Music journalist Michael Barclay’s The Tragically Hip biography came out on April 3, but Hip fans have been buzzing about the unauthorized account of the band’s rise to Canadian rock and roll fame for the last few months.
One reason for the latest controversy among Hip fans is the reaction by one of the band’s members to the book The Never-Ending Present.
Rob Baker, The Tragically Hip’s guitarist, took to Twitter the day the book was released to condemn parts of Barclay’s account. “Don’t believe everything you read. I saw a few paragraphs and almost blew my coffee out my nose,” he said in a Tweet.
According to Barclay, if there are any inaccuracies, it’s not for lack of trying to get the facts straight.
“Rob Baker said he read a couple of paragraphs. The book is 450 pages long. I’m sure I got a couple of dates wrong but the band itself refused the fact-checking document,” said Barclay.
The author added that most biographies are unauthorized and that personal accounts are usually delivered through memoirs.
“I did dozens of interviews, almost 80 interviews with people who work closely with the band.”
Nevertheless, the tug of war between biographer and subject has fans turning against each other. CKWS has received access to a closed The Tragically Hip Facebook forum where thousands of Hip fans from all over the world gather to discuss the Canadian rock legends. In the forum, Barclay’s unauthorized book has caused people to take sides.
The discussions have become so heated among fans that the moderator of the forum has started deleting all negative comments about the book.
As for Barclay, he hopes that fans will judge his work on its journalistic merits and the value of his reporting done on the Hip because he too is a fan.
“As a fan I wanted this story to be told for a long time.”
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