jD, Pete, and Tim are back and this week they're discussing the EP Saskadelphia. TracksMontreal - Studio outtake Ouch - Studio versionCrack my Spine (Like a Whip) - Live from Halifax 1991Reformed Baptist Blues - Studio versionTranscriptTrack...
jD, Pete, and Tim are back and this week they're discussing the EP Saskadelphia.
Tracks
Montreal - Studio outtake
Ouch - Studio version
Crack my Spine (Like a Whip) - Live from Halifax 1991
Reformed Baptist Blues - Studio version
Transcript
Track 1:
[0:00] If you're a fan of the Tragically Hip, this is your hip fest.
Getting Hip to the Hip, September 1st at The Rec Room.
Celebrate the music of the hip with a live tribute act, the finale of a hip-based podcast, and a silent auction with amazing hip prizes, with all proceeds going to support the Gord Downieand Chani Wenjack Fund.
If you're a fan of the hip, you need to be there. Tickets available now at gettinghiptothehip.com.
Track 2:
[0:28] The first, and to date, only posthumous release by the tragically hip is 2021's marvelous EP, Saskadelphia.
[0:37] Borrowing its title from the original name of Road Apples, this record packs a punch in under 20 minutes of non-stop rock.
Even the chilling theme of the song Montreal moves mountains with its haunting chorus.
I remember downloading Saskadelphia on the mail-on weekend in 2021 and I was immediately transported back to 1991.
[0:59] In some cases, we're even invited into this studio with banter between Gord and someone named Bruce.
It was a total trip hearing these songs from a bygone era with a pair of ears from the 21st century.
In some cases it was familiar, as I own bootlegs of Crack My Spine Like a Whip and Just as Well, but these new versions were bursting at the seams with nuance that only a studiorecording can offer.
I felt nostalgic and sad listening, but by the end I was grinning ear to ear.
This was a fantastic hip experience, and it's one I hope we get to enjoy with the upcoming re-release of Phantom Power, and I'm calling it here first, but I think we see an Up to Here boxset celebrating 35 years sometime in 2024.
But don't quote me on that, unless I'm right of course.
At any rate, I'm nervous about giving this one to Pete and Tim.
Although they both enjoyed Road Apples initially, will they appreciate the significance of this EP?
Will nostalgia be a factor for a pair of people who only first heard the band in November of 2022?
[2:08] What kind of impact will this have? We'll have to wait and see on this episode of Getting Hip to the Hip.
Track 5:
[2:40] All right hey hey it's JD here and we are back again for another uh well let's call it the penultimate episode of getting hip to the hip i'm here as always with my friends Pete and Timto discuss Seminole Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip we're going through every album and we find ourselves at the last album.
An EP as it were, Saskadelphia.
It was released for the May long weekend in 2021 and it's a it's it's a trip back to the road Apple days.
Before we get too deep into that discussion though, how the fuck are you guys doing? Well you know I'm a little a little of a Climbed a little tongue-tied.
I don't know. I told my kid, Sage, this morning, I was like, this is sort of one of the last recordings.
It's about 20 minutes of music.
[3:41] And he was very encouraging on moving on to more pod stuff, because he knows I've totally loved doing this.
But at the same time, I'm like, do we have to do this today, guys? Can we postpone it? Pause right here and do it later.
Because it's like the last bunch of songs, really. The problem is, in a week, you'll be here.
It's true. It's true. You'll be here, and we'll be doing the For Real last episode.
Hope to see you there at Getting Hip to the Hip, an evening for the Donnie Wenjack Fund. Tickets are $40. You can get them on gettinghiptothehip.com.
[4:20] Slash click the ticket button.
Do that. It'll be good. Pete, how are you, man?
I'm good. Um, your cadence threw me off there at the beginning, JD, because when you said I'm here with my good friends, Pete and Tim to discuss, and I thought you were going to,you're going to say two disgusting fucking individuals, but just to discuss.
And then you were like the penultimate record.
So, no, I'm good. Everybody knows that by now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kidding me with our link or that way.
