The Hüsker Dü Album-by-Album thread

I have to say this never made an impression on me and I recently got the cd single for $3 and maintain my view. It doesn't add to the Byrds and they are better on their own material. It's my least favorite Husker Du.

Mastering on the cd was also pretty bad--the vinyl was much better on my old Thorens than the cd on my Naim CDS.

 

"Diane" live:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wqnvmlGeCKk
Pretty funny.

"Eight Miles High"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NeqyCwAeT3I

 

Yikes. I have a better live version of this from circa-'85, which I actually taped from a MuchMusic (Canada's MTV) broadcast years ago.

 

Here's a different version of "Diane":
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y5wybDkyQoA

 

There's a lot of interesting vintage Husker clips...thanks....I remember the DIY, small club Husker Du and seeing some of those clips brought back good memories....the scene in those days seemed so exciting...

although albums like Zen Arcade & New Day Rising probably had limited sales and concerts where in small clubs the energy was huge, the reviews were legendary and many of those attending the show were massive fans...

 

Zen Arcade (1984)

Side One
1. "Something I Learned Today" (Mould) - 1:58
2. "Broken Home, Broken Heart" (Mould) - 2:01
3. "Never Talking to You Again" (Hart) - 1:39
4. "Chartered Trips" (Mould) - 3:33
5. "Dreams Reoccurring" (Hüsker Dü) - 1:40
6. "Indecision Time" (Mould) - 2:07
7. "Hare Krsna" (Hüsker Dü) - 3:33

Side Two
1. "Beyond the Threshold" (Mould) - 1:35
2. "Pride" (Mould) - 1:45
3. "I'll Never Forget You" (Mould) - 2:06
4. "The Biggest Lie" (Mould) - 1:58
5. "What's Going On" (Hart) - 4:23
6. "Masochism World" (Hart/Mould) - 2:43
7. "Standing by the Sea" (Hart) - 3:12

Side Three
1. "Somewhere" (Hart/Mould) - 2:30
2. "One Step at a Time" (Hart/Mould) - 0:45
3. "Pink Turns to Blue" (Hart) - 2:39
4. "Newest Industry" (Mould) - 3:02
5. "Monday Will Never Be the Same" (Mould) - 1:10
6. "Whatever" (Mould) - 3:50
7. "The Tooth Fairy and the Princess" (Mould) - 2:43

Side Four
1. "Turn on the News" (Hart) - 4:21
2. "Reoccurring Dreams" (Hüsker Dü) - 13:47

Recorded in October 1983, this is of course the first of a series of masterpieces the band would churn out with astonishing speed over the next three years, an amazing period in which they recorded 7 LP's worth of great material. I've read that this album was supposedly recorded in 40 hours... I'm not sure if that means 40 consecutive hours with no sleep, or just 40 hours total, but either way it's impressive. It's a concept album, although like Quadrophenia there is not much of a clear narrative apparent in the songs themselves. Unlike Quadrophenia, it doesn't come with a giant booklet to explain the story, so I've always tended to listen to it as just a collection of great songs.

As I've said before I tend to prefer Grant's material overall, but I love Bob's as well. Bob dominated the very earliest albums, and on the later ones they are pretty evenly matched. But this is the one album where I think Grant clearly outshines Bob. All the best songs are his in my opinion.

First and foremost is "Pink Turns to Blue." Taking nothing away from all the great material that was still to come, I would say this is the band's finest moment. A pure pop song as perfect as anything any skinny-tied Brit ever wrote, welded to incredibly dramatic and overpowering guitar. John's earlier comparison to the Who is apt, as this song is similar in structure with the great early Who stuff. Almost as good are "Turn on the News", "What's Going On" and "Somewhere" (a Hart/Mould collaboration... I wonder who did what on that one). Hart also provides a foreshadowing change of pace with the acoustic "Never Talking to You Again", as great a kiss-off song as has ever been written. Piano also appears for the first time on a Hüsker album on a few songs.

Which is not to say I don't like a lot of Bob's stuff too, but I just feel he had not yet hit his stride as a great songwriter (that comes with the next album). "Chartered Trips" is my favorite of his songs... more melodic than he was usually writing at that time. "Something I Learned Today" "Indecision Time" and "Newest Industry" are also favorites.

