I 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.
I 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.