We fucking two sailors, three sailors here. That's right. With your captain Pete who we've gotten, I think we've gotten, uh, we've gotten a couple of emails from people saying, do you haveto use the F-word so much?
You swear like sailors, ahoy motherfuckers.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm still looking forward to the, to the, uh, to the live event.
I cannot wait. It's going to be so much fun. I'm I just I just hope I hope people are that show up want to that want to just talk about the hip.
And I'm like, I'm wondering what other people say because I only know you guys.
[5:37] Like, I've only I only really well my friend Barb too, but like, like, yeah, I don't talk about the hip, but I'm gonna be surrounded with a shit ton of people who fucking love the hip.
It's going to be cool, man. Has Barb, has Barb confirmed? Barb's not confirmed, but Barb's on the fence.
She's, she's, I think she just, we need to, we need to push Barb over the edge.
How do we do that? We're pushing her right now. Barb, if you're listening.
It's a, it's a love push, Barb. Barb. We're just giving you, we're just giving you a little, little bump you need. You need to be there, Barb.
Careful, one person's love push is another person's incarceration, so you want to be careful with that.
Well, I said bump, I meant like a little tiny, you know.
Was that a Burning Bush reference? Is that a Bible reference?
I missed it, went over my head. I'm out of swords today, gentlemen.
[6:37] Are we gonna tackle this record? Well, let's talk about where you guys listened to this record for the first time.
Where did listen to it, give me the environment, give me the background, give me the details, and then we'll go song by song. For me, no, my car is not a Yugo with the premium audiosound system.
Surely it is not. Surely it is not. They're out of business.
No, I listen to it in the car a lot, listen to it on my computer a lot.
I've been doing a lot of work at the desk and was really surprised with this record, really surprised. kind of.
[7:18] Yeah, I'll save all that, but yeah, listen mainly at the computer and in the car. All right. How about you, Tim? I'm the same. Same exact. Yeah. Sitting down.
Sitting down. And it's a quick one, right? It's like 20 minutes and you're through.
Yeah, 20 minutes. Right. Yeah. It's a tupper.
When they first released it, they called it an album. I'm pretty sure they said it was an album. And a lot of people bitched. A lot of people were like, this isn't an album, it's an EP.
It's six songs. Who called it that? I believe they did centrally, but even on the wiki page now, it's listed as an EP.
So I don't know if it's been officially changed or what, but I'm calling it an EP.
And it's a nice bookend. You get the EP at the beginning and you get the EP at the end, you know, in terms of bookends. Unless there's other music out there.
But this came out after Gord's passing.
This did. Yes. Yeah. 21. Yeah. 2021. People are bitching after the fact. Way to go hit fans.
What a show. How about you? How about you, JD? JD, where, what was your experience when this came out? Oh boy.
[8:25] Uh, did you grab it? Yeah. Um, I bought the 35th or the 30th it's yeah.
The 30th anniversary of road apples, a box set. And it came in that box set and it came with live camp.
It was a great box set because it came with a remastered road apples.
It came with Saskadelphia.
It came with Live at the Roxy and I want to say another record so it was chock full of cool cool shit for me it was just it was just a trip because it was like the last we heard of this band.
[9:03] Was Man-Machine-Poem and it's very different from Road Apples, very different from Road Apples.
And all of a sudden I was listening to brand new hip that was 35 years old, you know?
So it was like, it was really, it hurt my brain a little bit, my brain was doing spirals, you know? Like it was like, this doesn't make sense, this is new, but this is really old.
So I don't quite understand what this is all about, you know.
But very much enjoyed it. A little disappointed that the version of Montreal is a live version, but I like the live version. It's good, you know.
There's a reason. Yeah, there's a reason. And we'll get into that as we go.
Should we start with Ouch?
[9:54] Well, let's do a little more backstory. Yeah, go. Because in my experience of this EP, I went really quickly to YouTube and ended up watching some of the mini episodes that featureJohnny Faye in the Universal Warehouse finding the tapes.
That's crazy. And all that stuff.
And it was really interesting to go through those and hear him talk about Universal claiming the fire they had in the warehouse that was, I think he said they found out about it, the NewYork Times article.
