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CHRIS ROBERTS: Bob Mould's 'trail of rage and melody" began 50 years ago in his childhood home in upstate New York. Early on, he knew he was very musical. He also knew he was gay, something his neglectful mother and abusive father wouldn't tolerate. So he fled to St. Paul and Macalester College, where he eventually met his Hüsker Dü bandmates drummer Grant Hart and bassist Greg Norton.

Soon, the sonic storm that was Hüsker Dü's sound took shape. It was a blinding rhythm combined with Mould's primal howl singing style and guitar chords that sounded like a disturbed hornet's nest. Bob Mould reads from his autobiography, See a Little Light.

BOB MOULD: People who saw me scowling and lurching around the stage back then probably wondered what was going on inside my brain. It just felt like loose electricity was flying through my hands and off the guitar, and it sounded like my head was being riddled with pellets of ice. It was almost like being locked in the trunk of a car during a massive hail storm.

[ROCK MUSIC]

There was three very unique individuals in that band. And when we came together, there was a certain energy and a certain creativity that was really healthy. We had an us-versus-them mentality that really we established that very, very early on. And when people read the book, they'll see instances all along the way.

Specifically myself and Grant Hart, I mean, very similar in some ways. Yet we couldn't have been more different people. That was a healthy yin and yang for a long time. The last 18 months of the band, everybody drifted apart. Everybody had major life changes that they chose. And we had very little in common at the end. But when it was really good, it was great. When it was bad, it was terrible.

CHRIS ROBERTS: I know I'm risking making this interview sound like an addition of "this is your life, Bob Mould," but I asked a few of your contemporaries to join the interview and pose a few questions to you. And here is the first one.

MIKE MADDEN: My name is Mike Madden, and my relationship to Hüsker Du was as babysitter. That was in 1981 when Hüsker Dü was touring Canada and I was along for the ride with my bike. My question is, Bob, if you ever wondered if you would live to write this book? And I'm thinking about a three-night stand that the band did in Calgary, Alberta, at a hotel called the Calgarian.

BOB MOULD: Hey, Mike. Yeah, I think what Mike is maybe alluding to is some of the rougher components of playing at the Calgarian Hotel.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Which you write about.

BOB MOULD: Yeah, I write about in the book. Actually, our first time there, I think we played six nights. We played a Monday through Saturday. Calgary was the Wild West at that time. And I remember going down to the bar to play. We were doing four sets a night, which is ridiculous if you think about it. But we feared for our lives a bit.

There was a lot of cowboys who would come and play pool. And there was a lot of Native North Americans who also came to the bar. And they had a bit of a rivalry going, let's say. So there'd be physicality between the two groups until the punk rockers showed up, and then they would both turn on us.

I remember seeing a lot of fights. We'd watch fights outside the hotel. They gave us one room upstairs above the front of the hotel entrance, so we could see people pouring out and fighting. And there was actually a woman who came to a bunch of the shows and she got stabbed early in the week. And then she came back later in the week and got stabbed again. I think that's what Mike is talking about. But, specifically, I didn't think I would live to see 30.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Really?

BOB MOULD: No, and I mean, fortunately, I got hold of my senses before I got to 30. So when I made it to 30, I wasn't that surprised. Now, at 50, I'm sure glad I made some of the decisions I've made.

CHRIS ROBERTS: What do you think was Hüsker Dü's biggest contribution to music, to punk rock?

BOB MOULD: To punk rock in the early '80s, I think hardcore had gotten-- it was a faster, more aggressive variant of the first wave of punk rock that had a sort of naive political outlook. And I think what Hüsker Dü did was to let go of that very quickly and start dealing with personal issues. And we brought melody and harmony into it, which was not one of its strong suits.

And as time went on, the more aggressive sides of the band became tempered, the melody started coming to the fore, and our audience changed. And within two or three years, it was over.

[HUSKER DU, "MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL"] Walking around with your head in the clouds

Makes no sense at all

Selling yourself short, but you're walking so tall

Makes no sense at all.

