“For almost five decades, Gord Downie uncovered and told the stories of Canada. In response to the news of Downie's passing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a lengthy tribute to the singer, in which he wrote, Their debut album, Up To Here was released in 1989 and in total, they released twelve more studio albums with the final being Man Machine Poem in 2016, which topped the Canadian charts. The album was accompanied by a graphic novel by famed comic book creator Jeff Lemire as well as Gord donating all the proceeds to the University of Manitoba’s National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation project.Downie formed the Tragically Hip with Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker in 1984. Clad with little in the way of winter clothing, Wenjack ended up freezing to death. Secret Path is an album inspired by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a young Anishinaabe boy who escaped from an Indian residential school and tried to make his way home. In the meantime, Gord had become incredibly passionate about the rights and welfare of the native people of Canada and used his final years to draw attention to this cause, speaking out about it at concerts, making trips to reserves and releasing Secret Path. The show was incredibly emotional and was attended by note worthy fans like the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC worked out a deal with the band to broadcast live their final concert in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario. This tour would sell out wherever it hit and demand for tickets was incredibly high.

The Hip released their final album, Man Machine Poem the next month and set about on their final Canadian tour. Knowing that at this point he was on borrowed time, Gord went to work on a few different projects.

In May of 2016, Gord along with his bandmates announced that Gord had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of terminal brain tumor. The Coming of the End and the Secret Path In total, Gord released four solo albums with a fifth album that was due sometime soon. Hip fans tend to be not only loyal to their band and it’s lead singer, but are also open to new sounds from the guys. These songs still had Gord’s trademark vocals but the music was a little quirkier and a little more experimental. The first of these would be Coke Machine Glow, released in 2001, followed quickly by Battle of the Nudes in 2004. Songs that didn’t really seem to fit in with The Hip’s albums would become Gord Downie songs and eventually Gord Downie albums. Solo CareerĮventually, Gord started recording material on his own. This endeared the band even further with fans making them a staple of Canadian rock radio and even reach past to the border areas like Buffalo, where they would gain a solid U.S. They were Canadian and they were proud of it. What’s more, The Hip never tried to hide where they were from in order to make themselves more accessible to other markets. “38 Years Old” was a fictionalized song about a real escape attempt at Milhaven Institution, a prison near the band’s hometown. Their songs mentioned hockey and areas Canadians knew and grew up in. For the first time since perhaps The Guess Who, there was a band that not only rocked the stage, but completely embraced Canadian life. In 1989, The Hip released their first album, Up to Here and it helped blow the doors wide open to their future success. Taking their name from a skit in Mike Nesmith’s film Elephant Parts, The Hip began to perform locally around the Kingston area, including stretches at local pubs on the Queen’s University campus before they would start to make it big. Langlois’s joining the band would be the last line up change until their final tour in 2017. Davis Manning left the band in 1986, the same year guitarist Paul Langlois joined. The Hip, as they are known by their fans, formed in roughly 1983 with the line up consisting of Gord Downie (lead singer), Rob Baker (guitar), Johnny Fay (drums), Davis Manning (saxophone), and Gord Sinclair (bass). W hile he was attending high school in Kingston at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, Gord would end up meeting the guys that would eventually form The Tragically Hip. Like most Canadian kids, Gord loved hockey but he loved music more. Gordon Edgar Downie was born on February 6, 1964, and grew up in the suburb of Kingston, Ontario called Amherstview. With this Gord Downie wiki, we’ll celebrate the life of this Canadian songwriter, as well as his career and Gord Downie’s cause of death. Since he was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor in 2016, we’ve known that our time with Gord was going to be cut short, and unfortunately that time ended last night as Gord passed away. The name Gord Downie might not mean much to people outside of Canada but to the Great White North, he was one of the country’s most beloved musicians, along with his bandmates in the Tragically Hip.

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