Fifty Mission Cap

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"Fifty Mission Cap"
Single by The Tragically Hip
from the album Fully Completely
Released 1992
Recorded Battery Studios (London)
Genre Rock
Length 4:10
Label MCA
Writer(s) The Tragically Hip
Producer(s) Chris Tsangarides, Piye
The Tragically Hip singles chronology
"Locked in the Trunk of a Car"
(1992)
"'Fifty Mission Cap'"
(1992)
"Courage"
(1993)

"Fifty Mission Cap" is a song by Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip from the band's third full-length album, Fully Completely. The song was released as a single in 1992.

The song is a tribute to Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Bill Barilko, reintroducing Barilko's story to a younger generation,[1][2][3] and is among The Tragically Hip's most popular songs.[4][5]

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.[1]

Lyrics

The song's lyrics describe the mysterious disappearance of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Bill Barilko.[6] Barilko scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal for the Leafs over Montreal Canadiens in the 1951 cup finals.[6][7] Four months and five days later, Barilko departed on a fishing trip in a small, single-engine airplane with friend and dentist, Henry Hudson.[5] The plane disappeared between Rupert House and Timmins, Ontario, leaving no trace of Barilko or Hudson.[6]

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.[6]

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

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External links

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