Gotta Lotta POLLING To Do - ILM Artist Poll #29 - Your HÜSKER DÜ Nominations Thread

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There is no way Bob and Grant hate Greg more than they hate each other. Grant considers Bob a self-serving compulsive liar who limited the number of songs he could contribute, kicked him out of the band, then spent several of the past years trying to scam the rights to the band's music out of the other members.

However, I have it on some authority that the band has if not buried the hatchet, then has managed to find itself on the same (legal) page, as far as the catalog goes.

My favorite line came from Grant (a long time ago) who said "Bob won't get off his high horse and Grant won't get off his horse high."

Quoting Robert Carradine in Go Ask Alice. (Not kidding.)

I could listen to Mould singing "It's a game some say that anyone can play" over that riff for 3000 minutes.

I generally refrain from this craze, but: Bob Polled.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 14 November 2012 02:23 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Would've also worked for GBV poll.

Wish I could vote for "2541" in this. Not complaining, though, I understand why that's a separate thing.

Would never forgive myself if something like "Helpless" topped a Husker Du poll.

I haven't started thinking about my actual 20 yet, but I'm predicting it will break about evenly between Grant and Bob. I think of myself as a Grant fan, but I have a feeling when I really go through the catalog there's going to be more Bob I love than I tend to remember.

thought i'd post this here

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/575118_10151239675558774_1156480133_n.jpg

^grew up with that game

I've got two versions of it at home - the one featured in the YouTube above and this one:

http://neighborhoodvalues.com/nv/Toys-Games/TG4/pixs/HuskerDu1.jpg

Both were gifts – hey, pplains likes Husker Du, I'd bet he'd love these board games!

I finally opened the new one up with my then-2-year-old daughter. Haha, she didn't outwit me for shit.

I grew up with the old one, too, which I have downstairs.

Noticed the Grant beefs with Greg in recent interviews, he must be full of shit considering he's been supposedly friends and thanked in album covers in the 20+ years since the split

Something like "I wouldn't have any problem playing again with Bob, but I'd have no interest in playing with Greg, neither would Bob".

Maybe if Grant wasn't prone to such strange outbursts people would take his account of the Husker split and his problems with BM more seriously.

They both probably got food poisoning at Greg's restaurant.

I heard that Eiffel Tower High was written about GM's mustache

GN, that is

Probably ought to put this up at this point. Not perfect, but has its moments. Ode to Bob Mould. Better than TMBG's Replacements song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWuRZMu7wHc&feature=youtu.be

http://youtu.be/UWuRZMu7wHc

Could You Be the One is my #1

Ted Leo's been covering that one: http://youaintnopicasso.com/mp3/tedleocovers/05%20Could%20You%20Be%20the%20One.mp3

I think it has my favorite Husker guitar solo.

Is 'Flip Your Wig' the only song where Bob and Grant both sing on it? (Apart from stuff stuff like 'New Day Rising' title track etc.)

fwiw here's a blog post I wrote last year in the middle of a Zen Arcade reimmersion

http://blogs.metropulse.com/10-minute_obsession/2011/04/listening-to-zen-arcade-at-mid.html

(tho I see I attributed "What's Going On" to Mould instead of Hart. What you get for writing late-night exegeses.)

Is 'Flip Your Wig' the only song where Bob and Grant both sing on it? (Apart from stuff stuff like 'New Day Rising' title track etc.)

Ice Cold Ice? Not the trading verses like you're talking about though.

I've got it whittled down to 35 songs. Sorry, Baby Song, maybe next time.

Isn't "Somewhere" the only time Bob sang a Grant song? I totally agree with the above blog post about "Zen arcade", it's a record I admire more than love. Playing it again for this poll reminded me that I think it's impact and construction (a hardcore double concept album) was more important than the song content. There are some great songs on it, but better elsewhere in their catalogue.

Xp on "Could you be the one?" - I've always had a soft spot for this song, as it was the only cover I did at my debut solo gig twenty one years ago.

