Dude, was Soul Asylum singing about the dangers of excessive oil consumption in 1992? Fucking visionaries.
Soul Asylum might be one of the funniest bands of the 1990s (behind Bush, of course). They were an incredible maudlin combination of grunge and REM-inspired whiny social consciousness, and their lyrics, stage presence, and videos inspire some serious awe. Check out the video for “Black Gold”:
Aside from the hair-tossing and hip-swaying that I think prove that David Pirner (yeah, dude, I looked his ass up) is Axl Rose’s illegitimate son (come on, dude, you know Axl Rose started having sex with adult groupies when he was, like, 5 years old), this video also contains some weighty social messages and symbolism. For starters, there’s the setting in which the band is featured hysterically hopping around and kicking up dirt all over the place to a song that might clock in at around 15 beats per minute: it’s nothing but sand and tumbleweeds, which symbolizes the destruction of our natural environment by the wanton consumption of Texas tea. Or the fact that they filmed the video in the desert outside of LA. And then there’s the shot of the doves, followed by a girl coming out of the darkness coated in oil and looking like Sissy Spacek in Carrie into a crowd of pushy reporters. Get it? Yeah, me neither.
Maybe the lyrics will shed some light on this:
Two boys on a playground
Tryin’ to push each other down
See the crowd gather round
Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd
Black gold in a white plight
Wont you fill up the tank, lets go for a ride
I dont care ’bout no wheelchair
I’ve got so much left to do with my life
Moving backwards through time
Never learn, never mind
That side’s yours, this side’s mine
Brother you ain’t my kind
You’re a black soldier, white fight
Won’t you fill up the tank, let’s go for a ride
Sure like to feel some pride
But this place just makes me feel sad inside
Mother, do you know where your kids are tonight?
Keeps the kids off the streets
Gives ‘em something to do, something to eat
This spot was a playground
This flat land used to be a town
I’ve got it, dude. This is an important piece of political folk music. The message is that the obsession with taking frivolous car rides among the disabled is fueling an industry that feeds on the desperation of the poor by trapping them in jobs that provide for their immediate needs but that contribute to the growth in pollution that will inevitably lead to the destruction of their playgrounds and to racism and violence among children. In Texas. And David Pirner is so pissed about it that he can do nothing but dance petulantly while staring at the reflection of his half-ass honky dreads in a pool of spilled Quaker State (see the video around the 3-minute marker).
