Trust Me #36
From 1998 - 2005 I spent a considerable amount of time travelling on the Glasgow Manchester United Supporters bus down to Old Trafford. I was extremely fortunate to see the reds regularly through an unbelievable period in their rich history. Fate played a role. I even managed to get a ticket for the 1999 Champions League Final in Barcelona! I blogged on that HERE back in 2019.
Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs, Ole, Ruud, Ronaldo's debut (first time round) and some incredible games ... what a time to be alive! I had a League Match Ticket book and thought I would have it forever. But things change, I fell in love and we were extremely fortunate to go travelling around the world for a year, before getting married and settling down to have kids. The trips to Manchester became less and less frequent.
I met loads of great people that became (and remain) friends. As well as bonding over football and United, there were loads of serious music fans on the bus. So I was delighted to be encouraged to make mixtapes for the bus, leading on to CD's. They now have a portable bluetooth amp up the back of the bus!
Dave Sharkey, an exiled Mancunian who runs the bus, would always say 'get the punk tape on' when we were travelling back up to Glasgow and I discovered some cracking tunes as a result of it.
One of them really blew me away, Rat Trap by Bob Geldof's Boomtown Rats. I remember buying their Greatest Hits on CD the week after hearing this song on the bus.
Rat Trap by The Boomtown Rats is simply perfect. There is romance, realism, social commentary, cultural references (Top of the Pops), hooks, horns and vivid lyrics that paint a picture just flow effortlessly out of Geldof throughout.
The bass groove, the keyboards, the developing story, the way the song rises and falls. Rat Trap is the sublime sound of a band in full flight.
Upon writing this blog I learned that it was the first punk/new wave song to reach number 1. It replaced Summer Night's by John Travolta & Olivia Newton John's which had been number 1 for 16-weeks. Geldof and his band ripped up pictures of the duo to signal change.
Enjoy.
Top of the Pops 1978
Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1978
A list of all previous songs I've blogged about in my Trust Me feature are listed below, along with links to each blog.
I've also collated them all into a playlist on Spotify that you can find by searching for Everything Flows - Trust Me , or you can CLICK HERE
There was a lot of rocking going on that night
Cruising time for the young bright lights
Just down past the gasworks, by the meat factory door
The five lamp boys were coming on strong
The Saturday night city beat had already started
And the, the pulse of the corner boys just sprang into action
And young Billy watched it all under the yellow street light
And said "tonight of all nights, there's gonna be a fight"
Billy don't like it living here in this town
(He says) the traps have been spring long before he was born
(He says) "hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors"
And pus and grime ooze from its scab crusted sores
There's screaming and crying in the high-rise blocks
It's a rat trap Billy, but you're already caught
And you can make it if you wanna or you need it bad enough
You're young and good-looking and you're acting kind of tough
Anyway it's Saturday night time to see what's going down
Put on the bright suit Billy, head for the right side of town
It's only 8 o'clock but you're already bored
You don't know what it is but there's gotta be more
You'd better find a way out, hey kick down that door
It's a rat trap and you've been caught
In this town Billy says "everybody's trying to tell you what to do"
In this town Billy says "everybody says you gotta follow rules"
You walk up to those traffic lights
You switch from your left to right
You push in that button and that button comes alight
And hits you
Walk, don't walk, walk, don't walk
Talk, don't talk, talk, don't talk
Walk, don't walk, walk, don't walk
Talk, don't talk, talk, don't talk
Hey Billy take a walk, take a walk, take a walk
Billy take a walk, take a walk, take a walk
Billy take a walk, take a walk, take a walk
Hey Billy, take a walk with me
Take a walk that leads to me
Sweet high school blues
Oh little Judy's trying to watch Top of the Pops
But Mum and Dad are fighting don't they ever stop?
She takes off her coat and walks down into the street
It's cold on that road, but it's got that home beat
Deep down in her pockets she finds 50p
Hey is that any way for a young girl to be?
I'm gonna get out of school, work in some factory
Work all the hours God gave me, get myself a little easy money
Now, now, now na na
Her min's made up, she walks down the road
Her hands in her pockets, coat buttoned 'gainst the cold
She finds Billy down at the Italian cafe
And when he's drunk it's hard to understand what Billy says
But then he mumbles in his coffee and he suddenly roars
"It's a rat trap Judy, and we've been caught"
Rat trap, you've been caught
In a rat rap, you've been caught
In a rat rap, you've been caught
In a rat rap, you've been caught
