RIP Grant Hart

thanks ums

"It is to the sky that I shall return"

ums i liked grant a whole extra bit more after reading yr tweets, thank you

UMS that was very touching and I'm almost welling up here at work. Cancer has been a fucking scourge on my life lately which probably makes this hit harder?

I never really post here but this is just a tremendous loss

growing up in St. Paul it was/has always has been surreal to know that one of our greatest bands came from this city and not our cooler sister from across the river

Bob and Grant met at the record store I frequent almost every other week

Mould went to the university nearby

Hart's songs meant so much to me as an angry teen discovering punk rock

RIP

ums otm. Grant was always there, with the intelligence behind those eyes, whether he was sardonic, cantankerous or a sweetheart.

My thoughts (posted from our FB store page, because my Dad also loved Grant and would have wanted us to pay tribute).

"Sad to discover that we lost a long time customer and amazing friend last night. Grant Hart was one of the most fascinating, complicated, and brilliant people I've had the chance to meet. We talk about renaissance men in the abstract, but Grant actually fit the bill - My father and I had endless conversations with him about vintage Studebaker repair, architectural restoration, art, the garbage pile that the music industry often is, and so much more. I've never known a musician so emotionally and personally attached to his gear, to the point where we would work together on his mercilessly worn and battered favorite guitar long past the point where it was logical or prudent to do so, but to Grant, that didn't matter. It was simply his guitar, in a connected at the soul way that went far beyond the feelings I've ever had for my favorite instruments.

I can guarantee that there was some subject in this world that Grant knew vastly more about than you did, no matter who you were. And if he trusted you, he would spend hours sharing that with you, because in so many ways, that sharing was the most important thing to him. I'll miss you terribly, Grant. There truly was no one like you.

In the spirit of celebration, and because Grant would want it, here is my favorite of his songs. I think it captures some of the joyful drinking in of the world that Grant did, probably better than anyone. Cheers man.

https://youtu.be/BJXEfcrYpII";

Quote screwed up the video link.

https://youtu.be/BJXEfcrYpII

thanks, man

Press release from The Numero Group who are doing Savage Young Dü...

For Immediate Release
Grantzberg Vernon Hart, March 18, 1961-September 14, 2017

Grant Hart would have loved his own death. Furious text messaging in the middle of the night seeking confirmation and commiseration. Condolences from acquaintances and media outlets who haven't come out of the woodwork in years. Emails from the Associated Press at 4:45am. The clamoring for details. When and where? What kind of cancer? He loved to stir the peanut butter. Actively sought the circus, metal or otherwise.

To know him was to...I'm not sure "love him" is the right choice of words. I had a ton of respect for the guy. I enjoyed his company. I certainly liked him. Is there a word to describe that region between love and like? It's impossible not to love/like a guy who sends you a Bob Mould diss Some ecard at 2:47am. How can you not love/like someone who insists on a high end sushi restaurant for your first meal together and then promptly orders enough food to cover his next two meals. Grant was tortured for sure, but he had a hell of a lot of fun bringing you in on the joke, even if you were part of the punchline.

I began chasing him in the summer of 2010. Getting him on the phone was impossible: Call once, hang up, call again hang up. If he wanted to talk, he'd pick up on the third ring. Email was the best way to reach him, his replies speedy and thoughtful. I'd never even been to Minneapolis the first time we met in a dark, closed downtown hotel bar that he'd somehow finagled away for us to meet in. It was August-which in Minnesota means hot and muggy. He suggested a trip to the lake to cool off, and guided my rented P.T. Cruiser through residential twists and turns to a place I would later find out was called Hidden Beach by locals. We stripped down to our underwear and began wading out and were soon neck deep. He turned to me and asked, "Do you know where we are?" And I had no idea. "This is where I shot the cover for New Day Rising."

It was one of those moments where you know you're not the first to experience it, that he'd taken several people out swimming on Cedar Lake while the sun was setting and then used their connection to his past to cement a relationship. But it sure felt special in that moment. That was the real Grant Hart, disarming and masterminding all at once. He green-lit the project shortly after.

