“Three Pistols” by The Tragically Hip

"Three Pistols" first came out in February 1991 on Road Apples, the Tragically Hip's second album, and it became the record's second single, landing between "Little Bones" and "Twist My Arm". The title tips its cap to Trois-Pistoles, the city in Quebec, but the song's real subject is the Canadian artist Tom Thomson, and that bit of homegrown lore went all the way to No. 1 on RPM's Canadian-content chart.

Don Smith produced and mixed it with Bruce Barris, who also recorded it, and the writing credit goes five ways: Rob Baker, Gord Downie, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair. Downie, Langlois and Sinclair all sing, Baker and Langlois play electric guitar, Sinclair bass and Fay drums, and three more names fill in the corners: Benmont Tench on piano, Malcolm Burn on accordion and Phil Jones on tambourine.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.