Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Listening To You - Soul Asylum



I'm kind of overwhelmed on where to start with this band.  Soul Asylum is one of those bands that can do no wrong in my eyes.  They went from being the "junior" band on the Minnesota scene to one of the biggest and most successful bands around, at least for a couple of years.  They have had a lot of turnover in the band, especially with drummers.  Karl Mueller, their longtime bass player, lost his battle with throat cancer in 2005.  Through all of that, Dave Pirner and Dan Murphy have managed to soldier on and continually put out good solid music nearly 30 years after they began.

My first exposure to Soul Asylum was their 1988 album, Hang Time.  Here are a couple from that incredibly underrated record.

"Marionette"
 
"Sometime To Return"

Now we'll move a couple years forward to their breakout.  Why it took so long, I'll never know?  Just another mystery of the music business.  Their amazing 1992 album, Grave Dancers Union.  Not a bad song on it.

"Somebody To Shove"


"Black Gold"

The outstanding singer songwriter, Victoria Williams was diagnosed with MS in 1993.  Soul Asylum and a bunch of other bands, recorded her songs and put out a benefit album for her, because she didn't have health insurance.  The album is called Sweet Relief, pick it up if you ever see it, really fantastic.  This is one of the songs from that album.

"Summer Of Drugs"


 The last song on my little snapshot of Soul Asylum's career is "Misery" from the 1995 album, Let Your Dim Light Shine.



This profile barely touches on what has been an outstanding career in music.  Dave Pirner's songwriting is really top notch.  He comes up with imagery and strings words together that make you wish you wrote the song.  They aren't a grunge band, like so many people wanted to label them back in the early 90's.  Not knowing they had been together since the early 80's, predating grunge by almost a decade.  If you own nothing by them, then what are you waiting for.  Hang Time and Grave Dancers Union, are must haves for any music listener/collector.  

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