Yesterday was a sad day for our household.  We lost two people that have impacted my life on very different levels to cancer:

• My wife’s dear uncle Ralph who received the diagnosis shortly after he got married just a few years ago and had been battling it hard ever since.  Ralph was an extremely kind man whose wit and knowledge of the arts and the business of running a gallery fascinated me.  I thought that he would spend his life as a bachelor until he surprised us all by announcing his engagement and marrying a wonderful women who stayed by his side throughout his treatments and his passing.  He will be sorely missed by all.
• And, an influential musician from my youth, Grant Hart. Hart’s work with Husker Du continues to make a huge impression on me to this day.

Both men leave powerful legacies.  I’m still reflecting on the passing of Ralph and don’t know what else I can say at this point.  As for Hart, I really didn’t know him other than what he shared in his music.  For me, his band Hüsker Dü (and less so his solo work) made the biggest impact on me as well as many other listeners and musicians lives.   Here are some examples lifted from Wikipedia but widely reported:

• Hüsker Dü is widely regarded as one of the key bands to emerge from the 1980s American indie scene. Music writer Michael Azerrad asserted in his 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life that Hüsker Dü was the key link between hardcore punk and the more melodic, diverse music of college rock that emerged. Azerrad wrote, “Hüsker Dü played a huge role in convincing the underground that melody and punk rock weren’t antithetical.”  The band also set an example by being one of the first bands from the American indie scene to sign to a major record label, which helped establish college rock as “a viable commercial enterprise.”
• Kim Deal joined Pixies in response to a classified ad placed by Black Francis seeking a female bassist who liked both Peter, Paul and Mary and Hüsker Dü.
• Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett said in VH1‘s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock that he owned a Hüsker Dü live tape and was impressed by their talent. During the same documentary, The Smashing Pumpkins‘ frontman, Billy Corgan, also praised them for their energy and punk rock attitude.^{[citation needed]}
• Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic said that Nirvana’s musical style was “nothing new; Hüsker Dü did it before us.”
• Hüsker Dü influenced the Northern Irish band Therapy?.^[38] Therapy? covered “Diane” on their 1995 album, Infernal Love. The song was released as a single. Frontman Andy Cairns listed Zen Arcade as his seventh-favorite album of all time.
• In an interview with Dave Fanning for RTÉ‘s Planet Rock Profiles before the Foo Fighters’ appearance at the 1996 Féile Festival, Dave Grohl said of Zen Arcade, “That album was amazing. I mean, Black Flag was early on, and then when I discovered Zen Arcade I thought, God, these people write songs, man. It’s amazing. It’s like the Byrds meets Black Flag, and it just blew me away, and the songs just stuck in your head forever and they were just amazing. Was that album, Zen Arcade, was recorded…I think it was recorded just straight, and I think they all took acid and recorded it in 48 hours. They did the whole album. That is what I had heard. And, to me, I was just like, God, these people are genius, you know? This is…this is amazing.”

Rest in Peace, Ralph

Rest in Peace, Grant