Tragically Hip – Fiddler’s Green

I heard this song while listening to Road Apples last year or so, and I knew I wanted to come back to it. A shout-out to deKe, who recommended this album to me.  This one is such a beautiful and sad song. When I looked up the inspiration, I sadly understood. 

There’s a quiet weight (best way I can describe it) to Fiddler’s Green that sets it apart in the catalog from what I heard of The Tragically Hip. It was released on Road Apples in 1991; it comes in soft and stays there. No huge dynamic, just a steady song that feels epic at times. 

The song was written by Gord Downie after the loss of his 3 year old young nephew. That context explains the tone and meaning without needing to be spelled out in the lyrics. The band keeps the arrangement simple, light acoustic guitar, space between the notes, and a vocal that sounds like it’s being carried more than delivered. Producer Don Smith, who had worked with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, helped guide the sessions toward a more direct sound, and this track benefits from that restraint.

The album was recorded in New Orleans, and the environment shaped parts of the album, but this song feels separate from the rest. While other tracks were more into groove and band interplay, this song is kept simpler. It’s closer to a live recording in spirit, one voice, one guitar, and the room around it. The band understood it didn’t need more.

I didn’t hear this one right away when I first got into Road Apples. It was one of those tracks you come back to later, and it hits you differently. The first thing I thought was how different it was. The album peaked at #1 in Canada in 1991. The album had 6 singles released from it, but this one wasn’t one of them, and that is a shame.

I’m not an expert on this band, but after listening to the debut album and then this one. It sounded like a band settling into who they were. It’s an excellent album. 

Fiddler’s Green

One, two, three, four, one, two

September seventeenFor a girl I know it’s Mother’s DayHer son has gone aleeAnd that’s where he will stayWind on the weathervaneTearing blue eyes sailor-meanAs Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrainFor a boy in Fiddler’s Green

His tiny knotted heartWell, I guess it never worked too goodThe timber tore apartAnd the water gorged the woodYou can hear her whispered prayerFor men at masts that always leanThe same wind that moves her hairMoves a boy through Fiddler’s Green

Oh, nothing’s changed anywayOh, nothing’s changed anywayOh, any time today

He doesn’t know a soulThere’s nowhere that he’s really beenBut he won’t travel long aloneNo, not in Fiddler’s GreenBalloons all filled with rainAs children’s eyes turn sleepy-meanAnd Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrainFor a boy in Fiddler’s Green

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

24 thoughts on “Tragically Hip – Fiddler’s Green”

  1. Great bit of Canadian content today Max! It wasn’t that long ago that I first heard about this song, probably around the time of the farewell tour. Though I appreciate the Hip and love many of their songs, I never followed them closely. I remember the album before and after this one as the singles were much stronger.

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    1. The stories I’ve read about them is something else…playing in a 50 person bar on a Thursday in Buffalo and selling out on Friday in a 20 thousand seat arena in Canada…just boggles the mind! I get a REM feel from them.

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  2. Pingback: Tragically Hip – Fiddler’s Green – MobsterTiger

  5. Gord Downie wrote Fiddler’s Green for his three-year-old nephew, Charles Gillespie, who passed away from a heart condition in September 1989. This song is very sad, as it describes a child’s journey to a peaceful afterlife.

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  6. Good pick! Been a long time since I’ve heard that one, it is nice and quite different than the bulk of their early blues rockers but I never knew what was behind it.

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    1. I couldn’t remember if you covered it before…but yea man it just jumped out at me (being so different) when I heard it. What a sad inspiration… but they did such a great job on this.

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  7. Great pick from an iconic album. Gord never wrote the simple rock n roll lyric like “hey baby”. lol Downie would whip up something like ‘she didn’t know the barrel was loaded’ or ‘crack my spine like a whip’. He was great at lyrics man…. Don Smith produced those first two Hip albums and to me are there best as its like they plugged in and just went for it…no polish…

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      1. deKE is the keeper of the gate. Not just anyone gets into the frozen north. I had a vote.
        The album starts off smokin’ with Little Bones and adds a few more hard rockers then hit us with this. The band was flat out great.

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  11. This one works perfectly in the production. The back story is a kick to the gut, and I think it would have been a hard song to write, being so personally involved. This is different from most of the Hip that I’ve heard- and I never did a deep dive into them- one that really works for me is ‘Bobcaygeon’- but it is one to sit back and listen to, sigh, and ponder on what and where Life is taking us.

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    1. I’m like you. I have limited knowledge of them and this one seemed different right off the bat. I do know the song you are talking about…it does have that acoustic feel as well.
      Yea the inspiration for this was a gut punch.

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