![]() ![]() And rhymes fall flat when they aren't bundled up in songs sometimes, but this is something I got over right-quick. I like the straightforwardness of the collection. I feel selfish doing this, this pre-mourning business. I've been pre-mourning Gordie, like a lot of other mild Anglo-Canadians who somehow got barbed by the hip's tunes (I'd say for me it was their constant background presence, music at work being the earliest hip tune I can remember, though one of my least favourite to listen to now). ![]() Highly recommended for Hip fans, and maybe the rest of you would also enjoy his obscure and terse verse. The poems are not bad, they're just spartan. The poems are seldom longer than half a page which makes them very easy to read, which is probably the reason I don't want to mark it down any further. It is very obvious that he worships Al Purdy and he even mentions him by name in one of the poems. Without the music to direct the mood of the poems and lyrics in this books Downie's language sounds sparse and kind of shallow. Try playing any guitar parts by yourself in your bedroom and you will see how strange they are the different parts sound like they were created by five different lead men vying for the audience's attention while, when they are put together, they create some of the most poignant and impassioned music in Canada. I've always felt that the Tragically Hip are a band that needs to be taken as a whole package once a song is dissected down to its singular parts, they don't really make any sense. Downie was a minor league hockey goalie and played for an Ontario championship winning Bantam level team in 1979. Downie then studied film at Queen's University in Kingston. He graduated from Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute in 1982, a school also attended by his band-mates. The godson of former Boston Bruins general manager and coach Harry Sinden, Downie attended Ernestown Secondary School (Odessa, Ontario) in grade nine and part of grade ten. Canadian indie band The Dinner Is Ruined plus Julie Doiron and Josh Finlayson, called The Country of Miracles, served as his backing band for the first three solo albums. Coke Machine Glow was sold along with a book of poetry of the same name, included with the CD. He released six solo albums the final two of which were release posthumously Coke Machine Glow (2001), Battle of the Nudes (2003) The Grand Bounce (2010), Secret Path (2016), Introduce Yerself (2017) and Away Is Mine (2020). He was the lead singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. Layered and deceptively simple, imbued with Downie's wit, insight, anger, compassion and rock'n'roll edge, Coke Machine Glow is a remarkable debut from a remarkable creator.Ĭanadian rock musician, writer and occasional actor. Ultimately, this book is about the distances that bridge and separate us. With his acute and observing eye, he gives us snapshots of his life, both on the road and at home he writes of loneliness and isolation of longing and desire of the present and the past of dreams and nightmares love lost and love of family. In poetry that is urban, gritty and political, as well as romantic, nostalgic and whimsical, Downie allows us a glimpse inside his world. Now, on the 20th anniversary year of Coke Machine Glow, fans have more to delight an audiobook of Coke Machine Glow and a brand new album by Downie, released posthumously.Ĭoke Machine Glow is a rich, haunting collection that reveals both the public and private selves of one of Canada's most enigmatic musicians. Alongside the album, his first book of poetry and prose under the same title was published, including the lyrics to the sixteen songs on the record. There are 13 Cohen releases in the Canadian Top 100 right now.įor more data, go here.Gordon Downie, lead singer and lyricist for the popular Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, released his first solo record, Coke Machine Glow in Spring 2001.In the two days after the news broke, Cohen songs were streamed 1.9 million times in Canada.His greatest hits album, The Essential Leonard Cohen, is on track to finish the week in the top five.The new album, You Want It Darker, accounted for 9,300 units of those. Another 15,100 albums were sold on November 11-12.From 9pm to 12m on November 10–the night we learned the news–his one-day sales figure was 3,350. From November 4-9, the entire Cohen catalogue sold about 3,500 albums.This is what happens when people have access to any music they want anytime they want it.Īccording to BuzzAngle Music, we know the following: Yet in that three hours, interest and consumption of his music exploded. Word of Leonard Cohen’s passing came around 9pm ET last Thursday night, just three hours before the weekly charts were closed. ![]()
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