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The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song 19 – Jeff from BellevilleWelcome back, Hip faithful. This week on the Countdown, I’m joined by one of our most beloved Sunday Evening Jam regulars — the witty, wise, and wonderfully loquacious Jeff from Belleville. You know him. You love him. And if you’ve ever caught a live stream where he was in the comments, you’ve probably laughed out loud.But today? Today, we go deeper.Jeff takes us back to his teenage years, up in a century-old Belleville coach house where Road Apples first took hold and never let go. From bootleg tapes and roadside attractions to mosh pits, surprise shows, and backstage encounters — Jeff’s Hipstory spans 31 shows and countless life moments tied to the soundtrack of this band.Along the way, we talk memory, meaning, and mortality — including the two cardiac arrests Jeff survived (yes, you read that right), and the unexpected video message he received from Paul Langlois while recovering. This episode reminds us why we do this show in the first place: for the love, for the connection, for the community.We even get a bonus English Lit breakdown of King Lear — and how defiance, irony, and Shakespearean tragedy might be woven into one of the Hip’s most poetic tracks. (And yeah, we manage to keep the actual title of that track on the DL. You’re welcome.)👀 NEXT WEEK: We’re off to Ann Arbor for a conversation with Claire — a longtime listener with a gift for lyrical insight and a wild story about hearing the Hip in a cornfield. Trust me, you’re gonna love her.🎧 BONUS: Early access to upcoming episodes is always waiting for you in the membersHIP folder. And if you haven’t joined the membersHIP yet? Now’s the time. You help keep the lights on, the pods rollin’, and the fundraiser rollin’ toward our $25K goal for ALS Canada.✍️ GET INVOLVED:Submit your hot take or love letter for the Music @ Work podumentary right here.Nominate someone for the Let’s Get Fandom Right SuperFan contest! Find the one-pager in the membersHIP folder.🧠 CLOSING THOUGHT:If grief really is love with nowhere to go, maybe this show is one of the places it can go. Thanks to Jeff — and to all of you — for helping us build that space.🎤 Listen wherever you get yer podcasts.📨 Feedback? Stories? Drop us a line at tthtop40@gmail.com📱 Follow along: @tthtop40 on Instagram and Facebook🌐 All roads lead to dewvre.com/tthtop40Transcript included below.(And yes, it’s unabridged. Because that’s how we do.)Track 2:[0:02] Hey, it's JD here, and you're probably tired of podcasts asking you for money. I get it, so I'mnot going to ask. I am, however, going to strongly suggest, with love, that you give me money. Thisisn't about exclusive perks or gated content, though those exist. It's about supporting somethingyou believe in. If you've been enjoying the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown, If it's made you laugh,think, feel something, or reconnect with a band that means the world to you, this is your chance togive back. I make this show because I love the hip, I love this community, and I believe in tellingstories that matter. But it all takes time, energy, and of course, your support. By joining themembership, you're not just helping to keep the show running, you're also helping to raise moneyfor the ALS Society of Canada. No minimum, no catch, no problem. BuyMeACoffee.com forwardslash TTH Top 40. Membership. Support the show. Support the cause. Support what you love.Track 1:[1:12] A member of the DATC Media family.Track 2:[1:16] Previously on the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown.Track 1:[1:19] Neil from Arroyo Grande, what kind of memories does 50 Mission Cap conjure for you? 50Mission Cap is actually one of the first songs that I got into, first song being the darkest one. And Iwas doing some hip research because I was fairly new to the hip at the time. And I just looked up alist of what are top 10 hockey songs? And 50 Mission Cap came up. And I'm like, 50 mission cap?What does this have to do with hockey?Track 3:file:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20622.htmlPage 1 of 23The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown2025-05-23, 5:20 PM[1:58] Hey, it's J.D. here, and welcome back to the Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown. It is mypleasure to be here with you every Monday as we spend some time sharing stories andexperiences while counting down 40 essential tracks by the Tragically Hip that you chose with yourvery own Top 20 Ballots. I simply tabulated the results using an abacus and a pair of salad tongs Ifound under my bed, wrapped in burlap and bound in a macrame-like twine? Was it a signal? And ifso, from who? How have your favorite songs fared in the rankings? Let me know at tthtop40 atgmail.com. This week, I'm joined by one of our favorite guests on the Sunday Evening Jam. It's Jefffrom Belleville. Jeff from Belleville, tell me, how the fuck is it going with you on this hip-tastic day?Track 4:[2:54] Jamie, absolutely delightful, buddy. I'm absolutely pleased to be here with you. It's a beautifulday. And I, you know, listening to your intros, it's like when you'd watch the Muppets and Gonzowould blow the horn and something different would happen. I always look forward to your intros.Track 