"38 Years Old" is a song by

Canadian rock Rock music of Canada is a wide and diverse part of the general music of Canada, beginning with American and British style rock and roll in the mid-20th century. Since then Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern po ...

band

The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassi ...

. It was released in April 1990 as the fourth single from the band's first full-length studio album, ''

Up to Here ''Up to Here'' is the debut studio album by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, released in September 1989. It is one of the band's most successful albums, achieving Diamond status in Canada for sales of over a million copies, earning the ban ...

''. The song peaked at No. 41 on the Canadian ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

singles chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...

Content

The song is a fictional account of the real-life escape of 14 inmates from

Millhaven Institution Millhaven Institution (french: Établissement de Millhaven) is a maximum security prison located in Bath, Ontario. Approximately 500 inmates are incarcerated at Millhaven. Opened in 1971, Millhaven was originally built to replace Ontario's other ...

near the band's hometown of

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

, on July 10, 1972. The date of the event and the number of escapees mentioned in the song are historically incorrect ("12 men broke loose in '73..."). Lyrically, the song is written from the perspective of the younger brother of one of the escapees, a man who murdered the man who raped their sister.

Background

The song was written in Memphis during their recording of the album. Though it is one of The Tragically Hip's most popular songs, the band seldom played the song live. In Michael Barclay's 2018 book ''The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip'', the band's reticence to play the song live is attributed to a misperception among some of the band's fans that the song was

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

: because its emotional climax hinges on the moment when the narrator opens the window for "my older brother Mike", some fans have erroneously assumed that Gord Downie's real brother, documentary filmmaker

Mike Downie Mike Downie is a Canadian documentary filmmaker. The older brother of late Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, he is best known for his work with the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund. The founder of the film production company Edgarland Films ...

, was himself a prisoner and one of the escapees from Millhaven.Michael Barclay, ''The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholarly book ...

, 2018. . p. 66.

Charts

References

{{authority control 1989 songs 1990 singles The Tragically Hip songs MCA Records singles Songs based on Canadian history Songs about prison Fiction about prison escapes Ontario in fiction Fiction set in 1973 Songs written by Rob Baker (guitarist) Songs written by Gord Downie