Craig Northey has written a lot of great songs over the years, either as a member of the Odds and Strippers Union, or as a solo recording artist.

He's cowritten some sweet ditties too, like "Not a Lot Goin' On", which he wrote with Jesse Valenzuela from the Gin Blossoms.

You may know that tune as the theme song for TV's Corner Gas.

When the Straight interviewed Northey last week to get the scoop on the awesome new Strippers Union double album, The Undertaking, we asked him if there was ever a time that he heard a Tragically Hip song and thought, "Man, I wish I'd written that". (He goes way back with the Kingston band, and former Hip guitarist Rob Baker is the other main member of Strippers Union.)

"I think there's probably a quick dozen," quipped Northey. "I don't know why my mind went to it right now, but 'Nautical Disaster'. I mean the imagery in it--I see what's happening every time Gord sings it, every time I hear it.

"I've seen [the Hip] so many times," he added, "and I can remember so many images when that song kicks in. I can sort of remember where I was sitting, what I was looking at. It focuses you onto the story and onto the image right away."

Five years ago--on the day that the Hip played its last-ever Vancouver show--I posted a blog about my own feelings on the transcendent power of "Nautical Disaster".

I guess it's true what they say: great minds think kinda the same.