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On November 10, Numero Group will release a box set of four LPs or three CDs and a book of about a hundred pages that gathers much of the material recorded by Hüsker Dü from 1979 to 1982, before they officially began a short but intensely significant history that has few equals: just five years, from 1982's «Land Speed Record» to 1987's «Warehouse: Songs and Stories».
69 tracks in total, 47 of which have never been released before.
What it means to evolve from «Land Speed Record» to «Warehouse: Songs and Stories» in the span of half a decade is probably understandable only to those who lived it day by day, that band and those years.
That is not my case: I discovered them in 1986, when my parents financed the purchase of «Candy Apple Grey».
From there, it didn't take long to make up for lost time; Hüsker Dü didn't record that many albums.
However, that time was enough to solidify a certainty: they would be one of the "bands of life," after Clash, Dream Syndicate, and Violent Femmes; the last one, no other has been as crucial for my musical, and even personal, development, I dare say.
A few days ago, upon learning about the upcoming release of «Savage Young Dü», I fantasized for a moment that, being the first authorized new collection by Hart, Mould, and Norton in over twenty years, those three might have finally overcome misunderstandings and resentments – because Hüsker Dü ended badly, amid misunderstandings and resentments – gotten the band back together and offered an illusion to anyone who didn't experience them back then, that these years, too, were important.
Then, illusions quickly fade; sometimes, in the worst possible way.
A few months ago, Grant Hart was diagnosed with cancer; today, that cancer has taken him away.
«I'm sorry, in some way.»
Few certainties.
That these hours will remain impressed like those in which I learned of Joe Strummer's death.
That «Savage Young Dü» will still be a way to return to illusions once more.
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