My Top 1000 Song #299: Terms Of Psychic Warfare

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

The second Grant Hart-penned track I'm snagging from Hüsker Dü's 1985 LP New Day Rising. And while "Books About UFOs" is chipper, joyous pop (run through a sonic blender), "Terms Of Psychic Warfare" takes a darker turn, a classic break-up song rendered new... while every bit the blueprint of the perfect pop song (once again run through that sonic blender of theirs). Start with a drop-dead guitar riff, the sort of thing that inspires every half-assed terrible bedroom guitarist (i.e. me) to immediately reach for their cheap knock-off Strat and play along. Throw in a pithy guitar solo that gets the job done in about 10 seconds, some haunting reverb-drenched background vocals barely discernible above the din, and some pointed kiss-off lyrics. ("Don't feel fad the next time my memory comes creepin'. You've got your own bed now, I suggest that's the one you sleep in. Goodnight baby--yow!")

Then crank that sucker up to 11.

Live insanity, 1985:

The late Grant Hart, solo 2010: