Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Fifty Mission Cap

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Released
  
January 1993

Length
  
4:10

Genre
  
Rock

Label
  
MCA

Recorded
  
Battery Studios (London)

Writer(s)
  
Rob Baker Gordon Downie Johnny Fay Paul Langlois Gord Sinclair

"Fifty Mission Cap" is a song by Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip. It was released in January 1993 as the second single from the band's third full-length album, Fully Completely.

Contents

Background

The song is a tribute to Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Bill Barilko, reintroducing Barilko's story to a younger generation, and is among The Tragically Hip's most popular songs.

The song's influence on public awareness of Barilko's story was such that the band is devoted an entire chapter in the 2004 book 67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire.

Content

The song's lyrics describe the mysterious disappearance of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Bill Barilko. Barilko scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal for the Leafs over Montreal Canadiens in the 1951 cup finals. Four months and five days later, Barilko departed on a fishing trip in a small, single-engine airplane with friend and dentist, Henry Hudson. The plane disappeared between Rupert House and Timmins, Ontario, leaving no trace of Barilko or Hudson.

Eleven years later, on June 7, 1962, helicopter pilot Ron Boyd discovered the plane wreckage roughly 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Cochrane, Ontario (about 35 miles off-course). Barilko was finally buried in his home town of Timmins, the same year that the Maple Leafs won their next Stanley Cup.

The song's lyrics also reference the World War II style U.S. Army Air Corps, or U.S. Air Force officer's cap, mentioned in the song's title. The fifty mission cap was a cloth cap with visor issued to U.S. Army officers in World War II that developed a particular crush from the headphones that the bomber crews wore.

References

Fifty Mission Cap Wikipedia