Hippies vs. Punks: Grant Hart's Intolerance

The Labor Day weekend draws to a close. It was a good one. I was able to scratch my way back to a semblance of balance after several weeks operating with an energy deficit.

I spent the three-day holiday weekend listening to a lot of jazz and Traffic. I also, as you know if you looked at this page over the last couple of days, have revisited some of the seminal recordings of SST Records.

This afternoon I am listening -- on repeat -- to Grant Hart's first solo full-length album after the demise of Hüsker Dü.

Intolerance (1989) appeared at a time when SST Records had lost its steam. I consider it the last great record the label put out. Greg Ginn was focusing his energy on the Cruz Records sub-label. Cruz featured Grunge and Pop Punk music before it became the next -- and probably the last -- Grand Barbecue for the major labels. 

Intolerance was released December of 1989, but I didn't purchase it until I moved to the Emerald City for the first time, the summer of 1990. (In the early '90s, after I returned to New York City from my Seattle sojourn, I was an acolyte of ALL, the top band for Cruz Records. I listened to ALL and Dinosaur Jr. religiously from 1990 to 1993.) 

My marriage was ending and I was living alone up the east flank of Capitol Hill, a mile or two from the University of Washington. I worked as a laborer for a drywall contractor. I had a tiny sublet apartment. I drank when I could. But I had the sunshine too, sonically represented by Grant Hart's Intolerance.

SST Records, the label that had created, more than any other, the American Hardcore Punk sound (think Black Flag), was, by the end of the 1980s, basically a purveyor of Hippie sensibility, albeit the kind found at the end of the Reagan era. And this sensibility, if I had to define it, which I believe I can since I was in and of it -- I  represented it more than most -- was a rejection of Yuppie career-track achievement and status in favor of alcohol and independent artistic/scholarly pursuits. -- Good homemade meals, I should mention that as well. As a young man who turned his back on the Academy, not only did I read my fair share of Bukowski and Kerouac, but I also spent a lot of time blendering basil and pine nuts for pesto and stir-frying tofu and snow peas in oyster sauce. (I used to spend a lot more time cooking; part of that was living with and taking care of women.)

So by the time the '80s draw to a close Punk has come full circle. The Punk is now a Hippie. The Hippie is in the vanguard once again. This is what makes Intolerance a standout, unique record. The opposition, the anger of Punk towards Hippie has disappeared. The progeny has assumed the forebear's identity; the son now wears the father's beard.

Listen to the album if you can; it is a great one.