It started as a punishment.

In 2016, jD heard Greg LeGros pitch "Now For Plan A" on See You Next Wednesday - not as a bad pick, but as something deeply underappreciated that deserved a real listen. jD listened. Came back. And somehow, without either of them knowing it yet, that was the moment Fully & Completely was born.

Full circle, ten years later. Here we are.

About This Episode

jD and Greg LeGros return to the record that, in a weird and fortuitous way, started everything - The Tragically Hip's 2012 album "Now For Plan A." It's the most overlooked record in the catalogue. It's also, when you know what you're listening to, one of the most emotionally devastating.

The Hip recorded "Now For Plan A" while Gord Downie's wife was fighting cancer. Not every track maps directly to that experience - but enough of them do that, once you know, the whole album reorients. The desperation in the vocals. The urgency in the hooks. The tenderness buried inside songs that, on the surface, just cook.

jD and Greg go track by track through the full record, unpacking every song with the weight of that context - and without it, for the songs that stand on their own terms. They talk about what it means to watch a chemotherapy drip and write a lyric. About Gord's wife being "the look ahead." About a title that works on at least three different levels simultaneously. About why 'Goodnight Attawapiskat' is a precis for the last six years of the band.

They also set the scene for 2012 - the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto, the beginning of streaming, the vinyl comeback, Kendrick Lamar's arrival, and how Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball" tour changed at least one life in Hamilton that year.

This is a big one.

Why This Record Matters

jD puts it plainly near the end: "This is almost like a precis for the last six years of this band." The journey through cancer. The band songs. The Indigenous reckoning with a thousand mile suit and a community named out loud. "Now For Plan A" was released in 2012 with no context - and it quietly contained everything that was coming.

Greg's take is maybe the sharpest thing said in the episode: "How weird is it that he didn't get to release a record about his illness, and yet we've got track after track of him explaining how he feels about this illness."

You've got to love it. We've got to love it. Because they fucking loved it.

Also in This Episode

• The 100th Grey Cup: nine-and-nine Toronto Argonauts, Burton Cummings on the National Anthem, Justin Bieber and Gordon Lightfoot sharing a halftime show
• Why you should follow Burton Cummings on Facebook immediately
• The streaming-meets-vinyl moment of 2012, and why download codes were a genius move
• Greg's Springsteen conversion in Hamilton (it took three hours and he knew 15% of the songs)
• Greg's CanRock playlist on Spotify - four hours, search Greg LeGros
• The return of Time Bandits, Greg's other podcast - starting with 1980's "Battle Beyond the Stars"

Resources & References

• The Hip Compendium - Setlists, song history, full discography: compendium.tthpods.com
• Hipbase - Tragically Hip discography and catalogue data: hipbase.com
• This Is Our Life by Michael Barclay - the definitive Hip biography
• The Tragically Hip Archive - Live recordings and preservation archive
• Greg LeGros on Spotify - CanRock playlist + Time Bandits episodes (search: Greg LeGros)
• Yer Letter - Sign up for the TTH Podcast Series newsletter: subscribe.tthpods.com
• Facebook Community - community.tthpods.com

Listen & Follow

Listen now via home.tthpods.com | Follow on Instagram and Facebook @tthpods | Reach jD at jd@tthpods.com

#TheTragicallyHip #FullyCompletely #GordDownie #NowForPlanA #CanadianRock #TragicallyHipPodcast

The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: 'The Luxury'

'The Luxury' sits in the middle third of "Road Apples" and somehow that's exactly where it belongs.

Track four of twelve. It doesn't announce itself. It doesn't demand anything from you. It just settles in - dark, jazzy, a little snarling - and waits to see if you're paying attention.

Turns out, a lot of people are.

This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, jD is joined by three first-timers - Paul from Columbus, Jamie from LA (by way of Montreal, for the record), and Eric from Toronto, who also happens to shred guitar in Forever Hip.

Three rookies. One song. Zero consensus on where it ranks on "Road Apples." All the consensus in the world on 'The Last Recluse.' So there's that.

The tale of the tape:

'The Luxury' comes from "Road Apples," released February 18th, 1991, and recorded at Kingsway Studios in New Orleans - Daniel Lanois' personal studio. Produced by Don Smith. Live debut: March 1st, 1991 at the Town Pump in Vancouver. Final performance: August 10th at the Air Canada Centre - the middle show of the Man Machine Poem Tour. It ranked #67 out of 169 songs on the TTHTop40 Countdown.

The conversation goes deep:

Jamie breaks down a single melodic note change Gord made on the chorus - from the studio recording through the Roxy in May '91 all the way to "Live Between Us" in '96 - and how that one shift changed the song's emotional register entirely.

Eric reads the lyrics as a vignette: a man fresh out of prison, hiring company for the night, seeing a colour TV and soft water as genuine luxuries.

Paul connects the song to the fire at his cottage near Tobermory, a Crown Royal in hand, just letting it sit.

They get into the "fleur-de-lis" line, the Playboy reference, the lyric flip on "why are you partial to that Playboy con," and Gord's famous "song about a man walking down the street shaking a banana" intro on "Live Between Us." There's also a live chat shoutout to Duxoop Douglas for the New Orleans connection.

