The Tragically Hip Songs Ranked

The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as The Hip, was a Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, two live albums, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 16 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, The Tragically Hip’s were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada. Following Downie’s diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album Man Machine Poem. The tour’s final concert, which would ultimately be the band’s last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio, and internet streaming special. Here are all of The Tragically Hip songs ranked.

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20. So Hard Done By (Fully Completely, 1992)

“Play it loud. The best driving song. Heads bobbing to the beat. Singing at the top of our lungs. Love you Hip! An awesome heavy groove that is almost hypnotic. Pulls the listener in like a snake charmer. So cool!”

19. Cordelia (Road Apples, 1991)

“This song has so much Gord in it. Unreal heart and energy. How is this song so far down the list? My favourite Hip song for sure probably because the studio recording was so damn good.”

18. It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken (In Violet Light, 2002)

“An outstanding beginning… Mesmerizing, melodic, takes you deep within the song for a tranquil, settling ride… Beautiful song… Great singing by Gordie… Beautiful guitar by Robbie… Needs to be played more live..”

17. The Lonely End of the Rink (World Container, 2006)

“This song just rocks. Starts by punching you straight in the mouth with a wall of sound. Gord Downie delivers a quintessential Canadian experience many of us know all about. Young goalies pay attention.”

See more: The Tragically Hip Albums Ranked

16. Grace, Too (Day for Night, 1994)

“Something about the intro to this song gets my juices flowing. Love the steady build of the rhythm. Just a very powerful opening and then continues to build throughout. Fantastic piece.The best opening song of any concert ever! And that’s where they play it!”

15. Fiddler’s Green (Road Apples, 1991)

“The story behind it…and listening to Gordie sing it in his last show – wow I don’t think I’ve ever been more affected by a song. Knowing the story behind the song this might be the most heartfelt and poignant Hip song ever done. You can feel the emotion in Gord. Pure Hip.”

14. Locked In the Trunk of a Car (Fully Completely, 1992)

“I adore the menacing riff. It’s lyrically brilliant. As well as illustrating the poem like writing of the hip. There are a ton of amazing hip songs but this is their best..”

13. Are We Family (In Between Evolution, 2004)

“Always brings me back to late nights with my dad and our family friends. This song sums up how I feel living in the middle class with my small close family.”

12. Fifty-Mission Cap (Fully Completely, 1992)

“This song’s meaning actually goes beyond just the legend of Bill Barilko. The fifty-mission cap that Gord D. refers to is the hat worn by fighter pilots in the World Wars (the ones with the flaps over the ears). After a pilot had completed fifty bombing or dog-fight missions they had the option to return home. Therefore, their hat became a “fifty-mission cap” which they would wear proudly. Gord D. is probably singing about a pilot cap which he attempted to work in to look like an authentic fifty-mission cap, as well as keeping his favourite hockey card tucked underneath. Classic Gord Downie nostalgia piece, conjuring up memories of his Kingston childhood”

11. Wheat Kings (Fully Completely, 1992)

“Powerful metaphor on societal complacency, even indifference, while years drain away in the lives of the wrongfully convicted. David Milgaard, the inspiration for the song, was but one contemporary example stretching back through Steven Truscott and a host of others. Not standard rock fodder, but a perfect example of the Hip’s depth.”

10. 38 Years Old (Up to Here, 1989)

“One of their best songs, if not their best. Why it doesn’t even crack the top ten is beyond me. “Heard a tap on the window, in the middle of the night. Held back the curtain for, my older brother mike… “, classic Hip.”

9. At the Hundredth Meridian (Fully Completely, 1993)

“I’ve always thought “the Hundredth Meridian” was a metaphor for the 49th parallel, and all it means to Canadian Artists. They have to go there, they must be carried there to be considered successful, but they lose themselves there. If you change “The Great Plains” could be the flat countryside of central North America, or it could be plain as in ordinary, non distinct, homogenized, as American Music tends to become. Much of what he cries to be carried away from (swollen city-breeze, acts of enormity) seem very american.”

8. Little Bones (Road Apples, 1991)

“Beauty can’t save the world. Beauty can’t save the world. But a kitty could. a Fuckin cat could save the world” – Gordon Downie Whatever that means… I couldn’t quite figure it out when i heard him say this live right before he started signing this, while the baker was playing the opening riff to little bones”

7. Blow at High Dough (Up To Here, 1989)

“Blow At High Dough, Is one of there best songs ever made. Acually I am kinda sad Because I think there Best song that they ever did was 38 Years old. Then Boots or hearts then blow the high dough, then new orleans is sinking. Then little bones, then three pistols, this song are the best they did it has that classic rock feel, and the newer song they sang are sappy and not like the Album UP TO HERE or Road Apples ot Fully Completly, those were there best years.”

See more: New Found Glory Albums Ranked

6. Nautical Disaster (Day for Night, 1994)

“What an amazing track. Just… Stunning. The lyrics here are incredibly evocative. Apparently, Gord is singing about a ship that had overturned during WW2, I believe. “Fingernails scratching on my hull.” Deep, deep magic here.”

5. Poets (Phantom Power, 1998)

“This is one of my favorite Hip songs, and it’s a bit ambiguous. On the surface, yes, Gord seems to be decrying the uselessness and pomposity of poets and poetry, but on the other hand, the language he uses, “the pink amid the withered corn stalks”, “The Himalayas of the mind” even “the epitome of vague”, is itself very poetic. What are we to make of this.”

4. Courage (For Hugh Maclennan) (Fully Completely, 1993)

“Courage, like wonderdog said is in fact about living with the consequences of our ordinary decisions. Not what we have done, but what we are presently doing. Living with the future instead of the mistakes in our passed. Learning how to deal with failure. Courage can not be summoned or depended on, so you have to deal with your bad choices and act upon them. However, Gord is a poet. And poetry was made so people could take it and turn it into something they can relate to. Thus creating endless possibilities to poetry. So, do the hip have endless possibilities to many of there songs? Of course they do. The meaning solely depends on how we as individuals decode them.”

3. New Orleans is Sinking (Up to Here, 1989)

“Cool song. Very cool riff and lyrics. Oh and did I mention the song rocks! Best lyrical genius of all time. Historical, creative, poetic, romantic, familiar. It’s the complete lyric.”

2. Ahead by a Century (Trouble at the Henhouse, 1996)

“This is awesome! This is my favorite Hip song, but I did not think that it was going to be in the top spot. I am very surprised and thrilled. I can and will never get enough of this song.

1. Bobcaygeon (Phantom Power, 1999)

“The Hip has had so many great hits, but Bobcaygeon is Gord’s best voice, the song that sets him apart. To be driving late at night and for this to come on the radio, you crank up the volume and enjoy some of the best vocals ever sang, vocals that go deep and touch one’s soul.”