Warren Zevon – Porcelain Monkey

He was an accident waiting to happen
Most accidents happen at home
Maybe he should have gone out more often
Maybe he should have answered the phone

Hip-shakin' shoutin' in gold lame
That's how he earned his regal sobriquet
Then he threw it all away
For a porcelain monkey

He threw it away for a porcelain monkey
Gave it all up for a figureine
He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas
And his face of velveteen

From a shotgun shack singing Pentacostal hymns
Through the wrought iron gate to the TV room
He had a little world, it was smaller than your hand
It's a rockabilly ride from the glitter to the gloom

Left behind by the latest trends
Eatin' friend chicking with his regicidal friends
That's how the story ends
With a porcelain monkey

He threw it away for a porcelain monkey
Gave it all up for a figureine
He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas
And his face of velveteen

Hip-shakin' shoutin' in gold lame
That's how he earned his regal sobriquet
Then he threw it all away
For a porcelain monkey

He threw it away for a porcelain monkey
Gave it all up for a figureine
He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas
And his face of velveteen


Lyrics submitted by AlmightyTim

"Porcelain Monkey" as written by Jorge Calderon Warren William Zevon

Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group

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Porcelain Monkey song meanings
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4 Comments

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  • +1
    General CommentThe Porcelain Monkey was a white figurine of a Monkey that was on a table in Elvis Presley's T.V. Room in Graceland.

    Here is a picture of said Monkey:
    jezsik.smugmug.com/Travel/USA/Memphis/i-jztjGs3/1/L/…

    Here is an interview with Warren Zevon where he explains how the song came about:
    zevonaticism.tripod.com/…
    fm451on January 23, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General CommentOne of his more ambiguous and mysterious songs. And that's saying a lot. I think it's a sort of negative look at materialism/commercialism in the modern world.
    TheThornBirdson March 20, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My InterpretationI remember thinking from the first time I heard this song that it's about the decline and fall of Elvis Presley, but I could never fit in what the actual porcelain monkey was supposed to be. I tossed it back and forth from something to do with drugs (he had a monkey on his back?) or the fact that The King died on the crapper.

    I read Crystal Zevon's bio of Warren and it turned out to be a literal porcelain monkey that Elvis had in his living room, which Warren saw in a picture of the place. A piece of kitsch that for some reason Elvis liked.
    AlmightyTimon March 23, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General CommentThe Porcelain Monkey was a white figurine of a Monkey that was on a table in Elvis Presley's T.V. Room in Graceland.

    Here is a picture of said Monkey:
    jezsik.smugmug.com/Travel/USA/Memphis/i-jztjGs3/1/L/…

    Here is an interview with Warren Zevon where he explains how the song came about:
    zevonaticism.tripod.com/…
    fm451on January 23, 2013   Link

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