| The Tragically Hip – Freak Turbulence Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| As a bi-weekly flier, this song captures the absolute and absolutely irrational terror of flying. It always in the back of my mind that one of these days... I'm going down. Yet I do the math, and as with motorcycles but more so there's hardly a crash story I've not heard of so - with the absurd number of flights having success day after day, year after year, I calm my center cynic. Gord's sense of humor really comes through here: the pilot says "25 minutes or less" but Gord hears "unless..." and silently in his seat, 7E goes neurotic and freaks out. That's me. This man is ME. Mixed with this he's dogging the airlines for being accountable to NO ONE (as if a joke might just keep us flying). With our lives in their hands, who's courageous enough to bitch about timeliness? All the negativity is juxtaposed with the benevolent moonlight on the wings. Lyrically he captures the misplaced cockpit calm of flying so perfectly, while musically this song is tense and grating; also just like flying. This is a ditty, a quip, a sardonic joke, yet it is still a masterpiece of songwriting. | |
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