![\"Nobody](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Nobody-outside-Canada-understands-just-how-huge-the-Tragically-Hip-were-in-Canada-Far-Out-Magazine-1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Credit: Far Out \/ The Tragically Hip \/ Taffi Laing<\/p>\n
Mon 7 September 2026 23:00, UK <\/p>\n
During the current tariff-based squabbles between the United States and Canada<\/a>, the Trump administration, when not childishly renaming giant bodies of water, has made a habit of referring to their neighbours to the north as \u201cthe 51st state\u201d, suggesting that Canada and its culture are merely an extension of the mighty American monolith.<\/p>\n Naturally, two countries sharing an almost 6,000-mile border will have plenty of overlapping norms and interests. While Canadians are inundated with American cultural exports like much of the rest of the world, though, the US isn\u2019t quite as clued into the reality of Canadian life as they like to think, because nobody south of the border seems to fully grasp the importance of one specific Canadian entity: a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band that, as current Prime Minister Mark Carney recently said, \u201cwove the fabric of our country into their music\u201d.<\/p>\n This was, of course, the Tragically Hip, the smart and somewhat quirky alt-rock band from Kingston, Ontario that, almost inexplicably (from an outsider\u2019s perspective), conquered the Canadian charts for the better part of 30 years, right up until the tragic 2017 death of frontman Gord Downie<\/a> from brain cancer at 53. <\/p>\n A year before his death, the Tragically Hip (or merely, \u2018The Hip\u2019 if you\u2019re in the know) embarked on their final tour of their homeland, and it\u2019s not at all an exaggeration to say that it was a nationwide phenomenon in Canada, selling out each venue within seconds and forcing the CBC to broadcast the final concert in Kingston as a live TV event, purely due to overwhelming demand from fans who couldn\u2019t get tickets. <\/p>\n There was a time, perhaps, when The Hip weren\u2019t seen as a Canadian institution, and instead were just a talented, upstart indie band in the jangly folk-rock mould, like a bluesier and jammier REM. Their ambitions were understandably international, too. Formed in 1984, the band recorded their first full-length studio album in Memphis in 1989, and while that record, Up To Here, did fairly well in the US, nipping into the top 200 and getting some spins on college radio, it fared considerably better up North, whetting the appetites of patriotic listeners from Saskatoon to Matagami.<\/p>\n Once the 1990s began, you could leave your grunge, your Britpop, and your house music at the docks; The Tragically Hip were the preferred genre of the decade unto themselves, releasing six consecutive number one albums on the Canadian charts between 1991\u2019s Road Apples and 2000\u2019s Music @ Work. <\/p>\n The first 11 albums all went platinum or better in Canada (minimum 80,000 sales), which admittedly is very different from going platinum in the USA (minimum one million sales), but when you consider that the Canadian population is roughly 1\/8th that of the States, and that The Hip managed to put five of their albums above the 8x platinum mark, the mathematics fall into place accordingly. <\/p>\n Despite never having a top 100 album or a hit single in America, the Tragically Hip became, arguably, the most beloved rock band in Canada, with seven top ten singles and 11 number one albums (counting live records and compilations), plus 17 Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s obviously pop people in Canada that have been hugely successful and equals with everybody in the world,\u201d Canadian record producer Bob Rock<\/a> told the Times-Colonist in 2007, after collaborating with The Hip on their album World Container, \u201cBut in terms of soul, there is nobody better. It\u2019s just a tragedy that the world doesn\u2019t know about Gord Downie and this band.\u201d<\/p>\n Nobody would have called Downie a \u201csoul singer\u201d on first listen, but his intense energy and brilliantly inventive lyric-writing were a huge part of The Hip\u2019s appeal, and many of his fellow musicians recognised his genius and the impact of his band on the landscape of Canadian rock. \u201cThe Tragically Hip, from Canada, had huge, godlike stature at home but nowhere else,\u201d Rush\u2019s Geddy Lee told Classic Rock, \u201cThey had this perfect blend of simple, twin-guitar rock n\u2019 roll and very evocative, thought-provoking lyrics.\u201d <\/p>\n In interviews, Downie was always respectful and appreciative about being hailed as one of Canada\u2019s great songwriters, selflessly sharing that distinction with his bandmates, but he wasn\u2019t always comfortable with the Hip serving as some sort of unofficial ambassadors or bellwethers for the country. <\/p>\n \u201cIt bums people out that if the Hip don\u2019t matter abroad, then Canada doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Downie told the Star-Phoenix of Saskatoon in 2003, \u201cbut the vast majority of us don\u2019t give a shit. In my mind, we\u2019re really a lot like Frodo Baggins. We\u2019re like Hobbits in general when they go abroad, [where people say] \u2018I\u2019ve heard of you, I\u2019ve heard tell of it in legend.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Nobody](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Nobody-outside-Canada-understands-just-how-huge-the-Tragically-Hip-were-in-Canada-Far-Out-Magazine-0.jpeg\")
<\/a>Credit: The Tragically Hip \/ Steve Jennings<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
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