RIP Grant Hart

I was just thinking that while listening to the argument last week! There really is a tincture of Bowie in his voice there!

^^ Same. Even had to remind myself that it was released three years before Black Star.

So good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCBd7e0wCBQ

^And just to make it personal, this is about as good as anything Sugar ever did.

I loved that Nova Mob album at the time. Dug it out a few weeks ago and it stands up.

^And just to make it personal, this is about as good as anything Sugar ever did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cejMKLwT-Y

Full setlist:

Never Talking to You Again (Hüsker Dü song)
Flip Your Wig (Hüsker Dü song)
I Apologize (Hüsker Dü song)
A Good Idea (Sugar song)
Changes (Sugar song)
The Descent
I Don't Know You Anymore
Hold On
If I Can't Change Your Mind (Sugar song)
Hoover Dam (Sugar song)
Hey Mr. Grey
Love Is All Around (Sonny Curtis cover)
Makes No Sense at All (Hüsker Dü song)

(This was an outdoor gig a couple days ago in San Francisco)

grant did old empire quite frequently in his solo sets, also last days of pompeii & admiral of the sea

Wow, that's a lot more older songs than he usually plays. and I don't remember him playing "Flip Your Wig" recently.

oh man "Never Talking to You Again," I don't know how to take that

That's a cool version of it.

I was wondering the same thing though. When they picked songs of each other for Karl Mueller's benefit, that's the one Bob went for then as well.

It's like

"Hey, Bob. Just wondering. What would be your favorite Grant –"
"NEVER TALKING TO YOU AGAIN."

And didn't Grant choose an all too apropos Bob song that night? Hardly Getting Over It?

Since his concerted effort sort of comeback Bob has been playing a lot more Husker Du the last few years. I saw him solo earlier this year and was actually sort of bummed how little the setlist changed from night to night, given all the stuff he could play. He did play a handful of really early HD songs, iirc.

Yeah, this is what Bob did in April:

Hoover Dam
Your Favorite Thing
Losing Time
See a Little Light
The War
I Apologize
The Descent
You Say You
Lonely Afternoon
Sinners and Their Repentances
Stand Guard
Chartered Trips
Hardly Getting Over It
Flip Your Wig
Voices in my Head
Hold On
If I Can't Change Your Mind
Daddy's Favorite
Black Confetti

Encore:
Love Is All Around
In a Free Land

ahhhhh great closer

that second nova mob lp is great. my copy is scratched to absolute fuck from playing it to death back in the day, but I dug it out again when Grant died, and a sturdy new needle ensured I could make it through If I Was Afraid/Coda, still one of my favourite Grant songs

The Story of Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart, in His Own Words: In one of his final interviews, the late drummer recounts his family’s troubled history and his most formative early life experiences, including the death of a beloved brother.

This was great. A Grant Hart memoir would have been wonderful. I look forward to spending some quality time with those sleevenotes.

really nice Grant story from a new interview with Dean Spunt (No Age):

STEREOGUM: I guess my last question is: I know you go deep into the history of punk rock, and you and Randy are big fans of Hüsker Dü. As a singing drummer, did you feel any spiritual kinship with the late Grant Hart?

SPUNT: Yes definitely, if you haven’t noticed (Laughs)... I became friendly with Grant. And not so much that he was a singing drummer. I started playing drums and singing not because of Grant Hart, but because of a necessity and I didn’t really know how to drum, I didn’t really know how to sing, I didn’t really know how to put those things together, so for me it was important to try it as an exercise and that’s how I’ve always done things. I tried it out, I didn’t really know what I was doing. But we did become friends, and it’s heartbreaking.

STEREOGUM: I know No Age has played with Bob Mould, but I didn’t know you knew Hart. Are there any memories you would like to share?

