'MONDO BONGO' - Thoughts?

IrelandCalling · Never In A Million Years

'MONDO BONGO' - Thoughts?

noelindublin · Loudmouth

IrelandCalling wrote:

'Mondo Bongo' - an album by the Boomtown Rats maybe not as critically rated as the preceeding albums, but for me, one of my favourites and a wonderful progression from 'Surfacing'.

I remember still getting my first Rats material - I had been to see Geldof solo, pretty sure it was November 2005, and a friend of a friend who attended had been a fan since the 70s. He offered to make me a CD with two albums (the first two, included some cracking B Sides also - this was just before I went and bought the Remasters when they came out). I still remember what he sad; he loved the first three albums and said not to bother with the following two, they went "Weird".

Well, how wrong he was! I loved those first 3 albums, and did approach 'Bongo' with a little trepidation after remembering what he said re: change of styles...etc and quality control.

All I can say is I loved the eclecticism of it, the production, and most importantly, the songs! Bowie-esque in places, more experimental with Visconti than the 'Mutt' Lange produced commercial trio, but I enjoyed it just as much as the first three.

Not every song was stellar of course, "Mood Mambo" was jarring, to say the least, and 'Another Piece of Red' didn't feel like a grand Rats tune to me. 'Please Don't Go' I wouldn't rate quite highl either. But some of the others were brilliant - songs like 'Go Man Go', the off-kilter and cool sounding riffs of 'Straight Up', 'Hurt Hurts', the reggae and killer bassline and mood of 'Banana Republic', the Stones-on-ska of 'Under Their Thumb', the moody and atmospheric 'This is my Room', the catchy musically and lyrically 'Elephants Graveyard'...

..It's just full of groove, so many different wild & wonderful sounds - some fantastic bass lines and leftfield guitar riffing; lyrics as fine as ever; eclectic in the best way.

The few filler tracks bring the score down slightly but overall the highlights are to me some of the highest highs of the Rats' catalogue.

Kudos also to the B-Sides of this album.

It's follow up 'V Deep' took the eclectic sounds even farther afield generating thrilling results.

I've never had a particular problem with Mondo Bongo. Maybe Geldof deserves some kudos for not churning out some formulaic tracks that might have been hits, but were not particularly adventurous.Most of the 'scorn' placed on the album to me was totally undeserved.

If any band releases six albums some of them are bound to be a bit less well regarded, no matter if you are The Beatles, Radiohead or Nirvana or whoever. One song I particularly like is Please Don't Go- the sort of organic percussive, trippy feel,and the surreal lyrics- that's how it works for me anyway.

Straight Up is brilliant, a great guitar sound. Hurt Hurts, This Is My Room, Go Man Go, Elephants Graveyard, Fall Down, Banana Republic all deliver the goods.

Mood Mambo works for me, a stream of consciousness piece with hints of surreal lyrics and Geldof's memories of bad days at Blackrock. The only let down for me is Whitehall 1212. Real Different, a b side was not included, and while listening to it a few days ago it sounded magnificent. Not sure who thought Whitehall was a better inclusion? Another b side Man At The Top is also more worthy, for me anyway, than Under Their Thumb, but that's just my trying replace some of the lesser songs with ones that for me are more worthy. It's like picking a football team, in a way!

I've always loved the way the backing vocals go on Go Man Go -'I must be near the sea (a single cod and chips' etc. Though when Garry was doing the replies on Neon Heart recently I think he meant it when he sang 'My pants are tight'. smile

One other thing. I was of an age that I slightly just missed out on the first album and tonic as well. I really got into the Rats around FAOS and by the time Mondo Bongo and V Deep came along the Rats could do no wrong, so in some ways emotionally I liked the Rats more around the time of of Surfacing/Bongo/V Deep. In The Long Grass just vindicated my belief and faith and judgement about the band, at a time when the were more or less written off.It just shows that pop music does not work in a vacuum,and a lot of it can be connected with childhood, or adolescent memories, and the fact that the Rats mean so much, even today, is a testament to their particular genius.

-- Edited by noelindublin on Thursday 5th of December 2013 05:21:45 PM

noelindublin · Loudmouth

This is how Mondo Bongo should have been:

1 Straight up

2 This Is My Room

3 Go Man Go

4 Banana Republic

5 Fall Down

6 Real Different

7 The Elephants Graveyard

8 Man At The Top

9 Please Don't Go

10 Hurt Hurts

Mood Mambo, Under Their/My Thumb, and Whitehall 1212 are not good enough to be on the album. Mood Mambo and Under Their Thumb should have been b sides. Ten tracks is enough, rather than diluting the quality with substandard numbers. Real Different and Man At The Top add to the guitar based sound, the Rats forte, and are much better than Mood Mambo and Under Their Thumb.

If the critics had to review the album I've just selected then Mondo Bongo might have got a fairer chance. It certainly would not have been dismissed out of hand. The 'experimentation' might have been better kept to as b sides, after all the critics can only review the music that's put before them,and most likely did not know about Real Different and Man At The Top. The band needed to put their best songs in evidence instead of leaving really good songs on b sides.

As a postscript Late Last Night should have been of The Fine Art of Surfacing, and Europe Looked Ugly should have been on V Deep. A song from both those albums should have been dropped, and there are a few good candidates for that! smile

-- Edited by noelindublin on Friday 6th of December 2013 02:31:05 PM

manatthetop · In the Long Grass

Think you have hit the nail on the head here mate

junkyard_smile · The Elephant's Graveyard

I've always liked Another Piece of Red as an album track and wish it had been worked on a bit more/expanded in length. Anyway check out this acoustic guitar cover version, with a great improvised drum roll!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQ9q2dM2eQ

Listening to the remastered 2005 cd the running order is awful and I have to program in the original order, which still stands up as pretty good album though certainly not a commercial one (a good thing in my view).

