Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1992
Runaway Train (Soul Asylum song)
Buy Runaway Train (Soul Asylum song) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Runaway Train
| cover = Runawaytrain(single).jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Soul Asylum
| album = Grave Dancers Union
| released = June 1, 1993
| recorded = 1992
| studio =
| venue =
| genre =
| length = 4:26
| label = Columbia
| writer = Dave Pirner
| producer = Michael Beinhorn
| prev_title = Black Gold
| prev_year = 1993
| next_title = Sexual Healing
| next_year = 1993
| misc =
}}
"'Runaway Train'" is a power ballad by American alternative rock band Soul Asylum. Its music video is notable for featuring images of missing people, most of them young children and teenagers. Lead singer Dave Pirner has stated that the lyrics originally described his experience of depression.
"Runaway Train" was released in June 1993 as the fourth single from the band's 1992 album, 'Grave Dancers Union', and became a success around the world. It reached number five on the US 'Billboard' Hot 100 and climbed to the top position on the Canadian 'RPM' Top Singles chart, earning a gold sales certification from the Recording Industry Association of America and selling 600,000 copies in the US. Outside North America, it reached number two in New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland and peaked within the top five on the charts on several other European countries. The song helped bring 'Grave Dancers Union' to a multi-platinum level and won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 1994.
Critical reception
Larry Flick from 'Billboard' wrote, "Acoustic-anchored midtempo tune has a sweet, string-lined undercurrent that is the perfect embodiment of the song's cinematic, romantic lyrics." He added, "Icing on top is a restrained lead vocal and pillowy harmonies. Deserves immediate play." The Daily Vault's Christopher Thelen felt the song was "too sappy and slow". David Howell from 'Edmonton Journal' deemed it "a melancholy song about hopelessness and despair".Howell, David (1993-11-12). "Rocker resists trappings of success". p. E3. 'Edmonton Journal'. Dave Sholin from the 'Gavin Report' commented, "Groups like Soul Asylum don't come around very often and neither do songs like this one. For a riveting and chilling experience, go immediately to your VCR and watch the video, which gets my vote as best of the year! A song that truly deserves to become a runaway hit."
Music writer James Masterton commented in his weekly UK chart commentary, that "this track comes with a powerful video featuring shots of homeless children, putting a whole new slant on what would ordinarily be an ordinary love song. Judging just how well this brand of country-sounding rock will do is difficult. If there is any justice it will go on to be a massive hit." Later he added, "Always a strong track and with 'hit' written all over it". Pan-European magazine 'Music & Media' described it as an "alternative guitar-driven pop combo", "temporarily injected with a dash of country." Chris Mundy from 'Rolling Stone' called it a "beautiful acoustic ballad".
Music video
The music video for the song was directed by Tony Kaye and received heavy airplay on MTV and VH1 during its duration. It was published on YouTube in February 2010. The video has amassed more than 171 million views as of January 2022.
Several versions of the video were made. The video for the United States version begins with a fade to a black screen with a big, white blocked text reading: "There are over one million youth lost on the streets of America", while the UK version begins with "100,000 youth are lost on the streets of Britain". The next scene shows a drawing of an adolescent girl, and a Dave Pirner voice-over saying 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 Pirner 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, before fleeing in fear. During the second verse, a young teenage girl is pimped as a prostitute, and initially purchased by the aforementioned abuser. Later, she is dragged into a van by a gang; afterwards, she is picked up by paramedics and taken to the hospital, after getting beaten up. During the coda of the song, a small baby is snatched from his stroller by an older woman, with his mother running after the kidnapper's car.
Throughout the music video, various images of children running, or appearing with injuries from abuse, are shown. 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...".
After the video, in an ending also not regularly shown, Pirner says in front of the camera, "If you've seen one of 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 its full length.
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. The children shown varied with the location of the broadcast, using missing children from that area.
Resolved cases
According to Kaye, 26 missing children were found after being featured in the video. In 2006, guitarist Dan Murphy stated in an interview with 'Pasadena Weekly' that some of the cases featured in the video had ended in tragedy: "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."The UK version of the video featured Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol, who each went missing in 1991. Their remains were found in 2007 at a house in Margate. Peter Tobin has since been convicted of both murders.
Also featured in the UK version was Mark Bartley, a runaway who went missing in 1992. He was recognized in the video by a man who knew Bartley was staying in the tenant's house below them, but was unaware of his missing status. By the time the police arrived, Bartley and the man he was living with were gone. It is unknown what happened to him after this.
Curtis Huntzinger, who was featured in the US video, was located deceased in 2008. His convicted killer, Stephen Daniel Hash, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and, in 2009, was sentenced to 11 years in Folsom State Prison. Aundria Bowman was also featured in the US video. Her adopted father Dennis Bowman confessed to her murder in February 2020. Her remains were located later that month, and positively identified via DNA testing in May 2020. Already serving two life sentences for another 1980 murder, he was sentenced to an additional 3550 years for Aundria's murder.
The last image in all three U.S. versions of the video is that of Thomas Dean Gibson, who disappeared from Douglas County, Oregon in 1991 at the age of 2. He is still missing as of February 2021, and age-progressed photos of him at age 18 and age 21 were released in 2009 and 2012, respectively, by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Thomas's father, Larry Gibson, a former deputy sheriff, was convicted of second degree manslaughter after prosecutors alleged that he accidentally killed Thomas when he shot at a stray cat in his front yard even though no remains were ever found. Larry maintains his innocence and claims to have worked on finding Thomas since being released from prison in 1996. The case was explored on an episode of 'Unsolved Mysteries'.
The version shown in Australia showed a number of young backpacking tourists whose families were looking for them. Many of those shown in the Australian version were confirmed victims of serial killer Ivan Milat, who was arrested in 1994 not long after the Australian film clip was released.
Also featured in the video, but still missing as of February 2021 were Christopher M. Kerze, Martha W. Dunn, Andrea D. Durham, Wilda M. Benoit, Byron E. Page, Kimberly S. Doss, Duane E. Fochtman, John F. Lango, and Patrick S. Betz.
Track listing
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Cover versions
"Runaway Train" was covered by Brent Smith and Zach Myers of American hard rock band Shinedown on their 2014 '(Acoustic Sessions)' EP and English rockband, Smokie. It was also covered by the British pop band Busted on their 2004 double A-side "Thunderbirds / 3AM". Dee from 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' covered the song in the episode the gang hits the road. In 2019, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children invited Jamie N Commons, Skylar Grey and Gallant to cover the song for "Runaway Train 25" campaign. KIDinaKORNER/Interscope donate a portion of the proceeds from domestic digital downloads and streams of the recording to NCMEC for the first year.
References
Category:1990s ballads
Category:1992 songs
Category:1993 singles
Category:Grammy Award for Best Rock Song
Category:Jamie N Commons songs
Category:RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Category:Alternative rock ballads
Category:Song recordings produced by Michael Beinhorn
Category:Songs about depression
Category:Songs about trains
Category:Songs written by Dave Pirner
Category:Soul Asylum songs
Category:Works about missing people
Category:American folk rock songs
Category:American soft rock songs
Category:Columbia Records singles
Buy Runaway Train (Soul Asylum song) now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1992