Greetings to all in Boomtown,

This week is absolutely Boomtown week in my house; have been spinning all of their albums and quite a few Live bootlegs, as well as DVD's, all of this of course along with attending the fantastic show last Saturday Night

'In the Long Grass' is the lone Rats' album I never took to; all of the others I love. The absolutely brilliance of 'Tonic' and 'Fine Art', the experimental and quite excellent 'V Deep' and 'Mondo Bongo' albums; the first album which needs no extra superlatives as we all know how damn good it is (with killer bonus material from 1975)

'..Grass' never spoke to me as the others did, I knew it had moments of pop excellence; 'Dave' for example being a truly wonderful tune. Maybe the production, the very 80s pop new-wave sound and atmosphere. I have come around to it a bit more over recent times, and love the B-Sides 'Walking Downtown' and especially 'Precious Time'.

The songs are all good, but for me it never had that indefinable spark that made the other albums seem just so good; looking at the tracklisting to 'Fine Art' I just marvel at how well written and unforgettable a lot of those songs are.

Any thoughts?

I don't know if this is true, because it wasn't easy to follow the BTR, living in The Netherlands at that time and only reading the NME, The Face, or Sounds sometimes, only two TV Channels and three radio channels, but I felt that a lot of the original BTR fans were not really interested anymore after the release of Mondo Bongo. I was also disappointed with the new musical direction at that time. Same things happened to a lot other bands of the 1976/1977-era. After two or three albums they lost a lot of their original fans. Much original punks went new wavers, or Blitzers, others went hard core (Exploited, Dead Kennedy's, etc.), Gothic or insane.

But other bands went skyhigh like The Jam, they were also very popular here in The Netherlands (although a very British band) in 1981/1982. In the first years of the 80's pop music went more mainstream (or even childish), because of the influences of Sky Channel, Music Box, etc. I don't know if there was pressure on them to change musical directions, but the way Gerry left maybe was a signal. If someone can tell more about this, I think, very difficult times for the band I'd like to read about it.

Back to ITLG: although very 80's sound (like Simple Minds, Arcadia, etc.) you can still hear sometimes the Rats sound of old. Favourites: Drag Me Down, Tonight (I played that song daily at that time, working as a DJ for an illegal radio station in Amsterdam) and especially A Hold Of Me. I played that last song sometimes on acoustic guitar somewhere in The Vondelpark or so and the funny thing was that the Dutch people (they know only Monday's and maybe know Rat Trap) didn't know what is was all about, but sometimes you saw a British or maybe Irish back packer tourist looking with a question mark on his face and then went "Wait a minute, I know this song". I like the production of this song very much. Again, very 80's, but pure craftmanship.

In general ITLG was for BTR in my opinion to much averageness, but I keep in mind that Bob already was busy with Band Aid and maybe Live Aid as well, so you can forgive the guy who wrote so much beautiful songs in the past.

Still I hope they will play one of this songs during this tour, but I'm afraid they won't do so. It's also a pity to me they don't play more songs of Surfacing. But in general: very glad that the Rats are back, even if it's just for one year.

BVD1965 wrote:

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... I felt that a lot of the original BTR fans were not really interested anymore after the release of Mondo Bongo.

But other bands went skyhigh like The Jam, they were also very popular here in The Netherlands...

In general ITLG was for BTR in my opinion to much averageness, but I keep in mind that Bob already was busy with Band Aid and maybe Live Aid as well, so you can forgive the guy who wrote so much beautiful songs in the past.

Still I hope they will play one of this songs during this tour, but I'm afraid they won't do so. It's also a pity to me they don't play more songs of Surfacing.

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 Mondo Bongo pretty much killed off the Rats for many.  I remember a few fifth formers who didn't care too much for the Rats in the seventies did really like Banana Republic, but the rest of the album had nothing in common with it and not much in common with what had gone before.

As for The Jam, they weren't the only ones who came out of the seventies and flourished in the eighties.  The Clash, The Police and The Stranglers among others all did well with some reinvention. 

It's understandable why the Rats looked to renew their sound, but they never succeeded as both Mondo Bongo and V Deep were too eclectic.  Great songs like Fall Down and He Watches It All stood alongside contrasting tripe like Another Piece of Red and Charmed Lives.  In The Long Grass does have a very distinctive sound throughout and is a better album because of it.

In The Long Grass was released prior to any Band Aid activity, so Geldof was pretty focused on the Rats at that point.  There may have been some mixing done for singles when the Band Aid thing took off, but that would be about all that was done.  Geldof announced Band Aid on the radio when interviewing to promote In The Long Grass.

