​​How John Lennon's death inspired Red Rider's "Lunatic Fringe"

“Lunatic Fringe” by Red Rider is perfectly spooky-sounding for Halloween season, but the song is actually about something much scarier than ghosts and goblins. Find out more about how songwriter Tom Cochrane found the courage to write the lyrics after the untimely death of John Lennon in this episode of Behind The Song.
Music Producer: Christian Lane
Video Director: Michael Collier
Video Editor: Julian Romano
Listen on:
Apple: apple.co/3aXfikP​
Spotify: spoti.fi/3rjHeW1​
Google: bit.ly/3b4huH7​
PodcastOne: bit.ly/2zho2y6​
About Janda:
Behind The Song podcast host and creator Janda Lane is a radio DJ at WDRV-FM in Chicago, the city she calls home with her husband and podcast partner, Christian Lane, and their two cats, Ollie and Liam. She is a transplant from Los Angeles, where she was a video director at Fender, Executive Producer at Yahoo Music, playlist curator for ITunes, worked in rock management with artists like the Foo Fighters and Beck, was on the radio at KCRW, and she was a DJ at online radio pioneer site Soundbreak. She has not worked a day in her life.
Follow Behind The Song on TikTok @behindthesongpodcast.

[@jameslewan7026]

This song means more now than ever; WE are in Lunatic Fringe times most assuredly!

[@sqrly2u]

I grew up in Mountain View Arkansas. This song was played heavily by MTV. We had just gotten a huge satellite dish and I was able to watch MTV while 99% of the others in my small community could not. Red Rider was one of many favorites during that time at 14 years old. Good day!

[@Marilyn-yc2pb]

YES🌹.. STUTTGART, ARKANSAS

[@mikeace5831]

That song is a classic staying power is forever

[@TransAminal]

Wow....that's heavy. I've loved the song from day one...knew the lyrics but not the meaning.... Thank you 😊

[@coatneyadkins9005]

You had a really really good idea for a channel and the content... I hope it gets huge. Great idea🎉

[@scootertooter6874]

Just confirms what I always have thought. This song has always reminded me of performing 24-hour ICBM nuclear alert late at night...contemplating the fact that I was always only a few minutes from SIOP execution...and this video just reinforces that fact...her explanation pretty much validates that.

[@manfredmann2766]

Hard to believe Tom Cochraine, Life is a Hwy (lame) was once in an awesome 80s band. Would have said the same thing in the spring/summer of 1992 when it was overplayed on the radio.

[@atomicwedgie8176]

HATED that so-called song.

[@gerrymeyer813]

Great job. Janda

[@gerrymeyer813]

Great 👍 podcast. Janda

[@YouTube.Algorithmic.Nonsense]

Love the song because of Vision Quest. Such a great workout song. BTW, the ending lyrics you mention about "an eye for an eye" and "well before you go under" don't exist. I have yet to hear a recorded version with those lyrics.

[@jamescrouchet1283]

I suspect those may have been the original lyrics. The master tape of the first recording of this became corrupted and had to be re-recorded before it was released. The original lyrics may not have survived intact. Of course, without that master there would be no surviving recording of those first lyrics.

[@davidmcdonald11]

Very interesting report! Thank you! Songs in the 70"s era...black, white, red or yellow, glad I was raised in that time!

[@behindthesongpodcast]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@rhajmand1933]

I love hearing the back story. Good job!

[@behindthesongpodcast]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@FrostJack-tv6op]

Yo, your lunatic fringe will be here tomorrow. Just checking in from the future see ya then .

[@seanhayes1965]

Nice job!

[@eidetecker]

Just a kind correction for ya: the synthesizer on "Lunatic Fringe" is played by Peter F. Wolf, Austrian musician/producer, not Peter Wolf, singer for J. Geils' Band. Peace.

[@derricklester9210]

The song was also in The 1980s cop show Miami Vice

[@smolville]

Songs at the same time period with the same message: It's a mistake, All you zombies, Follow the worms, Can you hear me. We've been waiting for 2024 for a long time.

[@kevindevine6780]

Quite the deal!!!

[@johnpatmos3778]

The John Patmos Talent Shows and Auditions

[@johnpatmos3778]

Lennon and the Beatles were the second great push in RocknRoll into the upper echelons of popularity and influence! The first was Elvis! The early blues artists long before and every other many ,many ,many others completed a wave of RocknRoll! Let’s get that wave going again! Stay calm and wear your RocknRoll face paint! “We Will Rock You!”

[@geneaikenii1092]

WoW, sista. Great pick and wicked cool reaction. I love what u r doin here. I hit the sub button, black bell, like, shared it and gave ya my little comment. Keep up your good work, here and thanx. Watchin and diggin it from just an old longhaired Southern boy outta Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Go w/ God. Peace and love. See you on the next.

[@revelationakagoldeneagle8045]

Thank You 🙏 ✌️ 🪶 ✨

[@Q2-iswatching]

Today is April 1st 2023 and the song lunatic friends applies today probably more than it ever has Heed the warnings of the message of the song people

[@charltonsotio2819]

Who else is here after realizing Kurt Angle used this as the base for his TNA entrance song?

[@kevinmcc3147]

What's even more errie dimebag from pantera was killed on stage the same exact date December 8 th

[@Marilyn-yc2pb]

JUST REALIZATION.... FACT'S...🙌

[@kevinmcc3147]

The song has a pink floyd influence

[@johnpatmos3778]

#imjohnpatmos #imjoannapatmos #thenewandtheoldrocknrollbands #wearyourfacepaint

[@gerrymeyer813]

The eagles are and were awesome 👏

[@todddillon613]

This "song" ... had Absolutely Nothing to do with inspiration .. OR Lenons death! It Did, ... actually happen to be recorded the night that John was shot! But you are WAY off base, Sister!! Stop Lying for Likes!!!

[@paulkeddington3161]

Lunatic fringe was about antisemitism

[@EMTTT]

Unfortunately, Cochrane's song has been mostly forgotten today as we see the Lunatic Fringe taking more power each day: Resident Biden, Pagan of the House Pelosi, and Justin Trudeau are just a few examples. I won't even try to dissect the Reich that is being formed in Australia.

[@StelyDn]

Really? Couldn't just watch this and enjoy it?

[@storbokki371]

You have it backwards. This song is an anti-fascist anthem. It is warning right-wing fascist neo-Nazi (the lunatic fringe) that we are on guard against Hitler's "Final Solution", the holocaust.

[@Somethingwicked1x]

More like Trump.

[@brianjauch9958]

makes me think of the proud boys and the like.@@Somethingwicked1x

[@Somethingwicked1x]

@@brianjauch9958 Nazis!