Grant Hart - "2541" (the song remains the same)

About two months ago Grant Hart died.  Grant was a founding member of the seminal punk band Husker Du, a band I've nearly completely covered in F-Measure.   It wasn't until recently that I settled on how to acknowledge his passing: his solo debut EP, post-Husker Du, released in 1988.  The title track, "2541", a poignant song about Husker Du's first shared house/rehearsal space, is a parable about the rise and fall of the band itself ("Now everything is over / Now everything is done / Everything's in boxes / At twenty-five forty-one"). 

After Husker Du broke up, I unconsciously ended up on team Bob.  I have several LPs from solo Bob Mould and Sugar, but never got any solo work from Grant or Nova Mob.  I need to fix that.

Bob and Grant had a fiery, sometimes-on but mostly-off working relationship both during Husker Du and after.  The tension made for some great material in Husker Du, and while they made good material after Husker Du... well... few bands could top their 1985, which saw the release of both "New Day Rising" and "Flip Your Wig". 

I remember hearing this summer about their release of "Savage Young Du", their reissue/retrospective of Husker Du's early days, and thinking that Bob and Grant were back on speaking terms.  Bob posted a note on Grant's passing that stated it was not unexpected, so I'm grateful they patched things up at the end.

Grant Hart - "2541" (acoustic version from the self-titled EP, this is my preferred version)
Grant Hart - "2541" (from the 1989 LP "Intolerance")
Marshall Crenshaw - "2541" (from "Velvel")*

Bonus link: "The Brilliance of Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart in 10 Songs" from Pitchfork.



* If you saw this and thought "oh cool, I didn't know Marshall Crenshaw covered a Grant Hart song!" then you're definitely a child of the 80s.