Top 90 Quotes & Sayings by Gord Downie
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Canadian musician Gord Downie.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
I think the health of our water is tied to a lot: the health of our communities, hence our economy, the health of our basic human rights.
I stand in support of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations and all Canadians who find themselves with no voice in our present version of democracy, who are trying to come up with the entry fee that gets them a seat at the table where their pollution future is being discussed.
When someone gives you a piece of music, they are really giving you a piece of themselves.
I love dance - trying to express myself wordlessly.
The Sadies have toured with the Hip probably more than any other band. I got to know them pretty well and loved their sets.
It's time to listen to the stories of the Indigenous; we are blessed as a country to look to the wisdom of a really old country.
Canadians can be funny.
As we move towards resolution and understanding and greater serenity in all aspects of our life, love's pretty elemental and that's nice to know. I think rock 'n' roll is the same. I don't pretend to understand it; it feels confusing and frightening and wonderful.
You know, I've been hit with a Greb boot in the face and I've been spat on. And my kids light up when they hear these stories. It really takes their minds off their troubles.
Nobody ever asks me about my lyrics.
Being a dad, and being in a rock band, it's harder than it looks. But we tried. And we try.
I grew up on the lake and spent most of that time outdoors. As a musician, I travel widely around the country and talk to a lot of people, from all walks of life. That experience, combined with my rock and roll roots gives me something of an affinity for the underdog. In many ways, the environment is also the underdog - so, it's an easy fit.
We're not building a nuclear reactor here. We're not drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean with no plan in case something goes wrong. This is making music, this is melodious air and people can hear what goes into it.
I'm a music fan - I love meeting other musicians, I love talking to other musicians - and what greater opportunity to take advantage of whatever standing we might have to try and attract people? To say 'We don't know you, but we love you, and will you come play with us?' Sometimes they actually do.
Our sound is nothing like the Doors.
Rock 'n' roll is not unlike love. You find it oddly strangely comforting that no matter how old you get, when it comes to matters of the heart, you're always 15 inside.
I guess I want people to see me and to try to explain myself, and you don't always get the chance. Sometimes you don't get the chance and maybe no one ever gets the chance to really explain themselves, to have people see them. But I guess I'm doing that or I'm in the process of doing that.
I'm agile.
The Sadies have the ability to create soundscapes, and to put you in places.
Music brings people together. So my function in anything I do is to help bring people closer in.
I haven't written too many political lyrics. Nor have I written any pro-Canada lyrics, any kind of jingoistic, nationalistic cant... That stuff doesn't interest me and I don't even know if I could write that if I tried because I don't really feel it.
I like Raymond Carver's poetry a lot.
I kind of love walking around with something nobody else knows about in my back pocket.
The only criterion we used in doing cover material was we wanted to do songs that we wished bands would play when we went out. We were doing Yardbirds and Rolling Stones cover songs-which is not any big deal, but where we were from, all we were getting were Top 40 bands.
I want my kids to be good. I want them to be safe and have a great, long life. And take what they need from me and leave what they don't. Definitely leave what they don't.
To become a country, and truly call ourselves Canada, it means we must become one.
Even as a kid, I don't think I bought into a lot of the mythology about Canada.
Canada is not Canada. We are not the country we think we are.
I always like to have a glimmer of hopefulness, even in collapse.
I think I'm a dancer in terms of what I do onstage.
I'm interested in doing anything that teaches me something.
I think you have to show people it's cool and fun to work together. It's your obligation. If you can't do it, who can you expect to do it?
When we watch dance, the artists and the audience are part of a momentary collective experience that will never happen again.
It will take 150 years or seven generations to heal the wound of the residential school.
I've always liked R.E.M. because, like so many things I like, they exude a warmth; I like to think that we do, too.
Once we went into the basement and learned a song, we felt successful. Then we learned two songs, and then we got a gig, and on and on - and that's the way musicians think. I don't know about other people - I mean, I don't know about all musicians either - but some are more driven than others.
We used to tie a skipping rope to a pitchfork and try to spear big carp. We never got one. My kids love that story, very 'Lord of the Flies.'
You know, Prime Minister Trudeau's got me. His work with First Nations. He's got everybody. He's going to take us where we need to go.
We got instant gratification when we would slip in one of our own songs and people would cheer. We started getting a lot of gratification from writing.
We did reach a wider audience with 'SNL,' but it's hard to know what attracts people to your band in the long run.
Even 'The Inevitability of Death' is kind of a funny song more than anything. I mean, I thought it would be funny imagining radio deejays cueing it up and announcing it as people are driving off to work.
I've always kept a notebook in my pocket, I've always written stuff down since I was a kid.
I feel like I'm playing the washboard more than the guitar.
I have no illusions of the future. Or maybe it's all illusion. I don't know. I've always been ready for it.
I work every day. I write every day. I walk around in silent conversation with my latest unfinished songs.
Bob Rock taught me a lot. His friendship has taught me a lot about what you should expect from a recording session and, more importantly, how you shouldn't expect anything less than absolute joyousness. You should feel great. You should feel 14 to be doing it. It's true and it's rare.
I enjoy making and creating things.
We're a band. We're hired for parties. We have to know what to do.
I'm a dancer. It's what I love to do more than anything.
As you get older, you mellow, but there's a natural propensity to watch what you say, 'cause you learn that you want more time and space to craft what you want to say because you're less likely to want to say impetuous things, or things that aren't thought-out properly.
If we weren't in this band, some of us wouldn't be playing at all. You have tiffs with someone when he has smelly feet in the touring van, but we all respect each other as friends first.
I like hanging with my family and helping them on their way however I can. There's a new tragicomedy every half-hour, there is laughter, there are tears, and it's all real. They are endlessly entertaining, they have given me so much, they've given me a chance to 'see' things again.
If I'm to be an 'ist' then, like Bobby Kennedy, I'm probably more of a free market capitalist than an environmentalist. Rather than wanting to tell people to be less bad, I'm saying let's make it fair across the board and stop subsidizing the big heavy-polluting fat cats, let's make it a level playing field.
Ultimately with our band, it's word of mouth. It seems to be the largest cause of The Hip outbreak - if we can align ourselves with a virus.
When I'm in front of a crowd, I don't think 'Oh, there's some hard-core metalheads and some alternative fringe types, so we should be okay.'
Life's too short for bad coffee.
I'm grateful for the friendships and being able to show it, for people's dancing pleasure.
If you're aiming for a hole in one, and you get one, you feel lucky - but at the same time you can justifiably say, 'Well, I was aiming for the hole anyway.'
I work at being a better member of my family. So I know that that affects and drifts and soaks into my work, and my art.
In Canada, the major centers to play are very few and far between. Bands that are traveling in Canada really have to travel between gigs.
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