RIP Grant Hart

Books About UFOs, Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill, Pink Turns to Blue, She Floated Away: the man could write a manic pixie dreamgirl song.

^otm

Bill Dudswell

He just has the opposite of a Midas touch for me, that guy

The duo record Laswell made with Milford Graves is one of the more frustrating listens in recent memory. Milford sounds wonderful -- it's impossible for him not to -- but Laswell just lets his effects pedals digitally vomit all over everything. Hopefully someday it'll be reissued with Laswell's parts removed.

I went to look something up in the poll, noticed that pplains' great images (Photobucket) were all gone, and found a link at the bottom: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wegaognxlubkifj/AACJr2MaNAVS9N6XbrSO5Oyua?dl=0.

I just revived the/a Laswell thread.

Books About UFOs, Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill, Pink Turns to Blue, She Floated Away: the man could write a manic pixie dreamgirl song.

― Mungolian Jerryset (bendy), Saturday, September 16, 2017 1:53 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark

i've mentioned before how great his songs about girls are but i object to this characterization!

Pink Turns to Blue being about somebody ODing on heroin kinda takes me outta that manic pixie dream girl space

Oh that gal with the whimsical dying on the floor

living on Heaven Hill isn't very dreamy either

Was gonna say

Even the other two don't really fit this imo:

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.

Neither song is about the guy in any real way. I don't think the male speaker even enters the story in "She Floated Away". And a girl who is obsessed with studying astronomy does not seem like a carefree girlish archetype.

Neither song is about the guy in any real way.
exactly -- he wrote songs about women-people as if they were real people worthy of songs, not love objects
i responded to this as a young person and it continues to be something i like about grant hart songs to this day

And a girl who is obsessed with studying astronomy does not seem like a carefree girlish archetype.

But but but...Zooey Deschanel would have played her in the movie!

I bought the 2541 CD single in one of those long boxes which I'd never actually seen before although I've been told we did have them in the UK maybe? anyway I got it from the 99c store in Lakewood, CA about 12 years ago, along with a Volcano Suns CD.

I don't really have a point here I suppose.

They also had the Outrageous Cherry s/t album and something by You Am I.

I guess my point is 99c stores 12-14 years ago were a great place to buy surplus stock from SST.

Man, listening to "Flexible Flyer" is a real punch in the gut.

"Flexible Flyer" is my favorite Grant song. They really hit a rich vein on Flip Your Wig. I wish they gave that one to Warners, things could've gone so much better.

I wish Hart and Mould had swapped verses more often like they did on Flip Your Wig (the song).

Man, listening to "Flexible Flyer" is a real punch in the gut
it hurts! hurts so much! (sorry)

it is a very poignant song

"You Can Live at Home" is a total jam. Should be noted Grant had the last song on the last Hüsker Dü album.

Does anyone know whether "Green Eyes" was about his cat? I saw something about it earlier this week but hadn't heard that before. I sing it to my cat all the time.

I came here to post this. This is "Flexible Flyer" from their last show, but it cuts out. The last recorded song of their last show.

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

Was struck, noodling around on guitar the other day, how Bob Mould songs are more than often built around aggro power chords, but Hart gravitates toward big, simple, open folk chords. Really highlights the difference between them as writers.

not to split hairs but they both wrote like that, that's a big part of the HD sound. Mould rarely leaves the first position. Off the top of my head, all these songs are based on open chords: Makes No Sense At All, Private Plane, I Apologize, Celebrated Summer, Something I Learned Today, Chartered Trips, Could You Be the One, In a Free Land, Hardly Getting Over It, Divide and Conquer...

This is one death that has hit me hard, said some stuff about it on FB and i wont bore anyone by repeating it here but Grant wrote most of my fave HD songs and this band means so much to me, even though I wasnt even aware of them in my lifetime. Ive been a huge fan for 25 years now and Grants death has been a terrible shock.

May 5, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0wV6iUliiE

xpost I honestly don't know enough about what I'm talking about, but seems like mould songs, while they can be played open, were generally played as power chords. Whereas Grant songs, while obviously bob played them as power chords, were probably written/played open by Grant.

watch any live performance of any of those songs- Bob's hand rarely leaves the first or second position unless he's soloing. he talks a lot in his book about his use of open chords and drone notes

reposted by Brigid on the GH facebook page, feel like i should share here even if it's overkill:

Grant did not want a memorial service but sadly he can’t argue with us about it and we need to do this
to honor him and show our respect for the amazing man that he was. We thought it best to wait a few months so we have time to put The Con d'Or Foundation in place. We also want to make sure that everyone who wants to attend will have the time to make the proper arrangements. We will be looking
at the possibility of a fundraising event which will benefit The Con d'Or Foundation to coincide with the memorial. Grant put a lot of thought into deciding that he wanted the foundation to serve the needs of women artists and we are going to do everything to make it happen and to be what he envisioned. We will let you know the details as soon as we can.

