Hey, it’s jD, and this week I’m joined by one of the most well-traveled Hip fans you’ll ever meet — Shaun from Vancouver, a part-time travel blogger, full-time Hiphead, and EV evangelist who somehow managed to turn Music @ Work into road trip therapy. (Respect.)
Shaun’s Hipstory begins in Yellowknife — bouncing on a bed, hopped up on sugar, catching Courage on MuchMusic. From there, it was uncles in Ontario handing him Up To Here and Road Apples, worn-out cassette tapes in a Ford Escort, and open mic nights that turned into once-in-a-lifetime Gord encounters. Like, literal Gord. In person. With a guitar.
We talk about what it means to fall out of love with a band and find your way back. About missed chances and backstage urinals. About the communal catharsis of the final tour and the weird comfort of watching Gord wear a Boston Bruins jersey while fronting the most Canadian band of all time. And about how rediscovering In Between Evolution lit a fire he thought he’d lost.
Shaun shares why the music hits harder now than it ever did in the moment — and why he’s dedicating time, energy, and a whole damn travel blog to mapping out a Tragically Hip pilgrimage route across Canada.
🎙️ Next week: We roll into California for a lyrical deep-dive with Neil from Arroyo Grande. If you’ve ever felt seen by a Hip lyric or cried on a hike listening to Machine, Neil’s your guy.
“When Gord came to Yellowknife, I handed him a guitar at a basement bar and got to say I opened for him. He even ranted about the fish we caught. It was surreal.”
Shaun from Vancouver is the guy behind This Life in Trips and MyEVTrips.com — two blogs fueled by wanderlust, road snacks, and Hip albums on loop. He’s seen the band live from Alberta festivals to Massey Hall tributes, and once held the door open for Ron MacLean while debating whether to ask for a selfie. He did not.
He’s also working on a “Hip Travel Bucket List” for superfans. Expect Kingston, Horseshoe Tavern, the Danforth… and maybe your neighbourhood bar if Gord ever wandered in.
We’re aiming to raise $25K for ALS Canada in honour of our friend Matt Rona and the broader Hip community. Support us at buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40 — because it’s more than just a countdown.
Transcript follows below.
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
2025-05-24, 9:00 AM
The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown
Join jD beginning Monday, January 6th, 2025 while he counts down the top 40 songs by The
Tragically Hip as voted by you! Every week on The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, jD
welcomes a new guest to discuss their TTH origin story (hipstory) and dissect,
Artist: jD
Year: 2025
Transcript
[0:02] Hey, it's JD here, and you're probably tired of podcasts asking you for money. I get it, so I'm
not going to ask. I am, however, going to strongly suggest, with love, that you give me money. This
isn't about exclusive perks or gated content, though those exist. It's about supporting something
you believe in. If you've been enjoying the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, If it's made you laugh,
think, feel something, or reconnect with a band that means the world to you, this is your chance to
give back. I make this show because I love the hip, I love this community, and I believe in telling
stories that matter. But it all takes time, energy, and of course, your support. By joining the
membership, you're not just helping to keep the show running, you're also helping to raise money
for the ALS Society of Canada. No minimum, no catch, no problem. BuyMeACoffee.com forward
slash TTH top 40. Membership. Support the show. Support the cause. Support what you love.
[1:14] A member of the DATC Media family. Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It's
well worth the wait. At number 22, we've got a Rhode Apple staple with long time running. Sherry
from Midland, do you have any memories of hearing this song for the first time? Oh, God, so many
memories. Are you kidding me? It's song 22? Yeah. That's a magical, magical number for me. That
is so amazing. That's beautiful. I thought it would be top 10, but that song, it's my go-to.
[2:02] Music.
[2:09] Hey, it's JD here, and welcome to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is an absolute
pleasure to be here with you week over week, where we're counting down 40 essential tracks by
the hip that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots. I then tabulated the results using an
abacus and three stanzas from one of those stream-of-consciousness poems about the beauty of
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the abacus. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in every week to
find out. So there's that. This week, I'm joined by TTH superfan Sean from Vancouver. Sean from
Vancouver, how the hell are you doing on this hip-tastic day? Very good thank you oh that's good to
hear that is great to hear well let's get right into this let's hear your tth origin story or your hip street
where does it begin sean from vancouver.
