As Hüsker Dü jelled into a blitzkrieg hardcore trio, the bond between Mould and Hart deepened. Though both were attracted to men, the two never became romantically involved; but during an often intolerant era of hardcore, their sexuality made them outsiders among outsiders. Their songs, however, obliterated any divisions. Taking their name from a childhood board game, Hüsker Dü evaded pigeonholes while outshining most of their punk brethren. Mould’s voice was raspy and enraged; Hart’s had a more melodic edge. Hart, also a visual artist, devised many of their record designs. Their earliest recording sessions, as documented in Savage Young Dü, were full of impassioned fits of fury and confusion like the band’s first single, the Hart-penned “Statues”—not to mention occasional bursts of tuneful, goofy humor, like Hart’s “Insects Rule the World.”

Following their debut live album, Land Speed Record, the group’s first studio full-length, Everything Falls Apart, came out on their own Reflex Records in 1983. Hart contributed just one track, the slashing, jagged “Wheels,” to the latter, but he sang lead on another track, a cover of Donovan’s 1966 psychedelic hit “Sunshine Superman.” By all appearances a throwaway song, it was nonetheless revealing. “I didn’t enjoy playing hardcore,” Hart told The A.V. Club in 2000. “I saw it as part of a whole set of possibilities for expression, but I found the hardcore thing very limiting and very ... dumb.” Despite his misgivings, Hart’s drumming is some of the era’s most potent. Said Mould, “Grant was behind the kit, looking much like Animal from the Muppet Show band, except with longer hair and bare feet.”

Later in 1983, Hüsker Dü released a short record that marked a huge shift: Metal Circus was their first for SST Records, the legendary California label run by Greg Ginn of Black Flag, one of the biggest hardcore bands in the country. On Metal Circus, Hart came into his own. He contributed two of his most indelible compositions: “It’s Not Funny Anymore” and “Diane.” The latter, eerily slow and sung in a desperate, heart-wrenching wail, was written from the point of view of Joseph Donald Ture, a serial killer responsible for the murder of a St. Paul woman named Diane Edwards. Savage Young Dü archives the band’s output before signing to SST, including the entirety of Land Speed Record and Everything Falls Apart, but it also includes a live performance of “Diane” from 1981. Frantic yet assured, it crystallizes Grant’s transition from hardcore screamer and basher to a songwriter with depth and subtlety. The way he sings his raw-throated refrain of “Diane / Diane / Diane,” it sounds like he could be chanting the word “dying” over and over.

A competition crept in between Hart and Mould, who, as the guitarist, was the more visible member of the group. Their next three albums for SST, Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and Flip Your Wig, were released in a mere two-year span. Rolling Stone ranked Zen Arcade as No. 33 on their list of the Best Albums of the ’80s, and the record featured Hart songs like the raging, anthemic “Turn On the News”—the latter chosen by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock.” New Day Rising yielded classics (“The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill” and “Books About UFOs”) that showed off Hart’s ability to veer from impressionistic character sketches to barrelhouse-piano hilarity. And on Flip Your Wig, he delivered, among others, “Green Eyes,” the most gorgeous and unabashedly romantic song Hüsker Dü ever made.