Yeah. Yeah, that's all I remember.
And it listed all these bands whose tapes burned, and they were on the list. And so...
[10:42] Johnny, I think. I forget who else. Johnny and somebody else immediately, it sounds like, really quickly went down to hunt down the tapes and they didn't burn.
And he even had a comment, or most of them anyways, he even had a comment about how universal they thought.
Actually, this was Baker in a different interview, because I watched a bunch with him too.
Baker said that they thought that maybe the fire and the tapes were this multi-mega cash-in on getting assets destroyed that weren't really destroyed.
But ultimately, they've said that they found 45-ish of 60-ish tapes and there's still potentially more out there.
[11:29] So, there's some great interviews on this stuff. I probably watched, I don't know, six interviews. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Yeah, I was kind of laid up one day and just had some time to kill and watch them, watch them interview. So yeah, so it's, maybe there is more out there.
I mean, they pulled together, what is this, five songs?
Well, six with Montreal, but yeah. Six. Yeah, six. And, you know, if there's, if we get six more eventually, that would be awesome.
Yeah, because they are, I mean, there is talk of Phantom Power being reissued.
They announced that last year that Phantom Power would be reissued this year.
The 25th anniversary has passed, but I suspect it'll be a Christmas release, you know, but I don't know anything beyond that.
[12:16] No, the cover of Phantom Power was actually done by Rob Baker.
Really? That's a fact. Oh, wow. Rob Baker studied graphic design, I believe. Graphic design. Oh, yeah.
University of Queensland? Queens, Queens University, yeah. Queens. Yeah. near the Bronx.
Yeah, right now the Bronx just a hop, skipping the jump away. I'm skipping a jump.
I had not, I had not heard or watched and heard interviews with him really yet.
And man, I want to hang out with that guy. He is so. Baker? I don't know.
He had so many. He had, yeah, he had so many fun, not fun. It's somebody wise one-liners just in the course of conversation with interviewers.
Like he's just fucking Zen dude.
So chill. Sorry. Some of it was during COVID and he was talking about like during COVID, how his son moved back home and they were, they had set times during the week where theywere jamming together and ah, man, it just.
That's very cool. It's just a rad sounding dude. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, get in line, Tim, because.
[13:26] I'll be behind you. Yeah. Yeah. Rob Baker and I, we go back.
We're gonna, I'm in Kingston. We got a we got a couple of beer dates Talk gear.
I think it was I think it was ouch That Johnny Fay one of the YouTube video the one of these little mini episode things that Johnny Fay He's listening.
There's a video of him listening to ouch.
I believe it was out and And it gets to the end, and it stops.
And he's so elated and excited. And he said something like, it even has an end.
So stoked to find a complete song.
Before we jump into the record, did you guys see the, Tim, I didn't watch all the interviews, but what's his name?
Craig Rogers sent that email with the videos from the Cineplex event they did.
Right, yeah. They did an event at the bathhouse. I didn't see that.
Oh, dude, it's fucking cool.
I mean, the only videos that he could find were...
Or Bob Cajun, Escape is at Hand, Country Day and Coffee Girl, but they did this live event at the bathhouse.
[14:44] During Bob Cajun, Rob Baker's just playing guitar. I don't think anybody else is in the video if I remember correctly, and Gord Downie's just shooting pool and singing this songwhile he's shooting pool. It's the coolest fucking thing.
Oh my God, I got to see this. It's so cool, man.
It's one of the coolest fucking, he's just like, he's, and it's a weird, like, I mean, don't get me wrong.
I'm not, when, you know, when we go to the bath house and eventually record there one day, I'm not going to piss and moan to the guys about the pool table.
I hope it's a bar size table, but I noticed that the balls in Canada, they weren't like, you know, the color balls like we have in the U S or like red balls.
And then maybe a different color. Were they playing snooker maybe?
Maybe it was like a snooker table but yeah.
Yes they are. They are. They're playing snooker. I just pulled it up.
I did this. Sorry Craig. I didn't I didn't I didn't go through.
I saw it Craig. Thanks. I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to respond.
I've been busy working this week. Yeah I haven't.