To be honest, Someone's Looking aside, I'd be wouldn't be too worried if they didn't  play anything off Surfacing.  Playing the first two albums in their entirety plus all the b-sides up to Late Last Night would suit me. 

BVD1965 wrote:

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Even our new King says unintentional funny things sometimes and thank God your country is being spared from Johan Cruijff as a football coach, because then you needed oxygene masks each weekend.

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Funny you say that cos the Dutch are getting Steve McClaren back!  How we laughed at his Dutch accent...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/8045420/Steve-McClaren-speaks-with-Dutch-accent.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtq1ObGHy8

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZnoP4sUV90

BVD1965 wrote:

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noelindublin wrote:

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 In the Dublin concerts of which I attended both the played (from Surfacing) I Don't like Mondays, When The Night Comes, Diamond Smiles, Someone's Looking At You, and  Having My Picture Taken. Nearly half the album

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Yeah, stupid me. You're absolutely correct about that . It's the stupid language thing with me, maybe I translate it too literally sometimes. I meant that they play not the other ones of Surfacing than the ones they played already this tour. In particular I like to hear Nothing Happened Today, Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero), Sleep and Keep It Up. It seems to me that the current set list contains a lot of Best Of songs or Best Known songs. That's the thing I liked about, for example, The Rolling Stones. Of course they played always their Best Known set list, but they integrated it with some less known songs to construct a thrilling perfomance.

Sorry if my language is too Denglish sometimes (Dutch-English, please don't say Deutsch-English). A few years ago some Dutch member of the Board of a big Dutch beer company wrote a book about the sometimes embarrasing English language some of my fellow-countrymen use, even if they have important international jobs. The book is titled "I always get my sin" (they mean "I always get what I want" or better "I always get it my own way"). Another one: "May I thank your **** for the lovely dinner" (had to be "May I thank your cook for the lovely dinner"; cook = kok in Dutch language; there are even Dutch men with the name of Dick Kok...). Can you imagine some CEO talks like this during a banquet with other important, or so called important, board members of other companies? Can you imagine that the Dutch are the second or third investors in the USA and you talk like this? Centuries ago we conquered the world with our sailing ships and weapons, now we conquer the world by saying hilarious things at right place, at the right time. With same results.... Even our new King says unintentional funny things sometimes and thank God your country is being spared from Johan Cruijff as a football coach, because then you needed oxygene masks each weekend.

OK, last one: "How do you do and how do you do your wife". That's enough for today I think...

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 We used to  call two consecutive classes of English at school 'double English', so two classes of Dutch must be double Dutch

manatthetop wrote:

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Just like yourself, I find myself getting more into this album as to when it 1st came out. For me when I would get a new album (BTR) at the time. I could never sit down and let the record play right through, I would run through the start of each track for about 20 sec. And I would know there and then if, I would have given that song the full 3 to 5 mins of my time

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 Not talking about the Rats but I find that I am quick to judge music. Some albums I have only played once,and I know if I want to hear it again. I tend to judge music to a certain degree by  the quality of the lyrics, though that's not the main factor, but it is important for me anyway.

It's interesting how a lot of the time you can tell if a song is good after only half a minute or more. Partly due to musical instinct and years of listening, you get a sort of sixth musical sense. Occasionally I have heard a  really good track in say HMV or a music store and I always say to myself God! I wonder who that was? You try to remember some of the lyrics so that you can google it later, but like a fading dream you nearly always forget the heavenly music you have just heard, and it gets lost in the great file of 'lost music you have accidentally come across.

Drag me Down 10

Hard Times 9

Another Sad Story 8

Dave 8

Over Again 8

Up or Down 7

Tonight 6

An Icicle in the Sun 6

Lucky 5

A Hold of Me 4

Mark L wrote:

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Never was a great fan of A Hold of Me and thought it a poor single choice. It takes too long to get going and hence, despite Mike Read's kind words when the band performed it on Saturday Superstore, it was never going to get much airplay on Radio 1, where more immediacy was required. I admire the lyrical content and emotional message of defiance, as I do on Million Years, but the latter always stood a better chance in 1981. 

On first hearing, I had a 'misheard lyrics' moment, hearing 'What did we give to y'all?' for 'What are we guilty of?'

