#Cbc gord downie how to#

Real good hands,' he said, referring to Trudeau. It's that same point of view that would inspire him to speak out for the conditions of Indigenous peoples in the North during the final Tragically Hip concert in Kingston, in which he challenged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in attendance, and the rest of the county to take a closer look at how Indigenous peoples are treated.

I love my idea of this country,' he told CBC in 2012. From the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard, one of the most infamous miscarriages in the Canadian criminal justice system ('Wheat Kings'), to the FLQ crisis ('Locked in the Trunk of a Car'), to the government's abhorrent treatment of the First Nations ('Good Night Attawapiskat'), Downie challenged us to think about what it truly means to be Canadian. While Downie created iconic anthems that celebrate our best moments, such as 'Fireworks,' about the 1972 Summit Series, a monumental hockey game between Canada and the USSR, he also mined the shadowy depths of his country to create lasting works of art that put the sense of unequivocal Canadian pride into question.

#Cbc gord downie how to#

Downie's Canada was anything but perfect, but in his attempt to honestly capture it over a 30-year career, he taught a nation how to confront its darkest moments and dare to not repeat them. In fact, no other musician has done more for Canada's mythology than Downie, who was inspired by headlines, history books, personal experiences and even a hockey card to paint a picture of a country that was equally fascinating and flawed. Let's try and find some point of transcendence and leap together.'Īnd transcend he did, something that seemed to come naturally. 'We'll only be here tonight, this bunch of us in this room. 'Enjoy those one-night moments,' Downie once said of performing to a crowd, a comment that was given extra poignancy considering the ephemeral nature of that tour. Just every fantasy I've ever had for a show was coming true.' And all these sorts of provisions were made for me. So as a singer, it was just heaven on Earth. 'But I took my time, I played every other day. I had seven leather suits - and leather is not too cool,' Downie told Peter Mansbridge in a rare interview. More than 11 million people, nearly a third of the nation, tuned in to see the group say goodbye on its own terms, with many fans calling it a living wake - one last chance to show the band and its frontman how much they were loved. With his memory deteriorating to the point where he couldn't remember his own children's names, yet alone the words to the songs he had sung most of his life, Downie and the Tragically Hip set out on an emotional city-by-city, cross-country farewell tour, which culminated in a televised final show at Kingston's K-Rock Centre. As he was faced with his own mortality, Downie, determined as ever, set out to have one of the biggest years of his life. Statement - /Z6dHmr1xpM- dress rehearsal, this is our life,' Downie famously sang on 'Ahead by a Century,' a lyric that transformed into both a life motto and rallying cry in the wake of his diagnosis in May 2016.