Track Listing

1.Straight Up
2.The Elephants Graveyard
3.This Is My Room
4.Another Piece Of Red
5.Hurts Hurts
6.Please Don't Go
7.Fall Down8.Go Man Go!
9.Under Their Thumb Is Under My Thumb
10.Banana Republic
11.Whitehall 1212
12.Mood Mambo

Mercury 1980

Additional Tracks on Remaster - Released February 2005  Universal Records

13.Cheerio
14.Don't Talk To Me (B-Side)
15.Arnold Layne (Recorded For TV)
16.Another Piece Of Red (Live In Portsmouth)

Sleeve Notes from the remastered CD release -
Mondo Bongo - Philip Chevron, The Pogues

"Somewhere up town late last night around 9 o'clock........." Dublin, 1976: In the teeming basement of Moran's Hotel, Eddie and the Hot Rods, pub-rockers reclassified punkers by virtue of their youth and the then sketchily drawn battle-lines, were in the frenetic home-straight of their set and going down a storm. A familiar wiry figure bounded over to where I was standing. "We're better than them", said Bob Geldof, "my lot and your lot." It was generous of him to include "my lot", as The Radiators (from Space) were still 24 hours away from our first gig, supporting, as it happens, Eddie and the Hot Rods. But Bob and I already shared the view that such details could be sketched in later – you either knew what you were doing or you didn't, you either had the passion or not. Plus, he was campaigning for my vote here: he wanted it to be unanimous. "I'd stay at home today / But the world said Go man Go" What clinched it was the roar of the crowd. Shockingly, the only thing that seemed to qualify the lads onstage for louder acclaim than The Boomtown Rats was the trek from Essex and some supportive words from the NME. However risible it might seem three decades later, such was the state of the national inferiority complex in 1976 that a UK band was just automatically considered better than a homegrown one.

The Irish music scene, such as it was, was little help. Most bands and pundits were busy tugging their forelocks to Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers – proper music. Yes, The Rats and The Radiators initially relied heavily on covers also (in their case a strange brew of Dr Feelgood and Bob Marley) but there was a sense in which we were using this music as the raw material for something distinctly native in character. What takes "Banana Republic" beyond pastiche and into the realm of poignant testament is the fact that it has in its DNA a version of Marley's "Get Up Stand Up" forged in a sweaty Dublin cellar gig. "Under their thumb / Kicked and beaten like an angry rabid dog" Dublin was, like Van Morrison's Belfast and the Beatles' Liverpool, a Port City, a trading post for cultural reference points and imported records. But it also had a complex Anglo-Irish tradition which had made it better suited to its role in the vanguard of a literary and theatrical upheaval than as a centre of musical revolution

Certainly, American Blues music had an impact in Dublin in the 60s but, Rory Gallagher aside, it never really left the clubs. Paradoxically, the more urban Irish you were, the more keenly alienated you were likely to feel from even your own suffocating musical heritage, inextricably bound up as it was with the Catholic Nationalism of the State and its idealised vision of Ireland. All musical reference points, therefore, had to undergo an unusually lengthy period of scrutiny.

By the mid-70s, Horslips and Thin Lizzy had slayed most of those particular dragons. Combining old Irish airs with Marvel Comics, stack heels and riffing guitars, they set in motion the process by which Irish folk music would temporarily be reclaimed by the people for the people, before its present long slow death as the bland soundtrack to Ireland on the Pig's Back.
 "I know that tune / it begs too many questions......"With Horslips, a new energy was unleashed. Held in contempt by both the trad and rock intelligentsia, the rest of us were inspired to thrash our bedroom guitars with renewed vigour.

There was a sense that a dam was about to burst, and I remain firmly of the belief that, even if The Ramones and The Sex Pistols had not torn up CBGS and the 100 Club, something very like punk rock would still have happened in Dublin. You need only look as far as the kinetic charge which occurred around that time in film-making, theatre, literary and visual arts to see that Dublin was, belatedly but decisively, fulfilling its obligations as a Port City. The Boomtown Rats played a huge part in that, by demanding attention, by refusing to take no for an answer, by picking fights with dullness and by dramatising the itchy angst of their Rat Trap of a town. And then, just as Ireland was genuinely warming to them, they did what hundreds of Irish bands did before and since. They buggered off. "Glad to see the place again / It's a pity nothing's changed".

