The Tragically Hip Podcast Series

Eight songs. One vinyl pressing so rare most fans have never held it. And a song that — based on all available evidence — was played live maybe three times before The Hip quietly let it go. jD, Joe from Toronto, Andy from St. Thomas, and Justin from Bridport dug into the self-titled EP and found something they weren't expecting.
Episode Summary
'I'm a Werewolf Baby' clocks in at number 140 out of 169 songs in the TTH Podcast Series community poll. And yet. Pull it up right now and try not to move. You can't. You will fail. That's the thing about this song — it doesn't care where it ranks. It just rips.
The song comes from the self-titled Tragically Hip EP, released in the Kingston area in late 1987 and distributed more widely in 1988. It was produced by Red Ryder guitarist Ken Greer. Lyrics by Gord Downie. Music by Robbie, Johnny, and Gord Sinclair. That songwriting credit breakdown — individual, named, specific — is one of the things that makes the EP a genuinely interesting document. That, and the fact that it pre-dates Paul Langlois on guitar. He played shaker on this one. And during the breakdown, apparently, Gord picked him up and carried him around the stage. So there's that.
Based on what setlist.fm and Hipbase can confirm, the song was performed live only three known times — debuting in 1987 at the Alma Combo in Toronto and last appearing April 11, 1990 at the Spectrum in Montreal. Why did they stop? The panel had opinions. Some of it comes down to New Orleans Is Sinking absorbing the sonic real estate. Some of it comes down to werewolves being out of fashion by 1990. Some of it, jD suspects, is that they just didn't love it anymore — and when your setlist is building toward "Nautical Disaster" and "Fifty-Mission Cap," this one starts to look like the eight-crayon box sitting beside the 128-count set with the built-in sharpener.
What the panel kept coming back to is the foreshadowing. The howl in this song, Andy from St. Thomas points out, is the same howl Gord would use between songs on the 2016 Man Machine Poem Tour — the final tour — with the mic pressed to his belly button. Nearly thirty years apart. Same sound. The embryo and the elegy.
Justin from Bridport came in having re-watched the docuseries specifically to prepare. He surfaced the detail that the song predates Paul's addition to the band — this was a holdover from the Davis Manning era, a relic that got dusted off and recorded because they needed one more song. That reframe matters. This wasn't a proud showcase. It was a polished demo. It was the bar band phase. It was fresh-out-of-high-school energy — and Johnny Fay was literally still a teenager when they tracked it.
Joe from Toronto, frontman of Forever Hip, put it plainly: the lyrics read like Paul Stanley wrote them. Which is not an insult, actually. It's just that from Gord Downie, knowing what came after, it reads like a deal with the devil got made sometime between this and "Locked in the Trunk of a Car." The growth from 1987 to 1989 is almost impossible to reconcile when you hear them back to back. Justin confirmed it — his algorithm served him 'I'm a Werewolf Baby' and then, immediately after, 'Blow at High Dough' from "Up to Here." Same band. Two years later. How.
Community poll results from the Facebook group (approaching 5,000 members - now there's a number): 58% love this tune, 26% tolerate it, 11% skip it, and 5% had never heard it before tonight. That 5% number surprised everyone. It probably shouldn't. If you came to The Hip through "Phantom Power," this EP is a different country.
Next week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle: 'The Luxury' from "Road Apples." Three new panelists. One random song. Same deal.
The Guests
Joe from Toronto is the frontman of Forever Hip, the Tragically Hip tribute band playing live at An Evening for Sara J - April 11 at the Firkin on Yonge. This is his second appearance on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle.
Andy from St. Thomas is a lifelong Hip fan making his first appearance on the show. He came prepared, he admitted the EP was one he'd slept on, and his insight about Gord's 2016 howl being traceable all the way back to this song was the best moment of the night. He's a good dad. His daughter knew the Blue Album better than he did.
Justin from Bridport - the only Bridport in America, and a returning panelist working his way toward the five-timers sash. He re-watched the full Hip docuseries this week specifically to prep for this episode. It showed.
Resources & References
setlist.fm - setlist and live performance data for 'I'm a Werewolf Baby'
Hipbase - discography and catalogue reference. Thank you to Lance Robinson and the Hipbase team.
The Tragically Hip Archive - for live recordings referenced in discussion
The Tragically Hip Reddit community - Rico Borrega's song-by-song breakdowns of the full catalogue are worth your time. jD avoids reading them before recording. You shouldn't have to.
An Evening for Sara J - April 11, Firkin on Yonge
Hip fans in Toronto - this is the one. Live episode recording with Patrick Downie. Forever Hip on stage. Six Hip concert posters and a numbered Richard Beland fine art print of Chris Cornell up for raffle. All for a great cause. Tickets at tickets.tthpods.com.
Connect
Facebook community: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: [email protected]
#TheTragicallyHip #TTHOnShuffle #TheHip #GordDownie #TragicallyHip #UpToHere

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Some random odds and sods going on in TTH Podcast Series world at the moment.

