I Don't Like Mondays
"I Don't Like Mondays" is a song by the Boomtown Rats that was a number one single in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during the summer of 1979, and ranks as the sixth biggest British hit of 1979. Written by Bob Geldof, it was the band's second number one single.
History
According to Geldof, he wrote the song after reading a telex report at Georgia State University's campus radio station, WRAS, on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children in a school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, USA on 29 January 1979, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime and her full explanation for her actions was "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day". The song was first performed less than a month later.
Geldof explained how he wrote the song:
Geldof had originally intended the song as a B-side, but changed his mind after the song was successful with audiences on the Rats' US tour. Spencer's family tried unsuccessfully to prevent the single from being released in the United States. Despite being a major hit in the United Kingdom, it only reached #73 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song was played regularly by album-oriented rock format radio stations in the United States throughout the 1980s, although radio stations in San Diego refrained from playing the track for some years in respect to local sensitivities about the shooting.
Podcasts:
-
by The Boomtown Rats
-
by Bon Jovi
-
by Jon Bon Jovi
-
by Tori Amos
-
by Boomtown Rats
-
by Bob Geldof
I Don't Like Mondays
by: The Boomtown RatsThe silicon chip inside her head.
Gets switched to overload,
And nobody's gonna go to school today,
She's going to make them stay at home,
And daddy doesn't understand it,
He always said she was as good as gold,
And he can see no reason.
Cos there are no reasons.
What reason do you need to be shown.
Tell me why.
I Dont't like Mondays.
Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
tell me why
I dont like Mondays
I want to shoot.
The whole day down.
The Telex machine is kept so clean.
As it types to a waiting world,
And Mother feels so shocked,
Father's world is rocked,
And their thoughts turn to.
Their own little girl.
Sweet 16 ain't that peachy keen,
No, it ain't so neat to admit defeat,
They can see no reasons.
Cos there are no reasons.
What reason do you need to be shown Oh, woaah
(repeat chorus)
All the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die,
And then the bullhorn crackles,
And the captain tackles,
With the problems and the how's and why's
And he can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die
Tell me why.
I Dont't like Mondays.
Tell me why
I don't like Mondays
tell me why
I don't like, I don't like, I don't like Mondays
tell me why
I don't like, I don't like , I don't like Mondays
I want to shoot, the whole day down