"The silicon chip inside her head got switched to overload." That's an amazing line that stuck with me since the first time I heard it so many years ago. Amazing song!

This song stood out from anything else on radio at the time - brilliant. Sad, sad story / inspiration.

Very intelligent mind, and very creative. World needs more humans like Bob.

Timeless song from an inspired composer. So relevant in 2022---still (sadly).

Amazing story that is as relevant today as it was then. Great job Sir Geldof 👏 👍

My eyes got leaky watching this content. Thank you for sharing.

I remember when this incident happened in San Diego. It was utterly shocking then. Now, it is just...Monday.

I haven't seen him since the mid-Eighties, and yes I know that's a long time ago, it's still a shock to see him 40 years older.

Bob, where the hell have you been ? A musical genius ! You've been sorely missed here in the States !! Wonderful job in The Wall as well. Miss you man. Cheers from across the pond in Utah ✌👣👣👣🍻

I remember when I heard this song sung by brother's adopted daughter from China in the car. She was five and knew every word. I will always remember this.

I love listening to Sir Bob’s podcasts he is so interesting to listen to Absolute professional

I was 11 when this was released and knew the link to the girl shooting people at her school but hearing the full story and logic behind it in such and interesting way is brilliant. I don't know why but I've always wondered where that house at the start and end of the video is? I always wanted to go and stand where the camera is to see the same view. I know, medication time.

So amazing to have heard this when it was released in 1979 as an 11 year old and to now hear the story behind how it was written . I remember feeling so scared when I heard the song. Great explanation by Sir Bob!

A magnificent song from a massively underrated band!! Loved & still love The Boomtown Rats!!

Sir Bob has aged very, very well.

Sir Bob makes me want to write songs. How the chilling and plebian go together in this song is fascinating.

Sir Bob is a very under-rated poet.

I grew up in LA, and remember the incident well. So I when I heard the song on the radio it was like "someone wrote a song about that?". Instantly. Brenda may have been ahead of her time, but unfortunately hatred of school was not, is not uncommon (I was physically abused by a teacher at age 7). At the end of it all, its just a real good song.

i remember when this song came out in 79. We all knew exactly what the song was about. It wasn't a secret, we all knew it was about the girl in the states that shot her school up. I love the Boomtown Rats, great group. Bob has had a lot of sadness in his life, i hope things are going well for him.

Correction: The song was never banned in the U.S. It did go to #73 on Billboard. A great song about a disturbed girl who should have been in an institution, but her dad wouldn't allow it.

When this song came out, i was 14. always related to it because i hated school with a passion, when Sunday evenings came i used to dread Mondays

Great Artist and loved the Boomtown Rats, you will never beat Artist that make and perform music with love and passion.

This guy is a great human being. From raising awareness to Band-Aid to adopting his ex wife's daughter that she had with Michael Hutchence of INXS, after she killed herself after Michael's death, and don't forget she cheated on Bob with Michael and he still adopted her daughter. Not a selfish bone in his body.

Bob is brilliant.

Wow! I knew of the reason for the song, but definitely glad I watched this video.

Just an excellent series...Thank you!

Insightful, succinct, powerful. Well done, letting the artist have their say without any talking heads interrupting with banal questions. Nice touch having the song played underneath. Just great.

Amazing song writer and sad that his words of this song are ever lasting from 79’ to present day 😞

Wow!!! This is such a great interview!! Now I know why I liked him when I first heard him all those years ago! And yes, unfortunately it applies today more than ever!

Amazing spoken words!

A great artist takes brutality and turns it into something beautiful. Geldolf did an amazing job with this song. Brilliant 👏 👏

Hey Stu! Good to see you! This is an awesome series, by the way! Go BOOM!

Great story and content.

I have this album on vinyl! Amongst my favorites!

Can't help but picture him in that scene in "The Wall"..."ok, ok, ok just a little pin prick, there'll be no more ahhhhhh, but you may feel a little sick".

