The song was written in Memphis during their recording of
Up to Here. The main riff was written and performed by bassist Gord Sinclair on an acoustic guitar whose B and high E strings were detuned by a whole step. Guitarist Paul Langlois played bass on the recording. Though it is one of The Tragically Hip's most popular songs, the band seldom played the song live. In Michael Barclay's 2018 book
The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip, the band's reticence to play the song live is attributed to a misperception among some of the band's fans that the song was
autobiographical: because its emotional climax hinges on the moment when the narrator opens the window for "my older brother Mike", some fans have erroneously assumed that Gord Downie's real brother, documentary filmmaker
Mike Downie, was himself a prisoner and one of the escapees from Millhaven. ==Charts==