See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source

Songwriting, and particularly songwriting about Canada, has always been paramount to The Tragically Hip.

So, not surprisingly, Saturday night’s induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at Toronto’s Massey Hall is one of the highest honours, if not the highest, in the Kingston, Ont., band’s history.

“It either sits at or very near the top,” said the Hip’s rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Paul Langlois during a recent Zoom interview.

“We had two main goals (since forming in 1984). Probably the first one was the songwriting, and the second one was, learning them well and putting on good live shows. So we all really took it seriously and threw in our ideas and we were good to each other and open-minded and it just kind of turned out that we were able to sort of get things together and either have an idea or (lead singer-lyricist) Gord (Downie) most times (came in) with the good ones. Gord would lock into something nice and then we just kind of worked as a group from there. It was the hardest we worked at anything with — songwriting — that’s for sure.”

‘Canada’s band’

The bittersweet part about Saturday night is the fact that the band will be without Downie, who passed away from brain cancer in 2017.

“I think he would have been very honoured and excited,” Langlois said. “He would love kind of celebrating together. But, yeah, he would love it. And he’d be super proud. And we’re proud of him.”

The band’s final show in Kingston in 2016, which at the time drew the country together with watching parties from coast to coast, was recently rebroadcast on CBC in August in honour of its 10th anniversary.

For that unifying show and their Canadian-centric songs, the Hip has long been referred to as “Canada’s band.”

“I do believe it happened quite gradually over time,” Langlois said. “You know, I can’t really think of anything before Fifty-Mission Cap , maybe. But it just gradually (happened), and Bobcaygeon , these kinds of songs. You know, and there was a bunch of them where Gord was referencing Canadian places or Canadian things.

“Not always highly complimentary, but a lot of times he was. And then our last couple of tours, especially the last one, I think kind of sealed it for people that believe that. So, yeah, we’re totally good with it. You know, we’re really just trying to enjoy these things. And I’m pretty happy and excited about the (Canadian) Songwriters Hall of Fame. I mean, you look at the people in there and it’s kind of like, ‘Wow, hard to believe we we made the cut there.’ ”

  • Bruce McCulloch, Jay Baruchel to induct The Tragically Hip into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame
  • The Tragically Hip on their last-ever concert: 'It felt like the end'

Songwriting influences

Langlois said other Canadian artists like Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell were an influence on the Hip’s songwriting, along with Rush and “non-Canadian influences” like the early Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.

“Rush is a great big example for us,” he said. “You know, we kind of looked at all the bands and it’s like, you know what, those guys are doing their own thing. They just do what they want and they write how they want to write. And that was our kind of ethos too: Was just like, ‘Let’s just make the decisions on the songs, okay?’ So I think we just stuck to our guns and we were kind of pretty insular.”

Russell to sing Hip’s Wheat Kings at induction ceremony

Among those paying homage to the Hip on Saturday night will be Montreal-born, Nashville-based Allison Russell, who was asked by the band’s manager Jake Gold to sing Wheat Kings on the cast recording of the jukebox musical It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken , featuring all Hip songs. The musical debuted in April of this year in Hamilton and goes on to play in Kingston next month.

Her version was just released on Friday (Sept. 18), and she has eight Canadian tour dates in the fall, including Oct. 22 at Massey Hall.

Saturday night at Massey Hall will be the first time Russell sings Wheat Kings live and with the Hip’s surviving members — whom she’s never met — in the audience. But she gets Friday to rehearse with the house band and Saturday for a sound check.

“That whole record (1992’s) Fully Completely was like massive for me as a teen, you know, coming up in Montreal and my group of friends,” Russell said.

“And, in the case of Wheat Kings , David Milgaard spent 23 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. And I was so taken with that. It was a song about Saskatoon as well. You know, my mom grew up in Saskatoon, as did Joni Mitchell, whose (jam) band I play in now. And I grew up in Montreal, but we would go back often. And there’s something about Gord’s poetry and how distilled it is, how present you feel immediately, like you can see the scene, you can feel everything.”

Also being inducted into the CSHF on Saturday night are Feist, Loverboy’s Mike Reno and Paul Dean, and Roch Voisine.