Sep 28 2007
I Don’t Like Mondays
I posted my Thursday Thirteen on my other blog, which was about MP3s that are currently on my desktop, and somebody commented something that caught my attention. It was about the song I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats being inspired by a school killing which happened on January 29, 1979, a Monday.
Brenda Ann Spencer, who was 16 years old then, wounded 8 children and one police officer and killed 2 school officials at Cleveland Elementary School, which was just across the street from her house in San Diego, California. When she was asked why she committed the crime, she replied “I don’t like Mondays.” She pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to prison for 25 years to life.
The lyrics of the song is below and you read more about it on The Boomtown Rats official site.
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
‘Cause 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 16 ain’t so peachy keen,
No, it ain’t so neat to admit defeat.
They can see no reasons
‘Cause 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.
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 crackles,
With the problems and the how’s and why’s.
And he can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die?
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.
Hi there…I Googled for brenda song facts, but found your page about …and have to say thanks. nice read.
[…] Do you know the story behind this song? You can read it in an old post on my other blog. addthis_url = […]