Our final collection of songs based on the connection with all things ‘Monkey’.
“The Main Monkey Business” is an instrumental from Rush’s 2007 album ‘Snakes & Arrows’. It clocks in at 6 minutes and 1 second, making it Rush’s second longest instrumental, the longest being “La Villa Strangiato”. Drummer Neil Peart remarked that it took him three days to learn the song. The title of the song comes from a phrase lead singer and bassist Geddy Lee’s mother used to describe someone up to no good: …Long story short is, uh, this person was up to hijinx and my mother was telling me “Well I think there was some monkey business involved”, and I said, “What do you mean, monkey business? What kind of monkey business? And she said, “The MAIN monkey business”. So I love that phrase and every time I think of her saying “The MAIN monkey business” it makes me laugh.
“Tweeter and the Monkey Man” is a song by the British-American supergroup the Travelling Wilbury’s that first appeared on the 1988 album Travelling Wilbury’s Vol. 1. The songwriting credit goes officially to all members of the band, but the song is published by Bob Dylan’s Special Rider Music label, indicating that the main writer is Dylan, who is also the lead singer on the record. The song tells the story of two drug dealers – Tweeter and the Monkey Man – their nemesis, the “Undercover Cop”, and the cop’s sister, Jan, a longtime love interest of the Monkey Man. Some lyrics raise a question regarding Tweeter’s gender identity, for example: “Tweeter was a boy scout / before she went to Vietnam …” Later in the song, Jan is quoted as saying of Tweeter, “I knew him long before he ever became a Jersey girl.”
“Unfinished Monkey Business” is a song by Ian Brown. During the making of the Stone Roses long-awaited second album ‘The Second Coming’, media outlets were keen to find any leaked details of sessions the band had undertaken at the studio. According to Q magazine, Brit pop band Dodgy had spent time at the same studio and when the Guardian asked their drummer Matthew Priest for details, he told them that Brown had got heavily into dub reggae. Priest added that the Roses’ vocalist, who because of his long arms had been labeled by the press as ‘simian lead singer,’ would only respond to people addressing him as ‘King Monkey.’ Brown was highly amused by this fictitious story, to the point that he called his debut solo album “Unfinished Monkey Business.”
“Monkey Man” is a 1969 song by the ska and reggae group the Toots & The Maytals, reaching number 47 on the UK Singles Chart. The song is about a girl choosing another man over Toots. Toots & the Maytals re-recorded the song on True Love with third wave ska band No Doubt. The song has been frequently covered by other artists, most famously by British ska group the Specials and British singer Amy Winehouse.
‘The Simian Son’ (The Monkey’s Revenge Song) is a song by Jez Lowe. Lowe is an English folk singer-songwriter. Lowe is known primarily for his compositions dealing with daily life in North-East England, particularly in his hometown of Easington Colliery. The story of the Hartlepool Monkey is well known, and is usually told in a humorous way. My song “The Simian Son” was one such interpretation. Jez wrote that he had “relented” and decided that the very popular Monkey’s Revenge song, now officially titled The Simian Son, will be included on his ‘Head’s Up’ album.
