haha, yea! i love red rider

Tom Cochrane used to shop at a store I managed. Nicest guy you'll ever meet.

These's a uber right wing talk show out of Colorado that uses this as the shows theme song. Love it.

wow, that is true Canadiana. Most Americans may know him as the "Life Is A Highway" singer.

advex101: These's a uber right wing talk show out of Colorado that uses this as the shows theme song. Love it.

That is funny. Irony tag stuff.

Love the slide guitar in this song.

I had this song on repeat a few months ago. Great song!!

He's white hot.

Now we know what Nathan Fillion looked like as a teenager.


Seriously, I've always loved this song. I actually bought one of those Columbia hits collection LPs just because it had this song on it.


/yah, that's LP as in vinyl. that's what we had before CDs, kiddies
//CDs are what we had before Napster
///Napster is what we had before Oh Jesus Christ I'm old

I liked this song a lot better before I heard it at every single wrestling match at the high school and college level match and tournament since 1985.

This song is standard fare on St. Louis FM radio. K-SHE played the shiat out of it during my years there.

every time I hear this song I feel the urge to listen to
Golden Earring: Twilight Zone
immediately afterward

Yeah, that was kind of, um... yeah.

Of course, it *was* just after the birth of MTV, so videos were the new thing and everyone had to have one.

Producer: "Hey Tom, we want you to do one of these video things, but we only have $5,000 in the budget."

-- later--

Tom: "Here's your $4,500 in change."

I was expecting a Rick Roll...

Wonder what this guy's up to now? The last time I heard anything, he was drunk, and screwing up the national anthem at a Jays game.

i used to play in a band,Motorama, and when people would ask, "what's the band like?" the standard reply was, "it's like farking Tom Cochrane."
"it sounds like Tom Cochrane?"
"no. like farking Tom Cochrane."

Sylvia_Bandersnatch: Now we know what Nathan Fillion looked like as a teenager.


Seriously, I've always loved this song. I actually bought one of those Columbia hits collection LPs just because it had this song on it.


/yah, that's LP as in vinyl. that's what we had before CDs, kiddies
//CDs are what we had before Napster
///Napster is what we had before Oh Jesus Christ I'm old

You forgot cassettes.

/misses real mix-tapes.

That song was recorded/mixed in new york city the night john lennon was killed
just some useless rock and roll trivia I know :-(

I didn't like any part of that. It's too dull.

OOO ooo ooo, it's Red Ryder with a medley of their hit!

anyone else get the urge to fight crime in pastel colored suits?

Who the hell directed that? Poor Tom.

Ive seen a lot mediocre-to-bad videos and will add this one to the list.

They couldnt even sync the soundtrack to the video, especially the
drummer.

Seems to me that Tom put on a bunch of weight as seen in the
'Life is a highway'; I might be wrong but am too lazy to go to
Youtube to check it out.

Whole lotta FAIL with this one.

Anyone else notice that the bastard is damn near identical to Neil Patrick Harris, plus 20 pounds?

Saw them and Pat Benatar together in 1982

/lawn, off

Maybe more awkward than Rick Astley? He just kind of stands around. I for one thought the lead singer wasn't even the most awkward guy in the video - the drummer has got some serious awkward white guy moves.

Stand around, not singing, while your band is in the background, completely unlit. If I were in the band I'd throttle the director until he couldn't tell me what day it was.

Also, I vote also for the drummer.

mfaby: Ive seen a lot mediocre-to-bad videos and will add this one to the list.

There are very few music videos from that era that are any 'good' by today's professional music video standards, and you can chalk most of that up to lack of experience with the medium, which was only a few years old at the time. Though music performances had been recorded on film for decades, and more recently on high-quality video, the notion of a music video as a deliberately contrived and stylised promotional element was still very new, and most people had no idea how it should be done; remember that they did not have the benefit of our hindsight. MTV first went on the air this same year, possibly even after this was made. There was very little airplay of music videos, and not many videos to air, so even the people making them had likely seen very few themselves.

In that light -- especially if you're actually familiar with the music media of that time -- this is actually pretty good, in that it was slightly more visionary than many, most of which were just filmed performaces (a la 1970s) with some extra camera and angle changes. (Billy Idol's 1982 "White Wedding" is a notable exception, though his people had the benefit of seeing several months of MTV first.)

Compare this to the very first video on MTV, and you won't see a very dramatic difference in professional genius, other than the evident difference in available money to make a video. The Buggles' Trevor Horn was a producer, as well as a frontman, and also collecting substantial royalties from his turn with Yes (replacing Jon Anderson on 1980's Drama), so he had a great deal more money to spend on a video than Cochrane did, as well as established position in the industry, and connections to people who could help him make a more involved video. Yet with all that going for him, this was still the best he could do. Which was still exceptional for the time.

They couldnt even sync the soundtrack to the video, especially the
drummer.

Worked for me. Must be on your end.

Seems to me that Tom put on a bunch of weight as seen in the
'Life is a highway'; I might be wrong but am too lazy to go to
Youtube to check it out.

Most of us aren't in the shape we were more than 25 years ago.

Whole lotta FAIL with this one.

A little harsh, don't you think? What do you think your 1981 music video would look like -- not just then, but today?

If you don't like the song, well, that's a matter of taste. If you don't like the video, that's fine, too. It's not stunning cinemetography, for then or now, but I think it's a fair gesture, in context. If you're comparing it to the big-budget professional material made since, I think that's unfair. Those early guys had to look to stuff like this, after all, for clues as to where to go next. And those later guys couldn't have done anything at all if these earlier guys hadn't blazed the trail for them and proved videos a viable enterprise. Given his limited resources and nascent industry position, Cochrane took a huge gamble making this, which took pretty big balls: most of his contemporaries were still waiting to see if music videos would work out, or were too chicken to try it themselves yet.

I know it seems corny to us now, but viewed in context, it's actually pretty cool.


/was there, saw it

SmackLT: I liked this song a lot better before I heard it at every single wrestling match at the high school and college level match and tournament since 1985.

Well, that's what happens when you put it on a soundtrack to a movie that every single high school and collegiate level wrestler has seen and likes.

so wait? now people are gonna get... Red Roll'd? TomRoll'd? RiderRoll'd? i'm confused.

This video seriously makes the song worse. Kind of a reverse-Duran-Duran effect.

mavrick45:

"every time I hear this song I feel the urge to listen to
Golden Earring: Twilight Zone immediately afterward"

Ha! Me too. They do have a similar vibe. Even though I'm into a very eclectic range of music, I have a soft spot for Red Ryder & Golden Earring.

Wookie Milson: He's white hot.

I can't take it anymore.

I remember watching this video on MTV and my buddy turning to me and asked "when did Larry Bird join a rock band?"

/One of those great stoner moments.