‘I Ran (So Far Away)’, also released as ‘I Ran’, is a song by English new wave band A Flock of Seagulls. It was released in 1982 as their third single and it was the second single from their self-titled debut album. It topped the chart in Australia, and reached number seven in New Zealand and number nine in the United States. It was not successful in Europe and only reached number 31 in Germany. In the band's home country of the United Kingdom, it reached number 43. However, the song was certified silver by the BPI.
In an article for Rolling Stone titled, "Anglomania: The Second British Invasion", Parke Puterbaugh wrote of the impact of the song's music video on its US chart success, "Fronted by a singer-synth player with a haircut stranger than anything you'd be likely to encounter in a month of poodle shows, A Flock of Seagulls struck gold on the first try."
Lead singer Mike Score recalled the day he wrote the song to Billboard: "We'd just been to the Cavern in Liverpool and saw a band play a song called 'I Ran' and thought, 'What a great name,' although we didn't particularly like the song. And then the next day saw a picture from the 1950s of a flying saucer and two people running away from it. And because we had this sci-fi thing going on, it was like 'look at that! First 'I Ran' and now that!' So even though we had the basics of the music already, we went to rehearsal that night and the picture was in my head and we started to try to formulate words about that. And when I'm playing live, that picture comes back into my mind. And of course movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the flying saucer coming out of the clouds, that contributed to lyrics, and all that comes through your mind and it makes you smile."
In an interview for Greg Prato's 2011 book, MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video, Mike Score had recalled of his memories filming the "I Ran" music video: "[The 'I Ran' video] is just basically being stupid. [Laughs] You know, 'Stand here, the camera is going to be in the middle, and you're going to try and do something.' And, of course, we had no idea what to do in a video. Videos were not the 'mini-movies' yet. If it was up to the band, we probably would have just stood there in our wild gear and gone, 'OK, we'll just pretend to play.' But they wanted a little bit more, a little bit more angular and quirky. It seems to me that all the early videos had to be quirky. I guess nobody was taking them seriously until somebody dropped a million dollars on one."
Label – Jive
Songwriters – Mike Score, Ali Score, Frank Maudsley, Paul Reynolds
Producer – Mike Howlett
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]I walk along the avenue
I never thought I'd meet a girl like you
Meet a girl like you
With auburn hair and tawny eyes
The kind of eyes that hypnotise me through
Hypnotise me through
[Chorus]
And I ran, I ran so far away
I just ran, I ran all night and day
I couldn't get away
[Verse 2]
A cloud appears above your head
A beam of light comes shining down on you
Shining down on you
The cloud is moving nearer still
Aurora borealis comes in view
Aurora comes in view
[Chorus]
And I ran, I ran so far away
I just ran, I ran all night and day
I couldn't get away
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 3]
Reached out a hand to touch your face
You're slowly disappearing from my view
Appearing from my view
Reached out a hand to try again
I'm floating in a beam of light with you
A beam of light with you
[Outro]
And I ran, I ran so far away
I just ran, I ran all night and day
And I ran, I ran so far away
I just ran, I couldn't get away