[15:51] Sorry Craig. Very cool. Yeah. Got something new to check out.
That's great let's dive in ouch ouch ouch.
[19:12] Go ahead, Timmy. Take it. Well, this one kind of brought me back to Born in the Water.
And back then, when we were talking about Road Apples, if I recall correctly, I had some comments about it being bluesy, and George Thurgood, whatever.
I had some comments like, why are these guys? They're a rock and roll band, but they're in different buckets of genres within rock and roll.
And not many bands can do that and do it successfully.
A lot of them try, and I think don't do as good of a job.
And so listening to Ouch made me realize, it just brought me kind of full circle on The Hip's abilities and their skills and their talents and brought me to this kind of new level of fandomof thinking about that.
[20:18] And like I imagine I have some friends from back in the day who are big time music guys and I imagine that what they would would think about listening to different types of songsby The Hip and how some who are not Hip fans might think it's kooky or why they're doing this.
Or it's kind of out of a comfort zone.
But listening to Ouch and going back to Road Apples and Born in the Water and songs like that, like it just, it brought me kind of, It completed the circle of thinking.
[20:49] These guys are really talented they can do whatever they want to do they're they got the they got their driver's licenses they got the keys you know it's it's just like god what couldwhat can they not do at this point you know and the the song is we could talk about the song and all the aspects of it and gourd's growly singing and you know all the things but this onejust kind of it just kind of hit me full circle with the band and it made me think like at one point i was like thinking about you know in the u.s, raiders fans or fans of certain teams or youknow i bleed whatever i don't know it's all these stupid things of these allegiances to to cultural items and how, or genres or arts and how some people can be like, just so narrow within acategory of something that they really love and how, like, I don't know this.
If you opened up your mind a little bit and accept things a little more, why are you hiring now?
[22:04] Have more enjoyment. No, no, you can have more enjoyment.
No, seriously, I had a moment with this song. Wow. Really fucking solidified why I like The Hip and why I could argue to the end of all day is about how they're fucking better than youtwo.
How's that? Yeah. You know? Yeah. So there.
That's what happened to me with this song.
[22:29] That's far out. Probably led to so many video watchings because I was like, Like just give me more at a personal level of these guys.
It's 9.53 in the morning for fuck's sake. It's not even 10. Can I wait till 10 to get high? 20 somewhere, baby. That's right.
What about you, Pete?
[22:52] Um, I, I dug this song. The only thing I, you know, can kind of gather that, you know.
[23:00] I, I agree with Tim on, um, not that I disagree with him on what else he was saying.
But you know, just kind of one of the points that he made was that this kind of brought it full circle. Like, I think when we started out with road apples, Tim and I were both kind of like,where are we going with this?
And then even when we talked to Paul Ling Wah the other day, how he was, you know, we were talking about, you know, everybody has a different entry point to the hip, you know, westarted from the, from the very beginning.
You know so maybe that wasn't our destined entry point, but it was the entry point nonetheless.
And we kind of came back full circle because now we got this similar sound of what road apples was without and My only comments on the song itself, which I loved It just painted apicture And I'll read it to you It's 11 15 p.m, The bar is dirty and it's dingy the happy hour crowd has gone home drunk already The band's starting to get into its back catalog and angrytunes.
And the close the bar down crowd has just showed up, you know.
The guy with the pull cue in the fucking case, a couple of bar room hustlers, a couple of hot chicks that um...
[24:29] That frequent the bar. Everybody showed up. Barkeep's getting surly.
Barkeep is getting surly.
[24:39] Everything about this band, this song, gave me the vibe like they're just up on stage playing and they don't give a fuck.
They don't care. They've done it so many times, It's just, it's like muscle memory to them. And they're just, rock and roll is just fucking in their veins.
And it's on display for everybody who's probably taking it for granted at the bar.
It seems that way. Yeah. Yeah. Because Lord knows, I mean, I took Road Apples and that shit for granted.
Did you guys go back to it? Like, after listening to this record, did you go back to Road Apples?
To Road Apples, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like to try and see what like to me I did the same thing and it was like it was to try and see where these songs would have fit in because like asmuch as it's new material we all have to understand too it's material that they felt wasn't up to snuff to make the actual record, right?
