THE BOOMTOWN RATS – "Rat Trap"

As a punk at the time, I recall not taking the Boomtown Rats terribly seriously, and not seeing this as punk – ‘new wave’ was the term generally used for a kind of post-pub-rock that came to the fore along with punk (Stiff being the main home for this) and that turned out to be the main route towards indie. I thought this was an okay record, but was surprised at its success. I guess its rather dated, rather trad, rock sounds were more palatable or graspable to the audience beyond converted punk fans than even great pop tunes from acts like the Buzzcocks or Undertones, for instance.

I always thought when it ‘turns’ into the “her mind’s made up, she walks down the road”, it kind of got more interesting, and from there could have gone on for another 20 mins or so.

But yeah, it didn’t ‘feel’ like the first punk number one.

So, I guess for bunny reasons, this line of discussion has to end there. Which is a shame.

I liked the line from their first album that went:
“Look at the brick wall gravestone where some kid has sprayed
Saying nobody could be bothered to rule here OK”.

I fancied painting those words on a wall in Moss Side myself.

“She’s So Modern”, reputedly inspired by the Polygram press office girls including one Mariella Frostrup.

And so we come to the first “official” new wave number one – Guinness say punk but I say new wave – a moment of such clenched significance that Bob Geldof heralded it by ripping up a photo of Travolta on TOTP, before miming the song’s sax riff, albeit fingering a chandelier rather than a saxophone. He must have felt, if only in his mind, like Guy Debord winning the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact “Rat Trap” has much more in common with “Summer Nights” than Geldof would have liked to admit; the structure is theatrical and vaguely ‘50s, with its fingersnaps, its very un-punk opening line of “There was a lot of rocking going on that night,” and its staccato “climax” of “Billy take a walk.”

It has considerably more in common with Bruce Springsteen; despite Geldof’s purported distaste for his work at the time, “Rat Trap” comes on as an attempted Barrytown “Jungleland,” an Epic in Capital Letters to nail the degeneracy and decay of urban Dublin once and for all, complete with ersatz Clarence Clemons R&B sax rasps. Despite lines like “And pus and grime ooze from its scab-crusted sores” – is “Rat Trap” the first grime number one? – and the fact that the chorus, as such, doesn’t appear until the very end, the record’s roughness is rehearsed and choreographed; and the Top Of The Pops reference in the fourth verse ensured A-list status for the single on Radio 1 (cf. the Rezillos’ considerably sparkier Top 20 hit “Top Of The Pops” shortly beforehand). As with so much of Geldof’s work, musical and otherwise, “Rat Trap” is, however sincere and bloodily heartfelt, unhelpfully hammy.

In truth, “Rat Trap” and the Rats had much more in common with the post-Mott/Harley world of half-cynical rock circa 1975 than anything to do with punk or new wave; by 1978, as every schoolboy knows, post-punk had begun to emerge, and in fairly stark contrast to this year’s list of number ones my head, as a listener, was being turned around and spun on a weekly basis by records and groups which proposed entirely new ways of looking at this thing called rock – Pere Ubu’s mind-erasing triptych of The Modern Dance, Dub Housing and the Datapanik In The Year Zero E.P., the first Suicide album, which also qualified as the first album I thought I could as well have made myself (the highest of compliments, incidentally), Siouxsie’s The Scream, PiL’s First Issue, Wire’s Chairs Missing, Magazine’s Real Life, the double-whambar of the Buzzcocks’ Another Music In A Different Kitchen and Love Bites, Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings And Food, the general WHAT-THE-FUCKness of Devo, and above all Alternative TV’s ground-smashing The Image Has Cracked; was it an album, or an indictment of its listeners, or a tract? Next to this, Geldof sounding like the missing link between Supercharge and Supertramp and mumbling about Billy and Judy in the Italian café seemed…recherché.

The situation was also not helped by the re-emergence of Springsteen himself in 1978, after three years of legal battles, with Darkness On The Edge Of Town, one of the most bitterly sober records ever to pass through the Customs gates of “rock,” where he turned his back on hopeless bravado and reflected on those born to crawl rather than run, who never escape; the beyond-bleak drone of the closing “Racing In The Streets” pinpoints the desperate, resigned emptiness of a deceased, decanted urban settlement far more quietly and profoundly than Geldof barking “We’ve been caught in a rat trap” – and the scenario is made to seem even more decadent in retrospect when considering Geldof’s subsequent life.

I think we all knew this wasn’t the first “Punk” #1, even at the time, but we were that keen for there to BE a punk #1, that this was probably close enough.

The Rats never took themselves seriously (back then), and they were probably really a pub-rock type of band, but the inclusion of their “Looking Out For #1” on one of the first UK-released “punk” compilations, “The New Wave Album”, in 1977 rather pigeon-holed them as “punk”, whether they liked it or not.

By the time this hit #1, Geldof was 27; it was the Rats’ fifth top 20 hit, and the singles had grown progressively less “punk” as each new one emerged. This trend would continue with their later singles.

This is only “punk” in the sense that Springsteen was a New Jersey punk – the story fits the American definition of the word, far more than the musical genre definition, but that doesn’t make it a “punk” record.