[3:12] Um yeah i mean just maybe quickly before diving into that just wanted to thanks for uh for
doing this i i know i've mentioned this in emails but uh i found your podcasts uh therapeutic over the
last few years so i'm really excited to be a part of this and um you know it's helped me cope with
losing gourd and my favorite band and in a way kept the music alive so um yeah i'm a part-time
travel blogger. So, uh, during the pandemic, it was a lot of domestic travel. Um, and, uh, I've
enjoyed listening to the podcasts, you know, as I've driven from literally Clockwood Sound to Cape
Spear and every problem that's in between. So, Oh, wow. Nice reference.
[3:57] Yeah. So thanks again. And I'm excited to be a part of this. Well, I'm excited to have you here
as well. And I really wanted to thank you for those, uh, lovely comments. That's it means a lot, you
know, it really means a lot to hear that stuff. Good um yeah as far as my origin um or introduction to
the tragically hip uh it was the music video for courage um i remember it so vividly uh i was 12
years old bouncing around on my parents beds um i was hopped up on sugar or something and
watching much music and uh on comes on this song and it literally kind of stopped me in my hyper
tracks like i i was just so fixated on the screen all of a sudden and uh it's like my little head couldn't
comprehend what i was seeing or hearing um i remember thinking like that intro riff was so cool
and and who was this charismatic twitching singer and like why was he wearing a boston brunes
hockey sweater, even at 12 years old i just i remember being confused by that like rock stars can
can be into hockey they can wear hockey jerseys so um yeah it was just uh something that just
really stuck with me even though i was quite young um.
[5:22] So what did you do from there? Like, did you go out and get the record or. Yeah. So tape the
video. Yeah. It, it's, uh, I grew up in Yellowknife. So, um, I mean, music was a big part of growing up
there. I played guitar, I played in band. Um, but we weren't maybe as connected to the music scene
as those in the South. Right. Um, you know, pre-internet era, era, um, kind of like, I don't know if
you've been to Mexico in the nineties, but it always seemed that you would get into a. A cab and
they would have music that was 10 years old that was popular at the time.
[5:57] I haven't done that but that's great but yeah so i i do our family in ontario and um you know
after that introduction you know i was in uh in ontario visiting family and uh i had an uncle who
turned me on to up to here and road apples and just remember absolutely consuming those yeah i
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bad but uh yeah fully completely was my first intro and my go-to record um which is a pretty great
one to to cut your teeth on absolutely does it remain your go-to no um you know interestingly uh in
between evolution has kind of become my my favorite album ah i think it's similar to to um fully
completely like there's so many great songs it flows really well, rocks as well like it just yeah yeah
and it may be an odd choice but there's a couple factors for that like um like many hip fans i think
and i think you mentioned it in one of your your podcasts that i kind of fell out around music at work
right um i remember loving songs on in violet light it's a good life but.
[7:16] Riff intro that goes through the song like it's so great yeah um but uh i didn't really listen to full
albums after um maybe phantom power and music at work um uh yeah i was playing in a band
being influenced by other music and admittedly now like you know my chain my my um taste
changed but probably for the worst at that point me too yeah and like i go back and i think about
those those bands that i was thinking to at the time none of them hold up like the hip do so um
yeah, so when uh when gord's diagnosis came out i just i remember having this immense sense of
guilt that i abandoned this band that i absolutely loved growing up and was you know such a big
part of my my teenage years so i think i've overcompensated since then and i think now a lot of my
favorite songs are from that back half of that catalog well it's nice to visit that part of it when you
haven't right because it's like you've got four or five records that you haven't absorbed in the same
way that you absorbed those other records.
