On this date in 1979, The Boomtown Rats had a #1 hit with a song about a school shooting, an event that was then relatively rare.
"I Don't Like Mondays" chronicled the story of Brenda Ann Spencer, a 16-year-old San Diego girl who killed two adults, wounded eight children and one police officer in January1979 when she opened fire on a grade school playground.
On one hand, the song illustrates how far we've come -- techonogically. Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof relates in the song that he learned of the tragedy via a Telex machine. Nowadays, news travels light-speed via the Internet. Yet, as far as we've come, the tragedy of school shootings has become ubiquitous. Let's hope that we can, somehow soon, reduce that ubiquity.
Tori Amos provides us with a poignant cover.
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