3:[3:12] Oh, thanks, dude.Track 4:[3:14] Yeah. Amazing.Track 3:[3:16] Yeah, I have fun writing those.Track 4:[3:19] Oh, no doubt.Track 3:[3:20] Well, let's get right into this. Let's get right into this. And let's get right into your Tragically Hiporigin story. I'm curious. And full disclosure, I shouldn't be curious because we have recorded thisbefore, but Jeff Tucker is the lost file. Then I've recorded many of these. I've recorded almost 40 ofthese. I've never lost anything, but I lost one and we're going to do it again. And I think he's got agreat story and we're going to share it and you'll get to hear it this time because it won't be lost. andit's going to be fucking great. So Jeff... Kick it off.Track 4:[4:00] Here we go. Yeah. JD, you know what? I, the last time we did this, I started with a thank youand I want to do that again. I just want to say thanks to you for creating these podcasts and this hipcommunity. Uh, I've been listening since back in 2018 when I discovered fully and completely,file:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20622.htmlPage 2 of 23The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown2025-05-23, 5:20 PMcompletely by accident, I actually just stumbled on it. I put in a search in Apple I podcast fortragically hip and lo and behold, I found your podcast that you did with Greg. So it's beenphenomenal and uh you know yeah absolutely the tth top 40 uh requests that you put out for yourlisteners to to share stories was uh something amazing and um i wanted to be a part of thatbecause i'd listened so many times you know before you know on the other end listening you knowsaying things or you know having comments so you provided that opportunity to your listenerswhich is great and the sunday evening jam was another really cool opportunity for myself and thecommunity at large. And I think he took the community piece to another level by creating those twoparticular pieces.Track 4:[5:10] The membership was a no-brainer for me. I'd been listening to all your phenomenal contentabout Tragically Hip, so to pay a few bucks in order to be a part of it was a no-brainer. And, youknow, the stories that we've been hearing from fans and people who are part of the community arephenomenal. They're stories, you know, of admiration, adoration, great respect, appreciation.Track 4:[5:35] And grief, you know, not just for Gord, because Gord's gone, but for the tragically hip as acollective, as a band, because they're not that unit anymore without Gord. And as another artist thatI listen to sings, grief is only love that's got no place to go. And, you know, you have created a placefor that love to go. So kudos to you.Track 3:[5:55] Beautiful, dude.Track 4:[5:56] And many, many thanks. So I just want to get that out of the way first and foremost.Track 3:[6:01] Where did that lyric come from?Track 4:[6:03] Um an artist named steven wilson jr he's a relatively new artist he's kind of a country-ish guysure um but uh yeah real cool lyric i believe that's the title of a song and a great song he's got manygreat songs so yeah well.Track 3:[6:21] Thank you so much.file:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20622.htmlPage 3 of 23The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown2025-05-23, 5:20 PMTrack 4:[6:22] Yes that.Track 3:[6:23] Means a great deal.Track 4:[6:23] Yeah good it should because i think we all feel this way and and you know i think everybodytries to express sit in somewhere or another, but, uh, I think it's important to take the time and makeyou aware that, uh, that those vibes are out there and that you're appreciated. So, Hey, I don't wantto, you know, Hey, let's keep this going on.Track 3:[6:46] This is good news.Track 4:[6:48] Yes. So, uh, yeah, my hipsterie began back in 1991 when I was in grade 11. Uh I grew up inBelleville and uh I was fortunate enough to grow up in a century home and we had a coach housewhich uh you know the horse and buggies back in the day uh modern garage is what we call it nowbut uh.Track 3:[7:28] My father-in-law just came in, and I'm just scared that he's going to walk in. No, he's gonenow. Okay, so start with, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a sentry home.Track 4:[7:43] So yeah, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a sentry home, and sentry homes in the areaof Belleville I lived in, many of them had coach houses. Modern day people call them garages butuh you know they were some buggy back in the day my parents had it restored uh so about grade11 i made it my bedroom and i was a little bit like mike sievers from growing pains if oh badass yestotal badass uh so that's where my friends and i congregated many many weekends uh to stay outof trouble in the community or maybe get into trouble up in the coach house. But yeah, it was great.I had a couch, a stereo, a TV, and of course my bed and my desk were up there. Anyway, this wasour place of congregation all through high school. And one of my good buddies in my high schoolgroup, Daryl McGrath, came over one night with a new cassette. It was Road Apples by theTragically Hip. And he told our group that his brother Paul, older brother Paul, who we call Ralphie,gave it to him and said it was an amazing band that he had to check out and that he and hisfile:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20622.htmlPage 