As much as I love Zen Arcade, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything profound to say about it. There is some filler, most notably "Tooth Fairy and the Princess" and the incredibly tedious "Hare Krsna" but I guess that's to be expected with a double LP. Amazingly enough, besides recording this album in 40 hours there were outtakes. "Some Kind of Fun" is a decent Bob song, and "Dozen Beats Eleven" is a nice instrumental. Both are better than a couple of tracks that made the album. There's also an instrumental which is just Grant playing some Joplinesque piano, title unknown. And of course the aforementioned "Eight Miles High" cover also dates from these sessions.

The Metal Circus CD sounds okay to me, but listening to the CD of Zen Arcade today, I found it to be painfully bright, especially on the acoustic guitar of "Never Talking to You Again" and the tambourines on "Hare Krsna." It's brighter than I remembered.

 

Zen Arcade... where do i begin? "Something I Learned Today" is a fantastic opener. really, the first four songs are stellar. i love the almost raunchy guitar solo that ends "Broken Home, Broken Heart" before settling on the three repeated chords (there's that Asus2 again...) and Bob muttering "now you know how it feels." one of my favorite Husker Du moments. i also think that "Chartered Trips" might be the best example of Bob's guitar style, along with "Celebrated Summer" from the next record. it is certainly a quintessential Husker Du song.

i sense a change in Bob's vocals on this record. from the first song, you can hear that they are still very ragged and aggressive, still rooted in hardcore punk. but they don't seem to be expressing anger as on the previous records. there's something a little sadder and more profound going on in terms of the emotions being expressed in the vocal performances, the music, and the words.

this is also the last record where the band delves into thrashy, screaming hardcore punk and does it well. there are a few at the end of New Day Rising, but those songs sound a bit routined and uninspired to me. "Indecision Time" is great ("go to the left, go to the right" - love the stereo effects here). "Pride" - why does everybody have to be like that? - scratch what i said earlier about anger. this is an angry song! "I'll Never Forget You" - love the bends right before the vocals come in.

"Pink Turns to Blue" - certainly one of Grant's best songs. it's the first song on the album that really stuck in my mind after i first bought it. a great pop tune, but it's not my favorite on the album much less my favorite Du song period. but i still think Bob's chiming guitar in the verse riff is neat.

"Whatever" is underrated. all of the preceding songs build up to it, and the last half of this song is spectacularly cathartic... it is the centerpiece/climax of the album, in my opinion. lyrics like "mom and dad, i'm sorry" could have been cheesy in the hands of a less convincing band, but i think they pull it off. my favorite part is when the rhythm section drops out and we're left with the layered vocals over that endless guitar vamp which holds the whole song together (this part could go on for another couple of minutes and i wouldn't complain). Bob would start incorporating more and more of this type of repetition into his songs in the coming years - this is how you end up with 5-7 minute Sugar songs. it's something that either you love or you find boring, i think. i dig it.

sorry, "Turn on the News" never did anything for me and i never got all the fuss over this one.

as much as i've praised some of the songs on this record, i do feel that it's a bit long and probably could have been an even better single LP. the songs i routinely skip over are "Hare Krsna," "What's Going On," "Masochism World," "Standing by the Sea," and "Reoccuring Dreams." i don't really care for the psychedelic/eastern vibe of some of these tunes and i'm glad the band didn't pursue it much after this record.

last thing ... i've always loved that cover art. awesome colors!

 

If Hüsker Dü were a Who for the 80s, then Zen Arcade is their Tommy: a great leap forward that even the band's most ardent admirers to that point probably could not have foreseen. I've listened to this album recently, just before czeskleba started this thread, in fact, but I'm going to make a point of listening to it tonight before posting a longer review.

 

I wouldn't call the cd bright--it just has some of the glassiness that characterizes nearly all cds mastered back then. The treble isn't jacked up by eq, I don't think, it's just that there is an edge to the bells, strummed acoustics, and so forth.

I don't really have much to add. Mould's guitar is a pure wash of emotion, one of the most amazing sounds in music. I don't think there is filler--it's more like space, and I would miss it if it were gone. I also wouldn't single out Pink Turns to Blue ahead of a number of other tracks including the opener, Somewhere, Whatever, etc.

I used to put their run from Metal Circus forward on the same level but in retrospect this is the chef d'oeuvre, just like everyone always said.

