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 by Keavin Wiggins
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From Soul Asylum to Solo Artist and The Faces and Names In Between. 

If you are looking for someone to validate Darwin’s Theory of Evolution applied to music, look no further than Dave Pirner. During his twenty-year ride in the music industry he has demonstrated just how drastically someone can change creatively and yet deliver music whose source is readily identifiable. Dave’s journey from being a young punk rock drummer to an underground rock hero to the frontman of a multi-platinum selling band and ultimately to an R&B rock crooner is the perfect rock n roll story. Dave Pirner’s tale is one that shows just how far creatively you can stretch the boundaries and grow both musically and personally. 

A teenaged Dave Pirner was first inspired by the punk rock explosion of the late 70’s. So he took up the drums and joined a couple of guys from his hometown of Minneapolis to form their own punk band. The new group that included Pirner and his friends Dan Murphy and Karl Mueller first called themselves “Loud Fast Rules” when they formed in 1981. The group caught their first break when a small indie label owned by Bob Mould (Husker Du) agreed to release an EP from the young rockers. Although the EP didn’t sell that well it gave the group the assurance that they were on their way. 

Over the next three years the band evolved from their punk roots to what would later be known as “alternative rock”. The final transformation came with Dave took over as rhythm guitarist and vocalist for the group.  Since they were no longer strictly a punk band they felt a name change was in order so they redubbed themselves Soul Asylum.  Dave’s gravely, nasally tenor voice was the missing ingredient the group needed to forge their own identity against two other twin city groups, The Replacements and Husker Du who had put Minneapolis on the rock n roll map. Soul Asylum set out to make their mark, they kept their punk influence in their stage presentation, many critics complained that the group was sloppy live but that was the way they wanted it. They would even occasionally punish crowds that didn’t appear to be enjoying their shows quite enough, with a strange assortment of cover tunes including "Bad Moon Rising”, "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Cocaine Blues", not exactly a collection of songs that would turn on a punk audience. In 1983, they entered the studio for the first time as Soul Asylum and recording their first EP, "Say What You Will, Clarence...Karl Sold the Truck," with Bob Mould producing. 

The EP was the first inkling that Soul Asylum was onto something special musically. Their aggressive and distorted sound, topped by Dave’s unmistakable nasal vocals helped create a buzz. The music press began singing their praises. The Village Voice called  Soul Asylum," The best live band in the country". Good Times topped that by declaring the group,  "The greatest band on the face of the planet earth". Musician Magazine added that Soul Asylum were, "The guys to watch from the Twin- Cities" and Rolling Stone, the holy grail of rock journalism, described the band as "a young foursome with the makings of an Eighties punk rock Who”. 

Despite the praise for their debut, the band suffered their first major setback shortly after completing the recording of the EP when drummer Pat Morley decided to call it quits. Down but not out the band took much of 1984 off before teaming up with drummer Grant Young in 1985. Their next foray into recording came in 1986 when they entered the studio once again with Bob Mould as producer to record the album, “Made to be Broken". That album’s raunchy sound won over fans that began clamoring for more music. To hold fans over, in July of 86’ the group released, “Time's Incinerator”, a cassette only collection of outtakes and live recordings that spanned their entire career to that point, from the early days as Loud Fast Rules to the rising stars of the mid 80’s Soul Asylum. Even with the release of “Time's Incinerator” helping fill the fans need for more Soul Asylum the band didn’t wait long to record a follow-up, they once again entered the studio to record what would be their second full album release of 1986, "While You Were Out". 

"While You Were Out", showed the subtle evolution of Dave Pirner’s songwriting skills, which would eventually develop into a weaving of pensive lyrics, poetic storytelling and off the cuff humor. Every bit as raw and raunchy as their previous releases, "While You Were Out", still had a depth to the songs that were missing from the previous recordings. 

