Soundtracked

Bobcaygeon

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This week's theme: Soundtracks

I have a weird feeling that I'm gonna be doing a lot of procrastinating this week. It happens...for no reason in particular and for definite reasons that I don't feel like getting into at the same time. I've put off my "Give It 100!"  project again, I haven't done any reviewing in the last day or three, and somehow I sorta figured out how to make a gif of myself this morning instead of doing anything that remotely counts as "being productive". But seeing as how I'm running out of hours today, I should probably get a move on with this particular entry.

Totally unrelated-to-this-entry nonsense.

Soundtrack week...this should be a little easier than the first two weeks of this year's version of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" . Even though I'm not crazy about movies in general I've already got a pretty sizable list of selections to work from. I think that's more because I know how to use the internet in a basic way than it is a function of knowing how to sit still for approximately ninety minutes.

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say maybe- maybe- one other participating Soundtracker has seen or even heard of this movie. I'd be surprised if it was more than one. It's also the only movie I've ever purchased from the iTunes store...because I don't know if it ever even saw a theatrical release in the US. It's The Tragically Hip's Bobcaygeon  .

The title itself comes from a small Canadian town in the province of Ontario, and it serves as the background of a song with the same name. It's not my favorite T-Hip song, but it's a beautiful little tune nonetheless and the original video   mimics the story told in the lyrics to an extent. The actual movie, however, is not your typical "band shoots a concert film" flick...it shows the town coming together in order to put on a large-scale festival gig, and it features plenty of interviews with local citizens about the band's impact on the area and how a single song by one of the biggest groups in the history of Canadian music has changed the perception of a tiny little town. It's a pretty cool thing to watch.

The interesting thing (for me at least, because I'm a big Hip superfan ) is that Bobcaygeon is actually their second third film...the second one being That Night In Toronto  , a much more straight-ahead concert video that was originally included in the Hipenonymous   2CD/2DVD box set (with the greatest hits tracklist for Yer Favourites   voted on by fans), and Heksenketel   (a mid-90's hodgepodge of concert clips and interviews).

And before I finish rambling on about all of this, it's worth noting that the album "Bobcaygeon" came from, Phantom Power  , was at one time the only cd I owned and happens to be my favorite Hip album. I had been working two jobs at the time; one was as an overnight cashier at a gas station/convenience store. We weren't supposed to listen to anything other than the crappy satellite radio Muzak they pumped in, so when the second shift assistant manager guy would leave I'd bring in my portable stereo and cds...and one night within the first hour of my shift someone had broken into my car and stole my cd book. It was one of those big ones too...probably close to 120 in it maybe? But because I had just purchased Phantom Power it was still in my home stereo...making it the only thing besides the radio I could actually listen to for awhile. Well, that and cassettes, but by then I had buried most of those on a shelf behind a chair outta the way .

Anyway, I've said enough about them. This is my obligatory Tragically Hip Soundtrackers entry. I'll try not to use them again (though no guarantees next week that I won't try to slip in a track from one of lead singer Gord Downie's solo albums ).

"It was in Bobcaygeon, where I saw the constellations
reveal themselves one star at time."
Lyrics.  

Fun Fact: Of any major recording artist or band, I've probably spent more money on The Tragically Hip between cds, merch, and concerts than anyone else. And the damn hockey jersey that I spent almost $200 on five or six years ago barely fits me anymore.

Dad, me, brother Mike, and sister Chrissy.