Gord Downie, frontman and vocalist for the Canadian band The Tragically Hip, passed away just last night at the age of 53. According to a statement from his family, he passed peacefully with his loved ones by his side.
Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer last year on May 24th. For the last year of his life, he has focused primarily on two things: family and music. Gordie has spent the last year spending time with loved ones and fans. After the release of their album, Man Machine Poem, in June, Gordie and his bandmates set out on a fifteen show tour for the months of July and August. Knowing that Downie’s case was terminal, the band staged their tour in their home country of Canada, where they have always been most popular. The group’s farewell tour was quite an emotional experience for both the band, and their many loyal fans. Their final performance, in their hometown of Kingston, was broadcasted live on CBS without any interruptions, and watched by about 11.7 million people. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, make a point to attend their final performance. Since his passing, Trudeau has taken time to reflect on Downie’s legacy to both he music world and Canada.
As Trudeau points out, Downie was passionate about Canada and making the country, and world at large, a better place. Downie’s diagnosis and passing is certainly unfortunate, but it has helped raise awareness and funds for terminal brain cancer research. Plenty of fans have donated to cancer search since the diagnosis. In addition, the band aside a sizable amount of the tour proceeds to cancer research at The Sunnybrook Foundation. The foundation recently received a generous $40,000 donation from their fellow Canadian rock band, Rush.
The world has not seen or heard the last of Downie though. Downie will follow up his October release of Secret Path (10 track album complete with a short film and graphic novel) with an album titled, Introduce Yerself. The album will be released posthumously on October 27th. The 23 song double sided album was recorded in a mere eight days. Downie will finish his 33 year long musical career with one last parting gift to the world:”This is my soul on a record. ”
TRACKLIST:
01 “First Person”
02 “Wolf’s Home”
03 “Bedtime”
04 “Introduce Yerself”
05 “Coco Chanel No. 5″
06 “Ricky Please”
07 “Safe Is Dead”
08 “Spoon”
09 “A Natural”
10 “Faith Faith”
11 “My First Girlfriend”
12 “Yer Ashore”
13 “Love Over Money”
14 “You Me And The B’s”
15 “Snowflake”
16 “A Better End”
17 “Nancy”
18 “Thinking About Us”
19 “The Road”
20 “You Are The Bird”
21 “The Lake”
22 “Far Away And Blurred”
23 “The North”
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