Mondo Bongo [Extra tracks, Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

Boomtown Rats | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 1, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 1981
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Universal Int'l
• ASIN: B00076SJPK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,930 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Straight Up

2. Elephants Graveyard

3. This Is My Room

4. Another Piece of Red

5. Hurt Hurts

6. Please Don't Go

7. Fall Down

8. Go Man Go

9. Under Their Thumb Is Under My Thumb

10. Banana Republic

11. Whitehall 1212

12. Mood Mambo

13. Cheerio

14. Don't Talk to Me [*]

15. Arnold Layne [*]

16. Another Piece of Red [*]

Editorial Reviews

2005 remastered reissue of 1981 and 4th album from The Boomtown Rats featuring frontman Bob Geldof. Contains 3 bonus tracks 'Don't Talk To Me' (B-side), 'Arnold Layne' (Recorded for TV),& 'Another Piece Of Red' (live in Portsmouth). Mercury.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the same album. Revisionist however you look at it., April 1, 2005

By 

gpdecuir (Denton, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mondo Bongo (Audio CD)

I've waited a long time for Mondo Bongo to be re-released on CD only to find this is far less enjoyable a listen than my vinyl copy.

This new running order simply doesn't flow well, no matter what explanation Bob Geldof gives in the new liner notes. There's just no need to tamper this much with an album. In addition, upon closer inspection fans of the original album will note the 10 second long dramatic pause is now missing in the final song proper, Cheerio. It simply goes from the ultimatum "well you'd better hurry up and say something or else I'm gonna go..." straight into the response "okay that's fine by me, cheerio". Amazing how the omission of a mere 10 seconds of silence can turn a once clever gem into a pointless ditty. (Oh well, at least they included the "cheerio" lyrics as opposed to the 1981 CD release which leaves those words out altogether, chopping the song before it can really end!)

The Boomtown Rats released a great album in the early-80s which they deserve to be remembered for. However, this new drastically altered remaster isn't that album. I'm no vinyl purist, but looks like you're going to have to hunt down the vinyl (and possibly a turntable) if you want to hear what really went down when this album came out...in a time when New Wave bands thought ska, reggae, and BONGOS were cool and put them right up front to kick off an album (hence the album title).

The only really great feature of this remastered version of Mondo Bongo is the lovingly-designed packaging complete with a full-color foldout mini poster. Too bad it's wasted on the crummy CD inside.

Possilbly the Boomtown Rats' 5-star album, but this release is another failure to get it right.

Cheerio.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original Album, Original Order, Original Mix, May 2, 2009

By 

JC (MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mondo Bongo (Audio CD)

Far more satisfying than the newer edition (also now out of print). It just makes more sense this way. For those who loved it exactly as it was this is it.

13 tracks:

Mood Mambo
Straight Up
This is My Room
Another Piece of Red
Go Man Go
Under Their Thumb... Is Under My Thumb
Please Don't Go
The Elephants Graveyard
Banana Republic
Don't Talk to Me
Hurt Hurts
Up All Night
Cheerio

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even more eccentric than the original!, January 20, 2007

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mondo Bongo (Audio CD)

I've always thought that "Mondo Bongo" was where Bob Geldolf and The Boomtown Rats started to slip, but the years have been kind to The Rats' fourth album. They were trying to grow out of the scene that originally spawned them, and I also began to wonder if their inability to crack the American market (after becoming superstars everywhere else) was wearing on them. It would explain the thoroughly sour tone of many of the album's best songs.

Both The Rats' native island and their commercial nemesis took it on the chin on "Mondo Bongo," with the "septic isle" of "Banana Republic" drawing the popular vote - the mix of reggae and Geldolf's angry lyrics was another huge melding of styles for the band and a number one single. As for America, the broadside of "it's Disneyland under martial law" in "Elephant's Graveyard" took a dour look at Florida's disintegration as a retirement paradise.

This is also where the eccentricities began to get into the way of the songs. "Please Don't Go" and the re-writing of "Under My Thumb" weren't really all that great to start with and haven't improved. "Fall Down" is almost Pink Floyd in temperament (and odd that a cover of Floyd's "Arnold Layne" is included). Scat singing on "Please Don't Go?" Yikes. There's something else I miss from all these CD's (since it was on the American LP) is The Rats' re-recording of "Up All Night." (Not the version on "V Deep" - the version I speak of is only available on an out-of-print American best of or Rhino Records "Just Can't Get Enough Volume 4.") But unlike others here, I don't have too much issue with the revised running order. "Mondo Bongo" was such an eclectic album that Geldolf's reorganizing the song sequence doesn't seem to really mangle the album's original mood.

Like on my review of "The Fine Art Of Surfacing," my main gripe about the new version of "Mondo Bongo" is the re-mastering seems to be too "hot." The drums on several of the songs compress out and distort to the point that, like on "Please Don't Go," the song clips off. Not a good thing.