SPUNT: Yeah, we played a festival with him in Rotterdam and he played this brilliant solo set, so moving. And we went back to the hotel we were staying at, and me and my friends and Grant, we were all in front of this hotel, and this kid walked by us. He was probably 18 or 19, and he was from there, and he looked at us and was like, “Hey, you fuckin’ Americans!” And he was super aggressive. I wouldn’t say I was frightened he was gonna fight us, but he was drunk and really angry and looked like he wanted to punch us. And Grant put his cigarette down and walked up to him and said, “Hey man, what’s your story?” The kid spoke English, he was like, “What?!” And Grant’s like, “What’s your story, man?” You know, “What’s making you like this, tell me about your father.” And we ended up talking to him for like 20 minutes. He almost brought the kid to tears, he became putty in Grant’s hand, the way he totally shaped this kid’s environment. Just his whole world had turned around. The kid left, I think we all gave hugs, me and my buddy were like, “Damn, man that was intense,” and it was really beautiful.

https://www.stereogum.com/1979361/no-ages-dean-spunt-on-their-new-album-navigating-the-industry-the-late-grant-hart/franchises/interview/

wow

eternal <3 for the generous spirit of grant hart

I love that story !!!

<3

Awesome story, very cool

With Grant's mercurial nature if the story had gone :"And then Grant said he was black belt in tae-kwan-doh and put the kid in a head lock" I would have found that equally believable and charming.

haha

i miss grant hart :(
i was talking about singing drummers recently and his name came up and i remembered that i had the opportunity to give him a hug once. that was nice of him.

Same. I don't tear up quickly. But seeing him in pics. Yeah most def do

fb memories reminded me that it was 7 years ago yesterday that I hugged and talked with Grant Hart
RIP <3

i still miss him so much

Always gotta have a goal...

https://i.imgur.com/mBGs0z6.jpg

Big windows on that pump

To let in the Sunoco

HA! Legitimate LOL

Just stumbled on this soundboard recording of a December 2009 show in NYC. I think I was working late hours around that time (I was working all the way up to Christmas morning before catching a flight back that afternoon), but I really regret not seeing Grant when he was healthy - I only caught his final NY show, one of his very last public performances.

Just stumbled on this soundboard recording of a December 2009 show in NYC.🕸 I think I was working late hours around that time (I was working all the way up to Christmas morning before catching a flight back that afternoon), but I really regret not seeing Grant when he was healthy - I only caught his final NY show, one of his very last public performances.

Man, that's awesome! For a guy who could be cantankerous on stage, he seems like someone who was always appreciative of his fans.

I had an email back-and-forth with Grant around a year or two before The Argument came out. I mean, I assume it was him; did he always write emails in all caps?

I would guess so. In his old Facebook group, he responded to everything in all caps.

From John Giorno's autobiography Great Demon Kings, right after William Burroughs dies:

Just before the funeral service, Grant Hart, one of the founders of the rock band Hüsker Dü, slipped a small white paper packet of junk into William's pocket and said, "Nobody's going to bust him."

Out of all the musicians who were associated with Burroughs (Cobain, Patti Smith, Jimmy Page, etc.), Hart was undoubtedly the closest.

I’d love to finally see the second Nova Mob album get a reissue

Grant’s solo career >>>>>> Bib’s solo career

Bob, lol

Oh, Grant’s post-Husker career was absolutely amazing. Bob’s is an inconsistent mess

I’d love to finally see the second Nova Mob album get a reissue

That record was fabulous. 'If I Was Afraid' ruins me every time.

Oh, Grant’s post-Husker career was absolutely amazing. Bob’s is an inconsistent mess

I think this is half-right. Hart was great straight out of the gate, but given he was nowhere near as prolific in his post-Husker career, kinda working on a smaller scale, especially once his output slowed. Bob was pretty hit or miss until Sugar, which of course was a huge hit (in every sense), then went hit or miss again, but has been pretty solid in his late career (and as a performer, better than I've seen him in years). But then, he's also released 15 or so records since Husker Du, all while touring virtually non-stop.

Mould has been a professional snice 1989; he clocks in and out, doesn't leave fans wanting. Hart wasn't interested in any American notion of a career. No comparison.

<i>Hart wasn’t interested in any American notion of a career.</i>

This clicks with my (brief) email correspondence with him some months prior to the release of The Argument; he simply didn’t see the point of leaving a legacy as such, in terms of his prior material. Art over commerce.