Yeah, which is weird to me like but maybe it was just a time thing. Yeah, yeah.
Because I thought the majority of these songs on this record were great.
[25:51] Yeah.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you. I enjoy it. It's not long enough to be offensive.
Even if it was offensive, you know? You're in and you're out, and it's done.
Yeah. What it did for me, I mean, I went back to Road Apples, but I also, again, went.
[26:12] To video stuff like i hung out on youtube more with this one and pete it's funny you mentioned kind of a bar scene because the video for this song it's kind of all about a bar sceneit's it's a fun it's a really i didn't know there was the videos for a few yeah there's videos for a few of these yeah jay baruchel's in that video right ouch ouch is it yeah yeah ouch is a hootit's got like all these hidden nuggets through the video with references to other songs or albums.
Yeah I think there was like 20 of them. It's a really good video.
Yeah, yeah. It's a really, really good video. I watched it a couple times.
Super interesting. Yeah, a lot of fun. So check that out.
All right, let's move to Not Necessary. Not necessary.
[27:01] Um, again, this is just like, I thought this song would have fucking cooked live.
I mean, like, like most of the songs on this EP, just like pictured sweat just fucking pouring off of everybody's foreheads.
And just, yeah, it was just a good time record, man. A good time tune.
Chorus was super hooky, just like, had a great, like it did sound, the chorus sounded like it was, you know, crafted in that time.
Like if you saw a TNC Surf t-shirt, somebody was wearing it walking down the street, you'd know what like year that kind of came from. I don't know if anybody remembers TNC Surf.Do you remember that company? Well, yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, um, TNC Serpent Skate it was called. But yeah, it's just like, yeah, that would be, you'd know what era it was from. And definitely this song was a bit of just, they were justhaving such a fucking good time.
It was kind of a window into their youth.
Yeah, yeah, that's good call. Life on the road in the van, you can almost smell the inside of the van, stinky and, you know, sweaty and lived in.
Yeah. How about you, Tim?
[28:25] I agree with Pete on all that. I don't have much more on the song.
I dug the song. I really no qualms about it.
[28:37] This one I went faster to video. I hate to say that I just watched videos on all this shit, but I watched a lot of videos.
And this one's cool. It's like bank robbery gone wrong. It's got a total plot, to it that somehow ties into the song. I haven't seen the video for this one. It's a really...
Oh man, it's killer. Check that out.
It's got a cliffhanger at the end. It's a fun video and I just...
It really... I don't know, just after listening to so much music by these guys with cans and not having much visually other than some live stuff, like it was fun to find videos from this EP.
So, definitely watch Ouch and watch Not Necessary.
Great song. Right, we move next to the very solemn song about the École Polytechnique massacre that happened in the late 80s in Montreal, where a young man brutally murdered 14students and the Tragically Hip wrote a response to that it's very loosely based in that although it's bang on at the same time like there are lyrics in it that give you chills, you know?
[30:05] But what did you think of Montreal, Tim?
[30:11] It's a heavy one. I think I read that 27 people were shot, 14 died.
You know, it's one of these songs that you could throw in a bucket by the hip that aren't something I reach for just because of the subject material.
You know, it's like one of those heavy things that's Marked history and something uncomfortable and something that we we still deal with Every day, you know like the like a few othertheir songs in this this whole Tragedy, I don't know it's it's a It's you know our Mind may be privileged to listen to it and feel unsettled and move on and put it in a drawer You know,because it's fucking tough history and a tough topic and all the things.
And yeah, it's also like, I commend The Hip for and Gord for writing it and them playing it live.
Like it's this song is brave, it takes courage and I don't know, I just I don't have a lot of music, just actual tune. Sure.
Comments about it, just because it's like, you know?
[31:40] Because, I mean, just also being in the USA, I mean, we deal with this stuff all the time. So it's just like, you know, it's probably a song that everybody should hear and play.
[31:55] Let me just tell a quick little anecdote before we come to you Pete.