I just subscribed and this is the first "Behind the Vinyl" i listened to. How prophetic and untimely that there was a school shooting in Nashville today. And it's a Monday. Too much.

He was Fantastic in "The Wall"

Good stuff

I have loved this song for years and I always felt there was a morbid story behind it from the lyrics. Now it makes sense. Incredible!

I love BG!!!

What a guy, sir Bob always commands court when he speaks. Legend

Excellent. Very useful understanding given by Sir BG For once he almost sounds humble.

Just to clarify: the girl the song is about is Brenda Spencer, and yes she was a teenager, who lived across the street from Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, and on January 29, 1979, she did indeed open for on the school playground, from her house. She killed the school principal and custodian, who were both bravely attempting to get the kids out of danger as the shooting ensued. She injured eight children (one of them reportedly the bullet passed within an inch of his spine) and one police officer. While under siege, before surrendering, a reporter managed to call the house, and asked why she did it and Brenda said "Because I don't like Mondays", it wasn't while the shooting was actually happening. I saw a documentary about 15 years ago where they interviewed various officials and a reporter in San Diego about the matter, and the reporter makes a comment about I Don't Like Mondays being "pretty sleazy". I suppose I understand his point, as he sort of lived through the events, so maybe he felt someone writing a song about it as being opportunistic or whatever, but art is frequently inspired by the worst and most horrific things that happen to us. But I'm not sure this guy saw that side of it. From what I understand, for many years, San Diego radio stations refused to play the song because of the connections there.

I've never liked the song, and that is only a matter of its style - had nothing to do with the incident it was based on. This interview has made me appreciate where it came from and that its own creator didn't originally consider it more than a B-side novelty. Geldolf could easily have claimed he intended it to be some sort of deep magnum opus about senseless violence - but he was honest in that it had humble and confused beginnings, as many songs do.

Always loved the Boomtown Rats

I was 13 when this came out and I had no idea then what it was about, I was one of those who just thought it was about Monday morning drudgery, same old routine. At 13 I didn't see much news and wasn't aware of the incident in San Diego. Now I know the background, its a far more complex and profound song that just the one I thought it was.

Can't wait. BTV rocks!

Stu Jeffries...wow it's been a long time since I've seen him....GOOOD ROCKIN' TONIGHT!!!!!

Quote:"he wrote it in a strange frame of mind"

A really popular infamous song that, like he said most people just breezed over the content. Unfortunately, we can pinpoint in history when these events began happening, by when this popular song came out-when I was 16.

keep well, bobby

That’s Sir Bob!

Rest easy, Bob. I’m sure this track has dissuaded more shootings than it’s promoted. I think it accentuates the pointlessness and futility of such actions. Love your art!!

Oh please, oh please, oh PLEASE do Mike Oldfield | Moonlight Shadow!

Brilliant!

no bob, it was not banned in the united states. it came out soon after the shooting. i remember it vividly.

I like him he is a sweet thoughtful person

Weird how many great songs are made by accident in a short time

What am amazing backstory!

Have you guys interviewed Murray McLauchlan yet? He's somebody I want to hear from!

Fantastic episode.....amazing details.....BTW....What are the speakers in the background?

bless you bob

I always loved this song without knowing the history . Now I feel sad for liking it.

Though i already knew of part of this origin story, the Bill Gates bit was new to me. Very interesting .. and of course great band/great tune/great singer-songwriter

What a mad society we've created.

Bryan Ferry Shoulders, bless him, still love his music

Man is amazing.

Such a sad story behind the song. Yet sadly it still happens, and yet we still continue to advance, yet we still get no better.

It's a song about LAURIE DANN in upscale Cicago suburb.

💜

God save us for what is coming with AI. I have great respect for Sir Bob. I hope he is well. It's great to hear the entire story as I grew up knowing the information as to what it was about .

Great Lyrics

This is the first one where you let them keep going after the song stopped. Good decision.

who would've thought he would write a song about a school shooting and take it to number one

Bob 😷👍

Get Morrissey on here Cute😍 Bob is brilliant.

