NT's greatest hits, No. 17—an amendment

The great thing about my "greatest hits" blog series is that it forces me revisit those songs that are ingrained in my psyche. Tasked with writing about them, I listen from a fresh angle, and develop an even greater appreciation for them (usually—one entry on the list was cut after I relistened to it and realized it doesn't quite deserve the honor. Still Peter Gabriel's best song, though, and still an awesome video).

So last week, when I wrote about "Could You Be the One?" by Hüsker Dü, it got me going back to the entire catalog from the band, and reaffirming my blogged conviction that it was perhaps the best American rock group of the mid-'80s. And I maintain that "Could You Be the One?" is their finest hour, but I must retract this quote: "I still think Warehouse is Hüsker's best album."

Wrong: 1985's Flip Your Wig, I've come to realize, is a nearly perfect piece of hard-rock crafstmanship. Straightforward yet experimental, bracingly angry yet tender and touching—three wasted-looking guys smashing out brilliant music, making it look easy. This is the essence of genius. Flip Your Wig was also Hüsker Dü's last album for indie label SST, before they were scooped up by Warner Bros., where they recorded the middling Candy Apple Grey, and then bowed out with the excellent Warehouse (now my second favorite of their albums). Thus it represents a band on the verge, at that tense moment of asking themselves if they'll stay true to what inspired them in the first place. The songs ping-pong between introspection ("Makes No Sense at All," possibly the closest thing the band ever had to a hit, deservedly so), rage ("Divide and Conquer," the Byrds as nihilists—clever), and even straightforward sentiment ("Green Eyes," the best punk love song ever), packed with effervescent passion, and you can feel the growing tension between songwriters Bob Mould and Grant Hart. Thankfully, they never sold out or watered down on the major label, but perhaps that cost them the future of their band.

But seriously, listen to Flip Your Wig; some great benefactor to mankind has uploaded most of the Hüsker catalog to the Web, so if you click on the image at top, you can listen to the first quarter of the album (go to Songza for the rest).

Just wanted to set the record straight. Some fresh musical commentary soon…

NT's greatest hits, No. 17 (of 34)

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"Could You Be the One?" by Husker Du

I wasn't really into music at all until I was 13, when I discovered classic rock. I've written before about how I developed a knee-jerk disdain for most new rock & roll being made at the time, but in hindsight, this was mostly due to the fact that I had no idea what was going on in the rock underground. Scratch that—I didn't know what was going on anywhere but classic-rock radio.

An exception was Hüsker Dü, the pride of the Twin Cities postpunk scene, who came to my attention when I was 16 and never left it. I saw "Could You Be the One?" on MTV's 120 Minutes, which is appropriate, since I imagine 99% of "alt" music discoveries among people of my generation were made through this show. The video:

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The headlong melody of this song, the palpable desperation of the lyrics—a seamless combination that hooked me instantly. I went out and bought the nearly perfect album Warehouse: Songs and Stories (which, I later learned, was the last record by the band, since broken up) and played it till my crappy Walkman ate the tape. I was edging into the alt scene, slowly, and part of what attracted me to Hüsker Dü was its inate understanding of the transcendence of classic rock & roll. It's no coincidence that around the same time, I was developing a passion for The Byrds; at its best, Hüsker was essentially a faster and louder reconfiguring of the Byrds' hook and jangle. (Similarly, I would later fall in love with the Buzzcocks, who did a similar trick with the Beatles' template.)

BTW, I still think Warehouse is Hüsker's best album, which is an unusual opinion, I know; I really don't care for most of the band's early, more hardcore material—no, Zen Arcade never did it for me— and I think Bob Mould needed more time to flower into a class-A songwriter. But by the time the band got to Flip Your Wig, they might have been the best rock band in America. No small honor, even in the mid-1980s.

More of NT's greatest hits:
"Summer in the City," "Teenage Kicks," "Strawberry Fields Forever, " "Tunnel of Love," "I Get Around," "Local Girls," "Don't Let's Start," "Suffragette City," "See-Saw," "My Name Is Jonas," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Reelin' in the Years," "Objects of My Affection" and "Crimson and Clover," "OK Apartment" and "Just What I Needed"