CHRIS ROBERTS: I have another question from one of your cohorts back in the day queued up.

CHRIS OSGOOD: Hi, Bob. Chris Osgood here. I play in a punk rock band called the Suicide Commandos. We still get to play from time to time. And we were very busy between 1975 and the very end of 1978.

And Bob, my question for you is, as we watched your career take off and watch you guys get in a van and tour relentlessly in the early years, I've often wondered how you were able to write as relentlessly as you were touring? So many good songs came spilling out in that period. You must have had some sort of system to capture all that stuff. If you could talk about how you wrote in those early days, I'd be interested in that.

BOB MOULD: Wow, it's great to hear Chris's voice. Chris is one of my mentors and played in one of my favorite bands. God, songwriting. The simple answer is notebooks and a strange sort of shorthand notation that I came up with for chord changes and melodies.

A lot of things happened out on the road during those days. A lot of wild experiences, a lot of scenery, just a lot of living on the cheap. Just write it all down, write down as much as you can.

And when I would come home, then I'd have my moments where I could start to really consider what the music should be like. And then I'd have these notebooks full of ideas and I could go through and pull things from the notebooks and make nice songs that I can't remember if I put it in the book or not. But I remember buying a $75 banjo in Newport, Kentucky and sitting in the alley and writing Divide and Conquer on a banjo.

[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]

It happens when you least expect it. You just have to keep notes as best you can.

[HUSKER DU, "DIVIDE AND CONQUER"] Well they divided up all land

And we've got states and cities

Cities have their neighborhoods

And more subdivisions.

CHRIS ROBERTS: As often happens in the band world, when bands break up, it's not usually amicable, and I don't think it was an amicable breakup in Hüsker Dü's case. There's a lot of people obviously in the Twin Cities who have such fond memories of Hüsker Dü and hold the band in such high regard and affection. And they can't help but yearn not necessarily for a reunion of Hüsker Dü, but for at least the members to be on better terms. And perhaps that's not possible. And I wanted you to respond to that sentiment.

BOB MOULD: That's a fair sentiment. When I walked away from the band, I was content to leave it alone. But I felt like publicly I was being held accountable for a lot of things that I thought were for the good of the band, specifically from Grant, who was having a tough time.

We all go through tough times. I was content to ignore it and let it go, but it stung. After a while, getting hit over and over with comments, it sort of lessened my fondness for talking about Husker Dü at all.

Move up to 23 years later, and people are still wondering why. I've had a couple encounters with Grant since then. They've been pleasant. They've been cool. Cool in the temperature sense, not in the hip sense. Sometimes when you put two people in a room and they know how to push each other's buttons, maybe it's better that they don't get in the same room.

Having said that, I've never stood in the way of anybody trying to properly further the legacy of the band. There's been a number of reissues, mostly precipitated by Grant's attorney, who represents Grant and Greg. I've cooperated, so I don't think it's a particularly contentious relationship, whatever is left of it as far as the estate of Hüsker Dü.

But emotionally, I don't know if it'd be in anybody's best interest. I don't have any ill will. I'm still stinging a little bit, but life goes on.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Bob Mould reads from his autobiography, See a Little Light-- The Trail of Rage and Melody tonight at Majors and Quinn in Minneapolis. He'll be performing at the Dakota Wednesday night. And on Thursday afternoon at 4:30, our sister station, The Current, will air a live performance and interview with DJ Mary Lucia. Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio News.

[BOB MOULD, "SEE A LITTLE LIGHT] Listen, there's music in the air

I heard your voice coming from somewhere

But look how much we've grown

Well, I guess I should have known

As the years go by, they take a toll on you

Think of all the things we wanted to do

And all the words we said yesterday

That's a long time ago

You didn't think I'd really go now

Are you waiting? I know why

You're already saying goodbye

Are you ready? I know why

I see a little light, I know you will

I can see it in your eyes, I know you still care

But if you want me to go

You can just say so