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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: Train Overnight
This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, jD pulls 'Train Overnight' from "Music @ Work" - the twelfth track on the eighth album, a deep cut that earned exactly zero votes in the TTHTop40 fan-sourced countdown, landing in the company of only four other songs in The Hip's entire catalogue with the same distinction. 'Luv, sic,' 'Goodnight Josephine,' 'Sherpa,' and 'Are We Family.' That's the list. Five songs. Out of everything they ever recorded.
The panel doesn't agree on what to make of 'Train Overnight.' And that's exactly what makes this episode worth an hour of your time.
Kirk from Chino is the only panelist who saw it live - twice, in San Francisco and LA on the same tour. He noticed seven people on stage his first time seeing The Hip. A keyboard player, a female vocalist who occasionally played percussion. That was his frame of reference for what this band was.
Greg from Tacoma - who first heard The Hip on the same Seattle radio station that broke Nirvana, spent two years thinking the song was NRBQ, then proceeded to do guerrilla marketing for the band across the Pacific Northwest for the better part of a decade - brings the long-distance devotion that makes American Hip fans a particular breed of formidable.
Mike from Toronto was there from the very beginning. Jake Gold handed him a wristband at a Day for Night-era surprise show at the Horseshoe. Queen and Spadina. Nine in the morning. 300 people that night. He asks the question the whole panel keeps circling back to: if 'Train Overnight' had been on the first record, would The Hip have been The Hip?
The conversation moves through Gord's lyrical genius - specifically the line about apologizing like an old dictator might, which Greg calls one of those Gordism nuggets just buried in the song - through the bass work of Gord Sinclair (part McCartney, part Geezer Butler, all chug), through what it meant to be an American doing guerrilla marketing for a band most of your country had never heard of, and through the generational divide the Shuffle keeps surfacing: "Music @ Work" as exit point for one wave of fans and as entry point for another. Kirk came in through this record. Mike came in at the Horseshoe in '87. Greg found them in 1989. Same band. Three completely different doors.
Greg puts the whole arc into something sharp near the end: Day for Night as the blue period, the hangover after the nineties. Trouble at the Henhouse as the rosy-fingered dawn coming up the next morning. Phantom Power as the bright of day. And "Music @ Work" as a prism - every colour at once. The first record where they had 5,000 crayons instead of 64. You've got to love it.
Next week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle: 'I'm a Werewolf Baby.'
Guests
Kirk from Chino - A returning Shuffle panelist and musician, Kirk came to The Hip through the later catalogue and has been going back to the beginning ever since. He saw 'Train Overnight' live twice on the same tour - San Francisco and LA. He's a co-host on Discovering Downie and plays in a cover band called The Darryls (his name is Larry). He has a solo album in the works and a debut live performance booked in San Diego, May 2. Follow him at Kirk Lane Music on Facebook and Instagram.
Mike from Toronto - A first-timer on the Shuffle and a lifelong Hip fan who was there from the very beginning - the Horseshoe, the Alma Combo in '87, a Day for Night-era surprise show where Jake Gold gave him the wristband. His go-to record is "Day for Night." He listens to every album start to finish on long drives. He also recommends Ryan Davis Roadhouse Band - playing the Horseshoe in June.
Greg from Tacoma - Another first-timer, Greg has been a Hip devotee since he heard them on the radio in 1989 - or thought he did, until he spent two years believing the song was NRBQ. His go-to record is "In Between Evolution," and Tacoma is name-checked in the 'Tacoma Narrows Bridge' lyric, which he notes with appropriate pride. He put a record out at 60. He is in the Tacoma, Washington area and has a crew of five who all attend Hip shows and all play in bands at least partially influenced by The Hip.
Links & Resources
Submit to podList 7 - covers from The Tragically Hip EP through Day for Night: podlist.tthpods.com
An Evening for Sara J - Saturday, April 11, Firkin on Yonge, Toronto: tickets.tthpods.com
Discovering Downie (referenced by Kirk): available on all podcast platforms
Kirk Lane Music: Facebook and Instagram https://hadeesmarket.bandcamp.com/album/missives-at-the-turn
https://www.youtube.com/@HadeesMarket

