New Orleans Is Sinking
{{Infobox song
| name = New Orleans Is Sinking
| cover = New_Orleans_Is_Sinking.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = The Tragically Hip
| album = Up to Here
| released = November 1989
| format =
| recorded =
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Rock, blues rock
| length = 4:17
| label = MCA
| writer = The Tragically Hip
| producer = Don Smith
| prev_title = Blow at High Dough
| prev_year = 1989
| next_title = Boots or Hearts
| next_year = 1990
}}
"New Orleans Is Sinking" is a song by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. It was released in November 1989 as the second single from the band's first full-length studio album, Up to Here. The song reached number-one on the RPM Canadian Content chart.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.6611&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5|title=Canadian Content (Cancon) - Volume 51, No. 3, November 18, 1989|magazine=RPM|accessdate=2010-08-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305125028/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.6611&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5|archive-date=March 5, 2016|url-status=dead}} It was also the band's first song to chart in the United States.
The song is one of the band's signature songs 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 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 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. {{ISBN|978-1-55022-992-9}}. 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.{{cite news | url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tragically-hip-releases-stand-alone-live-album-1.6452119 | title=Tragically Hip releasing live album from Hollywood's Roxy Theatre | newspaper=CBC News | author=Adina Bresge | date=May 13, 2022 | accessdate=June 25, 2022}}
In another well-known version which has been widely circulated as a live bootleg, Downie performed Joni Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight"; in the version which appears on the band's 1997 live album Live Between Us, he performed David Bowie's "China Girl" and The Beach Boys' "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" and "Ahead by a Century", began as bridge jams during live performances of "New Orleans Is Sinking".
Legacy
In a 2000 poll conducted by the music magazine Chart, "New Orleans Is Sinking" was voted the seventh-greatest Canadian song of all time.{{Cite web |title=Top 50 Canadian Songs Of All-Time (Part Two) |url=http://www.chartattack.com:80/DAMN/2000/06/3012.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030623065848/http://www.chartattack.com/DAMN/2000/06/3012.cfm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 23, 2003 |publisher=Chart Attack |accessdate=January 22, 2019 }} In 2005, it was named the 16th greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version. In 2008, the song was ranked No. 24 on a CFNY-FM (102.1 "The Edge") list of the Top 200 New Rock Songs of All Time.{{cite web|url=http://www.edge.ca/Music/Top102AllTime.aspx|title=Top 102 New Rock Songs of All Time|date=August 31, 2008|publisher=edge.ca|access-date=August 31, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100228181438/http://www.edge.ca/Music/Top102AllTime.aspx|archive-date=February 28, 2010|url-status=dead}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://bdsradio.com/pd/docs/Nielsen_Canadian150_2017_vs2.pdf|title=NIELSEN MUSIC & BILLBOARD PRESENT CANADA 150 CHARTS|website=bdsradio.com|page=30|accessdate=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102202137/https://bdsradio.com/pd/docs/Nielsen_Canadian150_2017_vs2.pdf|archive-date=January 2, 2020|url-status=live}}
In October 2005, several radio stations, including CKQB-FM and CHEZ-FM, temporarily stopped playing the song out of sensitivity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city of New Orleans in early September of that year.{{cite magazine | url=http://www.chartattack.com/news/39426/ottawa-radio-stations-pull-hip-song-after-hurricane-tragedy | title=Ottawa Radio Stations Pull Hip Song After Hurricane Tragedy | date=2005-08-31 | first=David | last=MacDougall | magazine=Chart | accessdate=2010-08-31 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318070716/http://www.chartattack.com/news/39426/ottawa-radio-stations-pull-hip-song-after-hurricane-tragedy | archive-date=2011-03-18 | url-status=usurped }}{{cite magazine|url=http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/T/Tragically_Hip/2005/08/31/1194947.html|title=Storm sinks Tragically Hip classic|first=Denis|last=Armstrong|magazine=Jam!|accessdate=2011-04-02|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720013137/http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/T/Tragically_Hip/2005/08/31/1194947.html|archive-date=2012-07-20|url-status=usurped}}[http://www.gcal.ac.uk/politicalsong/news/2005.html Archive News, Glasgow Caledonian University - Tragically Hip song pulled from playlists] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312022640/http://www.gcal.ac.uk/politicalsong/news/2005.html |date=2007-03-12 }}
Charts
References
{{reflist|30em}}
{{The Tragically Hip}}
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Category:The Tragically Hip songs
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