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50 Mission Cap
By Eric | April 9, 2002 11:43 pm
As countless others probably have, I often wonder about the meaning of the Tragically Hip’s song “Fifty Mission Cap” (off Fully Completely), which is about the Maple Leaf great Bill Barillko scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal in 1951 and subsequently disappearing, only to be found in the wreckage of a plane in 1962, the next time the Leafs won the Cup. I actually found an answer.
What is a “Fifty Mission Cap”? Is there any connection between the “Fifty Mission Cap” and Bill Barilko or is just a coincidence that Gord Downie keeps his Bill Barilko card under his “Fifty Mission Cap”?
Gord Downie likes to mix things up in his songs. The song is about both
Bill Barilko and 50 Mission Cap which is from the old fighter pilots
who’s leather hats were worn in after each mission. The Fifty Mission
Cap is a really good worked in cap. “I worked it in to look like that”
could be taken as someone wanting their cap to look like it had been on
fifty missions. I heard him say he didn’t really know the history of
Barilko scoring and disappearing so when he read the card it inspired
him on that front and I believe that that ( don’t quote me ) but the
Fifty Mission Cap idea came from the fact that planes were used to
search for Barilko and that is where that tangent came from. A lot of
the Hip’s songs go similarily with a few meanings and interpretations.
Sorry for rambling just my two cents.
This is almost disappointing, because I had a much weirder and, in my little mind anyway, cooler picture in mind whenever I heard the song. Mine was more along the lines that he got the hockey card (which I also have a couple copies of), and worked the card in “to look like that”. As in wearing the cap with the card in it the whole time, like a cherished momento or something. And as far as fifty mission cap, I had a dumb vision of a Labatt 50 beer logo. Apparently it wasn’t so dumb, because someone else had the same idea, and made a custom shirt out of a Labatt 50 bottlecap with “Fifty Mission Cap” on it as well. I guess the artists are right when they say they let the fans take their own interpretations of songs. Mine was much cooler to me this time around. It’s still a great song.
Topics: Blog | Tags: Beer, hockey, NT, Work | 1 Comment »
June 24th, 2003 at 3:09 pm
carolyn 04-10-2002 18:41
i actually love that album. does that mean i like cdn music? ewwwww.
Eric 04-10-2002 21:24
haha I guess so, and the hip are like Canada’s band arent they? 🙂 Fully Completely is a great album, prolly my fave hip album (I have em all)