It’s time for another book and music pairing and today we’re matching The Tragically Hip’s album Fully Completely with the book The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip by Michael Barclay,
In the summer of 2016, more than a third of Canadians tuned in to watch what was likely the Tragically Hip’s final performance, broadcast from their hometown of Kingston, Ontario. During that time, Gord Downie became more famous than he ever had been. Michael Barclay recognized that people who didn’t like the band’s music now knew who he was, what he was going through and what he stood for. But he didn’t see much that examined why people cared about him in the first place. He “wanted to put this band in a larger context, and not just tell their story chronologically.” Every second chapter in the book is thematic and covers subjects like poetry and lyrics, American success and what that means for Canadian artists and aging in rock music – themes that he wanted to to bring into this book, so it wasn’t just the story of one band, but a cultural conversation.
We’re pairing this biography with The Hip’s third studio album, Fully Completely. The lyrics are heavily centred on Canadian icons and history and continued to catapult the band’s success within Canada.