Timestamps
00:00 - Pre-show promo: Joe from Forever Hip on An Evening for Sara J 01:37 - jD opens The Tragically Hip On Shuffle 02:27 - Introducing Kirk from Chino, Mike from Toronto, Greg from Tacoma 04:32 - Go-to Hip records: "Live Between Us," "In Between Evolution," "Day for Night" 09:05 - Mike's Horseshoe stories - from '87 to the Day for Night surprise show 12:26 - The reveal: tonight's song is 'Train Overnight' from "Music @ Work" 16:32 - Panel reacts after listening 17:02 - Greg on the Gordism nugget - apologizing like an old dictator might 23:51 - Mike: was "Music @ Work" a chapter closing or a door opening? 27:40 - The zero-votes revelation: only five songs in the entire catalogue 31:52 - Kirk saw it live. Twice. San Francisco and LA. 32:04 - jD on Paul Sinclair's bass line sounding like a chugging train 32:15 - Greg: McCartney, Geezer Butler, all over the song 34:01 - Kirk on guerrilla marketing for The Hip in California 37:00 - Mike: the only time he saw The Hip in the US was New York, 2012, NHL lockout 48:16 - Greg: the colour palette theory - 64 crayons to 5,000 49:55 - jD calls shuffle for next week 54:10 - Next week: 'I'm a Werewolf Baby'
🎟 An Evening for Sara J - April 11, Firkin on Yonge - tickets.tthpods.com 🎵 Submit to podList 7 - Hip covers from The EP through Day for Night - podlist.tthpods.com
Connect with the community
Facebook: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: [email protected]
#TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #TTHOnShuffle #MusicAtWork #TragicallyHip #TheHip

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The Tragically Hip Podcast Series presents - "March 25th, 1995" (A podUMENTARY)
The Tragically Hip Podcast Series - TTHTop40 Countdown
March 25th, 1995. Saturday Night Live. Dan Aykroyd walks out, the band plugs in, and Canada holds its breath. Thirty years later, we went and found the people who were watching.
"I finally felt like we - maybe as a nation, as a people, as a culture - arrived."
About This Episode
Hey, it's jD here. This one is different.
March 25th, 1995 is a date that lives in the muscle memory of every Canadian Hip fan. The Tragically Hip on Saturday Night Live - introduced by Dan Aykroyd, two songs that weren't exactly designed for a mass American audience, and a performance that has been debated, replayed, and treasured ever since.
This is a poduMENTARY, not a regular episode - something else entirely. We went out to the community and asked a simple question: where were you? What we got back was something formidable. Seventeen voices. Seventeen Hipstories.
Basement house parties, university bars, dorm rooms, living rooms, a bar in St. Catharines, a campus pub at Queen's. Some people were jumping on their beds. Some were pretty sure they cried. One person was at the actual afterparty and watched David Spade walk away confused.
We also hear from Bill Kenny of the SNL Hall of Fame and Saturday Night Network Podcasts, who puts the episode in full context - what kind of season it was, how Dan Aykroyd ended up hosting, and why this one still holds up.
The songs were 'Grace Too' and 'Nautical Disaster.' The debate about whether those were the right choices has apparently never stopped. We get into that too.
So there's that.
"I remember Dan Aykroyd coming out wearing a shirt that looks like something a snowboarder would wear on Laundry Day and thinking, as a country, we deserve better swag than that."
Voices in This Episode
Community members and contributors, in no particular order:
Alan Carver
Bill Kenny - SNL Hall of Fame and Saturday Night Network Podcasts
Christy Miskelly
Dean Rainey
Devon Law
Erin Rizok
Jason Kirby
Jessica Novak
Jeremy Schultz
Kim Gill
Mark Gordon
Mike Foster
Paul Do Forno
Rich Raczelowski
Ryan McNeil
Sara J
Scott McRae

Resources & Links
Mentioned in This Episode
SNL Hall of Fame and Saturday Night Network Podcasts
This Is Our Life - The Tragically Hip (Michael Barclay)
Hipbase - The Tragically Hip Discography & Setlists
The Tragically Hip Archive

Connect & Listen
All TTH Podcast Series links - home.tthpods.com
The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live every week
Email jD - [email protected]

