Released November 1989 Length 4:17 Writer(s) The Tragically Hip | Genre Rock, Blues-rock Label MCA Producer(s) Don Smith | |
"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.
Contents
The song has since become one of the band's signature songs and still receives consistent radio airplay. In 2008, the song was ranked #24 on a CFNY-FM (102.1 "The Edge") list of the Top 200 New Rock Songs of All Time; in 2005, it was named the 16th greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version.
Live "workshop"
When performed live, the middle section of the song is typically given over to an extended jam in which lead singer Gordon Downie performs a story or another song. The most famous such version, subtitled "Killer Whale Tank", appeared as a B-side on the band's 1991 CD single for "Long Time Running"; in it, Downie improvises an extended story about working as a cleaner in the killer whale tank at an aquarium.
In another well-known version which has been widely circulated as a live bootleg, Downie performs Joni Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight"; in the version which appears on the band's 1997 live album Live Between Us, he performs 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 Tragically Hip 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".
Hurricane Katrina
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.
This song has been used to protest the idea of building cities below sea level, which was a major factor in the devastation the hurricane caused in New Orleans.