 

I don't know if the treble is jacked up or if it's that way on the master, but it could really benefit from some EQ'ing, I think. It's really mainly on "I'm Never Talking to You Again" that I notice it... it's a bit painful to listen to, and an acoustic song should not be that way. I wonder if Spot just had a hard time getting the right sound for an acoustic song amid all the overpowering noise of the other stuff.

 

Zen Arcade (1984)

i think nobody was prepared for this masterpiece... actually it is IMHO the first masterpiece out of the hardcore-genre (you can argue about black flag's damaged, but this is another league)... "metal circus" maybe hinted at it (if you listenend closely), but now we also see bob mould in full songwriting bloom...
one of the few double albums with only one or two weaker tracks, it comes IMHO close to the "white album"

Side One
1. "Something I Learned Today" (Mould) - classic no. 1, one of their best first songs (equal to "these important years" from "warehouse")
2. "Broken Home, Broken Heart" (Mould) - classic no. 2, two opening (hardcore?)hymns
3. "Never Talking to You Again" (Hart) - the first ballad, vaguely acoustic, great, classic no.3
4. "Chartered Trips" (Mould) - okay song, but not one of the best
5. "Dreams Reoccurring" (Hüsker Dü) - first part of the "revolution no. 9" track from "zen arcade", great, but maybe not classic
6. "Indecision Time" (Mould) - great song,
7. "Hare Krsna" (Hüsker Dü) - i like it, but could have been left off, maybe the filler track

Side Two
1. "Beyond the Threshold" (Mould) - start of the hardcore section, the next 4 songs are all land speed records, but all very good
2. "Pride" (Mould) - also great song
3. "I'll Never Forget You" (Mould) - again great, but not classic
4. "The Biggest Lie" (Mould) - classic no.4, big bass lines
5. "What's Going On" (Hart) - classic no. 5, no comes one classic after another, big deconstruction hymn
6. "Masochism World" (Hart/Mould) - classic no. 6, also very good
7. "Standing by the Sea" (Hart) - classic no. 7, second great hart "ballad", although it fastens up to the end

Side Three
now comes the classic side, one big song after another, maybe their best side ever

1. "Somewhere" (Hart/Mould) - classic no. 8, big hymn
2. "One Step at a Time" (Hart/Mould) - classic no. 9, very good piano interlude
3. "Pink Turns to Blue" (Hart) - classic no.10, the big psychedelic hymn
4. "Newest Industry" (Mould) - great song
5. "Monday Will Never Be the Same" (Mould) - classic no. 11, also very good interlude, i like this little pieces
6. "Whatever" (Mould) - another big hymn, classic no. 12
7. "The Tooth Fairy and the Princess" (Mould) - okay instrumental

Side Four
1. "Turn on the News" (Hart) - classic no. 13 "i (want to) hear it everyday on the radio", but unfortunately....
2. "Reoccurring Dreams" (Hüsker Dü) - second part of the mix between revolution no. 9 and interstellar overdrive, 13 minutes of pleasure, 1 (or 2 ?) minutes fade out...

overall: 24 songs, 13 classics, nine above average songs, and 5 high class fillers/sound collages... absolute masterpiece, their best work (although warehouse comes close)... production is a little bit harsh, i had to listen minimum 5 times until i got the beauty of the album (but this happens often with big albums)...

5/5

 

My top memories and still favs of ZEN ARCADE are:

1. Pink turns to Blue
2. Turn on the News

These two songs turned me into a huge Husker Du fan.

In addiition I remember getting two single disk white label/white cardboard sleeve promos from SST "Zen Arcade" and "Double Nickles on the Dime". Both had really cool etchings in the dead wax and are the top of my BUY list today.

These two classic SST & American Underground LPS in such a format being released sept/oct '84 gave me the feeling there was something really special going on and due to only a laser focused fan base (small but strong) I knew one day I would be really glad I was apart of it....you could just sense this was yet another special time in rock history....at best I was watching THe MONKEYS on TV during the summer of love but in '84 I was left of the dial and a part of the American Underground.

I've never heard this album on CD...while I own a lot of CDs, I have a strong affinity for the original vinyl of Husker Du. I remember my housemate listening to his new CD player and re-issues of classic rock....my response was "when Husker Du comes out on CD I'll think about a CD player". At the time indie hardcore rock seemed a long way from Cd. I eventuall bought a CD player but really just for new releases....only recently have I been buying CD versions of my old lps....mostly for my flac jukebox.

