I WANT SOMEBODY TO... POLL ME: Grave Dancers Union by Soul Asylum

I challenge you to find a more front loaded record of the early alt 90s.

Voted "black gold" though I could never figure out what the lyrics were about

This song is about white supremacy, and a pretty disgusting endorsement of it. The song longs for the days of old when blacks were subservient to the white man. The 'black gold' is the black man's labor being exploited for the benefit of the capital gains of whites. The first verse gives an image of a seemingly meaningless fight between two kids on a playground. However, the first chorus summarizes what is happening in this fight--it's between and white and black boy/man, on both a literal and figurative level. The speaker in the chorus that is handicapped and wants to go for a ride is speaking of lynching. Although he is handicapped (perhaps caused by a black man), his hateful pride still burns and propels him to participate in these acts of intimidation to suppress blacks.

The second verse refers to the golden age that the speaker remembers, when blacks were segregated. The second chorus then refers to the black man as a 'soldier,' however, this is a 'white fight,' and therefore, he has no place in it. The 'going for a ride' line here can be thought of as when lynch mobs would tie blacks to their vehicles and drag them through the street. The 'feel some pride...' part speaks of the sadness propelling the speaker to commit these hateful acts--the sadness is at seeing blacks being treated equally.

The 'mother do you know where your kids are tonite?' line is a mocking reference to the possible kidnapping and maiming of several black children by the speaker.

The final verse calls for this hatred to be adopted by the white children of today--it will give them 'something to do' and feed their hateful hunger. The final two lines is the speaker reflecting on when 'this spot' used to be a much more racially pure place, free of the tainting presence of blacks.

A very horrific song indeed. The fact that it got so much radio play in the 90's is quite offensive to much of the unsuspecting public. People always speak of hidden meanings in songs--voices that are played backwards insinuating evil acts. Well, the hate is usually as plain as day. Dave Pirner should be tried for hate crimes for some of the horrific acts he endorses.

Flag bombast07on December 04, 2010

wtf... i get that it's at least partially about race, but this guy seems nuts. it seems evident that it's an anti-racism song. i just don't what wheelchairs have to do with anything.

* i just don't get

cover always reminded me of

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pwXkyWJUfCc/UhO0JjTN44I/AAAAAAAAA0E/ELllCt6oReg/r_650_650_TheReplacements.jpg

http://classicrecordsleeves.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/hoth1.jpg

cover connections 2013

Just listened for the first time in well over a decade, and yup.

That said, "Black Gold" is classic (the above quote is indeed WTF) and "Runaway Train" is possibly the best Tom Petty song that Petty never wrote.

I find it hard to recall anything at all from the second half of this.

Only thing that I could remember from the second half before listening again this morning was "99%" and that's only because of how fucked up I thought it sounded compared to the rest of the record (and funnily enough, it doesn't sound all that fucked up to me now).

Somebody to Shove is the second-shortest song on this record.

Without a Trace is p good

yeah I voted for "Without A Trace", I like songs where they sing the album's title, and I dunno, it was catchy
I was in college when this came out so I heard this album a zillion times but from "Keep It Up" to "April Fool", I have no idea how this goes
saw the Spin Doctors / Soul Asylum / Screaming Trees amphitheater tour in 93, $10! think spin doctors went on last and naturally sucked up the place. screaming trees smoked

I like every single song on this album.

Umm....Jersy Al, where did you come up with all of that? So bizarre LOL

This song has always been about oil, corporate greed, blood for oil and the such. Now he usually introduces it as being about fracking. You can hear Dave Pirner talk about Black Gold in this recent interview, starting around 2:45 http://youtu.be/UwCpdYGug4w

if it's about oil, then what's the wheelchair shit about?

wheelchair's about not getting old?

Oil, war, human nature. I always figured that the wheelchair part was in reference to an injured young solider, a soldier coming home who will be wheelchair bound for life. I don't think I've ever heard that part specifically talked about though. Did you watch the interview? Obviously, songs can be about whatever you think they're about and some things are left to the imagination. Except the whole "it's endorsing white supremacy" thing, that's...just a very, very off the wall, WTF sort of thing to come up with and it'd be best to not give any further thought in that direction.

xp
http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/artists/special/big/goodfellas_painting.jpg

I forgot to mention, Black Gold is the first in a trilogy of political songs. the second is a song called Lately that was on The Silver Lining: http://youtu.be/iCIO2yfaOuw and Let's All Kill Each Other off of their latest album Delayed Reaction: http://youtu.be/AvgKbqvTFqs

I tend to think Fearless Leader fits with those songs too: http://youtu.be/d67dfoN8X4w

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I challenge you to find a more front loaded record of the early alt 90s.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Saturday, November 16, 2013 2:42 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was inclined to agree with this a week ago (and for the 20 or so years prior to that), but having played this quite a few times this week, I'm finding the whole thing surprisingly solid. I'd argue that "The Sun Maid" is the only thing on here that truly sucks.

it always weirded me how "99%" came out within a few months of Sonic Youth's "100%" and sounds vaguely similar

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"Somebody to Shove" – 3:15 15
"Black Gold" – 3:57 5
"Without a Trace" – 3:33 1
[...]
"Runaway Train" – 4:26 1

Did not see this coming.

well what did you expect the thing is out of control

"Somebody To Shove" has to be the most successful Husker Du tribute ever.

assman wouldve voted runaway train

posts out of context, amirite.

How the fuck did I miss this poll?

Not nearly the best SA album but solid all the way through. Somebody to shove is still a jam though and I would have voted for it. It's so good! I still remember seeing that video for the first time on 120 mins and thinking it was the greatest thing. I 14 and in their fan club (lol) and they sent me a Christmas card.

thats badass

Maybe this belongs in the controversial opinions thread, but: these days I prefer this album to Nevermind. I've certainly listened to it more.