By Summer 1979 when, two No 1 singles better off, the Rats triumphant return to Ireland was blighted by bureaucratic opposition, the "septic isle" must have seemed more hopeless than ever. Contrast that with the euphoria of the near-contemporaneous visit of the new Pope – "young people of Ireland, I love you!" – and only the terminally optimistic would have predicted that, within a decade, Ireland would begin to cast herself adrift irrevocably from the bondage of Catholicism."These are danger days / What sort of day is this?" So, Mondo Bongo is the most interesting Boomtown Rats record because it recognises a world the Rats had conquered, gone around and which Geldof in all of these songs sees is on the brink of change. It is an album that now seems to be set on the eve of modern history, just before the collapse of multiple Berlin Walls. The Banana Republic will implode, the World map must lose yet "Another Piece of Red", Florida's "Elephant's Graveyard" – "Disneyland under martial law" – will play a central role in the election of an American President. Not least, mortal pop stars, rather than infallible pontiffs, will make the most telling contributions towards alleviating third world poverty.

From the outset, the restless Africana of "Mondo Bongo" itself implies unfinished business, as though the aggressive spirit of the Beat Poets had been interrupted, not terminated, by hard drugs and Free Love. From now on, the world would be met head on, not by idealism but on its own harsh terms.

It was a long time coming, but 7th February 2005 was a very special date in the hearts of a few poor souls who relish the work of the power pop punk paddies, aka The Boomtown Rats. Universal wisely, have re-released all of the Boomtown Rats back catalogue on CD. Looked upon by the scribes who write our pop and rock history as a bunch of punk light weights, the Boomtown Rats are not loved and revered as frequently as their musical contemporaries The Pistols, The Jam, The Clash. This maybe justified, maybe not.

But one of the regular contributors to this site is David Clancy, who has taken time out to produce these reviews for us of the back catalogue of material for which we are extremely grateful. (IMG bobgeldof.info)

Crazy Mondo.....
1.Straight Up
2.The Elephants Graveyard
3.This Is My Room
4.Another Piece Of Red
5.Hurts Hurts
6.Please Don't Go
7.Fall Down
8.Go Man Go!
9.Under Their Thumb Is Under My Thumb
10.Banana Republic
11.Whitehall 1212
12.Mood Mambo
13.Cheerio
14.Don't Talk To Me (B-Side)
15.Arnold Layne (Recorded For TV)
16.Another Piece Of Red (Live In Portsmouth)

Mondo Bongo was highly anticipated. The early signs were very encouraging. Banana Republic was a smash hit single usurping the heavily hyped Spandau Ballet. The reggae sound seemed to suit the Rats, and the album promised a very new sound. Mondo Bongo was a very strange brew in contrast to the three previous albums. It turned out to be a more experimental album than expected. Having lined up Tony Visconti as a new producer, The Rats were breaking away from the sound of Tonic for the Troops and Fine Art of Surfacing that had been so successful.

With a sassy burst Mood Mambo kicks off the LP. Geldof raps about a black snake with slicked back hair looking for someone else, and being in the mood to mambo! The raised expectations are then dashed by the repetitive crazy bongo chant, every time we're in the mood to mambo. The song is very camp with it's yoo-hoos and references to ballroom dancing. Very Latin influenced driven by the rhythm section rather than the guitars of previous albums. It is a dark hint of things to come.

It is a great relief to hear the guitars that kick off Straight Up. Less of a departure from the traditional Rats sound, but a departure in song writing. Less story, more ideas. The guitar exaggerates the Breaking Glass riff to good effect. A departure from the norm, but a good one.

Then we have the sleigh bells! This is My Room starts off as if written to corner the Christmas market, but slowly develops into a great track. There is no urgency to get to the lyrics, and there is time to appreciate the music, before Geldof booms "This is my Room' to a peak. The songs fades out far too soon, but always better to go too early than overstay your welcome!

The mawkish, Another Piece of Red is a lament on the demise of the British Empire. It seemed particularly hollow being sung by an Irishman. Toe curlingly embarrassing at points with its tinkling piano refrain of Rule Britannia throughout and some of the crassest lyrics you would hear anywhere ("hungry for India" , yuck!, "vive le Canada", come on!)

After that comes Go Man Go which is one of the highlights on the album. There is a sense of drama from the drums and keyboards in the intro. The first verse describes a day at the seaside, and the second relates to Japanese culture, even down to some cod-Japanese. The sax solo breaks up the song and fades it out.

Under Their Thumb showcases various instruments in the break. The sort of device used live to thank the various members of the band. Otherwise the song is a re-imagined version of the Stones hit referring to us all being under the thumb of government rather than a girl under Jagger’s thumb! Pete Briquette’s bass drives the song along really well.

Following the same groove as Mood Mambo, Please Don't Go, also has a marked Latino influence. Inane lyrics, and the dreary Please Don't Go refrain. Geldof's scat is mercifully drowned out by the horns.

