'Fully Completely' Album Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Watch That Ends The Night

"...So there's no simple explanation
For anything important any of us do
And yea the human tragedy
consists in the necessity
of living with the consequences
Under pressure, under pressure"

These lyrics are a direct paraphrase from Hugh MacLennan's "The Watch That Ends the Night" and reflect the fact that in tragedy we must often live with the consequences of our actions. In 1957, MacLennan had written his famous book in the midst of personal tragedy that he had been suffering. In particular, he had fallen into a deep depression as the result of the death of his wife Dorothy Duncan. During this period, MacLennan contemplated suicide. It was his courage to not go through with his suicidal thoughts that inspired the song "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan). "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)" is suggested to expose suicide for what the band believed it to truly be, a selfish and impractical act.

Answer: Jacques Cartier

"I've got a job, I explore, I follow every little whiff
And I want my life to smell like this
To find a place, an ancient race
The kind you'd like to gamble with"

These lyrics make a suggestion that an old race within Canada (the Aboriginal people) were being exploited and taken advantage of by the Europeans upon their arrival to North America (specifically the Canadian region). Through historical documents and studies, it has been shown that initially European contact was not intended to be destructive, but rather for fur and lumber trade. Over time, however, cultural genocide would take place through the Residential schools established throughout Canada following independence in 1867 and was a large reason for the decline of Aboriginal culture within the nation.

"Jacques Cartier, right this way,
I'll put your coat up on the bed
Hey man you've got the real bum's eye for clothes
And come on in, sit right down,
no you're not the first to show"

It was explorer Jacques Cartier who initially made contact with the native peoples of the St. Lawrence region of Canada in 1535. Invited into the homes of the natives, the Europeans began to outnumber the local people. Within seventy years, further contact with the natives by Samuel de Champlain and establishment of positive relations would be made in 1608. With them came weapons and disease. These initial contacts with the natives were the beginnings of the slow decline of Aboriginal populations in Canada.

Answer: Toronto

Hengelo, Netherlands, the great plains of Canada, and Buffalo, New York are all geographical locations represented in the lyrics to the song. "At The Hundredth Meridian" is a lyrical representation describing the line that divides Western Canada from Atlantic Canada. When traveling from the east to the west, the hundredth meridian is roughly where the central plains of Canada begin:

"...At the Hundredth meridian
Where the great plains begin"

Hengelo and Buffalo are locations that The Tragically Hip had performed gigs at during the early 1990s. The lyric representing "Buffalo" is in reference to an incident in which lead singer Gord Downie had a shoe thrown at him and he subsequently left the stage. Some Tragically Hip folklore has it that the word "Buffalo" represents the large roaming animals that were common in the plains of Canada.

Hengelo on the other hand was a gig that the band performed in the Netherlands. It was an homage to their partying that was common at many of their earlier gigs. While some denial took place, a video arose that was filmed at the Hengelo gig. It was some of the earlier proof that the band did exist and what their sound was like at that time.

"I remember Buffalo, I remember Hengelo"

A final and important geographical reference in the song is a lyric that references the Canadian geography that has formed over Canada's history:

"Driving down a corduroy road
Weeds standing shoulder high
Ferris wheel is rusting
Off in the distance"

To many Canadians, a "corduroy road" is representative of western settlement such as the stretch of road between Burwash Landing and Koidern in Yukon Territory, Canada. Corduroy roads were often built over swampy terrain using logs that were placed perpendicular to the road. While they were a much improved road from plain mud or dirt roads, they were still often impassable or offered an extremely rough ride for passengers. These lyrics refer to these roads and the abandoned scenery that is often present in the distance of the Canada's prairies.

Answer: Spies

Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie has stated publicly that "Pigeon Camera" was an impromptu song performed during a concert about the controversial subject of "spying" and "incest". It was initially an account of the childhood of their road manager Dave Powell.

As the nature of this subject is taboo, a more literal reference of "Pigeon Camera" relates to how pigeons were once used for military purposes during the Second World War. Easy to train, pigeons often had cameras attached to their bodies and were used to complete reconnaissance work during the war.

"Where's our pigeon camera,
by now he could be anywhere
and after all that training.
And after all that training, (And after all that training)
With something we could no longer contain. (We could no longer contain)"

Answer: Roman a clef

Gord Downie, while most notable for being a singer, also spent some time studying film and performing in the film industry. He had a cameo appearance in the film "Men With Brooms" and has also appeared in "The Big Dirty". While not noted in the music notes, the lyrics to the song have been written in a style called "Roman a clef". Roman a clef is a French term meaning "novel with a key". This refers to novel written about "real life" but also has hints of fiction within it. One of the most famous examples of this style of film or writing is Orson Welles film "Citizen Kane".

