An April Fool's Gush

Tragically Hip song pulled from Carney ad, not clear why
https://torontosun.com/news/national/federal_elections/warmington-tragically-hip-song-pulled-from-carney-ad-not-clear-why

The Tragically Hip always annoyed me, just like author Joe Warmington's gushing.  You'll see.

I do want to back it up a bit by saying I played in a Tragically Hip tribute band back in the mid 90s.  And hand on heart, we sounded better them.  Not only did we play the songs better, we had the best singer in town singing the songs better.  The other guys in the band liked the Tragically Hip though.  Not me.  Growing up, I got spoiled listening to Detroit radio and these guys always came across flat.  Maybe they're considered Heavy Metal up in Ottawa.  Who knows?  Ottawa's lame like that.

There was just no mistaking that amazing sound or that incredible singer.

Even if was just for split second, for a couple of days, the voice and spirit of iconic Canadian Gord Downie and the amazing riffs of The Tragically Hip was on the federal campaign trail.

It was so great to hear these iconic Canadian artists back In View again.

But then, just like that like the legendary frontman, The Hip was gone — mysteriously vanishing as fast they showed up in the first place.

A video posted to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s X account with the opening bars of the 2006 hit, In View, showed the Liberal leader in a white hard hat festooned with a Canadian flag at a housing announcement, under the headline: “It’s time to build.”

It was an effective commercial with the up-tempo beat of the Hip song that ended with Downie’s voice only singing one word:  “I.”  But there was no mistaking that voice.

Why did they tease us like that? I wanted to hear more Gord. Wait a minute. That was brilliant. As they say, leave them wanting more.

Could this intro be anymore beta?

Let's set the record straight, they are not iconic Canadian artists.  Maybe it's me getting tired of the misuse of the word "iconic" these days when the more appropriate word to use is "popular".  And only one of group has a name you can remember: the guy from REM.

I'm not going to do a political angle on this, even though two wrongs don't make a right ("Liberals" circa 2025 and the Tragically Hip), this is about how immature and unprofessional a "news" article can read.  OK, I'll do one quick political slant: I voted Liberal in the 90s, back when they were slightly left of centre.  Now, they're just a bunch of glib low IQers that are really bad at their jobs, which ended up making things worse for everyone.  If this was the States, you could liken your current day Liberals to shifty NeoCons.

So I get the nostalgic spin, trying to tie the good times of the 90s with when the Liberals were in power.  But it's not the same party anymore and even the Tragically Hip tribute band I was in, we stopped learning their songs by 2000 since they were just putting out dud after dud.  I've never heard In View and I probably never will but I'll bet it's not as cool as Rock Candy.

But yeah, the cringemeter on this article is off the charts.  I'm assuming Joe is at least in his 40s so why does he sound like a 12 year old girl?  

There are so many Hip songs a campaign may be temped to use — from 50 Mission Cap to 38 Years to New Orleans in Sinking and, of course, the perfectly titled for an election race song, Ahead by a Century.

How's that, or any of those songs mentioned, fit in with an election race?  From what I remember (I had to listen to the lyrics for cues), 50 Mission Cap was about the Maple Leafs, 38 Years Old was about someone who shouldn't have been in jail and now, I don't remember what New Orleans Is Sinking is about but I used to do a talkbox solo in the middle of it.  I'm not sure how a song about New Orleans relates to a Canadian Election but whatever.  Do you what the most ideal election race song is?  Joe Walsh's Vote For Me.  It's all about elections.

No question, however, it would have been a heck of a get if Carney was able to bring The Hip on board to endorse the campaign. He has already had support from other celebrities like Blue Rodeo, The Edmonton Oilers and, of course, Mike Myers.

I'll take People Who Will Do Anything For Money for $400, Alex.  Not really the strongest stable of endorsers.  With Bills C-11 and C-18 now law, I can't understand why any band or musician would be endorsing current-day Liberals.  Me, personally, I'd rather have Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Don Cherry in my corner than any of the Oilers.

In View has such a great intro and if it only made an appearance and was pulled on April Fool’s Day, it was sure good to see Downie and the Tragically Hip Get Back Again into the news.

Joe single-handedly put the Tragically Hip in the news with his child-like article.  Other than that, I would still assume that the Tragically Hip weren't doing anything but putting out re-releases.  I wonder if Joe knows the singer died a few of years ago.