The Living End (Hüsker Dü album)

The Living End
Live album by Hüsker Dü
Released April 7, 1994
Recorded On tour, October 1987
Genre Alternative rock
Label Warner Bros.
Producer Hüsker Dü, Lou Giordano
Hüsker Dü chronology

Warehouse: Songs and Stories
(1987)		 The Living End
(1994)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Rolling Stone [2]
Robert Christgau A−[3]

The Living End is a Hüsker Dü live album recorded at various venues in October 1987 but not released until 1994. It spans the band's entire recorded output, from "Data Control" off Land Speed Record, the band's debut, to a healthy dose of songs from the band's last studio album, Warehouse: Songs and Stories. There are also some unreleased tracks and a cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker." The substantial liner notes, written by noted rock critic David Fricke, provide illumination into the band's disintegration.

Guitarist Bob Mould and drummer Grant Hart handled the overwhelming share of songwriting duties in the band. Of interest is "Everytime," a rare solo credit for bassist Greg Norton.

Hart would record "Now That You Know Me" on his first solo album, Intolerance.

The track listing is reflective of the band's set lists. "New Day Rising" was a common choice to open shows. As explained in the liner notes, the band preferred to group like-minded songs into what they called "packs of three." Examples of these "packs" include "Standing in the Rain" followed by "Back from Somewhere" and "Ice Cold Ice," as well as "Terms of Psychic Warfare" followed by "Powerline" and "Books About UFOs."

The liner notes also mention several songs that were considered for inclusion on the album, but were left off due to space reasons. These included some of the band's more well-known songs that had been released as singles: "Makes No Sense At All," "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely," and "Could You Be the One?" "Hare Krsna" was also a candidate for inclusion, but was released instead on Do You Remember?, a promotional CD issued by Warner Bros. at the time of this album's release. Other leftovers were included on a 1996 bootleg entitled Up In The Air: "These Important Years," "Charity, Chastity, Prudence and Hope," "Chartered Trips," "Green Eyes," a full-band electric version of the normally acoustic "Never Talking To You Again," and the Warehouse-era b-side "Gotta Lotta."

Over half of the songs were recorded at Le Spectrum in Montreal. The album was deleted from the Warner Bros catalogue in 2003, and reissued through Rhino Entertainment's Encore imprint in June 2008.

In an interview with Spin magazine in January 2008, Bob Mould revealed that he has never heard this album.[4]

Track listing

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "New Day Rising" (Washington 10/21/87)Bob Mould/Grant Hart/Greg Norton 3:06
2. "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" (Montreal 10/14/87)Hart 3:08
3. "Standing in the Rain" (Toronto 10/13/87)Mould 3:35
4. "Back from Somewhere" (Washington 10/20/87)Hart 2:25
5. "Ice Cold Ice" (Montreal 10/14/87)Mould 4:19
6. "Everytime" (Montreal 10/14/87)Norton 2:39
7. "Friend, You've Got to Fall" (Montreal 10/14/87)Mould 3:11
8. "She Floated Away" (Montreal 10/14/87)Hart 3:30
9. "From the Gut" (Providence 10/16/87)Mould/Norton 1:33
10. "Target" (Washington 10/20/87)Mould 1:46
11. "It's Not Funny Anymore" (Montreal 10/14/87)Hart 2:11
12. "Hardly Getting Over It" (Toronto 10/13/87)Mould 5:54
13. "Terms of Psychic Warfare" (Montreal 10/14/87)Hart 2:01
14. "Powerline" (Montreal 10/14/87)Mould 2:27
15. "Books About UFOs" (Montreal 10/14/87)Hart 2:25
16. "Divide and Conquer" (Montreal 10/14/87)Mould 2:56
17. "Keep Hanging On" (New York City 10/17/87)Hart 3:23
18. "Celebrated Summer" (Montreal 10/14/87)Mould 4:36
19. "Now That You Know Me" (Montreal 10/14/87)Hart 3:31
20. "Ain't No Water in The Well" (Toronto 10/13/87)Mould 2:47
21. "What's Going On" (New Haven 10/18/87)Hart 3:21
22. "Data Control" (Providence 10/16/87)Hart 5:09
23. "In a Free Land" (Toronto 10/13/87)Mould 3:35
24. "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" (Montreal 10/14/87)Joey Ramone 3:13

References

  1. ↑ Raggett, Ned. "allmusic ((( The Living End > Review )))". Allmusic. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  2. ↑ Brackett, Nathan. "Hüsker Dü". The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. November 2004. pg. 398, cited March 18, 2010
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Hüsker Dü". robertchristgau.com, Retrieved on March 18, 2010.
  4. ↑ Steve Kandell (January 28, 2008). "The Spin Interview: Bob Mould". Spin magazine.