The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: Thugs

A Hip Head named Andrew sent jD a tip: an old dinosaur movie where a character starts reciting 'Thugs' and doesn't stop.

The movie is "The People That Time Forgot," and the line lands thirty-five and a half minutes in. Greg LeGros (co-host of Fully & Completely) has seen it, because of course he has. His mind was blown anyway. So the stream opens on a movie and spends an hour on a three-minute song from "Day for Night" that gets under your fingernails and stays there.

The tale of the tape comes off the redesigned Hip Handbook, where every song now has its own card. 'Thugs' was played live 122 times (setlist.fm agrees), from July 16, 1993, the first date of the first Another Roadside Attraction, to August 3, 2016, night two in Calgary on the final tour. The Tragically Hip Archive holds 44 recordings of it, and it landed at Song Forty-Seven of 169 on The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown. Then the stream plays the version jD heard first: the fast one, from the Kumbaya Festival in September 1993, a year before the record, on a tape a friend made off MuchMusic and played for him in a parking lot. It is not the song that ended up on "Day for Night." Not even close.

From there Toots from Whitby, Tracey from LA, and Justin from Bridport take it apart: two chords, a phaser, Johnny Fay riding the rim of the snare, Gord Sinclair holding the whole thing down, a bluegrass ghost, and a theory about one word, 'rolling,' that nobody can shake.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• The icebreaker: a tattoo from The Hip. An album cover, a line about puppies, a design jD has already drawn, and Justin's cat, indifferent and furious at once.
• The new Hip Handbook up close: song cards, two daily games (Bring It All Back and (un)Locked in the Trunk of a Car), and the Passport, which tells jD he's seen The Hip 15 times, not the 17 he thought.
• Toots was in Markham in July 1993, owned the whole show on VHS, and remembers what Gord said right before 'Thugs' started.
• The 'Ruby' rabbit hole: Justin went through six versions of an old bluegrass number to find where Gord's voice crack came from.
• 'Nautical Disaster' on one side, 'Inevitability of Death' on the other, and Toots's case for the most underrated banger on the record.
• Justin, a Yes fan to the bone, puts Gord Sinclair in the same sentence as Chris Squire.
• Barrie, Canada Day 1994: bottles thrown at Daniel Lanois, and Gord in a mood about it. jD and Toots were both there.
• Tracey asked an AI whether anyone had ever linked 'Thugs' to George Michael's 'Freedom! '90.' It invented a recording, apologized, and invented another one.
• The wheel picks next week's song, and jD swears it isn't rigged.

"I specifically came home from that show, jacked on this new song that they played, which was 'Thugs.'" - Toots from Whitby

"Chris Squire is the best of all time. And I think Gord Sinclair can hang with him." - Justin from Bridport

THE PANEL

• Toots from Whitby. First heard 'Thugs' in Markham in July 1993 and liked it instantly. Once sang it with a tribute band at a Gord Downie tribute night at the Mustache Club in Oshawa. His plug: his new band, Dead at Recess, whose first show included 'It Can't Be Nashville Every Night.' Find them on Instagram and Facebook.
• Tracey from LA. Stepped up to pinch-hit this week. Loves "Day for Night" for its mood, thinks 'Thugs' ends too soon, and brought the strangest homework of the night.
• Justin from Bridport. Came to "Day for Night" backwards, after "Phantom Power" and "Music @ Work," and wore it out on Interstate 89 with 'Thugs' and 'Yawning or Snarling' turned up. It's banquet season for the Sprint Cars of New England, so his plugs went to Discovering Downie and the tip jar.

Big thanks to Toots, Tracey, and Justin, to Andrew for the tip, and to a chat that did the fact-checking on the fly. Next week the wheel hands the panel 'Locked in the Trunk of a Car.' Find a live version you love in the Handbook and send it to jD.

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

THE HIP HANDBOOK

The free archive of the discography, the lyrics, and the live performances, where every tale of the tape starts: thehiphandbook.tthpods.com

YER LETTER

One email a month, the whole network in one place: subscribe.tthpods.com

THE TIP JAR

Justin said it on the stream: buy jD a coffee. Tips keep the battery charged: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US

Home: home.tthpods.com

Email: tthpodcastseries@gmail.com

Facebook community: community.tthpods.com

Instagram: @tthpods

YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods

Yer Letter: subscribe.tthpods.com

KEEP LISTENING

It's A Good Life - Setting the Scene: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/2cb8095f-d6b5-42e2-a555-4f0319735ea9

Discovering Downie: "Secret Path": https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/e086ade9-373f-4bd3-9d84-513b2097cac5

'Poets': https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/339c232a-4700-404b-a533-779a14e1cf45

Live play count via setlist.fm. First and last plays, the 44 recordings, and the Top Forty Countdown position from The Hip Handbook, as cited on the stream. The Kumbaya Festival date, the track order, and the 'Ruby' history as cited on the stream.

#TheTragicallyHip #DayForNight #TTHOnShuffle #GordSinclair #TheHipHandbook #HipHeads