It also doesn’t make it a bad record. As Billy Smart said at post #5, this band have been relentlessly pilloried retrospectively. They were never the future of rock and roll, but they never claimed to be; but they were also a damn fine pop group, with a number of excellent singles to their name, both before and after this one.

SB prevents too much discussion of their future, but it appeared to all go pear-shaped after the rather lukewarm reviews of their next album; I believe, and I’m sure some posters here can expand, that Bob could be rather “difficult” to deal with, and, while good value, he was never really much of a favourite of the media, at least until his later saintly deeds came about.

The album in question isn’t half as bad as the reviews would have you believe, although not their best. However, one of the pitfalls of not taking yourself seriously is that nobody takes much notice when you try to be taken seriously. Despite a few later attempts, and, more decent singles, they never really made it onto the “critically acclaimed” list.

I agree with Billy; it’s high time we had a critical reappraisal/appreciation of their work.

Oh he took the Rats VERY seriously; in interviews he always goes on about how the Rats were one of the nine key punk bands and how bad the other eight were in comparison, no but really.

I think that we can say that the next two ex-music journalists to get to number one raise the bar set by Bob Geldof.

The trouble with Geldof is that in the end he believed in his own piss.

Hah! This is the first I’ve ever heard of this song.

Number 2 watch: Still, they wouldn’t go away – 2 weeks of Olivia Newton John’s ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’.

their bandname is very nearly the worst of all time

Really? I’d say it’s pretty darn good, and that every day my inbox is full of promo text for indie bands with much worse names: e.g., just yesterday’s haul includes these examples of self-involved witlessness:

Shitdisco, Yuppie Pricks, Made In China, Mock Orange, Eagles Of Death Metal, The Mint Chicks, The Silent Years, The Graduate, Plushgun!, The Break And Repair Method, Tittsworth!, Five Finger Death Punch

Oh yeah, and regarding the tearing up of JTrav’s pic was purely about how Rat Trap had been at number two for some weeks, along with the band performances on TOTP along with the general feeling that this was not going to happen for them.

Then, it did.

As a band name “We Work At Tesco’s But We’re Well Gangsta Innit?” is either very good or very bad, can’t decide which.

Quite like the tribute band “And You Will Find Us In The Bargain Bins”, assuming they exist.

That Rock Family Trees episode about the second Merseybeat era showed the likes of Pete Wylie and Iain McCulloch forming bands with great names that never got beyond a rehearsal.

Even knowing that it was a ‘Jungleland’ rip-off (‘Born To Run’ was one of the first albums I bought with the wages from my WH Smith saturday job) I loved this then and I still do, the line “deep down in her pocket she finds 50p” gets me every time. But I’m a sucker for “kitchen sink epic”

And it’s the first New Wave number one, there was a very clear distinction between that and Punk at the time – New Wave bands wore skinny ties.

I’m somewhat mystified at the criticism of this, especially from those contributors who seem to regard it with an element of amusement. I don’t agree with this interpretation at all.

I personally thought “Rat Trap” was a monumental piece of work. A tale of bleakness and despair. Outlining far much more than regulation teenaged angst, this is a parable from the gutter and Geldof offers zero hope to neither Billy nor Judy as he growls, pleads and spits his way through the narration. I remember being amazed when this got to number one, as the landscape it depicted was so desperate and unlike “Seasons in the Sun”, for example, there was not a grain of irony or humour to be derived from it, in my opinion. I was also amazed it got to number one simply because it was the Rats, New Wave pioneers and thus not chart topping naturals. I would say that “Rat Trap” was very much a fish out of water and it’s not often that a record leaves you cold. Truly brilliant. And that SAX!

vinylscot # 19 – “I have to admit, I found it difficult to take them seriously too, what with their candelabra saxophones, pianists in pyjamas, and writing songs as Hitler!”

I have to say that I find this observation curious, since surely the whole point of punk/new wave was to present a challenging look. And it didn’t begin with punk, of course. Just because the Rats did not perform RT dressed in sombre suits and all looking as if they wanted to jump in front of a train does not detract from the power of the message.

Having now dealt with this particular track, I am happy to add my voice in bashing Geldof for other crimes. DJP’s “The trouble with Geldof is that in the end he believed his own piss” cannot be bested as a tribute or epitath. But then again, there are plenty of blokes to whom this could cosily apply, the obvious case being the icon I cannot mention lest Bunnykins guns sweet Waldo down outside the Dakota building

Waldo – are you suggesting that wearing pyjamas and playing candelabra saxophones represents a “challenging look”?

Not in my book – it’s just silliness like Steve Priest’s German helmet, Alvin Stardust’s glove, or Ron Mael’s moustache. It’s what you’ll be remembered for, no matter the quality of your musical output.

They did repeat the first one several times before The Boomtown Rats returned to the studio again.

vinylscot # 40 – The short answer to your question is yes. The Rats’ look was clearly challenging and indeed clearly challenged you or you would not have mentioned it and you and I would not now be debating it. Furthermore, I’m sure you’ll agree that what may appear “silly” in your own book may, indeed would, not appear in those of others.

Will have to join you with regards Alvin’s glove, though. What the fuck was that all about?

Indeed. Peace, brother.

The Bachelors, Dana, and the Boomtown Rats: any other Irish Number Ones thus far?

I don’t have much to say about this song other than it’s the fourth best UK chart hit with the word ‘rat’ in the title.