"New Orleans Is Sinking" is a song by Canadian rock 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 November 1989 as the second 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 reached number-one on the ''
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 ...
'' Canadian Content chart.
It was also the band's first song to chart in the United States.
The song is one of the band's
signature song
A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...
s and still receives consistent radio airplay in Canada.
Live "workshop"
When performed upon a stage, the middle section of the song was typically given over to an extended jam in which lead singer
Gord Downie
Gordon Edgar Downie (February 6, 1964 – October 17, 2017) was a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician, writer and activist. He was the singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, which he fronted from its forma ...
would perform a story or another song. The most famous such version, commonly referred to as "Killer Whale Tank", featured Downie improvising an extended story about working as a cleaner in the
killer whale
The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pa ...
tank at an aquarium.
[Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''. ]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 ...
. . It first appeared as a B-side on the band's 1991 CD single for "Long Time Running"; in 2022, it was featured on the live album ''
Live at the Roxy''.
In another well-known version which has been widely circulated as a live
bootleg
Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to:
* Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially
* Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence:
** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...
, Downie performed
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
's "
This Flight Tonight
"This Flight Tonight" is a song originally by Joni Mitchell, from her 1971 album ''Blue''. Scottish hard rock band Nazareth released the song as a single in 1973 that charted internationally.
Original recording
Joni Mitchell wrote and released t ...
";
in the version which appears on the band's 1997 live album ''
Live Between Us'', he performed
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
's "China Girl" and
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...
' "Don't Worry Baby".
This tradition has also been used by The Hip as a "workshop" to test out and develop new songs which have not yet been recorded; several of the band's later singles, including "
Nautical Disaster
"Nautical Disaster" is a song by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. It was released in February 1995 as the third single from the band's 1994 album, ''Day for Night (The Tragically Hip album), Day for Night''. The song peaked at number 26 on t ...
" and "
Ahead by a Century
"Ahead by a Century" is a song by Canadian rock band the Tragically Hip. It was released as the lead single from the band's fifth studio album, ''Trouble at the Henhouse''. The song reached number one on Canada's singles chart, and is the band's ...
", began as bridge jams during live performances of "New Orleans Is Sinking".
Legacy
In a 2000 poll conducted by the music magazine ''
Chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
'', "New Orleans Is Sinking" was voted the seventh-greatest Canadian song of all time. In 2005, it was named the 16th greatest Canadian song of all time on the
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
series ''
50 Tracks: The Canadian Version''. In 2008, the song was ranked No. 24 on a
CFNY-FM
CFNY-FM (''102.1 the Edge'') is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 MHz in the Greater Toronto Area, licensed to the suburb of Brampton. CFNY plays an alternative rock format. Owned by Corus Entertainment, its studios are in Downtown ...
(102.1 "The Edge") list of the Top 200 New Rock Songs of All Time. From 2005 to 2016, "New Orleans Is Sinking" was the second best-selling digitally downloaded 1980s song by a Canadian artist in Canada and the best-selling digitally downloaded 1980s song by a Canadian band in Canada.
In October 2005, several radio stations, including
CKQB-FM
CKQB-FM (106.9 FM, ''Jump! 106.9'') is a radio station licensed to Ottawa, Ontario. Owned by Corus Entertainment, it broadcasts a Top 40/CHR format. CKQB's studios are located at 1504 Merivale Road in Nepean along with sister station CJOT-FM, w ...
and
CHEZ-FM
CHEZ-FM (106.1 MHz, ''CHEZ 106'') is a Canadian radio station broadcasting a mainstream rock format in Ottawa, Ontario. The station is owned by Rogers Sports & Media. CHEZ's studios are located at the intersection of Thurston Drive and Conroy R ...
, temporarily stopped playing the song out of sensitivity to the victims of
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
, which had devastated the city of
in early September of that year.
Archive News, Glasgow Caledonian University - Tragically Hip song pulled from playlists
Charts
References
1989 singles
The Tragically Hip songs
1989 songs
MCA Records singles
{{1980s-single-stub