Black Gold

Pirner wrote Black Gold, which Columbia released in January 1993 as the second single from Grave Dancers Union. It became a top-10 hit on the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. Pirner described it as being about the no-blood-for-oil idea.

Zack Snyder directed the video, in which George Wendt plays the gas station attendant pushing the car where Pirner sits. Murphy called it the band's little brush with celebrity. Weird Al Yankovic's The Night Santa Went Crazy has been compared to the song, though it is not officially a parody. Pirner has said he played political songs such as Black Gold and Without a Trace at White House events.