Things began arriving in the mail shortly after, with no rhyme or reason. An original print of the earliest Hüskers promo photo. The slides for Metal Circus. A CD-R of his long-gestating double album The Argument. A gigantic Land Speed Record poster. He was nothing if not generous. Grant came to town to play an under-attended gig at Martyr's in the dead of winter, his alligator skin boots held together with duct tape barely keeping his feet from frostbite. On our break room table he sketched out what would become the first official Hüsker Dü project in more than 25 years and then asked to be dropped at the train station. A few days later, an email arrived:

"Great to see you this weekend. It could have been longer, the meal better, etc. But it was good. After recovering from the shock of the news I started to picture how I think the demos record should look. I see a very colorful, optimistic, almost new wave look. I think this will fit well with the material. As a nod to [Terry] Katzman I think calling it Savage Young Dü is good."

The next five years moved at a snail's pace. We somehow managed to get an expanded 2x7" version of their debut single out, but with the band embroiled in a lawsuit the breaks were pumped on anything considered non-essential business. And yet, my relationship with Grant continued in the background. We traded messages every few months, almost always prompted by him. He always asked about my kids and somehow remembered my daughter's name. "How's Clementine?" he'd ask. He always called when he came to town, as if I was the only person he knew in Chicago. "I'm down at the train station, come pick me up," he'd say. When asked why he didn't give me a little notice on his arrival, he'd reply: "If you don't know when my next gig is, you're not paying close enough attention."

We didn't pick the project back up until late 2015. The emails were no longer in ALL CAPS. He was less erratic, more thoughtful. Something was different. I went up to Minneapolis in the spring of 2016 to pick up all the master tapes and files that he'd been threatening to let me take for half a decade, and while sharing a moment in the sun, he turned into me and said, "I've got cancer." But he didn't dwell. Instead he told me about the two wonderful developments in his life. He'd finally met someone worth staying with and he wanted to marry her. Her name was Brigid. And after many years estranged from his son, the two had reconciled and were speaking regularly. We hugged at parting, his stubbly face scratching my neck. When I got home, this was waiting in my inbox:

"By the way, I feel very positive about beating this thing in my guts. Your meditations undoubtably help. I have a whole monastery full of Carmelites praying thanks to Brigid's mother, and yes...even doctors."

As the box went into development his correspondence increased. "New old material is being discovered every week," he wrote. "This will continue for the rest of MY life, at least. I insist that we proceed with what we have according to plan and not delay the November release while waiting for any Holy Grails to materialize."

The last time I saw Grant was in March of this year. I was in Minneapolis to gather a few more bits and bobs and scheduled time to go to dinner. He wanted pizza and suggested Red's Savoy in downtown St. Paul. He ordered enough to have leftovers the next day. He was a bit gaunt, but wisecracking and flirting with the waitress all the while. This time we shook hands at the end. He was too weak for a hug. When plans were made to fly out to the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle to pour through his archives, he wanted to join. But when it came time to go, he suddenly cooled to the idea and withdrew from the project entirely. "Can you get it out before I go?" he asked.

I'm sorry we failed, Grant. We pushed as hard as we could to get this beast into the wild, but it wasn't hard enough. You told me several times that you thought the material was subpar, that there were too many photos of Greg Norton, and insisted we change the title at the last moment just to see everyone scramble. And now it's two months to the release date and everyone is sad and asking a million questions. It's chaos down here and you're probably looking down with your arms crossed, a gigantic, mischievous grin running ear to ear. Just a boy living on Heaven Hill.

--Ken Shipley, September, 14, 2017

xpost -- jj - last time i spoke with him, he was talking about restoring a hot rod, he was really into the project at that time

that was beautiful jjj

I bet UMS & I could post about two dozen crazy/funny Grant stories and neither of us even knew him all that well! I never even though of him as "Grant Hart" cuz he was just always around, at shows, at bars, playing these fucking amazing songs...he was a real true one off.

I don't even know what to say...we are all richer for having him in our orbit

also, i don't want to distort his legacy, he could be incredibly affecting live, but 1 million edgy noise artists on this Earth combined could not make a room feel more tense and uncomfortable than Grant's stage banter when he was in a mood.

