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Runaway Train (Soul Asylum song)

"Runaway Train"
Runawaytrain(single).jpg
Single by Soul Asylum
from the album Grave Dancers Union
Released June 1, 1993
Format LP, Cassette, CD
Recorded 1992
Genre Alternative rock
Length 4:26
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Dave Pirner
Producer(s) Michael Beinhorn
Soul Asylum singles chronology
"Black Gold"
(1992)
"Runaway Train"
(1993)
"Sexual Healing"
(1993)

"Runaway Train" is a power ballad about depression by American rock band Soul Asylum. It was released in June 1993 as the fourth single from their 1992 album, Grave Dancers Union and became a success around the world. In mid 1993, it reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, number two on the U.S. Top 40 mainstream and climbed to the top position on the Canadian Singles Chart. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and sold 600,000 copies in the United States. The song helped bring their album, Grave Dancers Union to a multi-platinum level and won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 1994.

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

Several versions of the video were made. 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 "100,000 youth are 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. Three concrete scenes are shown interspersed among the other images of the video. During the first verse, a child is shown witnessing his grandfather beating, and eventually killing, his grandmother, and running from their house in fear. During the second verse, a young teenage girl is pimped as a prostitute, and is initially purchased by the aforementioned abuser. Later, she is dragged into a van by a gang, after which she is picked up by paramedics, having been raped and beaten. During the coda of the song, a baby is snatched from his stroller by an older woman, with his mother running after the kidnapper's car.


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