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Sep 25, 2022 · These days, you can find Dave Pirner in his favorite back booth at The Lowry. At 58, he’s living full time in Minneapolis for the first time in forever. He sold his house in New Orleans and moved all his stuff up into his house in Kenwood.
Jun 1, 2018 · “Runaway Train” by Soul Asylum. As the opening line suggests — it’s a brutally honest rock ballad that carved its place in history on its own. Frontman, Dave Pirner, has always been straightforward in explaining how “Runaway Train” deals with the complexities of depression.
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In 1993, the alternative rock movement was in full swing, encompassing dozens of shiny new microgenres, from the mellow, hippy stonerbuzz of Blind Melon to the arena-rattling supergrunge of Soundgarden; from the wounded moan of Nirvana to the powergrrrl roar of Babes In Toyland.
The Alternative Nations heart, however, belonged to Soul Asylum, a scruffy quartet of ex-punks from Minneapolis who, like their former labelmates The Replacements, played an infectious brand of melodic, hook-heavy roots rock that possessed a rugged, touching honesty and often wrapped its rough-hewn jangle in an uplifting message.
After toiling in the indie world and at the bottom end of the majors for nearly a decade, Soul Asylum finally broke in 1992 with their seventh album, Grave Dancers Union. It contained four charting singles when all was said and done, but its third, Runaway Train, a scuffling acoustic ballad about love and loss, became Soul Asylums defining moment.
According to frontman Dave Pirner, the positive reaction to Runaway Train was immediate, even before it was released.
In 1993, when Runaway Train was released, a singles success could hinge on a strong video. Eschewing the usual rocknroll clichés, Soul Asylum chose to deliver a message with their clip. The video showed photographs and names of missing children, and ended with a plea from Pirner: If youve seen one these kids, or you are one of them, please call thi...
Alternative versions were edited for other countries and other children, and in the end several families were reunited with their estranged kids.
Although runaway children was not what Pirner had in mind when he wrote the song, he ultimately saw the opportunity to do some good. Whatever good came out of it I think is something we should be proud of, he says. They did a version in Canada, and they did a version in England, and it really kinda caught on in a public service announcement sort of...
Pirner is still involved with The Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the organisation with whom they worked with on the video.
As for Runaway Train, it remains one of the most affecting songs from the alternative rock movement; a bright flash of hope that continues to help people find their way home even today.
Oct 21, 2022 · Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner has described the new-found fame which his band 'enjoyed' after the post-Nevermind success of their triple-platinum Grave Dancers Union album as "frightening" and admitted that the "mania" of the time "scared the hell" out of him.
- Paul Brannigan
Feb 4, 2022 · “Of all the songs I’ve written, this one sure has legs,” singer-guitarist Dave Pirner says about “Runaway Train,” the 1992 lush rock ballad that briefly turned his cult-favorite alternative punk band, Soul Asylum, into multi-Platinum stars.
Nov 10, 2020 · I spoke with Pirner recently about music in the time of coronavirus, retaining a punk rock heart, his love for New Orleans and the evolution of Soul Asylum. So Dave, what’s happening there in Minneapolis?
Sep 15, 2021 · We caught up with Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner about performing in the age of Covid, and what it felt like to hear Prince covering "Stand Up And Be Strong," which appears on the posthumous Prince album 'Welcome to America'.