Don't get me wrong, it's not a 'Charmed Lives' moment but as a 4th single choice, it was never going to trouble the charts. Granted, it's not all about that but they'd have been better fighting back with Another Sad Story, where listeners may have felt more familiar with more noticeable piano and sax as agreeable additions to the track. Not to mention the catchy maracas.

A song that clearly polarises. 

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 I think A Hold Of Me is the best song on ITLG. I think you are in the minority Mark, though it's not a case of being right or wrong, just  peoples opinions and tastes. Just looking at how some of us here rate the song, it seems to be pretty high in the rankings of the Boomtown jury.

I prefer the US version of Drag me Down. You can find it on Spotify and identify it by track length. It's about 20 seconds longer than the UK version. 

IrelandCalling wrote:

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manatthetop wrote:

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Funny how you say that. For me a A hold of me, I think is a great wee song, Tonight in my opinion should have gotten them back into the top 40. An icicle in the sun was a b side so that sums that song up. The LP version of Dave is not the same version as on the reissue 05 cd which stats is the album version. This song really should have put them back on track, top 5 anyway. Me I prefer the US drag me down over the uk one any day. Same as Lucky it was reworked for the US But this time I like the both versions.  

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Icicle In The Sun was the b side of the single Drag Me Down. Walking Down Town was not strictly a b side but an extra track on the  12" single of Tonight, which also contained Precious Time.

 

Icicle in the Sun was a B-Side? I didn't know that, thought 'Precious Time' and 'Walking Downtown' were the B-Sides

 

I need to hear the US versions of 'Lucky' and 'Drag Me Down' so

 

The original version of 'Dave', you mentioned the '05 remaster is different - is it much different?

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 Icicle In The Sun was the b side of the single Drag Me Down. Walking Down Town was not strictly a b side but an extra track on the  12" single of Tonight, which also contained Precious Time.

IrelandCalling wrote:

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So the original album was only 9 tracks? 'Icicle' is mention on Wikipedia as part of the main album though, including as part of the 10 songs on the 1985 U.S. Edition?

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 The original album UK/IRE had ten tracks including Icicle In The Sun. Icicle is one of the few examples of a Rats b side appearing on an original album. They probably would not have done this back in the days when they were 'shifting units', but by the mid eighties most people, unless dedicated fanatics, would not notice or probably not care too much than a song was used as a b side that was on the album.

Modern marketing people would doubtless call a non album track 'added value'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Long_Grass

ITLG

LP Running order

1 A hold of me 10

2 Drag me down 4 (US Drag me down 10)

3 Dave 10+

4 Over again 9

5 Another sad story 6

6 Tonight 10

7 Lucky 10 (US Lucky 10)

8 Hard time 10+ (Should have been and A side not a B side to Dave 7ins)

9 An icicle in the sun 3 (B side to Drag me down 7ins)

10 Up or down 8

Noel In the day when they were shifting units they used when the night comes as a B side to Someone's looking at you??

manatthetop wrote:

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Noel In the day when they were shifting units they used when the night comes as a B side to Someone's looking at you??

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 Well there's an exception to every rule,as they say. It's a pity they didn't have a 'spare' song hanging around, that they could have used. Not much encouragement to buy a single if both songs are on the album, unless you are buying it for the cover. Though the cover is quite good.

Noel,

Was that cover specific to Ireland? Or simply were there 2 different covers as my english copy looks like this.  

Here are images of ITLG and Mondo Bong Tapes US version's . I got them in London way back in 1986 Oxford street think at the time they were £4 each. Still play great But I do not play them much in case something happens to them

Some early copies of Banana Republic were stamped 'from the forthcoming album Bongo Crazy' rather than Mondo Bongo, maybe just a printing error or did they change the album's title? If so, thank goodness as Bongo Crazy would have been an awful title.

Forgot that. I have the version with Bongo Crazy advertised as the new album. Then there was the much needed greatest hits album of 1985 that never materialised: Trapped.

But Over Again remains the only song that underwent a title revision for no apparent reason?

6 songs came of this LP 2 being B sides Leaving just 4 Album tracks In my opinion this was a great wee album. Not one hit came of it But it's the only Rats Album that all 4 singles also came out in 12ins Loved the Dave 12ins B side with the two live tracks

Mark L wrote:

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... I think its one of the greatest pop songs the 80s threw up.  

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That is some claim!  But then it is the 1980s you are writing about, so not much competition.  Drag Me Down and Dave would probably have done OK if released about five years earlier. Had either been hits in 1985 I suppose it's possible the Rats may have carried on a bit longer.

Greatest pop song of the 1980s?  Reward - Teardrop Explodes.