Comments, input and alterations are very welcome!
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Monkey Man
(Mick Jagger / Keith Richards)

Olympic Sound Studios, London, UK, April 17 - 22 & June 10 - July 2, 1969

Mick Jagger - vocals
Keith Richards - electric guitar, electric slide guitar
Charlie Watts - drums
Bill Wyman - bass, vibraphone
Nicky Hopkins - piano
Jimmy Miller - tambourine

I'm a flea-bit peanut monkey, all my friends are junkies
That's not really true
I'm a cold Italian pizza, I could use a lemon squeezer
You could do
But I've been bit and I've been tossed around by every she-rat in this town
Have you, babe?
Well, I am just a monkey man, I'm glad you are a monkey woman too

I was bitten by a boar, I was gouged and I was gored
But I pulled on through
Yes, I'm a sack of broken eggs, I always have an unmade bed
Don't you?
Well, I hope we're not too messianic or a trifle too satanic
We love to play the blues
Well, I am just a monkey man, I'm glad you are a monkey, monkey woman too, babe

I'm a monkey, I'm a monkey, I'm a monkey man, I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey, I'm a monkey, I'm a monkey, I'm a monkey…

Produced by Jimmy Miller

First released on:
The Rolling Stones - “Let It Bleed” LP
(London NPS-4) US, November 29, 1969

Good One!

Took me some years to get that though...

2 1 2 0



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-01-28 11:26 by Come On.

A very modern sounding Stones track when you consider that it was actually from the (last days of the) Brian Jones era.

GREAT lyrics, dirty bass.

One of the very best!
I can watch that select a stone thingy from 4 Flicks forever. (And have a weak spot for
the versions with a prominent Lisa from the Voodoo Lounge Tour).













Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

O yeah. Forgot to mention Shirley:





Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

An incredible track that has grown into Kink Kong proportions as a favourite with Stones fans. It's one that took me a while to fully appreciate but oh my God, it is such an important component in making Let It Bleed the strongest Stones album, pound for pound and song for song in their entire repertoire.

Monkey Man's oddness and uniqueness is down to its many twists and turns but once it gets going it doesn't let go and takes you rattling and roaring along to its centrepiece - the steel guitar symphony jointly created by Keith and Nicky Hopkin's incredible piano playing.

The song starts off in a curious, almost nonchalent way with Nicky Hopkins' descending piano trills and frills which are almost a throw back to Their Satanic Majesties Request.

But then, boom, bang, we get the first notice that this song is not going to take us out on a journey into space or meet another tripped out kaleidoscope girl as Charlie's pounding toms and Keith's killer riff rev up the Stones' engine room.

Add to this Jagger's sleazy lyrics of flea-bit peanut monkeys, sacks of broken eggs, unmade beds and cold Italian pizzas and the scene is set for a journey into the heart of darkness, perhaps to a dingy brownstone tenement to score.

Then, after a few verses of Jagger lyrically setting the scene, around the 1.50 mark Keith comes in with one of those trademark riffs which builds and builds to create an incredible tension before Hopkins, providing the light to Richard's darkness, returns to the fore with some of those beautiful piano flourishes of his. It's a breath-taking moment and for me, one of the finest bridges the Stones have ever created.

And then at 3.11 the reverie is broken and the tension is back as Jagger, scowls, almost screaming I'm a monkey, over and over again at the top of his voice until the end of the song. Simply incredible.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-01-28 12:49 by Silver Dagger.

"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

One of the defining tracks of who The Stones are. Monkey men! A sublime slab of rock, with a beautifully haunting intro. I never tire of this song and only wish there was some special unreleased 15 minute version of it somewhere. Everything about it is outstanding, the band, the lyrics, melody, hooks, and the production. Incredible song. One of their top ten of their entire career.

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Deltics

Amazing track.
Thanks for posting the original version together with this footage. You nailed it.

An absolute favorite of mine.

Don't know why it hasn't made "warhorse" status.

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whitem8
One of the defining tracks of who The Stones are. Monkey men! A sublime slab of rock, with a beautifully haunting intro. I never tire of this song and only wish there was some special unreleased 15 minute version of it somewhere. Everything about it is outstanding, the band, the lyrics, melody, hooks, and the production. Incredible song. One of their top ten of their entire career.

You described the song perfectly.

Monkey Man-Great track from the album Let It Bleed

Silver Dagger and whitem8 have described the song perfectly...what else can I say about Monkey Man? I love, love, LOVE this song. The first time I heard those gorgeous piano notes, thinking ahh another nice ballad, and then my astonishment, when Charlie and Keith kick in, then amazement at the audacious lyrics as Mick begins to sing...by the end of the song I was hooked for life. I never, ever tire of hearing Monkey Man and I can't say that about many songs. It is one of those songs I can't imagine another band doing, it is so uniquely the Stones. Has anyone else tried?

Well, I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too...

Anytime boys, anytime...

I was listening to The First Barbarians CD last week (Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards live at Kilburn 1975, great gig). The intro and outro to the RW track Shirley are clearly the main riff from Monkey Man - check it out!