"Can you get it out before I go?" he asked.

oh no

i should just leave work early shouldn't I

hahaha

beautiful post, UMS

xp yeah right there with you

thanks alfred

I saw Grant so many times, but I think this KEXP in studio performance is about as close to a good example of a "good Grant" gig as I think you could find, when he's feeling relaxed and happy and in good shape, loquacious....

"Being a popsmith, I write things that rhyme. It's how people remember songs. It's what I do."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl7mtCQbVf4

aw jj that's so sweet

as much as i love HD i did come into them backwards, after the fact. i've had "you're a soldier" on rpt all day.

so many beautiful posts on this page thank you everybody thank you grant one of my favorite songwriters ever ever ever

Not a Grantcentric song, I know, but I found myself cranking up "These Important Years" this morning.

haha 19mins is classic snotty Grant "I think a local band recorded there (Pachyderm)...Dave Ghoul...I call him Dave Ghoul because he lives off the dead."

My fave Grant banter would be playing the first measure of a song, say "2541" and then stop and play something else, then play another different song and then you yell out "2541!" and he'd say "I already played that, oh did you want to hear the whole thing?" and then not play it.

I remember once at the Turf he played "Barbara" and at the end he did that little flourish "Bar-ba-raaaaaaa" with a guitar chord and let it hang, like a little way to end the song. Then he did it again "Bar-ba-raaaaaaa".....then again....and again....and again....for like 2 minutes

I saw a sparsely attended 2541-era solo show (7pm early set, i think), wish I had talked to him.

I love "Barbara"!!!

Let us all hope with the deepest of hopes that we hear nothing about Grant Hart today from Greg Ginn.

I love "Barbara"!!!

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, September 14, 2017 11:49 AM (thirty-six seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah he did that in most sets in recent years, seemed like it was one of his favs

Thanks UMS. That's all great to know and not surprising just from the openness of his writing. Mould was very much a clenched fist emotionally in his HD tunes, where Grant was expansive and vulnerable. A guy I know posted this on FB with more details from the show I saw in 2001:

After he finished, people were clamoring to talk to him, of course. He said "Ok, I'll sign whatever you've got if you carry a piece of gear" – so a bunch of us grabbed what we could of his stuff and carried out to his car. I carried his guitar.

I was fresh out of UT and all over the place that year with my 60s Bell & Howell FD35, and took some photos at the show (still trying to find those…I remember only one or two turned out decently). When Grant saw my camera he lit up and said he loved their stuff, and had a B&H camera and enlarger at home. Asked what I did — when I said I was a designer, he lit up again and said he’d been reading a lot about nazi-era propaganda posters lately. Said something like “those people did some terrible things, but their branding was amazing!” He'd been buying old books on tour and dug through the trunk of his car for one on Goebbels. We sat on the trunk and talked about design and photography (he was an underrated and sometimes anonymous graphic artist, and created or directed all of Hüsker Dü's album art), songwriting and meeting William Burroughs. He had a lot to say about a lot of things and I wanted to hear it all.

He had a big box of fresh oranges in the car and shared them with me and the handful of fans who were hanging out, as well as stumbling club-goers and homeless people.

I was playing records between bands at a show he was played one night and I had just started playing Richard Hell's "Time" when I looked up and saw Grant onstage with guitar on standing in front of the mike. I figure he's about to start so I start fading the volume and not looking at me, does that little under hand "give me more gesture", so I bring the volume back up and he stands there onstage under the lights, wearing that red guitar, arms at his sides, eyes closed, face turned up...like he was listening to the national anthem.

Song ends, I fade down the volume, Grant starts playing.

ums otm. Grant was always there

^^^ this. I saw Husker Du many, many times early on, not because they were my favorite local band, because they honestly weren't, but the scene was small then, and they were part of the community. As their popularity grew and they signed to a major label, toured Europe, appeared on Joan Rivers' show, broke up, Bob formed Sugar, etc. etc., it always amazed me that these three guys from St. Paul had such a huge hand in creating alternative rock as we know it.

