[10] [6] In high school, Downie was the frontman for a band called the Slinks performing at the KCVI Variety show and rivaling older members Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair's band the Rodents. Making the documentary has been a welcome distraction for Mike, and a painful reminder for Patrick. Over and over and over and over again., Thank you everyone for all the respect, admiration and love you have given Gord throughout the years, his family wrote following his death. If the Tragically Hip frontman had to check out early as he did on Tuesday at 53 years of . He saw it as something that I think made sense to him as his life was coming to an end.". Downie was born Feb. 6, 1964, to parents Edgar Charles and Lorna Downie and grew up in Amherstview, Ont., just outside Kingston. [69] Several stations, including CHEZ-FM in Ottawa, CFRQ-FM in Halifax,[67] CJRQ-FM in Sudbury,[69] CJQQ-FM in Timmins, CKEZ-FM in New Glasgow and CIKR-FM in the Tragically Hip's hometown of Kingston[70] dropped their regular names to temporarily rebrand themselves as "Gord FM". Vandoliers Play Tennessee Concert in Dresses to Protest State's New Drag Bill The group also has a Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction, a Governor General's Performing Arts Award, an honorary fellowship with the Royal Conservatory of Music and a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. Downie was married to Laura Leigh Usher,[48] herself a breast cancer survivor. In a genre prone to clich, outright nonsense and occasional misogyny, Gord Downie wrote lyrics that dipped in the same well as Al Purdy, Raymond Carver, Northrop Frye, Timothy Findley, Hugh MacLennan and others; he would even quote those writers directly in his lyrics. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. The Tragically Hip formed in 1983 at Queen's University, named after a sketch in former Monkees member Michael Nesmith's long-form music video "Elephant Parts," and were soon playing the Kingston bar scene. Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Editors picks "Ahead by a Century" was the single most-played song on Canadian radio on the day Downie's death was announced. Canadians learned of Downie's illness on May 24 last year the same day the rest of the rock group,Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay,announced that the Kingston, Ont.-based band would head out on a final summer tour "for Gord, and for all of us.". There were a few others there, though, most of whom knew enough to respect the privacy of the cancer-stricken man who had travelled hundreds of kilometres to disappear. [31], Downie, along with his Tragically Hip bandmates, was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada on June19, 2017, for "their contribution to Canadian music and for their support of various social and environmental causes". [76] A different recording of "The East Wind" appeared on The Grand Bounce, and "At the Quinte Hotel" was previously released in video form, but never in an audio recording. Over more than thirty years and across fourteen studio albums, Downie and his band of brothers built a legacy as the essential Canadian rock band. I see stuff and I ," Patrick says, taking a moment to collect himself before continuing his thought. Downie was born on Feb. 6, 1964, in Amherstview, Ont., just slightly west of Kingston, to Lorna and Edgar, a travelling salesman turned real estate developer. [38], In September 2016, Downie announced he would release a new solo album, Secret Path in October. Downie, who won two Junos for the 10-song solo album, thought of the Secret Path music, concerts and film created with artist Jeff Lemire as his legacy project. ~ MacKenzie Wilson HOMETOWN Amherstview, Ontario, Canada BORN February 6, 1964 Similar Artists Gord Downie & The Country of Miracles The Tragically Hip Hayden Joel Plaskett Rheostatics Dan Mangan Matthew Good Matt Mays Arkells Wintersleep Our music is entirely different. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life. The concert was broadcast live and viewing parties were held across Canada. [21] He was also a part of the Swim Drink Fish Music club, a project that unites artists and environmentalists in a music club to raise money for Waterkeeper organizations in Canada. He stoked the fire until sparks came out. His death was announced on the Tragically Hip website, stating quote: Last night Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family close by. (He wasnt nominated at that years inaugural Griffin Prize for Poetry, but he did perform at the gala.) Gord Downie, troubadour of Canada, charmed and challenged a nation After a long battle with cancer, the Tragically Hip frontman died among his family on Tuesday night. [22], In February 2012 in Fort Albany, Ontario, Downie and the Tragically Hip played at the Great Moon Gathering, a yearly educational conference that takes place in various communities along Northern Ontario's James Bay coast. [19], Downie was heavily involved in environmental movements, especially issues concerning water rights. Downie also appears in the Trailer Park Boys movie The Big Dirty, in which he and Alex Lifeson play a pair of police officers. As with the blanket ceremony, the emotion and pride on his face was palpable. Gord Downie, singer of The Tragically Hip, died of complications from brain cancer Tuesday night at