Runaway Train (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Runaway Train" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by Soul Asylum | ||
| from the album Grave Dancers Union | ||
| Released | 1992 | |
| Format | LP, Cassette, CD | |
| Recorded | 1992 | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | 4:26 | |
| Label | Columbia | |
| Writer(s) | Dave Pirner | |
| Producer(s) | Michael Beinhorn | |
| Chart positions | ||
| Soul Asylum singles chronology | ||
| Black Gold (1992) |
Runaway Train (1993) |
Without a Trace (1993) |
"Runaway Train" is a 1992 song performed by the Minneapolis rock band Soul Asylum and often erroneously attributed to Tom Petty. It is the song that led Soul Asylum to international status, and helped bring their album, Grave Dancers Union to a multi-platinum level.
The song was written by Soul Asylum's lead singer Dave Pirner. It was the third single off of the album (see Soul Asylum discography) and reached number three on the Billboard charts. It won a Grammy Award for the best rock song in 1994.
The song has become synonymous with the band, and has led many people to believe that it is the groups only hit, categorizing Soul Asylum as a one-hit wonder band. "Runaway Train" continues to receive a lot of airplay on the radio today. One of the things that many disc jockeys mention after the song is played is the influential music video that had accompanied the song.
Contents |
[edit] Music Video
The music video, directed by Tony Kaye received lots of airplay on MTV and VH1 during its duration.
The beginning of the video starts out with a fade-in to a black screen with big white blocked-lettered text reading "There are over one million youth lost on the streets of America". Next shown is a drawing of a girl and Dave Pirner voiced over that the drawing was by a girl who had run away over 110 times (this scene was often omitted from the music video due to time constraints). After the voice over the song would begin.
The actual video started out with various shots of the band playing the song and Dave singing while the video would cut back and forth to scenes of a man abusing his wife, whom later in the video goes searching for young girls in his car.
During the choruses still pictures of missing children would appear on the screen. After each one of the pictures was shown, their full name would appear in large capital letters on the screen. The year that they had been "missing since" had appeared in smaller letters under their name.
Throughout the video there are scenes of a lady in a car stalking a younger mother and her baby, who is in a stroller. Near the end of the video, as the mother stops to look at some clothes, the lady gets out of her car and kidnaps the baby. The lady takes off in the car as the mother runs down the street after her. A picture of a baby and their name is shown missing as the last person in the video.
After the video Dave Pirner says in front of the camera, "If you've seen one these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number". The following screen shows the number one could contact for a short while before the video fades out.
There were several versions of the video made. Depending on where (what country) the video was being broadcast, they would show children from that area which are missing.
The video was very successful in reuniting many of the missing children with their families. Some of the children had even seen themself pictured in the video and returned home. In 2006, guitarist Dan Murphy stated in an interview with Pasadena Weekly that some of children who were found were not returned to the best of conditions: "Some weren’t the best scenarios. I met a fireman on the East Coast whose daughter was in the end of the video, and he’d been in a bitter custody battle with his wife over her,” Murphy said. “It turned out the girl hadn’t run away, but was killed and buried in her backyard by her mother. Then on tour, another girl told us laughingly ‘You ruined my life’ because she saw herself on the video at her boyfriend’s house and it led her being forced back into a bad home situation.” [1]
[edit] Track listing
- Runaway Train
- Black Gold (Live)
- Never Really Been (Live)
- By The Way
- Everybody Loves A Winner
- All songs written by Dave Pirner.
[edit] Trivia
- Many spinoffs of the music video have occurred throughout the years. One instance was when "Weird Al" Yankovic ran a special on MTV. He parodied artists (such as Milli Vanilli, Vanilla Ice, and Debbie Gibson) and added the year they had been "missing since" (which was when they last performed).
[edit] References
- ^ Back On Track, Pasadena Weekly, July 13, 2006
| Soul Asylum |
|---|
| Dave Pirner - Dan Murphy - Tommy Stinson - Michael Bland - Karl Mueller |
| Pat Morley - Grant Young - Sterling Campbell - Ian Mussington |
| Soul Asylum discography |
| Albums: Say What You Will, Clarence...Karl Sold the Truck (1984) - Made To Be Broken (1986) - Time's Incinerator (1986) - While You Were Out (1986) - Hang Time (1988) - Clam Dip & Other Delights (1989) - And the Horse They Rode in On (1990) - Grave Dancers Union (1992) - Let Your Dim Light Shine (1995) - Candy from a Stranger (1998) - The Silver Lining (2006) |
| Compilations: Black Gold: The Best of Soul Asylum (2000) - Closer to the Stars: Best of the Twin/Tone Years (2006) |
| Live and other projects: After the Flood: Live from the Grand Forks Prom, June 28, 1997 (2004) |
| Related articles |
| Runaway Train - Faces & Names (2002) - Golden Smog |