[8:29] So did they oh sorry go ahead please well i was just going to say like another reason with in
between evolution being a favorite i just i don't know if it's accurate or not but it kind of came to light
after watching the docuseries um that was the last album before bob rock got involved right and
now this obvious divide in the group which i think you can actually hear in the music um like don't
get me wrong i actually really like the bob rock albums and and the solo album too that that had
come out um but there is a noticeable difference in the band as a whole so So I think that was kind
of the last cohesive album they did. Interesting take. Yeah. Did you end up, did you end up going to
the Massey hall? I did. Yeah. Yeah. So like you saw Rob Baker, like he is, he is jaded. Like he still
seems to be kind of holding a grudge about that. He see, he sure, he sure does. Yeah. He did not.
It doesn't sound like he had a great time, you know, in the back half. Did the boys ever make it to
the territories? Yeah. Uh, no. Uh, the closest they got was Edmonton. I don't know if they did any
Northern Alberta shows, but, um.
[9:42] Yeah, Edmonton was as far as, uh, or that's where I saw my first hip show. Oh, tell us about
that. uh yeah it was a phantom power tour um i had gone down uh specifically for that and uh the
first time i got to experience gourd's rants in person and kind of was hooked after that seeing them
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live so i saw them a few times at some outdoor festivals um kind of in and around alberta southern
alberta um but then not again until uh their final tour in vancouver here so um yeah but two pretty
big regrets about that um uh i never saw them in a small venue like in the states or in europe like i
backpacked europe extensively and had several opportunities that really feel missed now are you
kidding me like there were there were gigs that you were near yeah like or i mean near is a uh in in
europe it's pretty easy to bounce from one city to the next so train right away sure yeah or a cheap
flight even so yeah it was a regret and then i had the opportunity to go to the second show in
vancouver and uh you know i i passed on it just because it was just so emotionally draining that I
didn't think I could go again. And I felt like I had a nice farewell.
[11:08] And my spouse tried to convince me otherwise, but I should have listened.
[11:13] So, yeah, regrets.
[11:17] Well, I mean, all you can do is move forward and just relish the fact that you did get to see a
piece of that tour because there are so many fans. They just did not get out like they could not uh i
don't know how you got tickets i got one from my cousin and who had got them but like man that
was a hard ticket to get yeah and even even going to kingston i i could have went there like not
necessarily to the show but just to be there i feel exactly the same way i feel exact it's a two and a
half hour drive for me so it's like It's inexcusable. Other than the fact that I didn't have my license
then. Yeah. It had been taken away. Train rights, dude. Yeah, that's true. Good point.
[12:08] Is there anything else you want to share about your origin story or seeing the guys live or,
you know, anything like that? Yeah, I mean, just origin, again, I think just really consumed them in
high school. I remember wearing out the cassette tape, driving my mother's Ford Escort up and
down the main street, the one street of Yellowknife, or at house parties. I remember the chant in
100th Meridian, everybody singing along to that. Oh, so cool. Yeah, so I just, yeah, a lot of good
memories, kind of growing up with the hip, I guess.
[12:55] Stories of meeting some of the band members. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I almost turned
to the page without hearing that. Please share. Yeah, so I've met Rob Baker and Gord Downey,
well, I'm exaggerating with Rob. I've got a good Gord Downey story, but for Rob, my spouse
worked in media in Toronto at the time in the early, mid-2000s. And she had tickets to Trailer Park
Boys premiere party, which ended up being wild. I can't remember where it was, but it was a very
small venue. And uh like there might have been 100 to 200 people and most of it was you know
actors and you know musicians like it was a it was a who's who of canadian musicians like there
was uh ian thornley from big rack um the drummers from tea party oil p alex leifson from rush,
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singer from junk house kim mitchell i remember bubbles performing with some of these guys
playing liquor and horrors like it was just it was a wild night and anyways i'm i'm at the urinal at one
point and uh in walks rob baker who's now taking a leak next to me and i uh.
