Soul Asylum circa 1990 (L-R): Grant Young (drums, coffee), Dan Murphy (guitar, vocals, unfailingly polite midwesterness), Dave Pirner (vocals, guitar, cigarette), Karl Mueller (bass, leather jacket)
The news that Dan Murphy quit Soul Asylum after 31 years was met with two basic responses to anyone who might give a shit. “Soul Asylum are still around?” and “How can there be no Grant Young, Karl Mueller (RIP), or Danny Murphy and still be called Soul Asylum?” To the latter point, I have it on good authority that Dave Pirner will only tour as Sole Asylum, so it’s all good.
Instead of focusing on what Soul Asylum means in 2012 — ummm, brand sustenance??? — I’ll just go ahead and stick to my wheelhouse: Talking about what Soul Asylum meant in 1990. That was the year I “got it,” what with the release of their last great record, And The Horse They Rode In On, and that record springboarding me backward through their earlier catalog. I also saw them twice that year and they blew me away each time. Now, thanks to the magic of the googlenet, we have the technology to revisit SA in 1990.
Soul Asylum – Ann Arbor – 1990
http://youtu.be/O54UnUcy7Ws
Nectarine Ball Room, Ann Arbor, MI
October 29, 1990
Did you know there’s like a dozen complete (or close to it) Soul Asylum shows on YouTube, many of them pre-milk carton??? True story, and you can thank the man known as LittleTooClean. Granted, none of these are pro video shoots and the audio ranges from decent to kinda crappy. This Ann Arbor show qualifies as pretty decent and I like that it’s only 41 minutes. Like the Off! show I posted last time, it’s the perfect length to get the idea of a great show, but not so long that you get monitor fatigue. Besides, IT’S FUCKING SOUL ASYLUM IN THEIR PRIME, YO!!! Have a couple shots of whiskey, crank the volume, and you probably won’t even know the difference. It also might get you to search YouTube for those other shows and that can’t be a bad thing.
TRACKLISTING (AND START OF EACH SONG)
Dan Murphy on Fender patrol
01 – 0:00 – Closer To The Stars (sadly, only an excerpt)
02 – 0:41 – Cartoon
03 – 4:26 – Tracks Of My Tears [Smokey Robinson]
04 – 7:23 – Marionette
05 – 10:45 – All The King’s Friends
06 – 13:59 – Gullible Travels
07 – 18:20 – Sometime To Return
08 – 22:03 – Grounded
09 – 25:26 – Made To Be Broken Medley – At 26:30 you get the hair toss > guitar pose sequence. Fun stuff.
10 – 28:04 – Little Too Clean
11 – 31:30 – I Put A Spell On You [Screamin’ Jay Hawkins/CCR]
12 – 33:44 – Freaks
13 – 37:26 – Move Me On Down The Line [ZZ Top] – Dedicated to Drivin’ N Cryin’.
A TIME TO LEAVE AND A TIME TO STAY
“Maybe I’m chasing shadows on your wall
They loom so large, but make me feel so small somehow
When you’re chasing your own tail
Spinnin’ your own wheels.”
–Dan Murphy, “Cartoon”
They were my gateway drug into all of the music that I now love.
Those videos were awesome to watch, but really nothing compared to their live show when they were hot.
I can’t defend Dave carrying on without Dan but I’ll always have a super soft spot for them. “Horse” is still my favorite.