Monday, November 03, 2008

Remembrance Of Videos Past #61: Soul Asylum, "Black Gold"

When Bill Clinton clinched the election in 1992, I was livid. Imagine a 16-year-old Republican North African American grunge afficionado drinking coffee and thinking he's having a heart attack. Is your brain broken yet?

MTV had an Inaugural Ball for Clinton's victory in January of '93. The country seemed energized by this, particularly the youth vote, which came out in droves.



Acts like REM, 10,000 Maniacs and Soul Asylum performed at this show. Before Dave Pirner became Kevin Smith's go-to soundtrack session man, he was the face of a youth movement free from the shackles of Bush Sr.

This inaugural insanity was contagious: I was actually interested to see what Clinton would do. It was the Motor Voter bill that facilated my voter registration a year later.

I hope everyone feels the same rapture and catharsis tomorrow when Obama wins that I felt when I heard this in January of '93.

1 comment:

Abbi Crutchfield said...

Runaway Train traumatized me. You should never watch video of a 12 yr old becoming a prostitute and getting raped and murdered in a van when you're 12.