EXCUSE ME !!! On the WIGGLE SONG THING. NOBODY seems to get what that's all about - it's about how human beings try to "get out" of every mess or jam they create... It's a great put down song (like IDIOT WIND - of course it ,unlike Idiot Wind, kinda misses the mark of greatness) but not as hard core and cutting.... It makes it's point somewhat, just really stop and check out what it's saying....Not a classic BUT not horrible...

Lukester Wrote:
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> I think it is about sex and drugs.....the
> reference to lemon squeezer is a blues reference
> to sex (cumming?...blow job?)

Makes sense to me.

"I'm a cold Italian pizza"

Being an expert on pizza, this would refer to being "hard" or a "hard on" (of course the crappy pizza gets hard when cold)

Then the "lemon sqeezer" and Lukester filled in the rest.

i think Rockman's got the right interpretation of "monkey man": someone a woman's got something going with on the side.
by the way, there's also a monkey man in Robert Johnson's Steady Rollin Man:
"You can't give your sweet woman everything she wants in one time (x 2)
Well boys she get ramblin' in her brain hmm mmm some monkey man on her mind"
(sorry if that's already been mentioned - i confess i didn't read the whole thread too carefully)

meanwhile i suspect that part of why the lyric to the Stones' Monkey Man is mysterious-like to us
is that there are several "inside jokes" in it (Live With Me too, and YCAGWYW)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-11-30 21:47 by with sssoul.

Some song lyrics stand as poetry when read; some song lyrics suffer when separated from the musical context. Monkey Man is a song that really soars when sung by Jagger with the smokin' band behind him. But the lyrics, I've never really taken too seriously. It's a hodgepodge of sassy images and aspects of a rock 'n' roll singer's persona. Now, lyrics to songs like Jigsaw Puzzle, Moonlight Mile, Gimme Shelter, Shine a Light and many others: they stand up to scrutiny.

Beelyboy Wrote:
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> as much as i appreciate those first four costello
> albums, boy, it sucks reading anybody elses lyrics
> after going all the way through "It's Alright Ma,
> I'm Only Bleeding (ty spud)...

____ hey ya beelyboy, not spud, its soundcheck,,, but as usual im feeling way to good today to have self esteem problems )),, heres another we can 'read' and enjoy and use for perspective:

Of war and peace the truth just twists
Its curfew gull just glides
Upon four-legged forest clouds
The cowboy angel rides
With his candle lit into the sun
Though its glow is waxed in black
All except when 'neath the trees of Eden

The lamppost stands with folded arms
Its iron claws attached
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail
Though it shadows metal badge
All and all can only fall
With a crashing but meaningless blow
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden

The savage soldier sticks his head in sand
And then complains
Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf
But still remains
Upon the beach where hound dogs bay
At ships with tattooed sails
Heading for the Gates of Eden

With a time-rusted compass blade
Aladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian hermit monks
Side saddle on the Golden Calf
And on their promises of paradise
You will not hear a laugh
All except inside the Gates of Eden

Relationships of ownership
They whisper in the wings
To those condemned to act accordingly
And wait for succeeding kings
And I try to harmonize with songs
The lonesome sparrow sings
There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden

The motorcycle black madonna
Two-wheeled gypsy queen
And her silver-studded phantom cause
The gray flannel dwarf to scream
As he weeps to wicked birds of prey
Who pick up on his bread crumb sins
And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden

The kingdoms of Experience
In the precious wind they rot
While paupers change possessions
Each one wishing for what the other has got
And the princess and the prince
Discuss what's real and what is not
It doesn't matter inside the Gates of Eden

The foreign sun, it squints upon
A bed that is never mine
As friends and other strangers
From their fates try to resign
Leaving men wholly, totally free
To do anything they wish to do but die
And there are no trials inside the Gates of Eden

At dawn my lover comes to me
And tells me of her dreams
With no attempts to shovel the glimpse
Into the ditch of what each one means
At times I think there are no words
But these to tell what's true
And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden

I found out that Billy Idol's "White Wedding" was about cocaine...what the hell was I thinking! I must live in a vacuum.

I believe Monkey Man is slang for gay...........at least from some of the old blues guys

trainarollin Wrote:
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> I found out that Billy Idol's "White Wedding" was
> about cocaine...what the hell was I thinking! I
> must live in a vacuum.

I heard it was about starting up heroin again after being clean for awhile.

Haha, missed this thread & all the fun in it.. :O)

I think Rockman is right about the monkey man.......but it's probably no coincidence that it also conjures up images of a heroin addict, and rhymes with junkie.

Lot of reading ...........

B.t.w what was the question ?

__________________________

I never thought "Monkey Man" was so much taken from blues or other idioms as simply meaning something primitive, the brutish behavior that the song romanticizes. the fact that it's addressed to a woman seems incidental to the details of the singer's boasting of his lifestyle with his friends. The "monkey on the back" might be the most immediate inspiration... if so, I wonder if they looked back on the song with some embarrassment when it took keith almost 10 years to kick it, which they probably didn't dream of at the time.

also because of his facial features and crazy moves, Mick has always been described as being Monkey- Like, I think that has something to do with it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-11-30 22:05 by ryanpow.

yeah, I tend to think of this song when watching clips from '64-65, when mick is in his long-sleeve t's and really looking more apelike than the rest, who are dressed nattier.