the age of 53. "That there wasn't a whole country, you know, we hadn't figured out what that missing piece was. But music was his first love. In 2018, two recordings by Downie, "The East Wind" and "At the Quinte Hotel", were released on the compilation album The Al Purdy Songbook. Terfry collaborated with Downie on the song "Whispers of the Waves" off the album 20 Odd Years. He also performed a few live shows to support the album, with supporting musicians Kevin Drew, Charles Spearin, Dave Hamelin, Kevin Hearn and Josh Finlayson. He usually started with a "Hello," and often ended with a variation on "Good night, music lovers," but what would happen in between was anyone's guess. Tragically Hip front-man Gord Downie's brother Patrick on why he and his brother Mike are working so hard to preserve the singer's legacy. Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip (Photo by Aven Hoffarth) One of the best things about Gord Downie was his thoughtfulness. [40], At the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, Downie posthumously won two Canadian Screen Awards for the television version of Secret Path. Gordon Downie (known widely as Gord Downie) was born in Amherstview, Ontario, and raised in Kingston, Ontario, along with his brothers Mike and Patrick, and sisters Charlyn and Paula. He was the son of Lorna (Neal) and Edgar Charles Downie, a travelling salesman, later a real estate broker and developer. When he spoke, he gave us goosebumps and made us proud to be Canadian. Wenjack was to 2016 what Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi was to 2015: a tragic symbol who launched a Canadian conversation about compassion and collective reckoning. Where some go to get lost. 'Just seeing all those unguarded, real moments with Gord, that always just, that always gets me.'. He was married to Laura Leigh Usher. Gord Downie's not-so-Secret Path to truth and reconciliation Everything about itthe music, the film, the band, his performancemakes you want to pay attention By Michael Barclay October 22,. Gord Downie Memorial site? [6] After graduating high school, Downie attended Queen's University where he majored in film studies, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in 1986. That's who influenced me as a poet.". Imagine if they were part of us and we them, how incredibly cool it would make us? [9], Downie began pursuing a solo career with the release of Coke Machine Glow in 2001. But the bands greatest accomplishment may be transcending their status as a key Canadian cultural touchstone to an integral part of the countrys identity. What followed once the show hit the road, though, was a public outpouring that few could have predicted: a year of Downie transforming from an aging rock star to tragic hero. No one worked harder on every part of their life than Gord. And it seems like you get up there every single time and give it!. That's really compelling to me." Gord Downie is the late lead singer and songwriter of rock giants The Tragically Hip. [citation needed]. Last night Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family close by. It was a moment that helped Gord finally get at something that had been nagging at him for years. Last night Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family close by. Kingston Transit buses displayed "GORD, WE'LL MISS YOU" on their electronic destination signs, alternately with the regular route number and name display. Though he wasn't afraid to go it alone as a solo artist, Downie's legacy will always be tied most closely with the Tragically Hip. As the Tragically Hip's lead singer and lyricist, Downie was the face and voice of a band whose discography sold more than eight million copies. He clearly was so taken with it and couldn't let it go.". The band never reached the same sales figures it did with its first four full-length albums, but continued to make music that was generally well-received by critics and selling at platinum or multi-platinum levels. [7], In 1984, at age 20, Downie formed the Tragically Hip with Rodents's members Rob Baker and Gord Sinclair, another younger Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute alumnus, Johnny Fay, and saxophonist Davis Manning. Sit down. "I think my body's giving subtext and with my voice I'll give you the confines of my heart, which is illegible," he told CBC in 1999. he asked an interviewer from the Toronto Sun. As a musician, he lived "the life" for over 30 years, lucky to do most of it with his high school buddies. Its kinda what I do. He was the man who once wrote a song for his late grandmothera song he sang several nights on stage in the summer of 2016that said, You were far more unifying than you know.. Downie performing in Guelph, Ontario in 2001, Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, "Gord Downie, a Distinctly Canadian Rock Star, Dies at 53", "Remembering the life and legacy of Gord Downie (1964 2017)", "Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles The Grand Bounce", "Gord Downie Sheds Light on Collaborative Album with the Sadies", "How I Learned to Love the Tragically Hip and Still Be Punk", "Gord Downie is 'Lost Together' with Blue Rodeo as he joins band onstage at Toronto show", "The Tragically Hip to debut tour doc, Long Time Running, at the Toronto International Film Festival", "Board / Stewards Lake Ontario Waterkeeper", "Media