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Steel Monkey Lyrics
As the moon slips up, and the sun sets down,
I'm a highrise jockey, and I'm heaven-bound.
Do the workboot shuffle, loose brains from brawn.
I'm a monkey puzzle and the lid is on.
Can you guess my name? Can you guess my trade?
I'm going to catch you anyway.
You might be right. I'll give you guesses three.
Feel me climbing up your knee.
Guess what I am. I'm a steel monkey.
Now some men hustle and some just think.
And some go running before you blink.
Some look up and some look down
from three hundred feet above the ground.
Can you guess my name? And can you guess my trade?
Well, I won't rest before the world is made.
Arm in arm the angels fly.
Keep me from falling out the sky.
Steel monkey.
I work in the thunder and I work in the rain.
I work at my drinking, and I feel no pain.
I work on women, if they want me to.
You can have me climb all over you.
Now, have you guessed my name?
And have you guessed my trade?
I'm cheap at the money I get paid.
In the sulpher city, where men are men,
we bolt those beams then climb again.
Steel monkey.
I'm a highrise jockey, and I'm heaven-bound.
Do the workboot shuffle, loose brains from brawn.
I'm a monkey puzzle and the lid is on.
I'm going to catch you anyway.
You might be right. I'll give you guesses three.
Feel me climbing up your knee.
And some go running before you blink.
Some look up and some look down
from three hundred feet above the ground.
Well, I won't rest before the world is made.
Arm in arm the angels fly.
Keep me from falling out the sky.
I work at my drinking, and I feel no pain.
I work on women, if they want me to.
You can have me climb all over you.
And have you guessed my trade?
I'm cheap at the money I get paid.
In the sulpher city, where men are men,
we bolt those beams then climb again.
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Brilliant track! Proved there was still lots of life left in the old dogs!
To me a it's a song about builders on skyscrapers in big cities. How do those buildings get put up? Someone has to be up there, riviting girders together before the rest of the structure gets added, hundreds up feet up in the air with nothing except maybe a tether line to stop you falling to your death on the streets below. It might have been written about 1920's and 1930's America when cities where screaming up a huge rate but could equally apply to today with buildings that are much taller than back then, even more dangerous to a 1,000 ft in the air.
I was a steel monkey. Even with my vertigo
I couldn't figure this one as I've never heard of a steel monkey, but I love this song, Ian & Martin showed they can still rock! Knowing Ian's songwriting, it must be more than just about high-rise steel workers; in the lyric about angels arm in arm helping him not fall from the sky evokes to me, images of the proverbial fallen angels.
[Edit: Further thoughts. ]