I Don't Like Mondays

When Brenda Spencer was asked why she opened fire on innocent children, her answer was as chilling as it was incomprehensible.

I don't like Mondays.

The statement became infamous worldwide and inspired a hit song by the Irish rock band, the Boomtown Rats.

But behind that flippant remark was a far more complicated story.

Brenda's image appeared across newspapers, and her comments were repeated on television and radio.

And her seemingly casual explanation became one of the most recognizable statements associated with the school shooting.

Later that year, the Irish band the Boomtown Rats released I Don't Like Mondays, a song inspired by the shooting.

It became a major hit.

I think...

Just because you have a day off doesn't mean you're necessarily rested because you've got that mental complexity of like, right, what is happening? What do I have to think about? Like everyone knows the song I Don't Like Mondays or, you know, people have this idea of not liking Mondays.

But actually it starts on Sunday night, right? Because if you're planning for the week ahead, then you're already taking mental load to kind of plan your week ahead.

So I definitely think, you know, I will say though, like when I have a holiday, my partner hates it, but I don't, I'm not a big one for like, Sitting around a pool, right? I can do that for five minutes.

And so now there's this complete and chaotic experience in the house.

But without doubt, it makes me laugh and feel lighter every single time.

So coming back to your question of like, what can we do? Maybe it's as simple as putting on your favorite song and dancing in the kitchen whilst you're cooking.

or listening to a podcast or sitting down for five minutes without your phone or going outside, sitting under the sun.

What is your number three pick?

i don't like mondays by the boomtown rats now this one was inspired by a true crime case and this happened the exact same year so this was written by uh bob geldof who is a famous uh musician from ireland a lot of irish people have quite uh polarized uh views on him because he kind of screwed over phil lennon at live aid and phil lennon really wanted to perform at live aid and then bob geldof said no and it's just awful how he treated some you know a musician that had come before him and championed him and phil and it was always somebody who would champion other irish musicians and then to see him just get treated like that and i think if he'd gotten himself cleaned up for live aid he might not have died you know when he did but anyway um this was inspired by a school shooting brenda spencer you know shooting kids from her you know window she got a gun and then just shot at a primary school killing a bunch of kids and when the police asked her why'd you do it she was like i don't like mondays

which what what a sentence

And it's like, yeah, Bob Geldof just turned that into a song.

Before it was over, Brenda squeezed off 36 shots and then barricaded herself in the house.

When a reporter reached her by phone and asked why she did it, she replied, I don't like Mondays.

This livens up the day.

The standoff continued until she was promised a whopper from Burger King, and that prompted her to surrender.

And he wrote down some lyrics pretty much right there and then.

It was later developed into a full song with keyboardist Johnny Fingers.

And they called it, of course, I Don't Like Mondays.

Tell me what I don't

Back in the early 1980s, Bob Geldof was known for being the lead singer of the group the Boomtown Rats.

Their big hit was the song I Don't Like Mondays.

On October 23, 1984, he and his then-wife Paula Yates were watching that same BBC report on the Ethiopian famine and decided to raise money to help with relief efforts.

Bob got on the phone and called his friend Mitch Ure of the group Ultravox.

It was a musical drama film written by and starring Paul McCartney.

It opened in movie theaters on that date, and despite receiving poor reviews from the critics, its soundtrack was big.

It had the hit single No More Lonely Nights on it.

In 1991, Rage Against the Machine performed live together for the very first time.

I just remember that.

I remember in the summer of 79 when Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats released I Don't Like Mondays.

So it's the wall from Pink Floyd.

Incidentally, I'm going to see Roger Waters in Dublin next year, but that's beside the point.

We'll finish off with Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats.

I don't like Mondays.

It's hard to be Banana Republic.

It might be more appropriate maybe for us.

I can tell you, he can still put on a show.

Okay, Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats.

I don't like Mondays.

That's Pat's choice to finish with.

Birthdays this past week.

So if it's Bob Geldof, I think the song's called I Don't Like Mondays.

It's a cool tune.

Bob Geldof? I think he may be the one that died.

was

October 5th, so it would have been his birthday.

Yeah, so the Boomtown Rats, I think the title is I Don't Like Mondays.

I Don't Like Mondays.

And what is interesting is that you can use an algorithm to look at the happiness of a song.

Notice, this is happiness of the music, not the lyrics, and that's really important because there are some songs with some quite dark lyrics like Semi-Charmed Life or I Don't Like Mondays, which are still quite positive and upbeat songs.

And so what we did is we used that algorithm to look at how happy or how sad a country's playlist was as a reflector of national mood.

And what we showed was that was also significantly correlated with stock prices.

And also Sean, who said maybe we should play I Don't Like Birthdays.

But no, we'll play I Don't Like Mondays for the great Sir Bob Geldof.

Well, Bob Geldof may not like Mondays, but today, Monday, is his 75th birthday.

So good wishes out to him.