Monday, August 22, 2016

Ah, Youth.

Once, when I was busy dying in that unaware way I had, someone thought I might require a kind of transfusion. The musical kind. Since I was swimming in the Nile, at the time, maybe the loudspeakers were what I needed. I took the CD. And eventually listened to it...

The album was "Day For Night". The band was The Tragically Hip. Gordie, the gentleman who wrote and sang most of their songs, announced that he had terminal brain cancer several months ago. Over the weekend, they did their last performance in Canada, O Canada, where they're from.

This American's words of praise and gratitude pale beside that of his countrymen, but TTH might be one of the best damn bands on earth forever: protean, rocking, smart, intimate and completely unique.

Gordie will be missed and, while the band isn't dead and neither is Gordie - yet - a change is here.

We're all the richer for having heard them.

I wanna sign off as brave, as witty, as Gordie has been all this time, but I think I'll just play that original CD, not stream it, because I still have it - its scratches even matter.

I lived to tell the tale. Gordie isn't done yet, but Somebody thinks otherwise.

I'm sorry for all those who love him.

And if you know their music, the line about relishing the fray is the one I keep hearing the most. Ah, youth.

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