Soul Asylum: "Runaway Train" (1994)

"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. In accordance, it was the third single off that album 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 in the Top 40 in several countries including the US and UK, 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.


- Lyrics:

Call you up in the middle of the night
Like a firefly without a light
You were there like a slow torch burning
I was a key that could use a little turning

So tired that I couldn't even sleep
So many secrets I couldn't keep
Promised myself I wouldn't weep
One more promise I couldn't keep

It seems no one can help me now
I'm in too deep
There's no way out
This time I have really led myself astray

CHORUS
Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here no there

Can you help me remember how to smile
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded
Life's mystery seems so faded

I can go where no one else can go
I know what no one else knows
Here I am just drownin' in the rain
With a ticket for a runaway train

Everything is cut and dry
Day and night, earth and sky
Somehow I just don't believe it

CHORUS

Bought a ticket for a runaway train
Like a madman laughin' at the rain
Little out of touch, little insane
Just easier than dealing with the pain

Runaway train never comin' back
Runaway train tearin' up the track
Runaway train burnin' in my veins
Runaway but it always seems the same