Alert: Lafarge denied: Cement company's motion for leave to-appeal denied in alternative fuels case", "GreenHeroes: This Month Gord Downie, Mark Mattson and Lake Ontario Waterkeeper", "North of the 52nd with the Tragically Hip", "Gord Downie and the Hip gone fishin' in northern Ontario", "The Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund", "Downie takes to Parliament Hill to speak out for Canada's Indigenous Peoples", "Gord Downie chosen as Canadian Press Newsmaker of the Year", "Gord Downie chosen as top Canadian Press newsmaker for second consecutive year", "Gord Downie appointed to Order of Canada", "Courage, my word: Tragically Hip's Gord Downie reveals terminal brain cancer diagnosis", "Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie has terminal cancer, band plans tour 'for Gord', "Gord Downie underwent surgery for 'incurable' brain cancer, his doctor says", "Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip holds final show", "Tragically Hip to release documentary and farewell concert film in December", "Gord Downie to release solo album, graphic novel next month", "Canadian Screen Awards 2018: Maudie, Anne, Kim's Convenience win top prizes", "2018 Canadian Screen Awards honour national media", "Gord Downie's Secret Path, Amazing Race and CBC News among Canadian Screen Awards winners", "Gord Downie, a Canadian Rock Legend, Sings Goodbye", "Gord Downie to release solo album Introduce Yerself in October", "Gord Downie to release new solo album Introduce Yerself", "Early Junos Go to Gord Downie, Grimes, Alvvays and More", "If Secret Path 'is the last thing I do, I'm happy': What happens to Gord Downie next", "Gord Downie's widow Kaya Usher releases debut music with her Family Band", "Kaya Usher, widow of Gord Downie, on 'healing journey' of her debut album", "Gord Downie, Canada's everyman rock poet, dead at 53", "Glioblastoma, brain tumour that took Gord Downie's life, tough to treat: doctors", "Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on the death of Gord Downie", "Justin Trudeau delivers emotional, tearful tribute to Gord Downie", "Justin Trudeau pays emotional tribute to Gord Downie: 'It hurts', "Condolences pour in for Gord Downie, Tragically Hip frontman", "Hockey world mourns Gord Downie's death", "Bobcaygeon residents feel special connection to Gord Downie", "Thursday's Round-Up of News Surrounding the Death of Gord Downie", "'I'd wish for more of this,' Ottawans' tributes to Gord Downie keep coming", "Red Deer radio stations crank up the Tragically Hip in wake of Gord Downie's death", "The Tragically Hip Week: Celebrating the Life of Gord Downie", "In Kingston, fans pay respects to Gord Downie", "Tragically Hip album sales, audio streams soar after Gord Downie's death", "Listen to a special Radio 2 broadcast celebrating the life of Gord Downie", "Tragically Hip's 'Long Time Running' documentary to air Friday on TV", "Gord Downie 'like a Terry Fox in the modern day,' says doctor", "Canadian poet Al Purdy inspires songs by Jason Collett, Sarah Harmer and more", "The Tragically Hip Reunite with Original Manager for Planned Archival Projects", "Gord Downie's Twitter Account Is Teasing Something", "Listen to 2 songs from Gord Downie's final solo recording, Away is Mine", "New song Lustre Parfait offers sample of posthumous Gord Downie, Bob Rock album", "Gord Downie and Bob Rock's Collaborative Album Gets Release Date, New Single", "Gord Downie Chart History: Canadian Albums", "Future Releases on Triple A (AAA) Radio Stations", The referendum on the Charlottetown Accord, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gord_Downie&oldid=1141735018, Juno Award for Adult Alternative Album of the Year winners, Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year winners, Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English, Pages using infobox musical artist with associated acts, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "The Raven and the Red-Tailed Hawk" (2022), "Secret Path" (documentary and full animated film) (2016), This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 14:44. And their support hasn't gone. " Rosa Hwang (@journorosa) October 18, 2017. No one. The final concert was released on DVD under the title A National Celebration on December 24, 2017. All Rights reserved. The press and the music industry were largely baffled; among his peers, and especially among non-Hip fans, it remains a beloved and influential record. Downies on-stage improvisations were a principal part of the bands appeal from day one, though he was not yet a lyricist. TV is the main source of information. When he wasnt doing that, he directed his attention to environmental issues, specifically those endorsed by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, a Canadian water charity run by an old Queens University classmate, Mark Mattson. Downie "was a great communicator," Gold said. Last night, Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family close by, his familywrote in a statement. Downie was born on Feb. 6, 1964, in Amherstview, Ont., just slightly west of Kingston, to Lorna and Edgar, a travelling salesman turned real estate developer. Gord Downie is definitely in the tradition of great Canadian poets, Dickinson told the National Post in 2016. Tom Sizemore, Heat and Saving Private Ryan Actor, Dead at 61 [8] Originally, the band covered popular British rock songs from the 1960s. Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell deserve to be read on the page just as often as you play their recordsbut they dont play rock music. Before his passing, Gord Downie took this country on a profound journey. He said he told Canadian stories because they were there to be told, and said he performed music because it was the ultimate medium for expressions of love. Lemire created a graphic novel inspired by Downie's songs, and its images were used to create the film. [29], In May 2016, Downie and his bandmates received honorary degrees from Queen's University. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Gord, I always wanted to ask you: how do you get the energy to make it so real every day? The band won its first Juno (Most Promising Group) on the strength of that album and solidified its hold on the Canadian music scene with the next three albums: 1991's Road Apples, 1992's Fully Completely and 1994's Day for Night, all of which went multi-platinum or diamond. It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. Gordon Edgar Downie was one of the most riveting and mystifying performers in rocknroll history. Author Joseph Boyden, who invited them, said their motivation was to "initiate a guerrilla act of love for a people who are so thoroughly underrepresented but now, somehow, overexposed for only their shortcomings. Downie was not able to attend the ceremony due to his illness which had not yet been made public. Downie was also featured in the sitcom Corner Gas in the episode "Rock On!" A documentary film, Long Time Running, about the Tragically Hip's summer 2016 cross-Canada farewell concert tour, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017. "I really didn't know anything about them, to my shame. The Tragically Hip released their first EP in December 1987; a year after that, they headed down to Memphis to record 1989s Up to Herewhich would become one of two Hip albums to eventually sell more than a million copies in Canada. [11][12] No matter how opaque or directly critical of Canadian history he may have been, Downie faced a sea of literal flag-waving at almost every single showespecially at shows not on Canadian soil. The interview with Patrick and MikeDowniefromThe National, CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices. Most artists will hear crowds singing the first verse and choruses of their most popular songs; Downie routinely had audiences singing every single line in his discography back to him, no matter how arcane or untethered the lyric was to rhyme or meter, songs full of what songwriter John K. Samson calls beautifully meaningful non-sequiturs., The Tragically Hip, photographed in New York in February 1992. Downie died of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, on October 17, 2017, at the age of 53 in Toronto. He published his first poetry and prose collection alongside the album and under the same title. [13], In addition to his solo works, Downie collaborated with several fellow Canadian and international artists. It shouldnt have surprised us. Then came May 24, 2016, when the band announced Downie's diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. [28], Downie took to Parliament Hill on July2, 2017, to speak out for Canada's young Indigenous people, likening it to the same kind of pain young people suffered in the now defunct residential schools. "Patrick and I are comfortable with the word legacy. Downie formed the Tragically Hip in 1984 alongside childhood friends Bobby Baker, Paul Langlois, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay. He was 53. Downie passed away on the night of Tuesday, Oct. 17, with his children and family by his side, according to a statement released by the band. When are you falling off the map? He was the singer who once sang, Do I make you scared? "Gord knew this day was coming his response was to spend this precious time as he always had making music, making memories and expressing deep gratitude to his family and friends for a life well lived, often sealing it with a kiss on the lips," the statement said. [50] Downie and Usher separated in 2015 before Downie's cancer diagnosis. He rarely granted interviews, and generally eschewed red-carpet jaunts for events like the Juno Awards. Gord Downie, frontman of the Canadian rock band Tragically Hip, has died, his family said in a statement Wednesday. By 2004, he'd clearly grown tired of the question. [7], On December22, 2016, Downie was selected as The Canadian Press's Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer selected for the title. Create the spark. As a musician, he lived "the life" for over 30 years, lucky to do most of it with his high school buddies. When you have five children, its hard to remember all the details, said Edgar. As could anyone who watched him command 40,000 people at any given outdoor appearance during the 1990s, singing songs that were summer soundtracks for an entire generation. There was no left turn in Downies career greater than his first solo album, 2001s Coke Machine Glow, compiled of songs his Hip bandmates had rejected and works culled from an accompanying book of poetry by the same namewhich set sales records in a corner of the publishing industry where 10,000 copies might as well be 100,000.
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