Think I'm down to thirty songs on my list so far, evenly split between Bob and Grant (with one entry for McGuinn / Clark etc)

oh man i've been waiting for this poll, first in a while where i felt more "ok i have a ton of their work i know well and want to make a ballot" than "i want to see results so i know what to investigate"

"Somewhere":

I've been confused about that song ever since I first read the liner notes on the gatefold. "Whoever wrote the song sang it, except for 'Somewhere'…" It's credited to Mould/Hart, but that's clearly Grant singing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qCSAWnl8EI

"Masochism World" and "One Step At a Time" are the only other M/H songs on the record. Grant's singing on Masochism, so how come it didn't get the same attention in the liner notes as "Somewhere"? And One Step is a 45-second piano piece. It took both guys to write that?

"Somewhere" is an awesome song, whatever the story is on it.

Wait, is the Byrds cover valid in this poll?

It was officially released by the band Husker Du.

You can even throw some love to Donovan and Sonny Curtis, if you so wish.

(heck, it doesn't have to be official. Put Ticket to Ride in there if you really think that's one of the 20 best Husker Du songs.)

8 Miles High has a strong shot at being #1 on my ballot

xp: Ha, I'd always heard the lyric as "It's a game, some game, that anyone can play."

Predictably my ballot skewed 11.5 Bob, 8.5 Grant (counting "New Day Rising" as half), but with Grant taking the top 2 slots. Hint: One of them is "What's Going On," the punk classic largely unrecognized as such because it's on an album since reclaimed as something other than or transcending a punk classic. Phooey to that. I still remember playing "Pink Turns to Blue" for Al and Mim Sparhawk during an interview and their young daughter exclaiming, "This is CRAZY!"

I just keep telling myself that if Husker Du weren't such stubborn, contentious assholes, they wouldn't have been the band they were.

"It's a game, some game, that anyone can play."
wait, it's not this?

Okay, lyric sheet confirms Alfred misheard, not I. What, I'm working at home.

That's how I always heard it, too.

xp

Games is an immense song

Predictably my ballot skewed 11.5 Bob, 8.5 Grant (counting "New Day Rising" as half), but with Grant taking the top 2 slots

Pretty sure this is a common view held by a lot of fans, esp. in terms of GH songs being absolute highlights

Can only wonder what would have happened if GH had pushed for half and half on the earlier albums

i've had most of their full-lengths since high school but only heard "Diane" and "Eight Miles High" pretty recently, since I've never been much for buying album-price EPs and stand-alone singles. i almost wonder if i overrate them because they're the probably the Last Great Husker Du songs I'll hear for the first time

i don't think there's going to be a single grant song

srsly, what the hell?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KA8on-1V33w/TXLsUmxrAQI/AAAAAAAAA3g/e-IDIGAVIRg/s1600/R-1610376-1232011163.jpeg

^ I bought this cassette so I could hear Eight Miles High, some of the rest of it was alright too though

I think the Eight Miles High 7" was the first record of theirs I bought, soon followed by Zen Arcade (at the end of '84, after SST had been sold out of it for some months I think).

i heard it on this and i already loved the byrds version from oldies radio and hearing the HD version was like
whoa
i knew zen arcade (got it from the library) and had solo bob m (workbook, black sheets of rain) because i won it off the radio (and liked him) but i had never heard them do 8 miles high
i remember totally flipping out and making everyone i knew listen to it (they did not care)

http://www.sweatsoaked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/sst-duck.jpg

There are worse things to overrate than "Eight Miles High."

I don't think GH was as good a songwriter on the earlier albums, so I'm glad he had to compete.

some of the rest of it was alright too though

Ha, I'd count Paranoid Time and the Black Flags among the greatest rock and roll ever, but that's me.

I once played Zen Arcade for coworkers (we were allowed to listen to music at work, and took turns with cassettes). They were all familiar with Bob's solo stuff, but had never heard of, much less heard, Husker Du. They refused to believe that the singer of "Something I Learned Today" and "Broken Home, Broken Heart" was Bob Mould. It wasn't until "Chartered Trips" that they grudgingly accepted that it might be him.

wow, whenever mould does his "actually fans don't ask about husker they only want to know about sugar" thing i usually figure he's doing his PR stonewalling thing, but i guess it's not that much harder to believe than Cracker fans who have no idea about camper van beethoven