Very good, yeah.

The live shuffle at the end of the episode lands on 'An Inch, An Hour' from "Day for Night." Next week.

Paul from Columbus is a lifelong Hip fan from Columbus, Ohio - and the guy who connected the July 1st, 1992 Molson Park poster to the raffle happening this Saturday at An Evening for Sara J. Bada bing.

Jamie from LA - originally from Montreal, where his love for The Hip was first forged at camp in '89 via a mixtape with 'New Orleans Is Sinking' and '38 Years Old' on it - is heading to Toronto at the end of the month to perform in the cast of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish with English supertitles at the Elgin Theatre. May 25th to June 7th. Go see it.

Eric from Toronto plays guitar in Forever Hip, who are performing this Saturday at An Evening for Sara J at the Firkin on Yonge. Patrick Downie will be there. Two sets of all your favourites and that song you're thinking of right now. Yes, that one.

Resources & References

• 'The Luxury' - "Road Apples" (1991), Kingsway Studios, New Orleans
• Produced by Don Smith | Released February 18th, 1991
• Live debut: March 1st, 1991 - Town Pump, Vancouver
• Final performance: August 10th - Air Canada Centre (Man Machine Poem Tour)
• TTHTop40 ranking: #67 of 169 (source: TTHTop40 Countdown, 2025)
• "Live Between Us" (1996) - the version that changed the song for Jamie
• Live at the Roxy, May 1991 - early live recording referenced
• Live at Metropole, October 1998 - referenced in conversation
• Setlist data: Hipbase | setlist.fm

An Evening for Sara J - This Saturday, April 11th The Firkin on Yonge, 207 Yonge St, Toronto. Doors 7 PM. Featuring Patrick Downie and Forever Hip. Tickets at tickets.tthpods.com. Every dollar raised goes directly to the cause.

Next episode: 'An Inch, An Hour' from "Day for Night." Live stream, 8 PM. Be there.

Join the community at home.tthpod.com @tthpods | youtube.com/@tthpods | jd@tthpods.com

#TheTragicallyHip #TTHOnShuffle #RoadApples #GordDownie #TheHip #CanadianRockPodcast

Pete and Tim hear "We Are the Same" for the first time. Bob Rock, big strings, and a campfire album that divides fans right down the middle.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Released in 2009 and produced by Bob Rock, "We Are the Same" was the first record in over 20 years that made Tragically Hip fans wait longer than two years for new material. It debuted at number one. And it is, to put it diplomatically, a record that asks something of you.

Pete Marchica and Tim Lyden sit down with jD for their first full listen, and neither of them is ready for what they get. The conversation covers every track - from the country-laced AM radio chorus of 'Morning Moon' to the sprawling, emotionally devastating nine-plus minutes of 'Depression Suite,' which Pete calls fucking magnificent. There are Pink Floyd comparisons, David Gilmour guitar tributes, a detour into the agricultural meaning of 'Queen of the Furrows,' and a story about how Gord heard a CBC news correspondent's name as "Honey Watson" mid-song and just... went with it.

The residential school system, the weight of Gord's legacy as a voice for people who needed one, and the question of where that voice has gone in music today - those threads run through the episode too. Pete says it plainly. Tim agrees. jD doesn't argue.

Bob Rock takes some heat. The drum mixing takes some heat. The strings - which show up on approximately every song - take some heat. And yet, somehow, this episode ends with three grown men picking their MVPs and meaning every word.

'Depression Suite' is jD's. 'Frozen in My Tracks' is Tim's. Pete's? Listen and find out. Some things you've got to earn.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

jD is the founder and host of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series, a seven-show podcast network built out of love for a band and a community. He has raised over $35,000 for causes including the Downie Wenjack Fund, the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research, and CAMH.

Pete Marchica is coming to you from Spain. He showed up this week with notes, opinions, and a strip club analogy that somehow makes complete sense in context.

Tim Lyden listened to this album later than he would like to admit, did a deep dive on Honey Watson's true identity the day before recording, and watched a crow destroy something in his backyard mid-episode.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

• Tragically Hip discography and setlist data: Hipbase
• Live performance history: setlist.fm
• Band biography: This Is Our Life by Michael Barclay
• The Tragically Hip Archive - source for live recordings

IN THIS EPISODE

• Opening: jD on "We Are the Same" and the three-year wait
• The Italian fan translating Hip lyrics into his own melodic structure
• Track-by-track: 'Morning Moon,' 'Honey Please,' 'Wheat Kings,' 'Coffee Girl,' 'Exact Feeling,' 'Queen of the Furrows,' 'Speed River,' 'Depression Suite,' 'Love Is a First,' 'Country Day'
• The Bob Rock debate: production genius or too much Kool-Aid?
• Gord Downie, residential schools, and the question of who speaks for the people now
• MVPs, playlist picks, and a poodle skirt fundraising pledge

CALLS TO ACTION

Listen to Getting Hip to the Hip and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Join the community: community.tthpods.com

CONNECT

📸 Instagram: @tthpods ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods

📧 Email: jd@tthpods.com

#TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #WeAreTheSame #TragicallyHip #GettigHipToTheHip #CanadianRock