Monday Will Never Be The Same- Husker Du Craft the Sgt. Pepper of Punk Rock with Zen Arcade

"He lives in his imagination, with those friends of his very own, he doesn't get along with the outside world, he'd rather be alone"

By the end of the 1970's, the first wave of punk rock had been bought out by the music industry and was watered down and repackaged as new wave, inspiring legions of disillusioned suburban brats to strip the original formula down to its most basic elements and make it faster, louder, harder and uglier than it ever was before. This abrasive new innovation in punk rock came to be known as hardcore, and quickly spread throughout the nation (and eventually the world), inspiring a handful of amazing, ingenius bands (Black Flag, Bad Brains, Big Boys), and countless imitators. Minneapolis' Husker Du formed in 1979 and quickly mastered the genre with their first two LPs, the running times of which hardly add up to an hour. Though renowned for their speed and intensity, the band quickly grew tired of the limits imposed by hardcore and began to distance themselves from their speed obsessed peers with the "In A Free Land" single and 1983's Metal Circus EP before completely changing the scope of underground music a year later with their loosely conceptual double LP, Zen Arcade.


Beginning with militaristic drums and a pulsating bassline, Bob Mould's trademark (and soon copied) distorted open chords soon ring out as he shouts the opening lines of "Something I Learned Today". The songs anthemic lyrics about living by one's own accord and newfound independence provide the introduction to the story which begins with the next track, "Broken Home, Broken Heart". The main character is introduced, a kid whose parents fight constantly and don't understand their confused and angry son. Though many young punk rockers throughout the world could relate to the main character's plight, the alienation and confusion in the album's lyrics also hints at the struggles both writers had growing up as homosexuals in the conservative midwest. The next track was something unheard of on a record by an American hardcore punk band in 1984- an acoustic song. Grant Harts debut song on the record further examines the contempt the story's hero (or antihero) holds toward his parents, and Bob Mould takes this a step further with his catchiest song to date, "Chartered Trips", where the character leaves home for good. Spot's production perfectly highlights the mood of the record. Though Mould is playing a beautiful progression of ringing, melodic chords, the guitar's tone is ragged and abrasive, giving the pop aspects of the album a corrosive edge which accentuates the agony in many of the songs' lyrics. "Chartered Trips" is followed by the instrumental "Dreams Reoccuring", which includes something else seldom heard on a hardcore record at the time- tape effects. The entire song is backwards, with the notes sounding as if they are rushing toward the listener, then speeding past, much like the sound of trees when driving past them. We are hearing the protagonist journey away from his home to the great unknown. From here Husker Du nod back to their aggressive roots, though with a creativity most of their peers lacked. Despite being loud and angry, the fast songs on Zen Arcade never revert to the standard 1-2 "oompah" beat of the average hardcore record. The rhythm has a sort of swing to it, propelling it along with elevated intensity. The vocals are also a step above usual hardcore fare. Though Mould is screaming his lungs out, most of the lyrics are intelligible enough to understand without the aid of a lyric sheet. Though he has escaped the misery of his home, our hero is now confronted with the confusion and uncertainty of life on his own. Through Mould's lyrics, the character second guesses his actions, seeing that "nothing in your life is ever going on course, you wonder if living could be much worse.....You're a big fucking kid, you don't know what you're about." Grant Hart's "Hare Krsna" follows, which in this writer's opinion is the one track this record could do without. It stretches on far too long, and is essentially a rewrite of Bo Diddley's "I Want Candy." Following "Hare Krsna" are four more blasts of searing hardcore, representing the chaos of the city seen throught the eyes of a kid who has spent his life in the safe arms of white suburbia. Things are not as he had planned when setting out on his journey, and our nameless hero is now all alone in the big bad city with no friends, no help, and no place to stay. By the end of this four song barrage he has realized that "your daydreams aren't forever, better get your shit together for a new game...you tried to be a hero, but you ended up nothing." Grant Hart ends the record's agressive chapter with the mildly psychedelic "What's Going On (Inside My Head)" and the faster "Masochism World," continuing the records themes of confusion and inescapable loneliness, though in the latter track it is hinted at that the protagonist has met a companion with the lines "does it hurt when I do this...I love it, I hate it, I love it, so how about you." His journey continues through Hart's "Somewhere," where, sick of "looking at the nightmare when I try to see the dream" the character realizes that the key to his turmoil and depression are inside his head, and cannot be escaped as easily as running away from home. Husker Du push the hardcore envelope further with the next track, "One Step At A Time," a piano based instrumental once again featuring backwards tape effects. As "One Step At A Time" ends, the ominous arpeggiated chords that lead in to "Pink Turns To Blue" begin, detailing the drug induced death of the main character's newfound female companion. She had provided stability in his new and confusing surroundings, "standing up for me and like a tree for what she believed," but now he is once again alone. Bob Mould returns with a clean, chorusy guitar giving us a bit of social commentary with "Newest Industry," straying from the record's central theme, and supplying the song with Beatle-esque piano line under his fuzzy open chords, then turns in the record's second piano instrumental, "Monday Will Never Be The Same." Following "Monday...", our hero confronts his angst in Mould's "Whatever", and makes peace with the parents that turned him away. The song also once again includes references to stress related to growing up homosexual- "His parents, they can't understand why their son, he turned out wrong...Mom and Dad I'm sorry, Mom and Dad don't worry, I'm not the son you wanted, but what could you expect?" The writers then let us in on the fact that the entire adventure our protagonist has undertaken all happened in his head during a dream with "The Tooth Fairy And The Princess", yet again referencing the Beatles with tape effects. After some more social commentary, this time from Hart in "Turn On The News", our character returns from his slumber, wiser and more understanding of the world around him, with the 14 minute instrumental, "Reocurring Dreams", which is a reworking of the earlier track "Dreams Reocurring".

After the release of Zen Arcade, underground rock music would never be the same, and its influence, along with that of the Replacements' Let It Be, the Meat Puppets' II, Black Flag's My War, and the Minutemen's Double Nickels On The Dime (all released the same year) would be heard in virtually every band to emerge from then on. Zen Arcade also proved to naysayers the world over that punk rock could indeed produce relevant art as well as youthful noise, and showed that there was indeed life after hardcore.