April 5Apr 5 Music has been a form of human expression since time immemorial, but the advancement of technology has also given it another function: activism. Soul Asylum’s 1993 music video for “Runaway Train” was just that — and it featured the photos of dozens of missing children.The haunting ballad itself appeared to explore personal emotional struggles, and it did quite well on the charts. The song not only reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it also helped turn Soul Asylum’s album Grave Dancers Union into a multiplatinum success and landed the alternative rock band a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance.The socially conscious video went beyond musical expression, however, and reports eventually stated that the video helped authorities recover 21 missing kids across the United States. But the truth was more complicated.This is the story behind Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” — and the harrowing cases of the missing children featured in the song’s music video.Eleven of the children from Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” videos have never been found, and four have been officially ruled dead. But it was eventually reported that 21 of the 36 children in the videos had been rescued. Tony Kaye told The Guardian that the first to be found was Elizabeth Wiles, a young teenager who had run away from home with her older boyfriend.“She’d been watching TV with friends, seen herself in the ‘Runaway Train’ video and called her mom,” Kaye said, while also noting that “it wasn’t always plain sailing for the families afterwards.”Read the rest of the article here.
April 6Apr 6 19 hours ago, KarenK said:I remember that video and missing kids highlighted.It’s one of the first songs I learned to play on guitar. In fact, the other day we found and threw away the sheet music I’d bought to learn it.It’s a powerful video. Having those pictures pop up on the screen adds another layer of sad meaning. If I remember correctly, Sara Ann Wood was one of the kids featured in the video.
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