Music Mondays: Songs of a Certain Era

Music Mondays are back! 

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.