And yeah, in later years Grant was the one who was always here, at First Avenue, at the Turf Club, at a record store. I only knew him well enough to nod and say "how's it goin'." Last I saw him was last summer at the Turf, he was playing late on some bill I can't even remember, and I think I left early because I was tired, and I figured there would always be a next time. I'm really sad I missed his surprise party at the Hook and Ladder in July.

RIP Grant, and thank you for all you did.

Let us all hope with the deepest of hopes that we hear nothing about Grant Hart today from Greg Ginn.

I was wondering why grant went back to sst at the start of his solo career. Did people not know what a prick ginn was even at that late stage?

Mould was very much a clenched fist emotionally in his HD tunes, where Grant was expansive and vulnerable.
totally!!
bob always seemed so frustrated and uptight whereas grant's songs had more of a generous emotional warmth

freaking LOVED the story from numero group guy about going to the lake -- he knew that this was not the first time grant had taken someone to the lake, but it still felt so special because it meant grant hart liked him enough to show him a special place. he was a special person who liked to make other people feel special (if he felt like it) <3 <3 <3

The full documentary is out there on Dailymotion IIRC, but here's the second half of The Minneapolis Sound documentary from PBS, 1988 -- Husker Du are featured in the opening few minutes of this half.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o61cjCyd418

bob always seemed so frustrated and uptight whereas grant's songs had more of a generous emotional warmth

so otm. probably why bob's stuff resonated more with me age 15-25...

ha, goole hits the whole bed of nails on the head there

freaking LOVED the story from numero group guy about going to the lake -- he knew that this was not the first time grant had taken someone to the lake, but it still felt so special because it meant grant hart liked him enough to show him a special place. he was a special person who liked to make other people feel special (if he felt like it) <3 <3 <3

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, September 14, 2017 12:00 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there a special localism to this story too -- it's kind of a rite of passage if you're new to the twin cities to have someone bring you to hidden beach the first time! (or was, the place has been officialized now)

I grew up in St. Paul and no one ever took me to hidden beach :(

probably why bob's stuff resonated more with me age 15-25...
lol, same!

Wonderful post, UMS.

I can easily believe that he was the most approachable member of Hüsker Dü, but somehow, he was the only member I never got to meet. And of the three of them, he's the one that I felt the closest to, if that makes sense.

Lovely piece by Annie Zaleski just now

http://www.citypages.com/music/the-haunting-resonance-of-grant-harts-2541/444464253

He always used to pull up a chair behind the counter at Northern Lights and just shoot the shit with people. Teenage me loved him for always being around, and adult me is sad and corrects the way Britishes pronounce Hüsker Dü through the tears.

Josh Kantor is the Fenway Park organist:

Fenway organ, 1st inning: Grant Hart-penned "Books About UFOs" by Hüsker Dü.

— Josh Kantor (@jtkantor) September 14, 2017

Lenny Kaye cameo in that PBS doc!

UMS what's your twitter handle?

listening today, Good News for Modern Man still feels like a classic, his best attempt at being Brian Wilson

but Hot Wax really stuck out today, what a great record, feels the most "Grant" to me

Hot Wax and Argument never really did it for me, I have to admit, perhaps because Intolerance and Good News are near and dear to my heart.

Speaking of KEXP, Kevin Cole's show about half an hour from now is likely to be very worth tuning into.

Kevin will do Grant proud.

Haven't kept up with this thread today, so I don't know what's been linked. I think this gets it exactly right: best Grant song with Husker Du = "Books About UFOs" (my favourite, period), best Grant solo song = "2541."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rob-sheffield-how-husker-dus-grant-hart-changed-punk-rock-w503063

I interviewed him in late 1986. I wasn't even sure if I had--had to find the issue downstairs and check. It was just before Warehouse, which "sounds, after a dozen listens, like it may be Husker Du's best"...rock critics. Anyway, it's weird: the piece is an album-by-album rundown, with a really pretentious introduction, and quotes from Mould and Hart mixed in. I used eight Mould quotes and finished with one from Hart. I don't know if it was that he didn't talk much ("the conversation was brief") or if Mould just said more interesting stuff.