I remember my friend Jeff who was older than me and he drove to Toronto for a show, a hip show at the old Ontario Place Forum and I remember him coming back and saying there's thissong called Montreal I think it's going to be on the next record like it was so great like and I got to hear it again And this is back in the day when you just couldn't hear it again.
That was it. He heard it and that was his memory of it. And that's the end.
He didn't get to hear it again until years later. You hear traces of it on Live Between Us during Courage, I believe.
They start singing the tail end of Montreal.
Pete, what did you think of this live version? I really liked it.
I did. I thought it was very haunting.
Those little, you know, cool guitar licks.
Those little, you know, I think they're arpeggios or something.
And then when the chorus just switches over to a major, it's like a, you know, beautiful.
[33:12] What's the way it kind of puts into a happier space, but then it just gets dark again.
It was just a bit of a seesaw feeling, this song, but it's definitely something that I, again, I mean, I don't know if it was because of it was a live version, but, you know, I would probably, if Iheard the studio version of this tune, I would want to hear it live too, because it was really a really pretty song, but it was, Because of the six songs on this record.
[33:45] I would say it was, you know, I would say it was not my favorite, but I really liked it.
I think just because it starts off so heavy. Yeah. Record, you know?
Yeah. So. All right. No. JD, if you checked out JD, I guess there's a DVD of that show at the Metropolis. Oh really?
That's available, yeah, there's a DVD that's available for free, like via the Hip Fans webpage.
I haven't gone back to checking that. Yeah, you might. Check that out, because that sounds pretty awesome. There's some fan...
They don't tend to give things away very often. There's some fan footage that... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, there's some fan footage that somebody produced a DVD.
Oh, wow. Okay. Well if you're interested in the 7-inch of Montreal, we have an autographed copy of the 7-inch of Montreal and it'll be at the silent auction of the event so that's kind offun.
That's a fun one.
Yeah, and I should note it's auctioned by the four living members of the band.
Like it's not a complete, you know, Gord is not on there.
But you get all the living members of the band and that's pretty fucking cool.
You get Pete, Tim and JD to sign it too. That's right.
That was a joke because it'll be devalued if that happens.
[35:14] So we flip the record over and we get the fucking electric, crack my spine like a whip.
[38:30] This song fucking melts, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah.
[38:35] You know, this is the one, this is the one that Johnny Faye was like, it has an ending too.
This was the one he was so psyched about. This is over here in my notes, I'm finally getting on that.
And this is the song that led me to ask Paul about he and Baker's guitar playing and he noted how they're who was it Dan Smith Don Smith who also makes this yeah how he channeledthem yeah how he channeled them and put one in the left and one of the right and the hard pan yeah so this song made me yeah the hard pan this song made me realize I don't know it wasit It was a complete picture in my brain of what these guys were doing on guitar.
And I even said to Paul, I tried to get into it a little bit, but I would love to talk to him in person about it.
But this song, Paul on guitar, he's just got the, just reminds me of 80s power guitar chords, just like Ramones and 80s bad religion.
And he's just going through it.
It's like he's the fucking locomotive of this song, which also ties in with Pete so many times, how you've said how Paul and Johnny are like a unit unlike any other, cause it's usually drumsand the bass player, you know?
[40:02] But these guys have such an interesting compositional makeup within each other, you know?
This song to me, like, it kind of personified their abilities And, you know, they're I don't know, just this this song is killer.
I just loved it. I listened to it so many times, so many times. It's just killer.
Good one. Good song. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you, Don Smith. I mean, you you nailed it with these guys not being rhythm and lead or lead and rhythm.
You nailed it with these guys being guitarists. So just let it ride.
[40:39] Well, I thought this song it fucking cooked.
I mean, I don't have much to say about it, other than the fact that, um, I, you know, to your point, Tim, to add on to it, I think it was more than just Paul and Johnny, I think, Paul, Johnny,Gord, and Rob Baker, are all like, on stage in a fucking musical orgy.
And strangely enough, I feel like Gord is in background of the song.
He's not a I mean he's there but I wouldn't call him the star of the show for this song.
That fucking band like just stepped in front. Gord's like you know in the back like, you know, Maybe changing Johnny's fucking crash cymbal because he broke it so many times duringthe song.
