Throughout the eighties and into the early nineties, whenever a successful act or band came along that wasn't to the liking of the critics, there'd usually be an arms aloft exasperated statement from them along the lines of 'It's as if punk never happened'. But a quick glance at the charts between 1976-1978 shows you could be forgiven for thinking that punk wasn't actually happening at the time. As far as this blog goes, the whole movement may as well have been a vicious rumour. The Sex Pistols should have got there but didn't, and no other footprints were left at the top of the charts. Not that the Boomtown Rats were in fact a punk act. They weren't part of the first phase of bands that had long since split, burned out or changed course before late 1978 but were instead part of the more radio friendly post punk assault that commentators lumped together under the banner 'New Wave'. Which was a bit of a misnomer by itself as far as 'Rat Trap' goes as there was precious little that was new about it. Geldof may have believed he was providing a genuine rebellious alternative to the mainstream (my own remembrance of this is outrage at Geldof ripping up a picture of Liv and Trav on Top Of The Pops), but from the wailing saxophone solos to the claustrophobic story/song of small town unrest, Geldof and his band came across as a bunch of shamrock Springsteens too busy equating their Ireland with dusty Americana to bother about musical movements closer to home.
Geldof's lyrical observations have obvious parallels with 'The Boss', so much so that 'Rat Trap' is little more than a pessimistic re-write of 'Born To Run', but without the sharp observation of the latter. The main character of the song 'Billy' is an already trapped rat, he's not born to run anywhere. He can make it if he wants to or if he need its bad enough, but whilst Springsteen wants to guard his Wendy's 'dreams and visions' with a promise that they'll both walk in the sun one day, the Billy of 'Rat Trap' has no such hope for him and his 'Judy'. In fact, he's such a hopeless case that she even has to make the first move on him because he's too pissed to even speak, and when he does it's only to scream "It's a rat trap Judy; and we've been caught...." Judy's own dreams only reach as far as leaving school to get a factory job, so with future plans that reach no further than the end of their roads then maybe they deserve each other in the song, but it gives the impression that Geldof doesn't really care for the characters he's creating; they're there as mere misery ciphers existing solely as a means to an end, but even in that the song is flawed.
Springsteen at his best could summon up a lifetime of despair in a single line that played in Widescreen imagery whereas Geldof's writing is flabby, overwritten and resolutely monochrome - "hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors, and pus and grime ooze from its scab crusted sores" - it's trying too hard camp violence dressed up as social commentary and hitched to the punk bandwagon to inject some much needed credibility that Geldof' and his over earnest, over the top mugging could never provide, mainly because it lacks a certain urgency; 'Rat Trap is a busy song that never manages to lock into its own identity. At almost five minutes long it has plenty of time to, but Geldof is too busy playing every hand in his possession in the hope of finding one that wins.
There's some 'West Side Story' type finger snaps at the start, a jerky Devo-ish section on "In this town Billy says" middle eight while the close runs out into everything Dion and the Belmonts ever recorded playing simultaneously at distortion level. In this case the dense pile up actually helps in that the relentless, no hoper depression of the lyrics never finds a permanent surface to settle and cling to until it overpowers. Ultimately, while I can confess to having a soft spot for 'Rat Trap' and have done since 1978 (his crimes against Grease were soon forgiven), I can't help thinking that the spot would have been a lot bigger had Geldof employed a decent editor to trim off the fat here into something more punchy.
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