Runaway Train (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Runaway Train
Artist = Soul Asylum


from Album = Grave Dancers Union
Released = 1993
Format = LP, Cassette, CD
Recorded = 1993
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 4:26
Label = Columbia
Writer = Dave Pirner
Producer = Michael Beinhorn
Certification =
Chart position =

#3 (U.S.)

#7 (UK)

#10 (AUS)

#1 (CAN)

Last single = "Black Gold"
(1992)
This single = "Runaway Train"
(1993)
Next single = "Sexual Healing"
(1993)"Runaway Train" is a song by the Minneapolis rock band Soul Asylum. The song led Soul Asylum to international status, and helped bring their album, "Grave Dancers Union" to a multi-platinum level.

It was the third single off of the album ("see Soul Asylum discography") and reached No. 5 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 group's only hit, categorizing Soul Asylum as a one-hit wonder band. However, the band's 1995 hit "Misery" also charted, and therefore they are not considered to be a one-hit wonder. "Runaway Train" continues to receive a lot of airplay on the radio today, with disc jockeys often making mention of the influential music video that accompanied the song.

Music Video

The music video, directed by Tony Kaye received heavy airplay on MTV and VH1 during its duration.

There are two versions of the music video, one for the United Kingdom and one for the United States: The video for the United States begins with a fade to a black screen with big, white blocked text reading: "There are over one million youth lost on the streets of America", whereas the UK version begins with the same text, except it ends with "lost on the streets of Britain". Next shown is a drawing of a girl, and a Dave Pirner voice-over says that the drawing is by a girl who had run away more than 110 times. The scene was often omitted when the video was shown, a common practice when videos had additional footage before or after the song.

After Pirner spoke, the video continued with various shots of the band playing the song, and Dave singing, while the video cut back and forth to scenes of a man abusing his wife, who later in the video searches for young girls in his car.

During the choruses, pictures of missing children would appear on the screen. After each picture was shown, their full name would appear in large capital letters on the screen, along with the year they had been "missing since...".

The video continues with scenes of a lady in a car stalking a younger mother and her baby, in a stroller, and near the end of the video as the mother stops to look at some clothes, the lady kidnaps the baby. After the lady takes off in the car and the mother runs down the street after her, a baby is shown as missing ends the video.

After the video, in an ending also not regularly shown, Pirner says in front of the camera, "If you've seen one these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number," with the following screen showing a number one could contact. MTV cut this part out because they did not want to have the video confused with being a public service announcement. VH1 shows the UK version in it's full length.

Several versions of the video were made. There were three original versions of the video in the United States, totaling 36 missing children shown.Katz, Frances (July 23, 1993), "Rock video reaches out to runaways", Boston Herald, Features, 36.] Depending on what country the video was being broadcast, they would show children from that area who are missing.

The video was very successful in reuniting many of the missing children with their families. Some of the children even saw themselves 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.” [http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=3638&IssueNum=28 Back On Track] , "Pasadena Weekly", July 13, 2006]

Track listing

#Runaway Train
# Black Gold (Live)
# Never Really Been (Live)
# By The Way
# Everybody Loves A Winner

* All songs written by Dave Pirner.

Trivia

*Many spinoffs of the video followed. 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).
*It appeared on the NBC comedy series "The Office". One of the main characters, Michael Scott, sings it (with slightly incorrect lyrics) while sitting on a train in the 4th season episode "Money".
*The Australian version of the clip showed a number of teenagers and young adults who were missing and turned out to be victims of the Australian Backpacker murders

Covers

English pop band Busted covered the song as a b-side to Thunderbirds/3am

References