Fans would have to wait out 1987 content with the wealth of material released by the group the previous year. They returned in January 1988 with a new EP titled, “Clam Dip & Other Delights”, that showed an even further evolution of their music away from punk rock into the realm of aggressive alternative. Many fans and critics would later agree that this EP, which some originally thought was an after thought to keep fans happy while waiting for a new full length album, actually turned out to be the musical highpoint of their early career. Among the tracks perhaps “Chains” was the most telling of what was to come. While far heavier than the more mainstream and melodic music that would come in later years, this tune introduces some pop elements to the group’s sound that would eventually make them superstars. 

The EP was a turning point for the group, it helped keep old fans happy and win over new ones but also marked the end of their career in the grassroots level of rock because short  time later they would enjoy their first major release through A&M records. The band caught the attention of A&M, who felt they had found the next big thing in the form of these aggressive rockers from Minneapolis. From a purely musical standpoint the first A&M record “Hang Time” was a major triumph. Instead of getting softer, they band took things up a notch but it was the lyrical content penned by Dave Pirner that set the album apart from other releases that year. Pirner’s John Lennon’esq knack for weaving colorful tales and bearing his innermost thoughts with a creative use of words really started to come to the forefront on “Hang Time” as Pirner shared his thoughts of the process of growing up with his listeners. His penchant for storytelling really began to take hold with several tracks from this album, which is most evident on the opening track “Beggars and Choosers” that includes lyrics like: “Right before the aftermath, I saw where it would end / They said it was an accident / I guess that all depends / on who you talk to and who you know / and where you come from and where - where you go / In your crowd of pushers and users, takers and losers … beggars and choosers” 

By this time, Soul Asylum was a certified underground and college music sensation with thousands of loyal listeners who were won over by the group’s power and Pirner’s thought provoking lyrics. A&M had high commercial hopes for Soul Asylum but they just couldn’t figure out how to break the band into the mainstream. Meanwhile, the band was changing musical direction that was readily evident with the 1990 release of “And the Horse They Rode in On”. This, the group’s second and last release for A&M, was a more songwriting focused album then their previous work, the raw aggression gave way to structure and melody, yet still remained powerful. Using hindsight, many musicologist suggest that Soul Asylum were merely ahead of their time as “And the Horse They Rode in On” gave the world it’s most clear glimpse of the alternative rock revolution that was to come within a few short years. Unfortunately, the album didn’t catch on commercially and some older fans were disappointed in the more melodic path Dave Pirner was taking with this songwriting. Unable to score a hit, the band parted ways with A&M records. 

Fortunately, someone at Columbia records saw the writing on the wall and offered the band a deal. Their Columbia record debut “Grave Dancers Union” proved to be the group’s most ambitious release to date. The alternative music wave was in full force when the album hit stores in May of 1992. The first single "Somebody to Shove" was a bit of a crossroads for the band between their old angst driven power and their new melody driven alternative rock sound. It caught the attention of radio programmers and the exec’s at MTV and the single began to enjoy a fair amount of airplay, which gave Soul Asylum their first hit song. The second single, “Black Gold” only furthered the band’s success and showed more clearly the new direction they were headed musically. The lyrics, which dealt with racism in Dave Pirner’s unique poetic words, touched a nerve with people in the wake of the “Los Angeles Riots” and scored the band a second hit single. 

But it was the third song from that album that would help make the band superstars. “Runaway Train”, a song driven by an acoustic guitar sound helped open new doors for the band. While most of the album contained some of the power that had propelled the group’s music through the years, it was this more widely appealing love song that would put Soul Asylum on the mainstream music map. For the accompanying video, the idea to include pictures of real missing runaway children with information on how to contact authorities if the viewer had seen them was a pure spark of genius. It immediately caught the attention of music fans and more importantly the programmers at MTV who put the video into heavy rotation. After eleven years of struggling to make it big, Soul Asylum hit pay dirt with “Runaway Train” a song that would even win them a Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The single’s success propelled “Grave Dancers Union” into a platinum seller. While the singles helped the band become known world wide, it was one track on the disc, “New World” that never became a single that foreshadowed the future of the group as well as a musical movement that would take hold a few short years later in the form of alt-country. “Runaway Train” and “Homesick” were really stepping stones for the band but it was the acoustic guitars and somber vocals of “New World” that would in fact open up a new world for Soul Asylum and Dave Pirner musically. 

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