I Don't Like Mondays

Titles often give a lot of information about the content of a song. What does this title suggest you? Think about the narrator: Who is ‘I’? How do you imagine them? Why do you think they don’t like Mondays? Do you? Why?
Read the song from top to bottom carefully. Find the words you don’t understand in a dictionary.

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody’s going to go to school today
She’s going to make them stay at home
And daddy doesn’t understand it
He always said she was good as gold
And he can see no reasons
’Cos there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
I want to shoot…the whole day down

The Telex machine is kept so clean
And it types to a waiting world
And mother feels so shocked
Father’s world is rocked
And their thoughts turn to their own little girl
Sweet 16 ain’t that peachy keen
Now that ain’t so neat to admit to defeat
They can see no reasons
’Cos there are no reasons
What reasons do you need?

Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays
I want to shoot…
The whole day down down down shoot it all down

‘Nd all the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die
And then the bullhorn crackles
And the captain jackals
With the problems and the how’s and why’s
And he can see no reasons
Cos there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die die ohh..

Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays, ...
I want to shoot…the whole day down

You may not believe it but this song is based on a real case. A young girl in the USA was asked why she had taken a gun and started shooting at her schoolmates and teachers and all she answered is that she didn’t like Mondays. It may sound funny, but it wasn't: unfortunately, two people died and several were hurt.

The writer tries to get into the girl’s mind to explain what happened. Do you sympathise with the character in the song? Have you ever felt like this?
Think about the relationship with her parents. What was it like?
Consult this website and you will learn more about the event that inspired the song.

Who was the girl?
Who got killed?
Where did she get the gun?

Think about all this and discuss it with your classmates. Do you think this could happen in your country? Why?

Bowling For Columbine, Michael Moore's documentary on the Columbine massacre and the American weapon industry.

Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, a film about the Columbine High School massacre in the USA.

	Music/Ethics: School and Us
	Song: I Don't Like Mondays Author: The Boomtown Rats