So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
I'm a fleabit peanut monkey
And all my friends are junkies
That's not really true
I'm a cold Italian pizza
I could use a lemon squeezer
What you do?
But I've been bit and I've been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town
Have you babe?
But I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too
I was bitten by a boar
I was gouged and I was gored
But I pulled on through
Yeah, I'm a sack of broken eggs
I always have an unmade bed
Don't you?
Well I hope we're not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
But we love to play the blues
But well I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too
Monkey woman too babe
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
Monkey, monkey
Monkey
Monkey
I'm a monkey
And all my friends are junkies
That's not really true
I'm a cold Italian pizza
I could use a lemon squeezer
What you do?
But I've been bit and I've been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town
Have you babe?
But I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too
I was bitten by a boar
I was gouged and I was gored
But I pulled on through
Yeah, I'm a sack of broken eggs
I always have an unmade bed
Don't you?
Well I hope we're not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
But we love to play the blues
But well I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too
Monkey woman too babe
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
Monkey, monkey
Monkey
Monkey
I'm a monkey
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Monkey Man Lyrics as written by Mick Jagger Keith Richards
Lyrics © Abkco Music Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think you need to look at this song in the context of the entire "Let It Bleed" album and all its country twang. This song is about the Stones coming to the United States and fitting into the mainstream. The Monkey Man IS the Stones, and the Monkey Woman is the United States.This is the only way this line makes sense: "Well, I hope we're not too messianic, or a trifle too satanic. We love to play the blues." They don't want to be thought of as the Beatles, or a bumch of devil worshippers. They're just some guys who like the same music we do.
@johnny_dago This is a good interpretation. "Their Satanic Majesties Request" was out in '67, 'Sympathy for the Devil' was a hit in '68. They had plenty of mainstream hits by then but all the demonic imagery must have garnered them a lot of negative press.