I know I’m not the only Hüsker Dü fan on this board.
I was sad to read to day that drummer/songwriter/vocalist Grant Hart has died of cancer aged only 56. Grim news indeed.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7964914/husker-du-drummer-grant-hart-obit
There was something very special about Hüsker Dü, with their furious but melodic songs alternating between the voices of Mould and Hart.
I feel an urge to put on “The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill” right now.
Very sad, the Huskers were a truly brilliant group who still don’t get enough recognition for their influence on a whole generation of alternative rock bands (Pixies, Nirvana, and so on). I’ve been looking forward to the much-delayed reissues of their material (a 3 CD set about to be released by Numero Uno, and I hope more to follow).
… sad news, indeed. I always liked the poppier edge his voice had compared to Mouldy Bob’s. Pictures of UFOs is my most played Husker Du track.
Oh no.
I love Hüsker Dü. I always thought Grant was just as good a songwriter, if not better, than Bob, and I always love a singing drummer. One of my favourites of his was Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill, which you can enjoy roughly six minutes into this excellent Dü live video
Darn it. 56?
Makes no sense at all (as Bob would say).
Shame they never made up enough to reform and coin the revival cash.
Saw Husker Du on what must be the tour above, and Nova Mob in Newcastle. grant and Bob were/are both great songwriters, and I agree Grant had the poppier voice.
Year older me. Boy, that sucks
That’ so sad: the new Husker Du retrospective from Numero records is due out later this year, and I was looking forward to some reacquaintance with an underrated band.
Great band and a clear influence on later stuff as mentioned above. Zen Arcade is a masterpiece of an album and his songs and drumming are certainly what make it that. RIP
Aw man. I adore the Hüskers’ songs more than I wish they’d been recorded better, and that’s a lot.
RIP, Grant.
I’ve spent the day listening to some of Grant’s post-Hüsker material. The EP version of 2541 is an absolute gem, one of those relationship break up songs that is so rooted in tiny details and a sense of location that it feels lived in, hard won. Robert Forster covered it later, and there is a YT clip of the two of them playing it together, if you’re inclined to seek it out, but this is the original. It’s a beaut.
After this, he put together a band called Nova Mob who released the ‘Last Days of Pompeii’ album. As concept albums about Nazi scientists escaping the fall of the Third Reich by time travelling back to Ancient Rome go, it’s among the best.
His final album, ‘The Argument’ was a retelling of Milton’s Paradise Lost (if you are wondering why his solo records never had the impact of Bob Mould’s, these last sentences here may shed some light on that). It came out just a few years ago, and it shows that, while his life and career over the quarter of a century since the Hüsker Dü breakup may have been wayward and chaotic, his gift for melody never deserted him. One listen to this one, and you’ll have the chorus in your head for days afterwards.
Rest in peace, Grant.
Been listening to Husker Du all weekend, Grant Hart and Bob Mould were one of the soundtracks to my youth.
I first heard them on the NME tape Dept Of Enjoyment in 1984 with Real World, and I’ve been a bit obsessed with them ever since.
I saw them a year later in Camden and at Glastonbury in 1987.
The Tom Robinson show on R6 tonight has been a pretty good tribute.
Me n Bri too