Elephant's Graveyard was released as a single, and only reached the lower reaches of the top thirty. It's not a bad track, though maybe not ideal single material. The song is a traditional Geldof tale, this time of riots in Miami, of what it must be like to be a pensioner when all hell breaks loose. The wordplay reminds you of Elvis Costello, and the ‘Guilty til proven Guilty’ is a great line and pervades the song. The ‘shame shame shimmy shame’ fade out is a bit crass! Lots of really good keyboards throughout, but like office boys, pensioners ain’t rock ‘n’ roll!

Banana Republic was written in the aftermath of the Rats being banned from playing in Dublin. Police and priests rule ( a take on Police and Thieves from Junior Murvin & Lee Perry), and hypocrisy abounds. There are even references to the IRA, "Price. a bullet in the head". The final line of "it’s a pity nothing’s changed’ sums up the continued intolerance of a notion dominated by the Church. The most venomous lyrics and the great vibe of the song make you wonder how the Rats were dismissed as lightweights. It is to Ireland what God Save the Queen was to Britain.

The jewel in the crown of the album is Fall Down, to be appreciated in all it's glory. It is probably the most stunning Rats song ever. Sung by Simon Crowe, it is a beautiful song expressing how hurtful love can be. Maybe it was too personal for Geldof to sing but it really suits the choir boy vocals of Simon Crowe. Criminally, the clarinet solo was not on the recent best of, and even worse the song was omitted from the US version of the album.

Starting off like That’s Entertainment, Hurt Hurts recalls Can't Stop from Tonic from the Troops. No story, just the expression of agony, and some catchy lines, "Hard side, Tough inside, She cut you with stiletto style", not unlike Straight Up. The instrumental break has echoed drums and church organ keyboards before it breaks into one of the few lyrical guitar solos on the album. Use of acoustic and electic guitars like Someone’s Looking. Another nice track that would have been right at home in Kill Bill.

The Shadows-esque instrumental Whitehall 1212 pretty much wraps things up. Starts with a phone call to Blake of the yard, recalls Apache, and winds up like Night Boat to Cairo from Madness. And then leads into a hidden track (titled Cheerio on the CD release). Quite amusing little Dylan-style ditty of no substance.

Mondo Bongo is a roller coaster of an album with some good highs, and some pitiful lows. Sonically it is an improvement, but the calibre of some of the songs leaves a lot to be desired. The rhythm section dominates the album throughout and there are precious few guitar led tracks. Banana Republic aside, there were no other great singles on the album. Whereas Tonic for the Troops could probably have had another couple, and even Fine Art of Surfacing may have yielded another, it was hard to see a sure fire follow up single, though Go Man Go may have troubled the top twenty. Fall Down, great as it is, would have been a big risk as a single, but it could have been a number one (or number 100!).

There are at least half-a-dozen very good tracks on this album, and had the Rats come in with more material like that (probably some of the stuff used on V Deep) it could have been their finest hour (well, forty minutes!). There is enough to make this worthwhile, but new listeners will require patience.

CD Review

It is important to note Fall Down is free of the echo you get on the groove crammed LPs. At last, I can hear it properly! And it is the full version, not the edited version on the Best of.

Whitehall 1212 is also on CD for the first time, but that's not so essential.

The gaps in Cheerio are also shortened. ("...or else, I'm Gonna Go" is too hastily followed by "OK, That's fine by me...)

As far as the extras are concerned if one version of Another Piece of Red isn't enough there is also a live version provided as an extra. When the piano starts the song, the crowd cheer, no doubt anticipating I Don't Like Mondays! Needless to say the live version is no better, a bad song is a bad song.

There is also the Buddy Holly tribute Don't Talk To Me, uh-oh-ho! It was included on the US version of Mondo Bongo. It’s OK, fairly inoffensive, and my dad would love it being a big Buddy Holly fan!

There is also a cover of Arnold Layne. It's fair to say that the Rats don't do this song justice. They murdered it! It sounds out of tune with lots of synths crashing it. You’ve got to hear it though!

Up All Night did appear on the US version, but as far as the UK is concerned was on V Deep. Man at the Top, the b-side of Banana Republic, would have been a good extra.

The fade out of Banana Republic is extended from the single and in all honesty doesn't enhance the song.

With a jumbling of the track sequence, and some less than inspiring extras the CD re-release of this album is mainly worthwhile in obtaining the UK track listing, and especially the unabridged Fall Down, on CD for the first time.

Personally, though not my favourite Rats album (not the worst either!), it has some inspired tracks and is well worth a listen.