Soul Asylum

I grew up in the Minneapolis/ Saint Paul area.  While I was in high school, a lot of the buzz on the radio was about a local band named "Soul Asylum."

By the time I was half through with college, Soul Asylum hit the big time.  They had a major label recording deal, they were getting a lot of radio airplay, and the lead singer was even showing up in the tabloids.  The album "Grave Dancer's Union" was a reasonably big hit.  It seemed as if "the sky was the limit."  (Quote courtesy of a song by Tom Petty.)

*****

This afternoon as I was driving around, I was listening to Soul Asylum's "Grave Dancer's Union" album.  There are a number of really good songs on that CD.  (My favorite is "April Fool" -track 8.)  It got me to thinking: "What happened to Soul Asylum?"

Soul Asylum was "up-and-coming" for a number of years, they hit the bigtime with their first major release, they were mildly successful with a second, and then nothing on a nationwide scale.  How could such a promising young band fall off the face of the earth like that?

Every once-in-a-while I see posters, or hear about the band playing locally, but nothing approaching the "arena status" that they used to enjoy. 

I wonder what happened...

 

2,652 views 4 replies
Reply #1 Top
They are back on the charts. They have added Michael Bland as their drummer.(Formerly known as a drummer for New Power Generation backing Prince.) I hope they come back too.
Reply #2 Top
Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" has the honor of being the first CD single I ever got. I have a soft spot for them just for that. They did seem like they were going to be big.
Reply #3 Top
No kidding... I never heard of any reason why they faded into oblivion.  They just did.
Reply #4 Top
Runaway Train was the only song I've ever heard. It was in our charts for ages. The video clip used to break my heart - in fact I think it would break my heart more today then when I was younger. Especially the part with the woman who leaves her baby in the pram outside the shop and another woman steals the pram - bad bad bad.

Oh man it's in my head now