Agree with Noel that Hurt Hurts would have been a great track to finish the album off with, but not convinced by Straight up as the opening track -its opening bars are so loud and powerful that it needs a track before it almost to prepare you rather than roaring in from complete silence. Also agree that Europe looked ugly should have easily made the cut on V Deep ahead of many others, but while Late Last Night is a superb there isn't a track on Surfacing that I'd drop to make way for it in terms of the coherency of the album.

Mark L · Loudmouth

I went one Saturday in February '81 on the 501 bus to Wolverhampton and bought this from HMV in the Mander Centre. I could not wait to get it home. Banana Republic had already been a top 3 hit (!) and although Elephant's Graveyard had started a bewildering descent down the top 40 after just 2 weeks on the chart, I loved Guilty almost as much as Rat Trap, Mondays and Someone's Looking at You. All they had to do was please with the other 8 tracks. They failed with Mood Mambo. It sounded like something rattled off in a few minutes and as someone said elsewhere, it jarred. I stopped it after a minute and moved on to Go Man Go - faith restored! This was the pattern for the remaining tracks, Whitehall 1212 - slightly better than Mood Mambo but still average, Hurt hurts - brilliant - Please don't go - poor- Straight Up - superb - Another Piece of Red - rather disappointing - This is My Room - very good - etc etc

This was unfamiliar to me. On first hearing Tonic and Surfacing, I couldn't detect a duff track although I could take or leave Can't Stop. Same was true for the first album - a couple of tracks there I was indifferent to, but they were by no means poor or disappointing. I worked on it and Whitehall 1212 and Under their Thumb improved with further attention. The ripped shopping till receipt at the end of Please Don't Go still grates as does most of the song, with its curiously tasteless line 'We do the old age favourite, the epileptic fit'.

Noel's suggestion that Real Different and Man at the Top ought to have been on it is a good one. I'd have got rid of Mood Mambo and Please don't Go to make room.

bigbosscentral · House on Fire

How would you rank the tracks?

Banana Republic 10

Fall Down 10

Elephant's Graveyard 8

Cheerio 7

Don't Talk To Me 7

Go Man Go 6

Hurt Hurts 6

Straight Up 6

Another Piece Of Red 5

Please Don't Go 4

Mood Mambo 3

Under Their Thumb 2

Whitehall 1212 2

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Mark L wrote:
I went one Saturday in February '81 on the 501 bus to Wolverhampton and bought this from HMV in the Mander Centre. I could not wait to get it home. Banana Republic had already been a top 3 hit (!) and although Elephant's Graveyard had started a bewildering descent down the top 40 after just 2 weeks on the chart, I loved Guilty almost as much as Rat Trap, Mondays and Someone's Looking at You. All they had to do was please with the other 8 tracks. They failed with Mood Mambo. It sounded like something rattled off in a few minutes and as someone said elsewhere, it jarred. I stopped it after a minute and moved on to Go Man Go - faith restored! This was the pattern for the remaining tracks, Whitehall 1212 - slightly better than Mood Mambo but still average, Hurt hurts - brilliant - Please don't go - poor- Straight Up - superb - Another Piece of Red - rather disappointing - This is My Room - very good - etc etc
This was unfamiliar to me. On first hearing Tonic and Surfacing, I couldn't detect a duff track although I could take or leave Can't Stop. Same was true for the first album - a couple of tracks there I was indifferent to, but they were by no means poor or disappointing. I worked on it and Whitehall 1212 and Under their Thumb improved with further attention. The ripped shopping till receipt at the end of Please Don't Go still grates as does most of the song, with its curiously tasteless line 'We do the old age favourite, the epileptic fit'.
Noel's suggestion that Real Different and Man at the Top ought to have been on it is a good one. I'd have got rid of Mood Mambo and Please don't Go to make room.

Mark the line from Please Don't Go will have to be filed under misheard lyrics. The correct words are: 'She does the monkey, the polish and the spit/ I do the all age favourite, the epileptic fit...

The monkey was a fifties dance move. I think Bob is referring to trying to impress some girl during his adolescence. Clumsily his response to her dance moves is a nervous reaction more like an epileptic fit. The all age favourite might mean this is a common response from just about any nervous person, down the ages. He probably meant all time favourite, well that's my reading anyway.

Ps The polish and spit is just a reference to looking clean and smart.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

junkyard_smile wrote:
I've always liked Another Piece of Red as an album track and wish it had been worked on a bit more/expanded in length. Anyway check out this acoustic guitar cover version, with a great improvised drum roll!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQ9q2dM2eQ

Listening to the remastered 2005 cd the running order is awful and I have to program in the original order, which still stands up as pretty good album though certainly not a commercial one (a good thing in my view).
Agree with Noel that Hurt Hurts would have been a great track to finish the album off with, but not convinced by Straight up as the opening track -its opening bars are so loud and powerful that it needs a track before it almost to prepare you rather than roaring in from complete silence. Also agree that Europe looked ugly should have easily made the cut on V Deep ahead of many others, but while Late Last Night is a superb there isn't a track on Surfacing that I'd drop to make way for it in terms of the coherency of the album.

Good to see you back on the forum JS. Hope those braces are not too rusty!

When I was choosing the 'new' Mondo Bongo line up it was only the song selections, and not the running order, I was concerned with. Obviously songs that do not fit together in terms of 'loudness' or theme should not be slotted side by side. Primarily I was interested on which ten songs should have made the cut in the first place.

-- Edited by noelindublin on Monday 9th of December 2013 03:05:20 PM

manatthetop · In the Long Grass

Can sum this album up in 3 words Go man go