[14:17] I remember i stopped myself from saying anything because it just seemed awkward um but it
was 100 fangirling in my head and and you know even my in my drunken state i uh i withheld from
kind of saying anything in that moment so nice just together yeah um but with gorge uh so he the
band didn't come to yellow knife but uh he came up for uh folk on the rocks which is a really great
music festival up there in the summer and uh he was there in 2001 to promote coke machine glow
oh and uh and performed um and my father runs a fishing company called bluefish services.
[15:04] Um my brother was actually hired to take gourd and the band out on the lake, and uh so my
brother tipped me off on that there wasn't any room for me to tag along but uh i grabbed a friend
um one a friend that kind of introduced me to the hip as well and um, uh we grabbed a couple cds
to get signed and a case of beer and kind of headed down to my dad's place at the dock uh to kind
of ambush gourd and uh he arrived and we offered him a beer and we kind of all just awkwardly
stood there um so it's kind of true like for for such a charismatic guy that he was on stage he really
was shy like it was very very soft-spoken and yeah yeah reserved yeah yeah so i finally um you
know said i was a huge fan and shook his hand and then we we chatted it up, Paul, having a beer,
which was crazy.
[16:05] During that, I'd mentioned that there was an open mic that night in this small basement bar,
in the hopes that he would show up. Just kind of threw it out there and away they went on this
fishing trip. I spoke with my brother afterwards to see how it went. He had said that Julie Doran,
she caught this monster 17 pound northern pike and gourd was just over the moon about that and
very great just.
[16:34] Repeatedly thanked my brother and and was just hope so very happy that you know
everybody was having a good time yeah and it really stood out to my brother that gourd was
someone that really enjoyed being in the moment which interestingly kind of became a theme of his
solo work like you can hear it in a lot of his songs and like what was the latest one there with bob
rock that never or um.
[16:58] The moment is a wild place. The moment is a wild place, yeah. Yeah. So fast forward to that
night, and I'm actually on stage at this open mic, and in walks Gord. No fucking way. Yeah. So I
literally finished up this song and handed him the guitar, which, crazy, like, I can technically say that
I opened for Gord Downey. Oh my goodness. In this tiny bar. um but yeah what's even crazier than
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that is uh you know during one of their songs gorg goes on into this very gourd rant and starts
talking about this massive beast of a fish so oh my gosh and you know about it like yeah like he's
literally we're seeing this process that he's famous for play out in front of us and you know being
part of that story was just just incredible i can't even imagine my head would blow off it would just
blow off and then one last thing i'll say about that night um in michael um barclay yeah uh his book
the never-ending present uh julie dwarren is actually quoted talking about being tipped off about
this open mic night in yellow knife and how much fun they had so uh yeah that was me wow yeah i i
meant to look up the page to kind of reference it and I didn't get a chance, but, uh.
[18:25] Documented in history. Yeah. There you go. That's very short. Cool. Very short paragraph.
But when I read that, yeah, that was pretty, uh, pretty cool. Well, not many people read that book
and went, oh yeah, I remember that.
[18:41] That's fantastic. Oh, I'm very envious of you right now, Sean from Vancouver. Yeah. I don't
know if, I know you've met a lot of the guys in a post-hip, but did you ever meet up with any of
them? I bumped, well, I got backstage once and I met them and didn't, I tried to play it cool, didn't
ask for an autograph. I'm pretty sure I grabbed a set list because they had another set list in the
back, but I've been unable to track that down. So that might be just something that I have in my
head. I might've saw it there and thought I was going to grab it. Uh, and then I live on the Danforth.
So I saw Gord, you know, two or three times just on the Danforth, just walking around and, you
know, and it felt cool to think that he was in my neighborhood, you know, and listening to songs. I
can, I can hear things, um, that might be, you know, maybe it was inspired by the neighborhood,
you know, that kind of stuff. So that's, so that's pretty cool. But yeah, the other four I met post-
Gorge's death. So should we, on that sad note, should we listen to the song of the week? Yeah,
let's do it. All right, we'll be right back. Hey, this is Paul Langlois from The Tragically Hip saying
hello. Now on with the countdown.