Genius/smart/intelligent and research

funny how thing remain the the same with mainsteam radio

Congress should make it our new national anthem.

what collage station in Atlanta?

Cute😍

Seven uninterrupted minutes of artistic process and interesting, layered references: "Goodness, what a visionary." sChOol ShOoTiNgS hApPeN aLmoSt EvEry wEEk iN tHe UnItEd StAtEs: "Oh no... it's retarded." Meh, perfectly balanced, I guess.

Flipping Mutt Lange production is the part that gets obscured...well there is a lot there to get obscured.

Always political and always has a relevant poignant message when he speaks . . . got to love him for it. He should have been a politician he would have got things done. I remember stories of when he put Live Aid together band members saying you didn't say no or asked Pink Floyd to reunite, David Gilmour saying it was easier just to do it than to say no to Bob Geldof. lol A true legend . . . hate his music though except this song. hahah

profound

An interesting half witted episode of House MD...the one with a 50 50 the dumpster's a pianist. Feels a lot like I may have just mentioned the name of the episode. Too much like backtracking to erase it. Woe, did some body switch to deja viewing?

Mick Jagger in a silver wig, anyone?🤔

People wonder why the music from the 70's still resonates - it's because that generation of music people were simply both more musically experienced and also more intellectual. Now its just attitude and silliness which lasts 5 minutes.

I'm sorry everybody, but I have a very different perspective on this. I Don't Like Mondays was the springboard that gave the Boomtown Rats enough notoriety to make them a crap ton of money in America. It made Brenda Spencer a teenage malcontent folk hero, and fed the sickness of gun violence that took John Lennon from us the following year. In fact, Geldof tells the story that Brenda thanked him for making her famous with his hit song. In Bob's own words, he was feeling tired and bored on the tour, because Americans didn't like his music. When this news story broke over the telex from 3,500 Km away, he wrote this song because "it fitted in with the mood I was in". Instead of being contrite for capitalizing on this horror in that way, Geldof twists details around to give it his own tabloid dramatic effect. He shows ZERO empathy for anyone but himself and in my opinion, he comes off like an attention seekimg vulture content to feed off yet another American tragedy. The 16yr old shooter was mentally ill and had access to guns. Unfortunately she lived across the street from Grover Cleveland Elementary in a suburb East of San Diego. These were kids she opened fire on, ages 5-12. So no Bob, it was not "her school friends" she was killing in the real story. The police were called immediately and arrived shortly after the shooting had begun. SDPD blocked her line of sight to the school and she barricaded herself in the house for hours. That's when she spoke to a reporter, and not "as she sighted up another victim" as Geldof grotesquely tells it in his hyperbolic yarn. Wake up Boom listeners, 8 children were shot, the principle and janitor were killed and a cop was also shot trying to get the kids to safety. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH RESPECT TO LEARN WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, PLEASE KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT BOB, because this is real.

Happy Accident

Amazing song , I love it BUT wtf are we still getting adverts for Ethiopia and more where did all the money go?

You wrote it Eh?

AI will take this song personally.

YOUR A FUCKING GOD!! ❤❤❤❤

It was not an unlikely hit it was promoted heavily... With full production value that the studio could put behind it including a symphony... Romanticizes a tragic event...and play it over and over and over and over again....

“I don’t like multi millionaires telling working class Brits to donate their money to Africa into corrupt ruler’s pockets” would be a good song.

Repetition is the key to mind control repetition is the key to mind control repetition is the key to mind control...repeat...

Too bad his mentor and musical superior, Phil Lynott (me), is not here to play "The Boys Are Back In Town" and talk about it.

The girl is still in prison. She is also a member of the rainbow community. As are a lot of mass shooters.

As strange as that was at the time, it almost seems normal by today's standards. For recently a six year old girl was given a gun and - to become online 'star' - was filmed by her parents shooting at stuff. So for all wrong reasons, might not everyone get their 15 mins of fame?