THE BOOMTOWN RATS: THE BOOMTOWN RATS (1977)
1) Lookin' After No. 1; 2)
Mary Of The 4th Form; 3) Close As You'll Ever Be; 4) Neon Heart; 5) Joey's On
The Streets Again; 6) I Can Make It If You Can; 7) Never Bite The Hand That
Feeds; 8) (She's Gonna) Do You In; 9) Kicks; 10*) Doin' It Right; 11*) My Blues
Away; 12*) A Second Time; 13*) Fanzine Hero; 14*) Barefootin'.
For a very long time now, most people have
remembered Bob Geldof as the «Give Me As Much Of Your Money As I Can Stare Out
Of You» («So That Some Bureaucrats And African Dictators Can Get Richer»)
person who also starred as Pink in The
Wall and did at least some good by getting the authentic Pink Floyd back
together for one last performance. (Okay, seriously enough, much of that money
did go to good causes, but it's always healthy to temper free-flowing idealism
with a sharp cynical pinch). Between all that, his original musical career
together with a bunch of ragged Irish punks under the name of «The Boomtown
Rats» has pretty much faded out of view, other than an occasional vague
reminiscence of ʽI Don't Like Mondaysʼ on the airwaves. There are logical
reasons for that, of course — for one thing, it makes much more sense to remember
Bob Geldof as the driving force behind Live Aid than, say, George Harrison as «the
guy who organised that Bangla Desh concert» — but still, this is not entirely
just.
Although The Boomtown Rats are commonly lumped
in together with the «punk» and «New Wave» movements, much of their musical career
stood closer to the typical «rock and roll» sound of the
early-to-mid-Seventies. On their debut album, notable influences include fellow
Irishmen Thin Lizzy (same aura of «working class street toughness» and similar
frontman sensitivity, although the Rats never had Thin Lizzy's playing chops);
American «proto-punkers» and «glam-rockers» like the MC5 and the New York
Dolls; Bruce Springsteen (ʽJoey's On The Streets Againʼ); and even Steppenwolf
(ʽMary Of The 4th Formʼ directly lifts the gruff biker melody from the verse
part of ʽBorn To Be Wildʼ).
As a result, The Boomtown Rats almost seems a bit sonically obsolete for the
standards of 1977, and one has to keep in mind that Geldof had already written many
of these songs a year or two earlier, when few had heard of The Ramones and
nobody had yet heard of The Clash or The Sex Pistols. Not that this would have
changed anything — Geldof may have been a «street punk» in the spirit, but not
in form: classic rock'n'roll song structures and guitar tablatures suited him
all right, and the band's guitarists Garry Roberts and Gerry Cott clearly saw
themselves as Sylvain Sylvain and Johnny Thunders rather than chainsaw-buzzers.
(In fact, the very fact that there were two
of them means they didn't think that much of the typical punk-rock band
format).
Nevertheless, despite this traditionalism, The Boomtown Rats is a pretty good
rock'n'roll record, and compares very favourably with the New York Dolls or
anyone like that. There is not a lot of originality in Geldof's songwriting —
only just enough so that you cannot directly accuse him of stealing (only
«borrowing» or «quoting», like that ʽBorn To Be Wildʼ riff) — but there is
enough charisma, energy, inspiration, and general swagger to make the songs
work. We need not pay much attention to the lyrics — right from the start, the
lyrics all pursue the all-too-familiar «don't want to be like you» agenda of
your typical punker, and Geldof's words, be they sung in a rock'n'roll song or
addressed at millions of people from TV screens, have rarely ascended above
self-understood banalities (not that millions of people aren't often in serious
need of self-understood banalities). What matters more are the guitar tones,
the drive, and the unsimulated passion in the young man's gruff, rather
generic, but intelligent and sincere voice — it is with these ingredients that
they sent ʽLookin' After No. 1ʼ, their first single, straight up the UK charts
(never did reach No. 1, though, despite the «lucky title»).
ʽMary Of The 4th Formʼ was less typical, and
showed a sleazier, more disturbing side of the band that would subsequently
decrease — you probably couldn't imagine Bob Geldof singing a song about a
teacher getting turned on by a sexy schoolgirl at Live Aid, could you? Unlike
The Police, though, who would later dress that concept up in an innocently
light New Wave-pop arrangement, the Rats make this one into a glammy bravoura
performance, with thick guitar riffs sublimating sexual tension and an almost
gleefully salivating chanting of the song title in the chorus. Well, whaddaya
want, this is an album made for teenage audiences, and teenage audiences want
to get laid as much as they want social justice and freedom from authority. (In
case you wondered, that last phrase was an intentional idealistic
understatement).
Although this is the only genuinely
«titillating» song on the record, The
Boomtown Rats is still, on the whole, a nasty-sounding piece of work.
Geldof wears his heart on his sleeve on only one loud rock ballad in the middle
of the album (the clearly Dylan-inspired ʽI Can Make It If You Canʼ), and gets
heroically sentimental only on the preceding ʽJoey's On The Streets Againʼ, for
which the grand jury of Phil Lynott and Bruce Springsteen should have awarded
him top prize at the local Street Anthem competition. Both songs are significantly
aided by the competent piano and organ player of Johnnie Fingers, and the grand
sax solo by guest player Albie Donnelly mimicks Clarence Clemons so fine it
ain't even funny.
Everything else is good old-fashioned
rock'n'roll, personal favorites including ʽ(She's Gonna) Do You Inʼ which
speeds up ʽMilkcow Calf Bluesʼ and makes it a little more blunt, direct, and
punky; and ʽKicksʼ, more in the power-pop department but with an AC/DC-like
tone in the rhythm guitar department nevertheless. Also, be sure to get the
remastered CD version, which throws on a ton of early demos and live
performances from 1975 that are even more
rock'n'rollish (ʽFanzine Heroʼ is the fastest of 'em all, and the cover of
Robert Parker's ʽBarefootin'ʼ is smouldering).
Of course, all these endless references make it
seem as if The Boomtown Rats is
merely a sum of all its influences, and in general, it probably is — and that
is, in fact, the reason why the band was never able to establish itself as an
«institution» (unlike Bob Geldof himself in his «Third World Mentat» emploi). But
even as just a combination of all these influences, it feels real enough, and
most importantly, it's got spirit — not necessarily «its own spirit», just spirit as such. At the very least, the
guys showed a good understanding of what it was that made this kind of music
great, instead of simply making us understand that they liked this kind of
music. To me, that's reason enough for sincere enjoyment — and a solid thumbs up
to go along with it.
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