Runaway Train lyrics by Soul Asylum, 2 meanings. Runaway Train explained, official 2024 song lyrics | LyricsMode.com
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Soul Asylum – Runaway Train lyrics
Call you up in the middle of the night
Like a firefly without a light
You were there like a blowtorch burning
I was a key that could use a little turning

So tired that I couldn't even sleep
So many secrets I couldn't keep
I promised myself I wouldn't weep
One more promise I couldn't keep

It seems no one can help me now,
I'm in too deep; there's no way out
This time I have really led myself astray

Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there

Can you help me remember how to smile?
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded?
Life's mystery seems so faded

I can go where no one else can go
I know what no one else knows
Here I am just a-drownin' in the rain
With a ticket for a runaway train

And everything seems cut and dried,
Day and night, earth and sky,
Somehow I just don't believe it

Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there

Bought a ticket for a runaway train
Like a madman laughing at the rain
A little out of touch, a little insane
It's just easier than dealing with the pain

Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one-way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there

Runaway train, never coming back
Runaway train, tearing up the track
Runaway train, burning in my veins
I run away but it always seems the same
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Lyrics taken from /lyrics/s/soul_asylum/runaway_train.html

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Songwriters: David Pirner
Runaway Train lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Runaway Train meanings

  • d
    + 3
    Debbie Moore
    It's about abused children that run away from home. It's from the view of an utterly depressed child who has got caught up in something he can't turn back from. The firefly without a light means he has no direction, and the blowtorch burning refers to something or someone that is so bright he is dramatically drawn to it ("it" being running away). I think the line "can you help me remember how to smile" refers to his idea of an alternative life away from his abusive home rather than a particular person. So he reaches a point where he finally cracks and runs away thinking that even living on the street will be better (easier than dealing with the pain), but finds out that it is just as bad as it was before.
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  • U
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    Unregistered
    I think he or she can fell disappointed or defrauded by the life when he or she is growing up and he realized that maybe only love can help him to smile and live again and to accept the truth of how (bad) life and human being works. He is a thoungtful person looking for a meaning of life that as all tha human beings is unable to find only love can give him a reason for living.
    This is the meaning I can find in this song and i'm feeling like this for a long time but I try hard that my smile still stays on. Sorry for my english because i'm a spanish boy. Thanks a lot and good luck!
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    • d
      + 3
      Debbie Moore
      It's about abused children that run away from home. It's from the view of an utterly depressed... Read more →
    • U
      + 2
      Unregistered
      I think he or she can fell disappointed or defrauded by the life when he or she is growing up and... Read more →

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