He's there and it's good and not trying to take away from Gord's vocals, but the band just fucking destroys this song. You could tell they were having a blast when they recorded it.
Hands down. They just take over, you know? Yeah. So yeah, good song.
[41:56] One of the YouTube videos on this, I just went back to it. They're called the Saskadelphia Minutes.
And there's like five or six episodes, but not all of them are posted.
But there is a one minute, they're all short, there is a one minute version of our video for this song just as well.
And it's got some fun live footage of the guys. is one thing I think Baker was talking about in a video is how a lot of these songs they did play live and he didn't really have many answersor questions about like why didn't they make it or where did they go or what happened you know he was just like we had a lot of songs and he one cool takeaway of these songs inparticular and just as well was that they didn't rehearse much He spoke at length about how they didn't rehearse much and they road-tested new songs.
He said often they'd come out and whatever new song they were working on, they'd play first.
Like that was their warm-up, was road-testing a song.
And like bands don't do that. Like nobody does that. You know what I mean?
It's like you play first base for whatever.
[43:16] And coach is like, hey, you're going out, move to left field.
And it's like, OK, I'll play left field. I think I can do this.
And it's just gnarly what these guys were capable of. It's pretty awesome.
And just to back up to our last pod, it's about the absolute opposite of what Mr.
Bob Rock these guys do one.
You know? It really is. It's like if they could go out and road test a song, first show, the first song of the night. Yeah. Phew. you, Yeah, rather than work on something for a couple ofmonths. It's I think road testing was the way to go. That's the unique gift there to us as listeners and fans. You got to just see your favorite band jam.
[44:09] And sometimes they'd come up with something, and you're just like, wow, what is that? I got to hear that. Like my friend with Montreal. Yeah. You know?
And then when. Yeah. Yeah, Baker said, you know, we played 200 plus shows a year.
We knew each other. We know each other. We're all best friends.
We could do it. We could just sit down and figure something out.
And if we liked it, we'd go do it. Goddamn. What a gift those guys had.
So you merged into Just As Well there, Tim.
We were talking about Crack My Spine Like a Whip, and you've brought it into Just as Well, so should we stick with Just as Well for Pete?
Or do you have more to say about Just as Well?
[44:55] I mean only about picking scabs. All right. Yeah. Because that's the line in Just as Well. For the love of Pete.
It's going to keep getting infected. It's going to keep getting infected if you keep picking at it. Oh, Pete, they knew.
Yeah, right, right. Sure they did. I love the ready Bruce right at the beginning. That was fun.
[45:23] Hmm. This was one I genuinely was like, what the fuck? Why is why was this not on the record?
Oh, wow. This was. Hmm. Hundred percent. Hundo. This was probably my favorite tune on the record.
Got a lot of Stones vibes. Yeah. I mean, super big.
Everything from the guitar tone to just the song itself, just rolling stones.
Yeah. And I don't know, man, the more it ebbs and flows because, excuse me, the longer I listen to this band, the more I just understand each and every member, because specifically thissong, Gord Sinclair's bass stands out so much because it follows, I think, Rob Baker's guitar licks.
And it just, yeah, what a talented fucking band, man.
At this stage in the game they were.
[46:31] You know, yeah, what do you, I mean, what a fucking jam.
What do you want me to say about the song just cooks dude you know the hook turn around it's just it's so good it's a pop tune, rock pop tune fucking formulaic yeah it is a good one it is agood formula right like it's like original coca-cola it's like it's a formula but it's it works it's it's yeah but there's a lot there's a lot of coke out there there's a lot of soda there's rc there's youknow there's shasta There's that store-bought shit, but this is original fucking recipe, man.
This is, maybe even a little savour original.
[47:13] Listen to that rolling R's. You like that? Yeah. So, the next one is...
[50:44] I just thought, let's go get in the car and go for a drive, you know.
It's just reminded me of like my teenage years as a Catholic youth and having a driver's license.
I literally had a time in my life and it was like with that summer where I was to go to church and I would just pick up my buddy Dave and we'd drive around for an hour and smokecigarettes and go back home. How was church?
