''In the Long Grass'' was the sixth studio album by The Boomtown Rats, released in 1984 in the UK and 1985 in the US. It was the band's last studio material for over three-decade until 2020's '' Citizens of Boomtown''. The Boomtown Rats' least commercially favourable effort, it failed to appear altogether in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, but did reach No. 188 in the US ''Billboard'' 200.

Track listing

All songs written by

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part o ...

except where indicated. # "A Hold of Me" - 4:57 # "Drag Me Down" - 4:31 # "Dave" - 4:19 # "Over Again" - 3:45 # "Another Sad Story" (Johnny Fingers) - 3:42 # "Tonight" - 3:53 # "Hard Times" - 3:54 # "Lucky" (J. Fingers) - 3:37 # "An Icicle in the Sun" - 3:50 # "Up or Down" (Simon Crowe, Pete Briquette) - 3:33

1985 US listing

For the US, the record company insisted that the track "Dave" needed to be reworked before it could be released in that country. Geldof had written "Dave" for Dave MacHale, an Irish saxophonist and keyboard player, after his girlfriend died of a heroin overdose in 1983. New lyrics were written and sung over the same backing track; the new track was called "Rain".
All songs written by

except where indicated. # "A Hold of Me" # "Drag Me Down" # "Rain" # "Over Again" # "Another Sad Story" (J. Fingers) # "Tonight" # "Hard Times" # "Lucky" (J. Fingers) # "An Icicle in the Sun" # "Up or Down" (S. Crowe, P. Briquette)

2005 bonus tracks

# "Dave" (Single Version) # "Walking Downtown" (B. Geldof, P. Briquette) (B-side) # "Precious Time" (S. Crowe) (B-side) # "She's Not the Best" (Home Demo)

Personnel

;The Boomtown Rats *

– vocals * Pete Briquette – bass, vocals *

Johnnie Fingers Johnnie Fingers (born John Peter Moylett, 10 September 1956) is an Irish keyboardist and co-founding member of the new wave band The Boomtown Rats. He was notable for his attire of striped pyjamas on stage and his melodic piano style. Backgro ...

– keyboards, vocals * Simon Crowe – drums, vocals * Garry Roberts – guitar, vocals ;Additional personnel *

Peter Thoms Peter Thoms is an English musician and composer best known for playing keyboards and trombone for the synthpop band Landscape. Biography Landscape was formed in 1974 with Richard James Burgess (vocals, drums), Christopher Heaton (keyboards), An ...

- trombone (credited on the sleeve as Pete "Gidday" Thomas) * Luke Tunney - trumpet *

Guy Barker Guy Jeffrey Barker, (born 26 December 1957) is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Early life Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a yea ...

- trumpet * Gary Barnacle - saxophone * Martin Dobson - saxophone * Peter Claridge - guitar * Molly and Polly - backing vocals on "Hard Times" * Ian Ritchie - saxophone * Bob Carter - arrangement on "Tonight" ;Technical * Martin Rex - engineer *

Bob Clearmountain Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, with whom he has a ve ...

- mixing * Ashworth - photography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:In The Long Grass The Boomtown Rats albums 1984 albums Albums produced by James Guthrie (record producer)