Upon hearing this song for the first time, you could have told me that this was going to be the biggest band in the world for the rest of my life and I would have 100% believed you.
And if my long-term memory serves me well, that initial impression was accentuated by the fact that I was hearing it in my friend Joe's house. His was the first house I ever remember having surround sound even with speakers in multiple rooms.
Imagine being a musically naive middle schooler hearing this blast all around you at "11" as you jumped around and played air guitar and such.
Did every other Spin Doctors song I heard after this sound the same? Kinda. Were they a one-hit wonder band? Sort of. But they created a perfect 90's pop rock song if there ever was one.
When I conceived of this idea, I came up with a short list of songs I wanted to include. It wasn't until now that I've come to realize that much of my list is from a very narrow timeline.
I'll be adding a few to expand the actual "era" I'm talking about, but today's selection comes from what now seems like the classic year of 1993. And I remember when I heard this song, I knew this was something different.
There was a way Counting Crows and Mr. Duritz told a story, played this song. It's like youthful energy mixed with the melancholy of experience. And of course his vocal delivery is unlike anyone else too.
At the time, it felt like this was one of those songs that was going to last, that I'd be looking back with fondness in twenty years. Sure enough, we are almost at 30 and it still is a pretty fun ride.
It has been a bit of a hiatus but I felt like my music ideas had gotten a little stale. And I'll be perfectly honest, I don't listen to a ton of new music which probably seems illogical.
Anyway, a fresh idea has emerged and I'll refer to it as "Songs of a Certain Era". These are hits from my formative teen years when I was discovering the music world beyond Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and the Maranatha singers.
I'm creating my list and one will be revealed per week, in general chronological order. These aren't all number ones - sorry no Ace of Base "I saw the sign" or Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", just songs that woke up my musical taste buds.
First up - "Runaway Train", Soul Asylum
I always associate this song with 7th grade...and looking it up, the timing is right. Released in the summer of 1993, I remember hearing this in art class. The cool art teachers always did stuff like let us listen to Top 40 radio while we worked. Anyway, I remember listening to it and realizing, this non-Christian song has substantial meaning to it. On its face it is certainly what the biblical scholar in me would call "Lament". But couple that with the fact that the video sought to find missing and exploited kids - my mind was kind of blown away. Especially when I heard my peers sharing how it helped find missing people (they were correct I might add).
It is silly looking back on it now. I just hadn't had the exposure to Dylan and Cash etc. And in a sense, it showed me what music, even pop music could be - socially significant.