[20:07] Music.
[23:56] God, I love that song. I love the background vocals. I love the guitar. I just really dig that
song. Sean from Vancouver, what did you think the first time you remember hearing Three Pistols?
Yeah, I mean, same thing. It's just a great song. It's a great Canadian rock song. It's a lot of what I
love about the Tragically Hip, you know, high energy, guitar driven. With all these Canadian
references. Who sings about Tom Thompson? I remember, like I said, discovering road apples in
Ontario visiting family.
[24:41] The song might not tell Tom Thompson's full story, but as a 12-year-old going through my
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uncle's CD collection, it made me question it was dom thompson and that led me to the group of
seven and ironically i was in northern ontario and areas where some of them frequented so kind of
gives that sense of pride and canadian ownership that you know the hip would become famously
known for so i guess you know kind of like you talking about the danforth and seeing gourd like it
just you kind of feel a part of it in a way yeah yeah so what do you think this one's you know if it's
not tom thompson's complete story do you have a do you have a line on what you think it might be
about it i mean it is i think about him and disappearing um but i don't i don't know that the the three
pistols or 12 Pistel reference in there like I've never really thought too much about it but how that
connects and right I think it might just be one of those songs where it's like he combined two two
ideas or two things like I don't know do you know if there's I don't know and I didn't even check hit
museum so I would recommend everybody going back to fully completely and listening to the road
apples episode with Greg and I.
[26:05] That's what I would do of course that's what i would do but yeah no i don't really have a beat
on it but i i do think that it's cool that it changes every right like it's three pistols and two pistols and
then one pistol um i think that's very cool uh i definitely had the same feeling that you had with the
tom thompson piece like it was like well i've heard this name before but you know i'm not that
familiar with it so, i gotta look this up and you know we didn't have the internet then to look it up so
you ended up going to encyclopedias or whatever.
[26:41] Yeah, that's... That's what i think what's what what's your relationship with the song like at
this point.
[26:51] Yeah at this point so interestingly it's my spouse's favorite hip trap oh um she's a he's an
incredible artist so maybe there was a connection there i haven't really dug into it with her i'll be
asking her after this for sure um and then also it was the song that they opened with um on their
last tour in ventuver really yeah yeah so i that kind of always lives on anytime i hear it and
particularly because i remember being just so nervous for how they would do like right you know
you were right at the beginning yeah.
[27:27] Yeah like it was just after victoria's show and um there was so much concern if you know
gord could actually perform him and um yeah so i just i remember being nervous and then you
know he hits that line before the course i've been shaking all night long but my hands are steady
yeah and he does he holds out his hand and he does this like the shaky motion right and like he
could have been doing that for decades right like on that song i just maybe never noticed but for
whatever reason it just it gave that sense of like like okay he's got this like it's almost like i'm
acknowledging like hey i'm not i'm not 100 or i'm not good but i'm here and let's fucking go like i
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love it yeah so just anytime i hear that song that you know my hands are steady i i'd always uh
always think about that it is a great opener great opener anything else you want to say about three
pistols.
[28:27] Um i mean it's a music wise it's a basic four or five chord rock song but uh i love the the pick
raking and uh in the guitar and in the breakdown part yeah um yeah i it predates smells like teen
spirit and i'm not by any means comparing the two songs but you know that intro to smell smells
like teen spirit with the the pick raking there um, yeah i just i like they were ahead of it in some way
maybe i don't know um and like this song would have been a banger to see live oh yeah in the
early days like that uh misty moon recording that just came out like i i can't imagine being in a small
sweaty venue with three pistols playing oh my gosh what do you think of the of the uh sorry what
do you think of the collection of tracks that have been assembled for the up to here box set have
you had a chance to listen to any of the other demos and things yeah i listened to it on the
weekend um uh it was great yeah i.
