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Monkey Lyrics

Why can't you do it?
Why can't you set your monkey free?
Always giving into it -
Do you love your monkey or do you love me?
Why can't you do it
Why do I have to share my baby with a monkey?

Oh, I count to ten
But I don't know how and I don't know when
To open my eyes
If you kiss me again
Like you did just now, like you did just then
I've had the rest
Now it's time I had the best
So you tell me that you won't do anymore

Well I'd write your heart a letter
But I think you know me better
If I keep on askin' baby, maybe
I'll get what I'm askin' for

Why can't you do it?
Why can't you set your monkey free?
Always giving in to it -
Do you love your monkey or do you love me?
Why can't you do it
Why do I have to share my baby with a monkey?

Oh I hate your friends
But I don't know how and I don't know when
To open your eyes
Yes the monkey's back again
Do you want him now like you did back then?
I tried my best
But your head is such a mess
So I guess that I don't want you anymore

Well you say you care about me
That you just can't do without me
But you keep on dancin' baby
'Til that monkey has you on the floor

Why can't you do it?
Why can't you set your monkey free?
Always giving into it
Do you love the monkey or do you love me?
Why can't you do it
Why do I have to share my baby with a monkey?

Don't look now
There's a monkey on your back
Don't look now
There's a monkey on you...
Song Info
Submitted by
oofus On Jun 06, 2001
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Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

This song is about being involved in a romantic relationship with a partner who has a drug / alcohol addition.

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

It definitely has to be about being in a relationship with an addict. Probably a heroin addict; as junkies are known for having a monkey on their back. I like this song and ultimately is quite sad that the partner goes back to the drug and so George gives up in trying to change their ways.

My Interpretation
Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

I’ve just come here to check what people think this song means and I’m actually PMSL at the fact that someone thinks this song was written about any gay relationship let alone Fadi Fawaz.

Fadi was a recent boyfriend and was definitely not around in the days of Faith album eta.

The amount of stupid people saying things with such conviction is what is wrong with this world.

That being said I think it’s really easy to pigeon hole a song like this but I definitely think it’s about some kind of addiction and I would say it’s more in akin to a sex addiction or even a cheating addiction but the beauty of music is that it can mean anything you want it to mean (except about boyfriends he hadn’t even met yet which is absolutely ludicrous)!

It does sadden me still to even talk about him in the past tense....

*era

@blessbabe can’t you tell this song is write to John Deacon and the monkey is Freddie Mercury?

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

or use condoms. w/e

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

When George sings about the monkey on your back.... It means this:

its anything at all that you find to be a constant burden. You have to finish your BA degree for advancement at work, you are married to someone with an addiction. Or Having to get that college degree is "a monkey on your back". It usually doesn't refer to actual physical burdens.

It can also refer to having a drug addiction. It can also refer to a sexual addiction, alchol addiction, porn addiction. ANYTHING that a person puts as a high priority in their life....which is not healthy for them.

George is singing about his fustration in the situation that never changes:

Oh I hate your friends But I don't know how and I don't know when To open your eyes Yes the monkey's back again Do you want him now like you did back then? I tried my best But your head is such a mess So I guess that I don't want you anymore

I think you shouldn't interpret the song literally. You could interpret the monkey as representing something that causes someone to think a certain way. You might listen to what your mom tells you, what your friends tell you, or you might just have misgivings about having a sexual relationship because you were brought up in a religious setting. I think the monkey is kinda like a personality disorder.

That's my take on it.

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

I think it's obvious what Mr. Michael was addressing: his longtime boyfriend, Fadi Fawaz, had become intimate with a young African-American man and this enraged Mr. Michael. In the song he essentially issues an ultimatum to Fadi, asking "Do you love the monkey or do you love me."

Nota Bene: Mr. Michael's flippant use of this overtly racist slur is quite disturbing.

Song Meaning

Good thing he's dead.

My Opinion

@monkeyman5, Double 44 The song monkey couldn't have been about Fadi Fawaz and his African American lover. George didn't even have his first gay relationship until he was 27. When he wrote that song he was only 25 in 1988. Not to mention that he didn't even start his relationship with Fawaz until 2012. CHECK YOUR FACTS, before you go accusing someone of racism and slander.

@monkeyman5 This is ridiculous. First of all Monkey was released in 1987. That was before Fadi Fawaz was ever on the scene. And further, if anyone was a monkey Fadi was, in the family's opinion. George Michael would never refer to a person and clearly not a black person as a MONKEY. My God, I'm quite sure you are not close to him or his family. Truly, they are really too sophisticated as a people to say something like this.

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

Some of you guys are hilarious!!!

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

Monkey is about loving something/someone who you know is bad for you, your vise. It's about a toxic relationship and the struggle of dealing with reality vs ignoring a blatant problem bc our own addiction or hang ups won't allow us to see things for what they are.

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

Michael's official website describes the song as a "drug abuse saga." A monkey can often be used as a metaphor for drug addiction, "to have a monkey on one's back." That's how Aerosmith used it in 1989. Michael's "Monkey" asks a lover to choose between him or the drugs: Why can't you set your monkey free?

Cover art for Monkey lyrics by George Michael

I definitely think it's about addiction, I've known junkies all my life, so I can definitely relate to this song, watching them kiss their lives away, killing themselves little by little, is very sad... Intimately it's them who have to break free....