the Inducer

April 09, 2005

Here are the things I said to induct the Tragically Hip into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. There may never be a more worthy band in this country. I will see you after victory at Augusta.

"A rock band is a booby-trap. A comfort food that ain’t always good for the chef. Sweet greens and candied blues served on a thick bed of gut churning stress and co-dependent dysfunction. The Tragically Hip grind through all that sand in the gears and through improvisation, trust, fear and friendship they…together…spit out miraculous black pearls of songs. It’s an achievement best understood by other musicians…their peers
I would like my friends Johnny Fay, Gord Downie, Robbie Baker, Paul Langlois & Gord Sinclair to know that they are being inducted into this Juno Hall of Fame not only by a faceless jury of music business illuminati but…here...as I speak they are also being inducted into this Hall of Fame by their fellow musicians, performers and writers.

An induction by your peers,.. after the usual homoerotic hazing ritual similar to those performed when first crossing the equator in a naval vessel,.. has to do with being recognized for staying true to oneself and owning the moment. Fellow musicians know best when someone is faking it. Lets face it… we Canadians stole rock from south of the border. That’s where it was born.

The reason the Hip’s music so well defines a sense of being Canadian is because they have stolen the essential gears and elements from the music they loved and applied the grease of their own lives. Now their machine runs on their own pure DNA and spits out new life.
That is the ONLY way to build culture. That is the ONLY way to make a legendary band that others will imitate. Give them rules to break, give them money and let them go. Then they make REAL new music. A screaming purple headed, mucous covered ball of crowning ruby flesh…..type….. music -- you women know what I’m talking about.
Music that springs back out of you like a thousand languages you can’t even speak. A slap in the face after a loud ride on the red-hot balls of puberty or an angel dropping rose petals on a feather bed. You know, …The Hip. Each time it would have been sensible for them to repeat themselves they went back inside the clubhouse and relied on each other to come up with something new. Abiding by the loudest unspoken rule of band life – use your initial success to clear space for doing something different. As musicians we know that, in this way, they will continue to change music and speak freestyle. We know their success through bravery is what has allowed Canadian musicians the option of a good life without leaving their roots behind.

Take this Hall of Fame award as a baton and keep running just like you have with all your other Junos. We’re happy to keep passing it to you for the anchor leg…smiling and nodding as you race off the floodlit track, through the tall grass and out into the dark distance… again."

After I was finished, and the band came up to get their awards, Gord Downie read a poem. You might want to read it...and... you can do so here at www.thehip.com