This is my choice for Monday in the Weekday Series of posts. Because, who likes Mondays? I’ve always rocked out to this song; good tune, harmonies, tinkling piano and a great chorus that gets you singing along. I had no idea what it was about. No clue.
I will include a video interview with Bob Geldof below the music video, and also the first video of four that explains the whole story, if you wish to pursue it. Geldof now says that he is sorry that he wrote, recorded and released the song. He says if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn’t.
The song, of course, is about one of the first school mass shootings in the United States, when 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire on the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, USA, January 29th 1979, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. When police asked her why she did it, she replied, completely without passion or remorse, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”
Sadly, this was only the beginning of a violent trait of American society that continued through the decades to today, and will certainly continue beyond today.
Sorry for the morose start to the week! It will get cheerier. Watch the videos. It’s very enlightening.
I Don’t Like Mondays
Boomtown Rats
The 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 don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?!
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?!
I don’t 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 sixteen ain’t that peachy keen
no, it ain’t so neat to admit defeat
they can seek no reasons
‘cos there are no reasons
what reason do you need
Tell me why?!
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?!
I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?!
I don’t like Mondays,
I want to shoot
the whole day down, down, down, shoot it all down,
all the playing 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 seek no reasons
‘cos there are no reasons
what reason do you need to die die oh oh oh….
Tell me why?!
I don’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 shoo oo oo oot
the whole day down …
This is the interview video. It begins with the first part of the song, then the interview starts:
https://youtu.be/xSFIPcwqGvw
This is the first video of four, a documentary covering the whole story. Creepy.
Thanks for reading and watching. Tuesday is up next.
Live Long And Prosper!
