Скачать или смотреть Soul Asylum: The Story of 'Runaway Train' & How The Band Saved Children With the Video

Soul Asylum: The Story of Runaway Train from Grave Dancers Union and how the band saved children with the music video.

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The early 90’s saw the rise of alternative rock and while many in the press chose to focus on Seattle, there were popular bands from other cities too. One of those cities was Minneapolis, which was home to Soul Asylum who just happened to be label mates with another minneapolis act the Replacements. Bands typically sing about their own personal experiences or social injustices, but it’s a rare occurrence when a song has such a profound impact that it changes people’s lives. Today, let’s take a look at a Soul Asylum song that did just that.

While many people thought that Soul Asylum sprouted up overnight and had success pretty quickly in their career, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Starting out in 1981 the band honed their skill as a live act that had inspired a small cult of followers. The band signed with major label A&M records in the late 80’s, but they had little commercial success and were quickly dropped. However, the band got a second chance following the success of Nirvana’s Nevermind album had major labels singing underground bands that could be labeled as “alternative rock.” Soul Asylum would be picked up by Columbia Records. It would take the band 6 albums before they hit it big with their 1992 release grave dancers Union.

The album was a massive hit producing four charting singles. But it would be the album’s 4th single, An acoustic ballad named Runaway Train that made the biggest impact. It would be penned by frontman Dave Pirner about his battle with depression. Runaway Train also represnted a stylist change in the way Pirner wrote music as he had recently being diagnosed with a hearing condition called tinnitus which likely came from years of playing small clubs. At one point Pirner gave some thought to making Grave Dancers Union a fully acoustic record.

The track Runaway Train was a song that had been kicking around Pirner’s head for about 4 years, but the lyrics took a long time to come to him. telling Spin

“Runaway Train” was a tune that was in my head for a couple years, at least. I had written different lyrics to it that were not so great. It was something like, “Two souls laughing at the rain.”... Somehow I flipped the lyrics into a metaphor about depression. The thing that got it rolling was that I was in a very dark place, and I had somebody that I could call up in the middle of the night. [Laughs] That was it.

Pirner would tell Loudersound what happened when he brought the song to his band revealing It was really the first time I wrote a song and people had an immediate reaction. I wasn’t sure why people were so taken aback by that song. I was too naïve to realise they were all seeing dollar signs. I just had never experienced anything like it. He would go on to say that he was shocked so many people connected with the song because of it’s dark subject matter and the fact he showed a more vulnerable side of himself.

Guitarist Dan Murphy would tell Spin magazine:
We played it at the University of Minnesota, and our manager at the time was like, “That’s the one. That’s the one that’s going to change your band.” Our manager said he walked around the room and watched people. They initially thought it was a cover because it sort of sounded like a classic song.
While the song dealt with depression the video focused on missing children. . The video featured photos and names of missing children and since the song was such a hit all over the world,they had to create several versions of the video with missing people from that specific region or country. The idea for the video came from director Tony Kaye who would tell Spin Magazine
I was being driven home one night and I saw a poster — I think it was a milk poster or something like that, where it was missing kids on the carton.
Kaye would pitch the idea to the band who liked the concept. The band would team up with the Center for Missing and

Source

https://www.loudersound.com/amp/featu...

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/mu...

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/soul-...