It was great. That's what this reminded me of.
[51:13] But again, it made me think about the band and the various aspects of rock and roll they could go after, which, you know, we have in our time, you know, we had The Stones whocould do that.
We had Zeppelin who could do that. Maybe Queen. Definitely The Beatles.
You know, there aren't many bands who can go after kind of different aspects of rock and roll and do it really well and still remain respected and still keep, you know, selling out stadiumsacross Canada or whatever.
But this song, it's huge. It hits the two-minute mark and it felt like it could kind of be done or not, and it just keeps going and that's awesome, you know.
[51:53] Yeah, I just, it's got like a 15-second fade out. That works for you, doesn't it?
And it's cool. Oh my God. I mean, this is this is a killer song.
It's the live versions of this song are amazing. This song live is yeah, that's what I'm saying to you. It's alive. It's it's a cooker.
It's out there live. I don't know, man. I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm sure I have no doubt that the song cooks live, but you cannot debate that the song does not cook on the fucking studioversion.
Because Because it's, it's, I mean, dude, it, it's, this song, if it was like, it's a, it's another bar brawl. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, everything is so filthy, dirty, the guitars, gourds, gourds, who's, you know, Cheers.
[52:46] There used to be this bar, nobody knows where this town is, it's in Cedar County, Missouri, near Stockton, it's about 70 miles from, Jesus, where would you fly, what's the gamblingtown where they got the riverboat?
It's a shithole town, apologies if you're from there.
Oh, God, Branson, it's about 75 miles from Branson, yeah.
[53:16] And Cedar County, a town called Jericho Springs, I can't remember the name of it, but everybody called it the Purple Unicorn, because there was a purple unicorn out front.
And this was a bar where like you would, 90% of the jukebox would be Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson, and that's it.
Nothing else. You wouldn't you would not find anything else on there.
And this band would like maybe, you know, be staying in town and play a show there. And it would just the place would erupt in a ballroom, ballroom brawl, cops, which cop cars blackand whites all over.
Fucking people getting fucking taken out of their Bottles getting broken over people's fucking heads.
Then them just fucking smoking a cigarette. The only way I would want to hear this song live would be with at least a fifth of Jim Beam in me or some shitty whiskey.
Not even Jack Daniels, just some shit whiskey.
I do like this song.
[54:27] It's a barroom brawler too. That's awesome. Yeah. And that's how the record ends.
That's, you know, as far as we know, that's all the hip we're gonna get.
And that puts us in a position to pick our last song for our playlists.
You guys each get to pick a song and it'll be the last song in your playlist and you'll debut your playlists at the last episode.
So in the proper order that they belong in and everybody will get to see your playlists.
What are you choosing? Well, I know I said before that Just As Well was probably my favorite tune, but then I'm taking that back because I just painted that picture in my head so well.
I would say Reformed Baptist Blues, man. Oh, wow. That's gonna be it.
Yeah, 100%, dude. That song is fuckin'.
[55:32] You know like where they get the guy and they throw the guy on the bar and they fucking they shovel him down the bar and he slides and he breaks a bunch of glasses and his headgoes into the jukebox like that's this song and the band's still playing they're still finishing the song because if they stop playing they don't get paid exactly exactly Cool cues gettingbroken over people's fucking heads.
What about you Tim? What's your track?
I love that song. Yeah, I love that song as well, but I'm going with Crack My Spine. I love the guitar.
Yeah, I love the guitars in that one. They're rhythmical like a whip.
That song did it for me. Well, your lists are now complete.
I will send them to you so you guys can sequence them and maybe you do that on the plane ride over. Who knows? You'll listen to it to see if it works.
[56:31] But that's what I've got for you. I want to thank you as always for doing all the heavy fucking lifting and listening to the music, having to describe it, answering my stupid assquestions, all that shit.
Guys are fucking gold to me and I can't wait to see you next week and uh, and share you with the world so there's that peace out guys peace out see you in canada pick up your thanks Itwas... It was...
You stepped on my fucking line. Fuuuck you Tim how could you?
Pick up your shit!
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