MONKEY MAN
Jagger / Richards

I'm a fleabit peanut monkey
All my friends are junkies
That's not really true
I'm a cold Italian pizza
I could use a lemon squeezer
What you 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
Monkey woman too, babe!

Well if it was titled Baboon Man
then we would have real inside information...



ROCKMAN

But I've been bit and I've been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town

One of the best all time lyrics

Is there a Mrs. Baboon Man, or is that Baboon Woman?

(Sorry. Rockman made me do it.)

i think it's about four minutes, depending on the version.

I just stumbled on evidence that Toots and the Maytals released a song called Monkey Man in 1968, a year before the Stones released their version.

The randomness of the lyrics remind me of Casino Boogie...

Anyone?

And Robert Johnson had his lemon
squeezed in Dallas, Texas back in 1937.........



ROCKMAN

Maybe so...
but was he bitten by a boar?

schillid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MONKEY MAN
> Jagger / Richards
>
> I'm a fleabit peanut monkey

he's a monkey who likes peanuts who also has a parasite issue

> All my friends are junkies

his entire community circle are dedicated to poppy cultivation

> That's not really true

he's a lying monkey

> I'm a cold Italian pizza

needs some time in the 'oven'

> I could use a lemon squeezer

he longs for intimacy


i'll work on the rest and get back to ya...

> What you 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
> Monkey woman too, babe!

i think mick and keith were just having fun with simple word play , like a poet would with a poem .

Beelyboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > I'm a fleabit peanut monkey
>
> he's a monkey who likes peanuts who also has a
> parasite issue
>
> > All my friends are junkies
>
> his entire community circle are dedicated to poppy
> cultivation
>
> > That's not really true
>
> he's a lying monkey
>
> > I'm a cold Italian pizza
>
> needs some time in the 'oven'
>
> > I could use a lemon squeezer
>
> he longs for intimacy

That's basically my interpretation too...
I thought that maybe there was more to it...
That I've been missong something

ghostryder13 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i think mick and keith were just having fun with
> simple word play , like a poet would with a poem .


sort of like John Lennon's "I Am The Walrus" ?
(That would actually go along with JL's remarks
... that the Stones always copied the Beatles.)

It's just rock and roll. He's had a rough time and just needs to get laid. I always heard the last line verse one as "you could do" Is that wrong? Cheers Y'all.

5string Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's just rock and roll. He's had a rough time and
> just needs to get laid. I always heard the last
> line verse one as "you could do" Is that wrong?
> Cheers Y'all.

I always thought he said "Would you do?"

Bout the same drift, no? I'll listen later when it sounds SO GOOD! Please do the same. 5

I think it is about sex and drugs.....the reference to lemon squeezer is a blues reference to sex (cumming?...blow job?) that dates back to Robert Johnson, as Rockman said. Zeppelin used that reference too of course. The monkey implies a "monkey on your back" which is a slang term for an addiction to heroin (or other drugs, but usually referred to as a heroin addiction). The rest of the lyrics are the product of a very creative imagination.

This is one of my favorite Stones songs and I had the pleasure of seeing it live for the first time in Nashville in November 2002, almost exactly five years ago today. Thanks schillid for the very thought provoking memory.

btw--the song is loaded with the freedom of a VERY popular band. witness SSSad--the elephant's in the bedroom---dang, i'm out! cheers!

This just in, from the Bureau of Stuffed Shirts Who Take Rock 'n' Roll WAY Too Seriously:

[links.jstor.org]

I think they were just fvcked up and wrote a good song.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Monkeylad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This just in, from the Bureau of Stuffed Shirts
> Who Take Rock 'n' Roll WAY Too Seriously:
>
> [links.jstor.org]%
> 2F12)86%3A342%3C367%3A%22AMTIO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1



hey Monkeylad, bro....I tried to read that article with an open mind and realized that it is indeed written by a "stuffed shirt." The article never really culminated into a tangible thougt, in my opinion, but it sure did have some fancy educated words in it.

I've never even tried to figure out this song,
but yet it is one of my absolute favs by the Stones.

Only seen it performed live twice.
Once in my hometown, and most recently at the Aug. '03 Wembley Arena show.

Monkeylad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just stumbled on evidence that Toots and the
> Maytals released a song called Monkey Man in 1968,
> a year before the Stones released their version.


well..the Stones did use the song as their outro music over the PA on many of the indoor Licks shows...

cool version from hbo special 1/03...jags does the monkey walk but good...
they git the groove on...

even cooler; the same version with the keith-cam!!!...awww, ain't he precious!!

I always had a hard time figuring this one out cause supposedly "monkey man" is old blues vernacular for homosexual.

Monkey Man Blues - Cripple Clarence Lofton 1935

Some of these old days mama...some of these old sad lonely nights
You will look for your good daddy and he'll be getting his ......?
Because I leave town mama don't count the days I'm gone
Just count them days baby that you tried to do your daddy wrong
I been doing the same thing baby ever since nineteen and twelve
I been breaking down with you dizzy mares seem like you want me to dig a country well
I would be your monkey-man mama just can't climb no coconut tree
I breaks down with you dizzy mares but I don't get on my happy black knees
Some day you going to need me mama swear when I won't need you
Because when I try to love you right baby seems like my loving won't do



ROCKMAN

Always thought a Monkey Man was a black-slang term
for the man that a married woman was riding on the side....



ROCKMAN

Rockman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Always thought a Monkey Man was a black-slang
> term
> for the man that a married woman was riding on the
> side....

Now, things are starting to make some sense...

It's just about a dude who didn't do good in school so now his life sucks and he doesn't want to join the army cause he knows they'll send him to Iraq to get blown up so the dude is STUCK in a dead end situation... This one's so easy, Mick almost spells it out for us......