Ahhh yes, still another masterpiece from the staggeringly brilliant Let It Bleed album. Words really cannot do justice to how phenomenal this track is from start to finish. Right from the start, it grabs the listener and won't let go, with Nicky Hopkins’ eerie, haunting piano, combined with Bill’s shimmering vibraphone and bass, setting a trippy and ominous mood, then Jimmy Miller's spooky tambourine and Keith's bluesy guitar licks ratcheting up the suspense, and then suddenly Charlie coming in with all guns ablaze, throttling the tension, and Keith riffing with righteous fury…

Keith and Charlie have (in my opinion) never sounded more vital or more telepathically connected than they do in Monkey Man, with Charlie’s gloriously funky drumming meshing perfectly with Keith’s savage guitar riffs. Lyrically, Monkey Man is playful yet brutal, transporting the listener to a sleazy world of junkies, she-rats, and cold Italian pizzas, with echoes of JJF in lines such as “I was bitten by a boar, I was gouged and I was gored, but I pulled on through”. Jagger sings with such infectious verve, such gusto, perhaps because Monkey Man is an ode to himself … his primal nature, his animal persona, an identity that (by 1969) had captured the world’s imagination. And that grand finale, with Jagger ever-more-frenetically shrieking ma-ma-ma-ma-monkey!!!!, is pure rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy.

4 minutes and 11 seconds of dazzling genius. And as always, Jimmy Miller deserves the credit for the SOUND, which just leaps out of the speakers. Play it LOUD.

Drew



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-03 05:31 by drewmaster.

The spectacular dark spaciousness of the music -
that muscular riff swooping and soaring through it -
the utterly whacked-out lyrics - ahhh

I love the Rolling Stones

I've always felt 'Monkey Man' defines the Stones' musical interaction as well as anything they recorded. especially the Charlie - Keith groove.

Fire : Bad.

Monkey Man: Good.

Hello,

I went looking for the Select-a-Stone version of this from Four Flicks recently, but couldn't work out how to bring it up. What was I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Declan

The first time I heard this song is actually one of my more vivid memories from my youth. Not so much because hearing the song was some revelation or anything, although I did love it. I know it was either '97 or '96, because when I saw them at Texas Motor Speedway on B2B tour Monkey Man was on my wishlist for the set so I had heard it by then. Anyway, I was driving around smoking a joint with a few friends in my car listening to Let It Bleed, and we pulled into Taco Bell. We went inside and ate as teenagers with the munchies are prone to do at Taco Bell (I think teenagers with the munchies keep Taco Bell in business), and afterward we just sort of hung out in the parking lot cranking some tunes as high teenagers are also prone to do. Anyway, I had never listened to the album front to back, I was more of a skip around to songs I like person and hadn't discovered many tracks yet that aren't greatest hits. So Monkey Man comes on, and I wasn't really paying attention and one of my friends was like "Hang on...this song kicks ass", and the rest of us stopped for a minute and listened, we all agreed, and the next thing I know we're all dancing in the parking lot to The Stones. And I'm not a dancer, even as a kid. I think my dancing was mainly air guitar. Whenever I hear that song now it always reminds me of a bunch of teenagers back in the 90's smoking crap weed and dancing like idiots in a Taco Bell parking lot.

If I was ranking best Stones song intros, this track would be near the top, along with Gimme Shelter. Chilling..

Great song. Was my favotite track from Let It Bleed when I first got into the Stones in 1973.

Why did they wait so long to bust this one out on the Stage?

the shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangler!

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marcovandereijk
O yeah. Forgot to mention Shirley:

Holy Cow... Stanley Clarke should be in the Stones now... DUH!

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rattler2004
Why did they wait so long to bust this one out on the Stage?

We could ask the same question about many songs. CYHMK for instance, recorded on Sticky Fingers but didn't make its live debut until the ABB tour right?

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DoomandGloom

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marcovandereijk
O yeah. Forgot to mention Shirley:

Holy Cow... Stanley Clarke should be in the Stones now... DUH!

you mean Willie Weeks?

always wondered if he auditioned ...

the stones at there best .

TOP 10 Stones track for me

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This is certainly a tremendous track. I'm not exactly sure how to put this into words, but this song is just timeless. It's a mini-symphony with the gentle opening and BAM!--Keith's guitar licks, and then Mick screaming for all he's worth! (The guitar coming in after the intro has a very similar effect as going from Wild Horses to Can't You Hear Me Knocking on Sticky Fingers, but in Monkey Man this is all going on in one song.) With the swirl of the piano, the gut-crunching of the guitar, and the decadence of the lyrics, I FEEL this song every time I hear it.

To me, this song, along with Gimme Shelter, defines the apex of music in 1969. I don't understand why this song isn't one of the stalwarts we hear on classic rock radio all of the time; it is an absolute gem! I feel like people who are only casual fans of rock 'n' roll are really missing out by not hearing this.

I get the same feeling when I listen to the guitar solo, and then Mick coming back in afterward during Shattered. But, we can discuss that in umpteen months when the thread for that song comes up!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-01-28 20:03 by mickboy33.