The Top 10 most Canadian lyrics of The Tragically Hip

If there’s one thing that can be said about Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip, it’s that they are rooted in Canadiana, and were never afraid to riddle their lyrics with both popular and obscure Canadian references.

Few bands have been able to capture the sound and emotion of Canada in their songs – The Hip’s songs truly are the soundtrack of Canada.

Here are 10 Tragically Hip lyrics that are dripping with Canadiana, and why they’re so effective.

The Darkest One

Come in, come in, come in, come in
From thin and wicked prairie winds come in
It’s warm and it’s safe here and almost heartening
Here in a time and place not lost on our imagination

Not only does the video feature the iconic Trailer Park Boys and Don Cherry, but it also invokes the Canadian sense of isolation and foreboding cold, both central themes to Canadian literature. Who can’t relate to the chill of the thin and wicked prairie winds?

Fly

There’s Mistaken Point, Newfoundland
There’s Moonbeam Ontari-ari-o
There are places I’ve never been
And always wanted to go
That’s right

There’s also a Dildo, Newfoundland and an Eyebrow, Saskatchewan. Regardless of how proudly Canadian we may be, there are so many places in this giant country that we’ve never been, populated by people whose stories we’ve never heard.

Bobcaygeon

‘Cause it was in Bobcaygeon, where I saw the constellations
Reveal themselves one star at a time

This song is soaked with Canadian nostalgia, including checkerboard floors that night in Toronto, and drinking wine while listening to Willie Nelson. Somehow the Hip made a song that actually sounds like the small, unassuming Ontario community.

The lonely end of the rink

I hear your voice cross a frozen lake
A voice from the end of a leaf
Saying, “You won’t die of a thousand fakes
Or be beaten by the sweetest of dekes”

Some words are uniquely Canadian, like tuques, loonies and dekes. And only Gord Downie can figure out how to put deking a goalie out on a frozen lake into a love song. True poetry.

Fifty-Mission Cap

Bill Barilko disappeared that summer
He was on a fishing trip
The last goal he ever scored
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn’t win another till nineteen sixty two
The year he was discovered

This one is pretty obvious actually, but even the most die-hard Leafs fans didn’t know the story of Bill Barilko. And keeping a hockey card tucked up under an old, worked-in fifty-mission cap also evokes a clearly Canadian image.

At the Hundredth Meridian

Driving down a corduroy road
Weeds standing shoulder high
Ferris wheel is rusting
Off in the distance
At the hundredth meridian

Wow, does this sound like the Prairies. A bumpy, dirt road, shoulder-high weeds, rusting ferris wheel in the distance …

Wheat Kings

Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat kings have all treasures buried
And all you hear are the rusty breezes
Pushing around the weathervane Jesus

More Saskatchewan imagery. Saskatoon, of course, is unofficially known as the Paris of the Prairies, and anyone who has ever been there understands why. All that’s missing from this lyric is a couple of guys in Roughriders shirts.

Fireworks

You said you didn’t give a f*** about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

When boys start paying attention to girls, somehow the thrill of hockey starts to melt away, and Downie nails it in this lyric. It’s no anthem, but the song’s coming-of-age imagery is clearly unique to Canadian youth.

Problem Bear

Writing a song about Lake Memphremagog
And tonight I don’t believe
There are words to spare and be a tip and a nod
Admitting it’s half the defeat

So, what rhymes with Lake Memphremagog? Not much. Hats off to Downie for putting the name of an obscure lake that crosses from Quebec into Vermont into a lyric.

38 Years Old

Twelve men broke loose in seventy three
From Millhaven Maximum Security
Twelve pictures lined up across the front page
Seems the Mounties had a summertime war to wage

There are conflicting stories about whether the jailbreak was real or not, and if it happened in 1972 or 1973, but really, it doesn’t matter. It’s another classic Hip tune that is soaked with Canadian references and oozes the cold, stark reality of life in small-town Ontario. Beautiful.