Grave Dancers Union turns 20!

Discuss any aspect of Soul Asylum, their music, and the band's members.
dells
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Re: Grave Dancers Union turns 20!

Post by dells »

mystic_spiral_3 wrote:I know I've told my "how I got into SA" story before, but since it was GDU that did it for me, I'll tell it again here. Besides, I hear it is mandatory to write in this thread. ;)
Yeah, what she said, lol. If you like this thread, you'd probably also really enjoy the stories shared in the "How Did You Get Into Soul Asylum" thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=107

I was going to post my contribution here weeks ago, but then the Danny drama happened & had me really down, so I tabled all posting for later after the dust had settled, but I'm kinda glad now, because I'd like to thank Michael for sharing his story with us. I also discovered Soul Asylum & the GDU CD at a hard time in my life (something many of us seem to have in common, to
some degree or another).I'm pretty sure that my own post in the above thread holds the record for longest post in the entire forum, so I'll limit this to a shorter, GDU-specific version here. I'm lazy, though, so I'm plagiarizing from that original post here :):

For various reasons that I superfluously expounded on in my original post in the above thread, I was about THIS || close to having a mental breakdown at the time because my life was totally out of control at that point.

In the early 90's MTV was on constantly in my house, and occasionally as I passed the TV, I started seeing this video for this kick ass sounding song (Shove) with a sexy lead singer and both really captivated me, but with 2 small kids to wrestle and trying to keep the influx of teens and their shenanigans under control, I never really got to sit down and pay full
attention to the song to catch all the lyrics, so all I ever came away with was "I want somebody to shove, I need somebody to shove ...." (kinda missed the "me" parts)so although I totally loved the sound and energy of the song (not to mention the sexy lead singer), I couldn't "allow" myself to really
like it if it had violent lyrics :D . I also couldn't afford to splurge on extravagances like music, so I wouldn't have bought myself the CD anyway at that point, even if I'd been able to concentrate on the lyrics and the song's true meaning. My nephew, however knew I liked it so he got the Grave Dancers Union CD for me because he appreciated being invited to stay with me so he could finish high school with his friends.

Thank god that my nephew had gotten me the Grave Dancer's CD, because although my rediscovered love of music was a direct contributor to my regression in responsibility levels which led in turn to the downward spiral of control over my life, the songs on GDU are what got me through this period.

I finally figured out that in Shove, IMHO, Dave is basically saying he needs someone to give him a swift kick in the rear to get off the pity pot and do something about whatever it was that had him on that "runaway train" he mentions later in the album (something I desperately needed as well). Get On Out (all these worried, troubled thoughts gotta get on out of my head) and Keep It Up were the real "cheer up" therapy I needed at the time, along with the sheer fun energy and humorous lyrics of Trace. Runaway Train could have been written about my chaotic life because it certainly felt like I was on a runaway train, about to derail at any moment, so it was comforting to know I wasn't the only one experiencing seemingly hopeless situations. RT was the theme song of that year of my life, although not my favorite song on GDU.

After many "therapy" sessions listening to GDU, I managed to 'shove' myself off my own pity pot, get all the worried thoughts out of my head, and figure out solutions to many causes of my stress, so with the help of all my therapy sessions with Dave's awesome songs, I managed to get off my runaway train before it crashed. :)

Dave's lyrics were instrumental in helping me regain control of my life, so I immediately obtained every one of Soul Asylum's pre-GDU material, (even though I was still poor, I felt owning it all was absolutely necessary.) I found Hang Time, Horse, and even Clam Dip on CD. Everything earlier was on cassette tape, but surprisingly, still actually located locally here in the boonies, with no need to special order anything.

Horse has ended up being my favorite Soul Asylum CD, but Somebody To Shove remains my absolute favorite Soul Asylum song, with Without A Trace running a very close 2nd.

dells
dells

Look into your heart before it sees its final hour
Live today like there is no tomorrow
- wise advice from the brilliant Dave Pirner

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lampros
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Re: Grave Dancers Union turns 20!

Post by lampros »

I was just 14 and leaving in Larissa, Greece. The ''CD empire'' was not a reality yet (at least in my country). I remember I saw the video clip of ''Runaway train'' on MTV. It was a great song and video clip. I bought the LP and I heard it again and again. I lended it to a couple of friends. They all were thrilled. I wrote the lyrics of RT on my school folder. I think it is the last LP which I have ever bought. In my opinion it is the greatest achievment of SA. Thank you guys for this unique gift!!!

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