Join Us Live - The Tragically Hip On Shuffle
Every week we pull a random Hip song and unpack it live with a rotating panel. No prep. No script. Just the song, the room, and whatever comes up. Join us - details and links at home.tthpods.com.
A Note From jD
Thank you to every single person who sent in a voice memo for this one. Seventeen people trusted us with a memory - a real one, the kind that lives in your chest - and that is not a small thing. This community is the whole point. Every time.
Get after it.
- jD / Host / Producer / The Tragically Hip Podcast Series - Est. 2018
#TTHTop40 #TheTragicallyHip #GordDownie #TheHip #CanadianRockPodcast #TragicallyHip

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Fully & Completely: Redux - World Container
Bob Rock, a divisive record, and the Tragically Hip song that might just be their best. jD and Greg came around. Hard.
October 17th, 2006. The Tragically Hip released "World Container" - their first of two records with producer Bob Rock, and one of the most divisive albums in the band's catalog. Twenty years later, jD and Greg LeGros are back for Season 2 of Fully & Completely: Redux, and the verdict is in: this record is better than you remember.
In this episode, jD and Greg dig into the landscape of 2006 - the Wild West of music piracy, the indie pop boom, Arctic Monkeys blowing up on MySpace, and a straight-ahead Canadian rock band trying to stay relevant without chasing a trend. Then they get into the album itself, track by track: the stadium-sized riff of 'You're Not the Ocean', the disco-beat weirdness of 'The Lonely End of the Rink', the complicated love letter that is 'In View', the cool-as-hell swagger of 'Fly', and the title track 'World Container' - which gets called one of the best Tragically Hip songs of all time. No argument here.
Greg also quit coffee. It almost killed him. We talk about that too.
This is Fully & Completely: Redux. Season 2. We're back.
"I missed the boat completely. Because this song is just perfect."
Greg LeGros from Toronto - co-host of Fully & Completely and the person most likely to make you reconsider a record you wrote off. Musician, music obsessive, and the only person jD trusts to go track by track through a Tragically Hip album for hours without losing the thread. This is their reunion after a longer-than-expected break - and it picks up exactly where it left off.
Mentioned or referenced in this episode:
"World Container" (2006) - The Tragically Hip - produced by Bob Rock
"Hipeponymous" (2005) - The Tragically Hip box set collection
A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War, Russia, 1941-1944 by Willy Peter Reese - referenced in the 'You're Not the Ocean' discussion (Gord Downie connection)
Hipbase - discography and catalogue reference
HipMuseum - band history and archival reference

Related episodes:
Fully & Completely: Redux - In Violet Light
Fully & Completely: Redux - We Are The Same (up next)

00:00 - Cold Open: October 17th, 2006 01:45 - Intro & Season 2 is back 04:00 - Greg quit coffee (the dark side of a cleanse) 14:30 - The World Container year: 2006 in music and sports 28:00 - Bob Rock: the man, the myth, the Black Album 38:00 - Track by track: 'You're Not the Ocean' 48:30 - 'The Lonely End of the Rink' 57:00 - 'In View' - call your mom 1:06:00 - 'Fly' - Moonbeam, Ontario 1:14:00 - 'Luv (Sic)' and 'Kids Don't Get It' (recording gap at 1:03 - see production note) 1:22:00 - 'Pretend' 1:29:00 - 'Last Night I Dreamed You Didn't Love Me' 1:37:00 - 'The Drop Off' 1:43:00 - 'Family Band' 1:52:00 - 'World Container' - all songs are one song 2:02:00 - Final diagnosis & favourite track picks
Got a take on "World Container"? A song that still hits you different? Drop it in the comments or bring it to the community - we want to hear what you think.
💙 Leave a tip for jD: tthpods.kit.com/products/tipsforjd
"World Container" took its time getting its due. Greg wasn't sold. jD wasn't ready. And then - track by track, line by line - it got them both. "All songs are one song and that song is don't forget." That's not just a lyric. For anyone who's been listening to this network for a while, you know exactly what that means.
Next week: jD and Greg keep going. Bob Rock. Season 2. They're not done yet.
The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - weekly live stream, one random Hip song, real-time community conversation - youtube.com/@tthpods
Yer Hipstories: Reflections From The Final Tour - the oral history of the Man Machine Poem Tour - coming 2026

Web: home.tthpods.com
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Email: [email protected]
#TheTragicallyHip #FullyCompletely #WorldContainer #GordDownie #TheHip #TTHOnShuffle

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