Bob Mould: “See a Little Light” (1989)
The sound of a ray of hope piercing through a stormy relationship that shone in the summer of ’89.
Kronomyth 1.1: A little light music.
The Eighties began with a roar and ended with a whimper. At least that was my impression of things. Eight years of economic prosperity probably didn’t help; human beings are at their best when things are at their worst. And so a decade that began with Scary Monsters and Remain in Light and saw the rise of The Replacements and Hüsker Dü and Pixies ended with acoustic guitars, strings and slick studio production. Which isn’t to take anything away from Bob Mould or See a Little Light. It’s a swell song from a swell guy, but it arrived at a time when it seemed all the hardcore punks had gone soft in the middle. A murky video that looked for the life of me like an R.E.M. song when you turned the volume down didn’t help matters. If you picked up the single, you got a noisy nonalbum track, All Those People Know, that at least sounded like a Hüsker Dü song (if not a particularly memorable one), while the big spenders were treated to a pair of live songs: Compositions for the Young & Old and a faithful rendition of Richard Thompson’s Shoot Out the Lights.
Original 7-inch single version
A1. See a Little Light (Bob Mould) (3:31)
B1. All Those People Know (Bob Mould) (3:29)
Original 12-inch and CD single version
A1. See a Little Light (Bob Mould) (3:31)
A2. All Those People Know (Bob Mould) (3:29)
B1. Shoot Out the Lights (Richard Thompson) (5:56)
B2. Compositions for the Young & Old (Bob Mould) (4:24)
The Players
A1/A2 produced by Bob Mould. B1/B2 recorded by Timothy Powell; mixed by Bob Mould.
The Pictures
Photography by Bob Norberg.
The Plastic
Released on 7-inch single and four-track 12-inch and CD single in May 1989 in the UK (Virgin, VUS/VUST/VUSCD2) with picture sleeve. Also released as a one-track promotional CD single in 1989 in the US (Virgin, PRCD2685).