"I can't draw, but I can trace (I can't draw, but I can trace)
I know a lack I've got, (I know a lack I've got)
an abundance of extra space (an abundance of extra space)
Cold wind blowing over your private parts (Cold wind blowing over your private parts)
I know a lack you've got is to make a strong case for art (I know a lack you've got is to make a strong case for art)

Lionized (Lionized)"

Answer: The 1970 October Crisis

On October 5, 1970, a radical faction of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross in his home in Montreal. Five days later, Paul Rose and other members of another faction of the FLQ known as the Chenier Cell kidnapped Quebec Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte. Their goal was to initiate a strong movement towards Quebec sovereignty. When their plans failed, they murdered Laporte on October 17, 1970. His body would later be found in the trunk of Rose's car. "Locked in the Trunk of a Car" is an imagined account of this terrifying incident.

"Morning broke out the backside of a truck-stop
The end of a line a real, rainbow-likening, luck stop
Where you could say I became chronologically fucked up
Put ten bucks in just to get the tank topped off.
Then, I found a place it's dark and it's rotted. (I found a place)
It's a cool, sweet kinda place (Cool sweet kinda place)
Where the copters won't spot it
And I destroyed the map, I even thought I forgot it, (I destroyed the map)
however, every-day I'm dumping the body.
It'd be better for us if you don't understand. (Better for us if you don't understand)
It'd be better for me if you don't understand (Better for me if you don't understand)

Lemme Out!"

Answer: We'll Go Too

Gord Downie has often used a dark sense of humour with his lyrics and while performing live. "We'll Go Too" is an example of this humour. The song relates to the feeling of being confined or trapped. It gives the listener a perspective of hopelessness, almost as though there is no where for the song narrator to go.

"To boldly clap in a room full of nothing
you never know, it could be one of those
poignant evenings

Museum's locked and it's long since past
closing you cannot know, you cannot not know (you cannot know, you cannot not know)
what you're knowing (what you're knowing)

What can you do, they've all gone
and we'll go too."

Answer: true

While "Fully Completely" was the band's third full-length album, it was the first one to contain a title track on it. Since the release of this album, the band has recorded other title tracks including "World Container" and "Now For Plan A". "Fully Completely" has a very similar feel to the song "Bobcaygeon" from their 1999 album "Phantom Power". The song takes on a perspective of wondering what "really might be out there":

"I ponder the endlessness of the stars,
ignoring said same of my father:
"Either it'll move me
or it'll move right through me;

Fully, completely"

Answer: Bill Barilko

"Bill Barilko disappeared that summer
He was on a fishing trip
The last goal he ever scored
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another till nineteen sixty two
The year he was discovered"

The opening lyrics to "Fifty Mission Cap" outline the tragic and sudden disappearance of Bill Barilko, the Toronto Maple Leaf defenceman who scored the Stanley Cup winning goal on April 21, 1951 against Montreal Canadiens goaltender Gerry McNeil. It would be the final performance and goal scored during his five year NHL career. Less than a week later, on August 26, 1951, Bill Barilko and his dentist Henry Hudson went on a weekend fishing trip north of Cochrane, Ontario on a Fairchild 24 floatplane, but never returned. It was not until 1962 (ironically the year the Leafs won their next Stanley Cup) that the plane wreck was discovered and Barilko's body was laid to rest in his hometown of Timmins, Ontario.

Answer: David Milgaard

"...Twenty years for nothing, well that's nothing new
Besides, no one's interested in something you didn't do."

This lyric outlines the sentence given to David Milgaard in 1970 even though it was later determined that he never committed a crime in the first place. In 1969, Milgaard and his friends Ron Wilson and Nichol John were taking a road trip across Western Canada. At the time, Milgaard was 16 years of age. Police had discovered the body of a nurse named Gail Miller. At the time of their arrest, Milgaard and his friends were going to pick up another friend named Albert Cadrain who was renting a basement apartment to a man named Larry Fisher. While Wilson, John, and Cadrain knew of Milgaard's innocence, they testified against him anyways. In 1970, Milgaard was sentenced to life imprisonment.

After years of appealing his sentence, the Saskatchewan government entered a stay of proceedings (halting of a new trial) as it was determined through DNA and other evidence that Milgaard had never committed the murder in the first place. Milgaard's sentence was overturned and he was released from prison. In 1980, the ex-wife of the tenant Larry Fisher had made a statement that she believed her ex-husband had actually committed the crime but authorities did not follow up on her statement. Through new technologies, it was determined that Fisher was the real killer and in 2000, he was sentenced to life in prison. In 2015, Fisher would die in prison.