[29:38] I um i'm not up to here is probably my least go-to album because i just listened to it so much
burned it out yeah but it kind of re-sparked that and me too like like holy fuck these are some really
good songs and and then yeah the live recording like just how tight they were and um yeah like like
almost better live than the actual actual recording so couldn't agree more couldn't agree more yeah
yeah uh did you get the box or were you listening streaming or uh streaming yeah yeah that's what
i did too i'm gonna hopefully get it for christmas yeah put put it out there yeah um yeah i debated it
but uh it was it was a pretty big price tag i I saw it there at that Massey Hall show, and I was going
to grab it, but I decided I'll maybe hold out.
[30:40] Yeah. And for, for the record, uh, I, I just, I just missed you right at the show. Yeah. I think I
was emailing your old address, but that would have been good to, to, to connect there. We were,
um, did you see, uh, Ron McLean? I did. Yeah. Yeah. So he was sitting the road behind us. So we
were, the spotlight was on us and we'd turn around and it's like, Oh fuck, there's, there's Ron
McLean.
[31:07] Was he staying there the whole time? Do you think? Or did he oh that's really great yeah
and then when we were leaving um just by chance he happened to be in front of us and my buddy
and i were kind of like you know maybe similar to the same guy actually my friend that uh when we
went and had a beard with gordon yellow knife he flew to toronto to meet me there um just
specifically to go to this so oh that's cool spectacular yeah but uh yeah we were following um ron
out of the venue and he was crossing the street and we kind of crossed as well and we're kind of
like giving each other looks like hey do we do we tap him for a photo and it just felt a bit weird and
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um so we never did that but uh also seeing ron mcclain where skinny jeans was uh was a bit of an
odd sight so yeah maybe that's for me oh oh man, He's a great fella, that's for sure. Canadian
treasure. Yeah, there was a lot of Canadian, Canadiana in that room. There really was, yeah,
because Jay Baruchel showed up and it was pretty cool. It was a pretty special night. And then we
got a copy of the book. I already had a copy, but, you know. Yeah, so I didn't know that they were
given a copy of a book. Yeah. I got two now. Yeah.
[32:24] Well, Sean from Vancouver, it has been an absolute blast spending this time with you talking
about our favorite band and talking about three pistols yeah um really great so thanks for taking the
time to do this with me today you guys are the show so you know i just have to uh i just have to grin
and listen to you guys talk wax poetic about this this wonderful band so it's great so thank you very
much sean well yeah and thanks again like i I mean, you say that, but somebody's got to do it and
somebody's got to put the effort in. And again, I appreciate the, appreciate what you do. Love it.
Love it. Sean from Vancouver. Do you have anything that you would like to plug at this point?
[33:12] I mean, I do have two travel websites, so thislifeandtrips.com, which is focusing on all things
travel. I do a lot of business class travel, now luxury travel, and kind of try and help other
Canadians book similar trips. Wow. And then I mentioned at the top there that, you know, during
the pandemic, that side hustle came to a pretty quick halt. So I started focusing on domestic travel
and specifically electric vehicles and the road trips you can take with them. Right um so my evtrips
is um dot com is my electric vehicle road trip um website where you know i try to try to get people
over the range anxiety of evs and um you know over the past four years while listening to your
podcasts i've been driving all all across the country and um actually even drove to france last fall uh
saint pierre and michelon so i drove to newfoundland and then over to St. Pierre and McLaren.
Nice.
[34:24] And actually on the This Life and Trip side, I've had it on my to-do forever, but I'm trying to
compile a bit of a Tragically Hip travel bucket list. So Kingston is obviously a big part of it and the
Horseshoe and sites in Toronto. So I'm working on that. And I'd love to maybe get some of your
favorite spots and include you in there so oh that would be really cool and yeah this will you know
this will come out a little while from now so maybe you'll have that done by then and we can revisit
it that would be really cool okay well i'll definitely ping it and be a good uh good little cross
promotion thing awesome yeah all right pick up your shit thanks for listening to the tragically hip top
40 countdown to email us send an email to tth top 40 at gmail.com we're social find us on all the
socials at tth top 40, podcasts and such.
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