He was the best man (right next to my Dad) that I have ever known and I was so lucky that we found each other. Thank you all for the messages and love, you have no idea how much it is appreciated. The life that Grant and I shared was so incredibly special and something that we kept very much to ourselves. He respected that I am a very private person because for as much of a public figure as he was, he was also very private. Surprisingly, for as non-traditional as he was, he was equally traditional. For as irreverent as he could
be he was equally reverent. I am hoping that following his wishes will help ease the pain and fill the hole that his passing has left until we are together again.

:(
everyone i know who was a fan is feeling this loss really hard.

Not overkill
Thank you v much for posting that here

def check for the new City Pages tomorrow

I've been hesitant to post anything from FB. Just because I'm a stalker doesn't mean that I have to bring everybody else into my world.

That said, her remembrances have been a joy to read. The profile pic of him looking up at the bust of Milton on her page eases me at least into knowing he went out with a peaceful mind.

(Obv., LL, your quote is very appropriate here. It's been me who's been restraining from posting his son's tietheknot pics and going OMG THEY LOOK JUST LIKE EACH OTHER!)

I read that Bob's (stated) reason was it sounded like a contemporary Dream Syndicate song? (mighta been from his book)

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, September 15, 2017 11:40 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i love this reason of Bob's, don't want to sound like this iconic song no one can seem to remember the name of by global mega stars Dream Syndicate that dominated the airwaves and MTV in the fall of 84!!

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, September 15, 2017 12:53 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

iirc Bob said "2541" had the same riff and melody as the Dream Syndicate song, and he didn't want the band to be accused of plagiarism.

It was bs, whatever it was. Bob had no problem sounding like "The Lion Sleeps Tonite" when he did "If I Can't Change Your Mind" a few years later.

http://www.thirdav.com/hd_images/msp_sites/2541_house.html

"At one rehearsal Grant submitted a song, we played through it a couple of times, and after a moment I said, "Grant, I don't know about this one. It's the same riff and melody as a Dream Syndicate song that's out right now." The song was called "2541." Later I realized it was probably about a failed relationship he'd had, that it carried a lot of emotional weight for him at the time, and that it was one of the best songs he'd ever written. But at the time, I just wasn't putting it together. I only meant to point out something. I think it really hurt him, and he think he viewed me as an adversary from then on. Years later I felt bad about it, and I often wondered if it might have been the beginning of the end."

In the passage above, Bob is referring to the New Day Rising sessions, so the song dates to at least 1984, if not earlier.

Terms of Psychic Warfare is Run Runaway by Slade, but mould was ok with that

Nah. But I would love to hear Run Runaway with huge sheets of stun guitar.

I walked around singing "Make Your Own Kind of Music" after I heard it on the radio and it sounded just like the way GH sings "He rides the California Zephyr"
In the KEXP performance he says something about picking musical berries and then the camera showed what I think was a little bowl of raspberries <3

'picking musical berries' i love that

Is it okay to still admire them both? Some of the recent praise for Grant has had a distinctly anti-Bob tone, and I don't think it's a zero-sum game - not singling out this thread, just sayin.

personally, i do not believe praising grant = dissing bob
i love them both

identify with them both too, for different reasons!

yup

definitely wkiw grant before bob and much more interested in solo grant than solo bob but within the realm of husker bob is a genius

Well, that caveat is important. For a guy with some, what, almost 15 post HD records, there is very little compelling about solo Mould, imo. Copper Blue/Beaster, then maybe the last couple, which are very self-aware BOB MOULD OF HUSKER DU records. As a person, however, Mould seems to be in a good place right now.

I consider the first two Sugar records on par with a lot of Husker Du tbh

He probably has like 5 solo albums from the post 00s I haven't even heard

I was gonna make a Spotify list mashing up Workbook and Intolerance to try to create the "lost" Husker Du album (even though I'm sure the real last Huskers record would have been way different, also the production on those two is pretty hard to reconcile they are so different)

Mould's '14 album got looottts of play at the college station here – I was surprised.

And, yeah, Sugar is def on part with HD.

I'm a much bigger fan of Bob's songs in HD, but I agree that most of his solo work is zzzzzzzzzzzz. Grant is more interesting as a solo artist. and no, it's not a zero sum game. They were very different songwriters & that was a big part of what made that band great, that tension.

i can't with Sugar

it's so boring!

It's not a dis on Mould, but post-Du I don't think it's unfair to say that Grant's contributions were diminished, especially as it related to the narrative around Hart being strung out on the last albums.

yeah I can't get into Sugar besides If I Can't Change Your Mind. Bob got aggressively boring almost immediately after HD dissolved.