Runaway Train

Soul Asylum lead singer Dave Pirner wrote this song, which is about depression. It took him a few years to complete the song; at first it had different lyrics with a refrain of "laughing at the rain," which he knew was too similar to the Neil Sedaka song "Laughter In The Rain." Pirner had the tune in his head, but it wasn't until he went through some dark times that the runaway train/depression metaphor hit him, and he wrote the lyrics in a single sitting.

The music video for "Runaway Train" featured photographs and names of missing children in the style of a public service announcement. At the end of the video, lead singer Dave Pirner appeared and said, "If you've seen one of these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number" before a missing children telephone helpline number appeared. The video was edited for use outside the US to include photos and names of missing children from wherever the video was to be shown. The video drew awareness to the problem and was instrumental in reuniting several children with their families. The message of the video became bigger than that of the song, and the Soul Asylum singer embraced that message. In our interview with Dave Pirner, he explained: "I really got closer to an issue that I was concerned about and open to being concerned about, and thrust into a position where I was dealing with the Polly Klaas situation. There's so much raw emotion and so much reality to a situation like that that you can't exploit it." Polly Klaas was a 12-year-old girl who went missing in October 1993, a few months after the song had peaked on the charts. The case made national news, drawing more attention to the issue of missing and exploited children. It was later learned the Klaas was abducted and murdered.

Soul Asylum had released five albums prior to Grave Dancers Union. They developed a small following and did well on college radio, but "Runaway Train" was their first pop hit and changed their fortunes. The song's hit potential became obvious when they played it live at the University of Minnesota before recording it - the crowd responded to it and some commented that they thought it was a cover, as the tune sounded somehow familiar. This convinced the band to put some resources into developing the song, so they hired a producer named Michael Beinhorn to work on it with them. The band had signed with Columbia Records after splitting with A&M, and Columbia was ready to invest in the album, and especially this song. They booked a high-end recording studio in New York City - The Power Station - and the band recorded it there. Recording the track went well, but Pirner had trouble getting comfortable with his vocals, so Beinhorn left him alone to record his part with just the band's guitarist Dan Murphy present. The result was a very emotive vocal that served the song.