"Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it."
"I'm paraphrasing but it goes something like that. A series
of events inspired this song. I was going out with a Jewish girl at the
time and I was disturbed by anti-Semitic bombings in Paris, by the
lunacy of revisionist historians, by various neo-Nazi groups gaining
strength in Canada, and by a book I had read about Raoul Wallenberg, a
Swedish diplomat who, like Schindler, helped thousands of Jews escape
Europe during WWII. My manager at the time told me that there was no
place for lyrics like these in this disposable pop world, and I was
almost ready to cave in and accept this as a given. But the night we
recorded the demo of 'Fringe', Fraser Hill, the engineer, told me over
the studio monitor system that John Lennon was dead... Man, that hit me
hard - as it did so many people. Lennon had always spoken his mind,
always tried to write the truth, always went about his work with
integrity. And I thought, for better or worse, I would try to use his
example as the touchstone for my own writing. The irony is that 'Lunatic
Fringe' went on to become one of my most successful and enduring songs,
still is." - Tom Cochrane