 

Great thread! Zen Arcade was the second Huskers album I heard (if you count Everything Falls Apart as an album - which it seems we do here). Finding Husker Du records in my town was tough (I still can't fathom why EFA was at the local mall shop - it was the only Huskers item in the bin and this must have been about 1985 or so - that's why it was the first thing I heard!). I had to go to the Tower Records in Manhattan to find Zen Arcade - probably late '85 or so. In the case of both records - this was my first listening experience with so-called "hardcore". It took me awhile to adjust to the more abrasive sound (I was a stone Beatles/Stones/Who guy to that point). This was the same time that friends of mine were discovering Metallica - so I figured "Husker Du is going to be MY band instead". But prior to getting the albums I had read little blurbs about them in Musician Magazine (which my folks had kept up a subscription to for me from 1983 well into the 90's). Those little articles captured my interest enough to seek out the records - and I remember reading about the cover of "Eight Miles High" and thinking how cool that was.
I am very sorry I just barely missed seeing them live (the closest I got was a gig they were supposed to play in Poughkeepsie, but canceled due to their road-manager's suicide). In fact, I never saw any footage of them at all until youtube came along. I was also the ONLY person I knew growing up who liked them. And when they broke up it was a major blow (on a Beatles level for me!). Of course I also, to this very day harbor a distaste for Nirvana (irrationally perhaps) simply because of the amount of attention THEY got that the Huskers didn't in their time. The idea of people falling over themselves to laud praise on Nirvana in 1991 was like "Where were YOU all when the Huskers were kicking butt in the 80s??".
Maybe my favorite song off Zen Arcade is "Turn on the News" - and not the least reason being that (I know somebody's gonna hate me for saying this, but.....) Grant Hart's vocal sounds a LOT to me like another of my favorite rock voices : Paul Stanley (Kiss)! Thanks for starting this thread on what, for me, was one of the very few bands that really mattered in the cultural wasteland of the 1980's!
-------- Chris

 

These days its hard to grasp what incredible nerve it took for a band like Husker Du coming from the somewhat rigid hardcore punk scene to release a double concept album with an almost side long instrumental. Mould and Hart were so prolific between 1983 and 1987 it was ridiculous. No quality let up either.

 

This is the album that got me into the Huskers. I remember reading about their cover of "Eight Miles High" and I had been getting into the Byrds a bit (this is junior year of high school for me). I was in Florida visiting my grandparents and saw Zen Arcade at the small record store at the mall. I picked it up based on the review of the Byrds cover. I had to wait about a week to hear the record since there was no turntable at my grandparents' apartment. I sat there staring at the cover...I don't think I even opened it.

After a week, I got home and remember placing side one down on the table expecting some nouveau-Byrds sounds when the bass from "Something I Learned Today" kicked in. "Hmmmm..." I thought. Then the wall of guitars and drums kicked in. It took me about thirty seconds to go from "This really isn't what I thought I was buying," to "Holy $#%* this is the best thing I've ever heard!!!" It was the loudest, fastest, angriest, most beautiful noise I'd ever heard. I'd already been getting into the Pistols and some other punky/new wavey bands, but this album sounded like it had to be made...if it hadn't, someone would have suffered tremendously.

I liked side one so much it took me months to get to side two, and even longer to discover side three and "Pink Turns To Blue." That sounds crazy, but I don't think I lifted the record off the turntable during that time. Even the weak songs on the album do it for me. I enjoy "Hare Krshna" as a side one ender.

I heard that the band recorded the entire album while tripping on acid. It sure sounds like it, even if that's not the case. And I too think it's an amazing album cover.

 

In 1994 I was given a copy of Sugar's File Under: Easy Listening as a Christmas gift. After I unwrapped it, I started chatting with someone who was a longtime Husker Du fan. I asked her what she thought of the new Sugar album. "Well, it's no Copper Blue," she said.
I sat and reflected on the implications of this comment. Before I had a chance to say anything, she added, "But, then again, Copper Blue is no Zen Arcade," with a wry grin.

That was her entire review, and I've remembered it all these years later because it was the kind of review only a fan could understand. It made me appreciate how dearly the band were held by some folks even as Sugar's fame ecplised that of our beloved Huskers.

