Grant Hart

The songwriter and drummer of Husker Du died today.If you don't know his work then I strongly recommend you check out Husker Du,Nova Mob who were his second band as well as his solo material.
He was often overlooked as he didn't 'break ' the indie scene as Husker vocalist Bob Mould did with Sugar in the 90s.However with his 80s work he helped create the 90s sound of Nirvana etc.
I hope that his music lives on for a long time.I was fortunate enough to meet Grant after one of his many visits to Newport,and he told me that success to him meant bands covering his songs.
A great man and a tragic loss.

Husker Du are my all time favourite alt rock group. I only found out about this last night and was pretty shocked although from watching his later efforts on videos on YouTube he's been looking pretty ill for a while.

I found Hart's melodic singing and easy melodies an excellent counter balance against Bob Mould's furious buzz saw guitar sound and he was the equal to Mould's creative greatness on Husker Du records as far as I'm concerned.

I can only wish in the light of his death that they finally get it all together and remaster their entire back catalogue, especially some of the poor recordings on the SST label. Always felt as a band they could have been bigger and more accessible with better production. New Day Rising and Zen Arcade for example scream of "if only" when it comes to the poor production.

If you haven't done so already check out the BBC 606 session dedicated to the passing of Grant Hart. An excellent show, although it's inevitable there'd be some disappointment in songs omitted you'd have liked to have been played. "Pink turns to Blue", "All of my senses" are not there but a great show nonetheless.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b095cmz8

Thanks for the reply, Mochyn Du, and sorry it took so long to reply to ! You may be interested that I interviewed Hart in Newport TJs in 93, he was promoting the Nova Mob lp, and it was written up in a fanzine called Monks on Zinc. I am going to get a scan soon of this and haven't seen it since the time.
Anyway, he told me that he hoped to for his songs to be covered by other artists, that was how he measured success. Always remembered that..