4 of 23The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown2025-05-23, 5:20 PMbuddies would love it and we always listen to music when we were up in the coach house havingdrinks and watching hockey and about the only time music would stop is when Don Cherry andRon McLean would do their intermission yeah yeah so um so he put it on and uh you know LittleBones.Track 4:[9:12] Twist My Arm, Cordelia you know the first three tracks and and this is when everyone waspretty focused on it before we went back to our conversations but uh you know i think it's a sign of agood band if you don't have someone in a group of seven or eight that says come on turn this offput the other stuff back on so we had acceptance right away but uh it had to grow as as the hipsongs and albums do uh but it continued to play all through the night and every weekend and it justsort of started to seep in to our myself and my peer group you know and it took hold um and it'sfunny because you know you'd be socializing and music's always in the background there'sconversations going on and, The times that I really remember it sinking in is, you know, I didn'thave a bathroom up in the coach. I was like, maybe Mike Sievers did. We actually had to godownstairs outside and take a squirt in the backyard. So you'd be out there and the noise of theconversations would be gone, but the blare of the music, you could hear outside still. And I canremember, you know, being out there with a bit of a buzz on, looking up at the stars, draining mybladder. and like just thinking this music is awesome this rocks and that is so incongruent.Track 3:[10:33] But i love it.Track 4:[10:36] So uh you know it wasn't it wasn't long uh after we were introduced to road apples that youknow i purchased up to here in the ep and it just became sort of a soundtrack for everything that wedid uh weekends up there weekends at the cottage parties we went to because the hip started totake off all across Belleville among our age group, you know, and above and below, you know, inthe car traveling, you know, with our buddies on weekends.Track 4:[11:04] And yeah, it just seemed we were always listening to the hip from that point on. And, youknow, the next year was July, it was 92. And on July 1st, the hip were playing up at Molson Park inBarrie. And so, yeah, we decided to, a few of us, venture up for this endeavor and see our nowfavorite band live for the first time ever. And so myself, Daryl McGrath, who was the buddy whobrought the tape, you know, for the first time to the group, another buddy, Eric Colson, and anotherone, Jay Ritchie, we piled into a vehicle. And on this fateful day, we headed up to Molson Park. Andfile:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20622.htmlPage 5 of 23The Tragically Hip Top 40 Countdown2025-05-23, 5:20 PMit was something like I'd never experienced before, not just the show, but the journey up there, youknow, traveling West. Yeah. West down the 401. Uh, and as we started to get, you know, close tothe GTA, uh, ready to go North on the 400 to Barry traffic just started to bog right down.Track 4:[12:12] It was nuts. It was all traffic heading up to Molson park and to see all these cars in stop andgo with with other kids in our age group who were ready to go for a full day outdoor event on abeautiful day. People had signs in their vehicle, hip or bust. We had a cooler of pops to drink whenwe got up there for the tailgate because I think doors opened at 10 that day and we were up tryingto get up there super early to partake in some tailgating. The tailgate party started, on the highwaybefore people got up there. Like I remember people, you know, sliding over van doors, sliding opentheir mini van doors, pulling up beside another car and people handing beer across, you know, fromone vehicle to another. Oh yeah. Girls flashing, people pulling over the side of the road, take a piss.Track 4:[13:10] It was debauchery, but it was so cool. You know, like I've never experienced, you know, I am,I'm, 18 or 19 at this point uh 18 i think and you know i just never been apart or experiencedsomething like this and uh it was cool like our we pulled over on the 400 for a few of us to jump outand take a squirt and the last guy to get back into the vehicle was jay ritchie and while he was stilldraining it we decided to drive away and that was extremely comical to watch him scamper alongthe 400 with thousands of other people, you know, viewing this.Track 3:[13:46] Uh, you know, pulling up his drawers. Oh yeah.Track 4:[13:50] Trying to catch up to the vehicles. We sped away and us laughing uncontrollably in thevehicle. Um, but, uh, yeah, it was, uh, it was a cool event and, um, you know, we get up there andthey, they had a pretty cool lineup. Uh, that was, that was the event where the hip played invancouver earlier and then flew to molson park uh to play or vice versa um and.Track 3:[14:15] Then they played in the east coast as well they played they played in the east coast.Track 4:[14:18] That day as well it's crazy yeah yeah it was it was a very cool thing uh but you know whenthe the hit came out um towards towards the end of that day my group of friends and i we were sortfile:///Users/jd/Desktop/TTHTop40%20-%20622.htmlPage 6 of 23The Tragically Hip…
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