Just thought of another Monkey song. This one, by the New York Dolls, is pretty good, too.

Dance Like a Monkey

Wooooooo wooooooo

You're designed so intelligent
Ain't no way that was an accident
C'mon shake your monkey hips
My pretty little creationist

Oh yeah!

Ain't gonna anthropomorphise you
Or perversely polymorphisise you - yeah
Little girl you look so sweet
You gotta dance like a monkey, dance like a monkey, child
You just started ten thousand years ago
Presto Adam and Eve and go man go
Abel died, Cain took his life
And headed straight to the jungle to find a wife - wow!
Non-believers blame it all on apes
It's monkey time - I want to see you shake
Evolution is obsolete

You gotta dance like a monkey, dance like a monkey, child
Stomp your hands and clap your feet
You gotta dance like a monkey, dance like a monkey, child
Oh one more time yo! It's monkey time!!

Here's another song about a primate

>>I found out that Billy Idol's "White Wedding" was about cocaine.<<
>>I heard it was about starting up heroin again after being clean for awhile.<<

I've heard it's about mixing cocaine and heroin (hence "white wedding") after being off it for a while ("nice day to start again").

Anyone remember Billy Idol being interviewed by David Letterman in the 80s?

Idol was bragging that some New York drug dealers were naming their wares after his songs. Idol told Dave that there was "White Wedding cocaine, Rebel Yell Quaaludes, Dancing With Myself smoke..." .

Dave tried not to laugh as he replied, "You must be a very proud young man."

ryanpow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> also because of his facial features and crazy
> moves, Mick has always been described as being
> Monkey- Like, I think that has something to do
> with it.

Yeah, I agree with that
in the first verse, that's what the people think about him and his friends, the
junkies (keith, Brian,...etc)
And when he said "well I hope we're not too messianic ..etc"
he talks about the band

Cafaro Wrote:
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> I believe Monkey Man is slang for gay...........at
> least from some of the old blues guys


That's correct.

schillid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyone remember Billy Idol being interviewed by
> David Letterman in the 80s?
>
> Idol was bragging that some New York drug dealers
> were naming their wares after his songs. Idol told
> Dave that there was "White Wedding cocaine, Rebel
> Yell Quaaludes, Dancing With Myself smoke..." .
>
> Dave tried not to laugh as he replied, "You must
> be a very proud young man."
>
>


> lated&search=
> [img.youtube.com]


...but, "dancing with myself" is surely about masturbation. No? ;-)

The song is clearly about Darwinism.

> I'm a fleabit peanut monkey
> All my friends are junkies

We've evolved from monkeys, done some great stuff (mostly huge wars over stuff that's probably worth less than the peanuts our ancestors fought over) and now we're devolving back to our primal peanut-addict core.

> Well, I hope we're not too messianic
> Or a trifle too satanic

In some parts of the world, anything remotely connected with Darwin is considered blasphemous.

> I'm glad you are a monkey, monkey woman
> Monkey woman too, babe!

When mating, it is considered an advantage to mix with the same species as yourself. So of course he is glad!

BTW: I got my rocks off when the guys played this song in Oslo! I had to go to four concerts this year before they finally gave in and played me my favourite song!

--
Rune

LA FORUM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cafaro Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I believe Monkey Man is slang for
> gay...........at
> > least from some of the old blues guys
>
>
> That's correct.
I agree-thats why I suggested this back on page one but no one seemed to have an opinion about it. I read this in David Daltons review of the Let It Bleed album in his "Rolling Stones An unauthorized biography". Where his info came from I dont know!

There seems do be some disagreement here,
on the sexual preference of a monkey man...

Which does he like to do... women or men?
Or both?

ps
A monkey man seems similar to a back door man? no?

>> A monkey man seems similar to a back door man? no? <<

so it seems to me, from the blues lyrics i've heard with the term, but obviously there might be other uses too.
anyway a range of possible associations/interpretations is part of what makes a great lyric great, so ...
if the Stones tune seems to someone to be about a gay man happy to have met a gay woman,
that's okay with me, but it doesn't cause me to alter my own sense of what it means -
what the number is *about* isn't the lyric anyway :E

you're right sssoul. sometimes a song is just a good song and lyrics are just fun lyrics. As Dick Clark would say "a lively tune and you can dance to it, I give it a 10"!

Its about what every other classic tune they have ever written about.

sex, drugs & rock n roll
would sum it all up...

Christian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ryanpow Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > also because of his facial features and crazy
> > moves, Mick has always been described as being
> > Monkey- Like, I think that has something to do
> > with it.
>
> Yeah, I agree with that
> in the first verse, that's what the people think
> about him and his friends, the
> junkies (keith, Brian,...etc)
> And when he said "well I hope we're not too
> messianic ..etc"
> he talks about the band

exaclty. "... but we love the play the blues"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-01 19:42 by ryanpow.

I bet you think this song is about you, don't you?