"RUNAWAY TRAIN” (SOUL ASYLUM)

Few people pay attention to public service announcements, but back in 1992, l

ots of people watched music videos on MTV. So on paper, it seemed like a great

 idea to combine the two. For Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” director Tony

 Kaye made a video featuring missing children, hoping to find them. And it

 worked; the video located so many runaways that Kaye made six 

versions—three for the United States and one each for the United Kingdom,

 Australia, and Germany.

The problem was, when missing children turn up, the results aren’t always pretty.

 Some were found dead. Several others were forced to return home to horrible 

situations. In 2006, Soul Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy reflected on the

 consequences: “There’s a reason that young kids run away, mostly because 

of abuse,“ he told the Pasadena Weekly. “There were some happy results from

 [the video], but you have to resolve the situation that caused an 11- 

or 13-year-old to think the harsh world is better than their home.”