Saturday Song: Mondays

A delightful bit of synchronicity happened when I asked for theme ideas on Facebook. See, I’d just finished watching the Gilmore Girls episode that has got The Bangles in it, and then Suzanne came up with a Monday theme, and there was really only one song I could choose:

Suzanne has already put in Stormy Monday by The Allman Brothers Band. I think you can see the general shape of things: this week, we’re going to do songs about Monday. It doesn’t have to necessarily have Monday in the title, as long as it has a general Monday vibe to it. Take that theme and run, my darlings!

Image shows a gray cat with staring at the camera with narrowed blue eyes. Caption says, "Monday. So we meet again."

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Saturday Song: Mondays
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9 thoughts on “Saturday Song: Mondays

  1. rq
    1

    I’m actually on a self-enforced commenting hiatus here, but I want to share something odd and probably a bit creepy.
    On a completely unrelated musical search, I was looking for the lyrics to Simon & Garfunkel’s Hazy Shade of Winter – and guess who has a cover? That’s right – The Bangles. I guess it works for a Monday vibe, too. Also currently my vibe.
    Anyway, for something with Monday in the title, The Verve’s Make It ‘Til Monday seems to fit. But the story behind this one is probably a bit more violent than one would think on first listening. O.O

  2. 2

    Hmm. There are a lot of “Monday” songs out there. The one that always stuck with me (as a bit of a downer) is I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats (fronted by Bob Geldof). It came out when I was in high school and is about a school shooting back when the media was just starting to turn such events into a media circus.

    Most people just took it as an anti-work anthem ignoring the lines about death. Being curious about the lyrics, I found out about the story of the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego after poking around on the Usenet. When a reporter reached the shooter by phone asking her why she did it she replied “I don’t like Mondays”.

    It’s actually a very dark song…

  3. 4

    Best Monday song ever: “On a Monday Morning,” written by ex-Royal Navy sailor Cyril Tawny (lyrics below) but recorded live (with some verses rearranged and gorgeous harmonies toward the end) in a Sydney pub by Rachel Unthank & The Winterset in this video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7r6acbODM

    On a Monday Morning by Cyril Tawny

    Too soon to be out of my bed
    Too soon to be back at this bus-queue caper
    Or fumblin’ for change for my picture paper
    On a Monday morning

    Wrong end of the week for a smile
    Wrong end of the day for being civil
    It’s many a saint would be a devil
    On a Monday morning

    Where is the weekend now?
    Where is the whisky and beer I tasted?
    Gone the same way as the pay I wasted
    On a Monday morning

    If only the birds would booze,
    If only the sun was a party giver,
    And if I could just give someone else my liver,
    On a Monday morning

    My lover she lies asleep
    My lover is warm and her heart is mellow
    I’d trade you the world just to share her pillow
    On a Monday morning

    Too soon to be out of my bed
    Too soon to be back at this bus-queue caper
    Or fumbling for change for my picture paper
    On a Monday morning

  4. 5

    More Cyril Tawney (and, yes, I misspelled his last name in the above post) with a Monday morning mention (lyrics below):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4jc9RAUT6w

    “Chicken on a raft” is Royal Navy slang for a fried egg on toast.

    Chicken on a Raft

    Words & Music by Cyril Tawney
    (Recorded by Tom Lewis on Sea-Dog, See Dog!)

    Skipper’s in the wardroom drinking gin, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    I don’t mind knocking but I ain’t going in, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    ‘Jimmy’s’ laughing like a drain, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    Been looking at m’ ‘comic cuts’ again. (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)

    Chorus:
    Chicken on a raft on a Monday morning, oh what a terrible sight to see,
    ‘Dabtoes’ for’d and the Dustmen aft, sitting there picking at a ‘chicken on a raft’.
    Hey -oh, chicken on a raft, Oy -oh, chicken on a raft.
    Hey -oh, chicken on a raft, Oy -oh, chicken on a raft.

    They gave me the Middle and the Forenoon too, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    And now I’m pulling in the whaler’s crew, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    Seagulls wheeling overhead, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    I ought to be ‘flogging’ in a feather bed. (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)

    I had a little girl in ‘Donny B’, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    And oh, she made a fool of me, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    Her heart was like a Pusser’s shower, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    From hot to cold in a quarter of an hour. (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)

    An Amazon girl lives in Dumfries, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    She only has kids in twos and threes, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    Her sister lives in Maryhill, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    She says she won’t but I think she will. (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)

    We kissed goodbye on the midnight bus, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    She didn’t cry, she didn’t fuss, (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    Am I the man that she loves best? (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)
    Or am I just a cuckoo in another man’s nest? (Hey -oh, chicken on a raft)

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