red rider, "lunatic fringe" (1981)

Posted on March 14th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs.

Song Project #14

Young readers may be only vaguely aware that there was a time when MTV not only played music videos, they played them all the time; what's more, they often played music that wasn't on the radio. They don't get special credit for this; not every popular musician was making videos yet, and MTV needed to fill their time; the obscure music MTV played was almost entirely major-label fare that had failed to get on the radio. Even so, MTV generated some hits that would never have succeeded without it -- "She Blinded Me With Science" comes to mind -- and they probably loosened up pop radio programming for a few years.

"Lunatic Fringe" was not a hit in the U.S., either before MTV or after (though it has achieved some measure of ear familiarity through those post-MTV song rescuers, movies and television, apparently having been featured in Vision Quest and Miami Vice [neither of which I've seen]). When I first saw "Lunatic Fringe" on MTV, I had only the fuzziest notion who Red Rider were (I'd stocked their records at the store I worked in), and didn't know it was an old song (from 1981, at least a couple years before I saw the video). I knew they were fronted by Tom Cochrane a decade before his solo breakthrough ("Life Is a Highway", 1992), but I didn't know until I looked it up yesterday that they were Canadian, and apparently very popular there (they even did a late album of their hits recorded with a symphony orchestra). (I'm trying to set a record for highest proportion of parenthetical phrases to sentences in one paragraph).

This is "Lunatic Fringe".

This song is lost in time, ten years too soon. It's pop-hard rock, and radio's always had room for that sound, but it's unrelentingly gloomy and disturbing. In the early nineties, it could have been an American hit. The "whoa-ooah, oh-oh" chorus could come straight from an Alice in Chains song. It doesn't grab and shake you, it insinuates, like a foreboding. It's hardly there at the beginning; it comes on quietly, but when that first guitar ta-chop-chop hits I am paying attention to nothing but that song. I love the noisy guitar slide down to the main riff. The two chords that the first part of the song switches between are good tension generators, and the vocal melody is a perfect complement; I love the way the jump up on "fringe" along with the guitar change sounds like a question. The next two chords in the verse strike a note of firm resolve, punctuated by the drum hit on “coming”. The low response vocal (“wise to you this time”) leads nicely into the chorus.

The rest of the song continues in the same vein. It’s a great marriage of mood and material. Red Rider never succumb to the temptation to oversell it. The synth on the bridge has an unfortunate bright eighties sound, but the notes it plays are appropriate to the mood. The guitar solo is clear and reverby and regrounds the sound; it sticks around and colors the rest of the song just enough. The bridge comes back around as a coda, and they throw in a neat extra couple beats a few bars before the cold stop.

A good, well-executed piece of restrained power that ought to be more remembered.

13 comments.

BT

Comment on March 14th, 2007.

Oh, yes, I remember this one now. Well uncovered!

Something about this reminds me of that late-seventies/early 80s Pink Floyd, maybe "Young Lust"? Am I nuts?

ethan

Comment on March 15th, 2007.

I'm probably that younger reader you're talking about (metaphorically, I mean; I'm not assuming you're addressing me particularly), and I am aware of the oddities MTV used to air; my first encounters with Francoise Hardy and Aimee Mann were via 90s MTV--and that's even after music stopped being their priority.

This song...I dunno. This sort of vocals rub me completely the wrong way. Some ineffably wrong kind of manliness, or something. I guess it's something I'll have to work through.

Scraps

Comment on March 15th, 2007.

Francoise Hardy?? Wow.

I don't think Cochrane's a great singer, though after listening to a couple more Red Rider songs, what he mostly reminds me of is Tom Petty.

Bill, Velma says you're not crazy (she does the Pink Floyd duties around here).

cleek

Comment on March 23rd, 2007.

always loved that song... and miss the early-era MTV, when, as you note, you could hear music that commercial radio wasn't interested in: early Pretenders, Talking Heads, U2, the hordes of post-punk British bands (Tenpole Tudor, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet (pre-True), early Duran Duran, etc), all that crazy early metal (Iron Maiden doing Iron Maiden from the album Iron Maiden - "the first three lines of the credits are the same! woah!"). it was a great time to be a kid getting into music.

Scraps

Comment on March 23rd, 2007.

Also Talk Talk doing Talk Talk from the album Talk Talk!

Anonymous

Comment on August 31st, 2007.

I've always liked that song, and it popped into my mind when I saw an NWO rant on a Civil War site. All I could remember were the "lunatic fringe" lines. Thanks for posting the lyrics.

B T

Comment on December 5th, 2007.

Great song, nice write/read!

Ah, the good ol days!

Too bad there aren't more comments to read...

I thought I was the only BT! :)

Scraps

Comment on December 5th, 2007.

Welcome! Always room for more initials.

Anonymous

Comment on January 3rd, 2008.

i must be a dork.....i thought it was by Pink Floyd....i always wondered which album it was from

Nancy

Comment on January 23rd, 2008.

Todd Rundgren has added this song to his setlist, when he refers to the current state of affairs. It rocks the house every time, and seems more relevant now than ever! It's a great song with even better lyrics!

Anonymous

Comment on August 28th, 2008.

Need to watch vision quest to get the full effect of this song. Just perfect song for the part gets me pumped!!

Tom

Comment on October 28th, 2008.

It wasn't obscure, it just wasn't a top 40 hit. It was (and remains) a staple of American Rock and Classic Rock Radio since it's release.

bochi

Comment on January 7th, 2009.

awesome tune! being a teen in the 80's i remember and love this song. i also remember well when mtv was just that, music television and not the twisted, self-indulgent reality show network that it has sadly become. when i here tom conchrane i can't help but be reminded of bryan adams, another canadian who busted loose in the early days of mtv. thanks.

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