Ahead By A Century

The Tragically Hip

The Tragically Hip - Ahead By A Century

Ahead By A Century

The Tragically Hip

Tragically Hip - Ahead By A Century

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Ahead By A Century - The Tragically Hip

Continuing on in the HEY NOSTALGIA feeling I’ve got on tonight, here’s this.

I couldn’t find the T-Hip song I really wanted (Little Bones, if you’re interested), because apparently all the ones I have on my computer are MP4s (DAMMIT), but growing up spitting distance from Canada, The Tragically Hip were my life for a solid period of years.

We all know the feeling of strongly associating a song with a time or place, right? This song is my senior year in high school, sitting on the sidelines, watching the boys soccer team play.

Ahead By A Century

The Tragically Hip

Ahead by a Century — The Tragically Hip

Ahead by a Century

The Tragically Hip

“Ahead By a Century” by The Tragically Hip
(Words/Music: The Tragically Hip, Album: Live Between Us, MCA 1997)

I’ve always loved this song because to me it captures all of the aspects of summer, from the childlike enthusiasm to the things that go wrong to the loss of innocence and the eventual end. I guess, looked at like that, maybe it’s just a big metaphor for life. or maybe I’m just up way too early on a long Memorial Day Weekend because I woke from a feverish dream.

First thing we’ll climb a tree
and maybe then we’ll talk
or sit silently
and listen to our thoughts
with illusions of someday
casting as golden light
no dress rehearsal,
this is our life

that’s when the hornet stung me
and I had a feverish dream
with revenge and doubt
tonight, we smoke them out

You are ahead by a century

Stare in the morning shroud
and then the day began
I tilted your cloud,
you tilted my hand
rain falls in real time
and rain fell through the night
no dress rehearsal, this is our life

and that’s when the hornet stung me
and I had me a serious dream
with revenge and doubt
tonight, we smoked them out