It's funny that Jason mentioned The Who and Quadrophenia, because I've always wondered if "Standing By the Sea" (btw my favourite tune on the album) was maybe an attempt to distill Pete's entire concept into one three-minute song.

"Never Talking To You Again," "Pink Turns To Blue," and "Chartered Trips" are my other big faves, but it's difficult to find any true weak spots. Zen Arcade is ambitious, sprawling and challenging. Like others have already noted, the band were maturing at an alarming rate.

 

My first Hu Du purchase (and first SST purchase) in the fall of '84, I had been reading about the band in the Village Voice and other magazines, the buzz was getting pretty heavy for a band so outside the mainstream. My previous exposure to Indie rock had been R.E.M. and paisley underground stuff like The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, & Long Ryders (which I loved). I was completely unprepared for the onslaught that Zen Arcade dumped on me. It was like learning a new language. I was confused at first, it sounded like hardcore, but clearly there was more diversity, intelligence and pop in the mix than in typical hardcore. It took me many listens for Zen Arcade to sink in, but there was always enough there inside the noise to make me keep trying. I remember my friends in college thinking this record was nothing but noise. Without this record I don't know If I would have ever given a listen to Squirrel Bait, Dinosaur Jr, Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth or Swans. Zen Arcade kicked open a door for me, brought me back to loud intense music that didn't have to be dumb sexist heavy metal.

Question for those who were into Husker Du and the inde scene in 84-86, were you as let down by the Sub Pop/Grunge scene when it first happened as I was? At the time it seemed like such a step backwards.

 

Zen Arcade got me through some pretty tough times.

Cody

 

"Hare Krsna" is my favorite song on the album!

What is the best sounding version of this album? I used to have a red-vinyl of this album, but I don't remember it sounding all that good.

 

i just got back from a Bob Mould interview/solo show. the interviewing was done by Michael Azerrad (author of Our Band Could Be Your Life); it went on for a good hour before a short performance, and i would say that they talked about the Husker Du years for the bulk of it. very interesting stuff as i had never heard Bob talk at such length about that period of his life. definitely go see him on this mini-tour if he comes to your town.

 

as far as i am concerned, i liked the first mudhoney mini-album (superfuzz bigmuff) and the first nirvana (bleach)... i never see them on a level with husker du, the minutemen, the meat puppets or sonic youth, pixies... but it was also not bad music like what you heard on the radio... the success of "nevermind" made it a little bit sour and afterwards there was nothing much to come, but IMHO grunge was for two years not so bad... it is always a question of time, i don't think the huskers could have stayed on the same level for more years, so maybe the breakup was not so bad at all...

i think the level of musical invention has slowed downed significantly since the eighties, so this years you must be happy if every two years comes out an album, like you had five or six a year in the eighties...

 

It sucks for me... I was down in San Francisco last Friday when Bob was up here. Now I'm back in Seattle when he's down there. Bah. Did he have any new insights or anecdotes about HD that you hadn't heard before?

 

I never could get into grunge too much. It was happening here in my backyard but it just seemed too bleak, plodding, and humorless compared to Hüsker Dü or the Mats. I like some, but it pales in comparison to the great SST bands of the 80's. At the time I thought the best Seattle band was the Young Fresh Fellows (still do) and I fantasized about them setting the world on fire instead. I do kick myself for passing up the "3 Bands for 3 bucks" show (Tad, Mudhoney, Nirvana) at my college in 1989 since it would be something I could have told the grandkids about.

It is interesting to ponder what if Hüsker Dü had stayed together five or six more years. I imagine they would have had Meat Puppets/Sugar-level success after Nirvana broke out.

 

When I started hearing Nevermind in record stores and from dorm windows I thought they were just simplifying stuff like Husker Du and Dinosaur, but I got over it! I still think there is more creativity in their antecedent bands but Nirvana is great.

Of the other grunge bands, none of them but Love Battery put together more than a few great songs for my money. But grunge opened a space for an indie scene in the 90s which was the equal of the 80s. It also helped the majors recover aesthetically and release much better music than they had for a long time.

 

Black Flag and Hüsker Dü were the John the Baptists that paved the way for Nirvana and the rest of the grunge scene. In the early 90s I was upset that the grunge bands were receiving ten times the mainstream attention that Hüsker Dü received during their career, but that's the way things work out sometimes, I guess.