just wondering if that's maybe one of them because he was just so difficult, which is what I
love about him you know you really sometimes had no idea what he was you're totally right yes but
sometimes you just can't you drive you lose your shit trying to, think what does he mean so I just
live it it's just good you know um but that I love about the the pawn splintered um in the regions
could be these news channels that just play to one particular audience and then his little sort of kick
about the withered regions which is quite funny um poets he was a poet so there's the biggest irony
of all.
[31:29] Yeah, that is true, yeah. Yeah, and he's saying possibly people maybe have some apathy
towards big issues. But I didn't know what Super Farmer was. I do now. Oh, tell me. Well, it's the
big, what we call here, massive agribusiness, where you just get huge farms just covering
everything. And it's a business rather than a, it's like factory farming, as we'd say in the UK.
Gotcha, yeah. Yeah. Yeah so and maybe they're sort of like they're not so bothered about that but
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they're sort of focusing on whether it's okay for women to cut the grass with topless.
[32:14] Yes yeah um i just think he's having a bit of a laugh and taking the mick out of what we
would call today influences obviously we didn't have them then because it's 1997 this album wasn't
it This is 99. Say 60. Yeah. Yeah, late 90s. 98. Yeah, 98. 98, yeah, it was actually. Yeah. So it's
before most of that. So I just think he's having a bit of a laugh and taking a bit of, well, as we say
over here, I'm allowed to, taking the piss a bit. Yeah. Yeah. But it's just that and the musicality of the
song is what makes it great for me. It is. It's a really wonderful song. You know, you've really got my
wheels turning about kickoff songs. I don't know. There's a topic you could do. Yeah. Which is the
best kickoff song? Maybe I'll have to do a pole, a straw pole. Yeah. Not a straw pole, but a pole.
Because it is one of my favorites when I saw Poets. Oh, yeah, Poets, Poets. Yeah. Because it is
just such a thumping great track. Yeah. Yeah.
[33:28] And, you know, it's funny because he was working on it for quite a while. Like I can
remember seeing them on the day for night tour, maybe the fully tour, but no, I think it was the day
for night tour and he was doing, don't tell me what the poets are doing. Don't tell me that they're
talking tough.
[33:49] Um, and you know, a bunch of sort of lines about poets that ended up in poets in between,
you know, I think it was a hundredth Meridian at the time is what he did it between. But um
fascinating and then you know to get a record four or five years later and it's the it's the kickoff track
you know you just feel so rewarded with this band that you got that little breadcrumb and then you
get to go see it live and then next thing you know it's on a record it's very neat they did that a lot
though didn't they um i've heard you recording of that gig with that in it yeah they did that a lot so
that that was another unique thing because you just don't see bands doing that really yeah not to
that extent anyway i don't think not not making it working out stuff like that it was almost subliminal
you just think what did i just hear and you almost forget about it and then later think oh yeah
because didn't wasn't there a track on We Are the Same called Man Machine Poem. That's right.
On Now for Plan A. Now for Plan A, yeah. I'm a bit muddy on the later album orders, but there was
on an early album, there was a track called Man Machine Poem.
[35:08] Right. And then that's the title of the last album. Yes. Yeah. So, no, it's just another thing I
love about them. Yeah. And stuff like Killer Whale, because you're never going to hear that
anywhere else. Yeah. And all the little Gord on stage. I've never seen Queen. I turned down the
opportunity because I didn't like 80s Queen. Idiot. But, yeah, I was only really into the early stuff. So
I turned down, and, yeah, Freddie Mercury is a front man, but Gord is in a different class for me.
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[35:50] And that's where I wish people could have experienced them, because I think near
universally, people who have seen them live will come away and say, that is one of the greatest
front men of all time. Yeah. I mean, I went to see Muse for the first time, having been a sort of
reasonable fan, and I came away blown away. I was a big fan after that for a bit. Oh, okay. Yeah, so
it can change, yeah, and it's a shame that a lot of people are never going to experience it in the
flesh, you know, because they did poets when I went to see them.
[36:28] Yeah, so that was on the list in London when I went to see them, so it was a little bonus.
[36:37] Do you remember where you were when Gord passed, when you heard that he passed? I
was at work and I work as an IT system administrator for a hospital. I was at work and I just got a
news thing flash up. I just had to go home really. Take some time and I went home and yeah. So I
was also a big Tom Petty fan and they passed within a week or so of each other. But oh yeah it
was, awful because I'd lost another friend from the same condition in 2015 so that was just double
but yeah, we'll never be as like again we'll never see as like again yeah I don't think so no.
[37:27] And paired with that band paired with that band like the talent in that band and the creativity
in that band And the fact that they were all songwriters, you know, like so interesting. And the fact
that when they, the songs, the everything, the credits for the band, weren't they? Yes. Yeah. So
they were a gang, if you like, a unit. Yeah. A family. You know, no units without its flaws. And, you
know, I'm not saying it was a musical utopia, but to be together that long and sustain the quality of
the music for that long, it's unique. You don't get it these days.
[38:11] Apart from a big wreck in Matthew, you're good. Then you do. But mainly with the Tragically
Hit. Well, Janet from the Isle of Man, do you have anything that you would like to plug today?
Anywhere that people can find you online or any hip groups you're in or anything like that? Or if you
don't want to, that's cool. Yeah, no, it's cool. I'm in the Tragically Hit fan forum on Facebook. I think
that's one of the main groups. They were great, actually. They nominated me one year.
Anonymously as overseas hip fan of the year and spent weeks oh yeah they spent weeks
collecting all this wonderful memorabilia and sent it all to me and it just arrived and i'm like oh my
god cried me oh my god that's amazing they were fantastic so yeah i'm on that um i'm on, On
Reddit, I'm HipFanJan, of course, on Reddit. Yeah, so I'm still on X just about, and I'm the same on
that as well. Excellent. HipFanJan. Cool.
[39:17] Well, that's what we've got for you today, folks. Tune in next week when we do it all again
with somebody else. But for today, I really want to thank you, Janet, from the Isle of Man, for
showing up. And telling us about where you're from and how you got into the hip. And just, you
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know, jamming with me for a little bit. Having a cup of coffee right here with your old friend JD.
You're very welcome. And thank you for having me on. It's been great. Thanks again. Pick up your
shit. Thanks for listening to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. To email us, send an email to
tthtop40 at gmail.com. We're social. Find us on all the socials at TTH Top 40.
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