Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head Lyrics

Lyric discussion by sarahmonster 

Cover art for Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head lyrics by Gorillaz

I almost not dare put this but its been in my head... I'm going to take this as a "literal" translation. In literature we notice that when stories are to be thought of in a far distant pass they begin with "Once upon a time.." The fact that the song mentions twice that, "their very existence a mystery to the rest of the world." and "innocent of the litany of excess and violence that was growing in the world below". This describes perhaps an unknown or underworld perhaps similar to those spoken of in hollow earth type theory. These indigenous type people who were very connected to simply living in harmony with an entity that held all "jewels" of sincerity, beauty and "where good souls come to rest". A place where good souls would come to rest would be a type of heaven. In similar ancient beliefs with these type of "crystals" exist so do different heavenly realms of existence. Then one day strangefolk arrived in Camouflage. This would seem like an obvious parallel to some type of army and the aero planes re date the story. "Now everybody's dancing the dance of the dead" signifies a process that the dead goes through once they die. The caves of unimaginable sincerity and beauty could be the caves that are being protected by our ancient ancestors. The song points out, "they coveted the Jewels in these caves above all things" It is believed in ancient scripts that there have been precious rocks or "jewels" scattered across the earth that hold unimaginable power to those who have access to it. "Meanwhile the happyfolk slept restlessly." The deeper the strangefolk dug into the mountain the worse things got until the Monkey woke up and basically this world was destroyed. I also agree with many people about the idea of "the man" eating away at our naturalism which could also be our ultimate divinity. When "the man" eats away at this divinity and searches for more than is needed and denies this "divinity" or "holiness" or "godliness" or whatever it might be, then this "natures/divination/gods" in turn might punish the people. "And then came a sound. Distant first, it grew into castrophany so immense it could be heard far away in space." Any "castrophany" able to be heard from space would ultimately be a type of distraction that would obliterate the earth it happened on. "There were no screams. There was no time. The mountain called Monkey had spoken. There was only fire. And then, nothing." The part addressed to the little town in the USA is literally talking to the people of now, and that "The time has come to see", "there's nothing you believe you want."- again addressing our hopeless searching in the things we might want, but what are we looking for? What do we want? "But where were you when it all came down on me? Did you call me now?" I believe this is the singers way of personifying a "savior", the monkey head or this earthly-"divinity" that in turn helps or punishes the people and he's asking us where we were and what we were doing when this was all happening and when it "came down on me". and it concludes by asking "Did you call me now?" Are we calling on the power of monkey head now? This savior" This divinity or this ultimate decision perhaps on the day of judgement day to dance the dance of the dead? Also, someone earlier mentioned something about a parallel to slavery in the way the humming was done. This is also something very good to look at when we look at the purpose of humans and how we function in our society and some purposes we might serve to others.

I think your analysis of the song is very close to being on target. I would refer you back to aebassist from 6.19.2005:

"I think what the story is trying to show is how the average Americans (and I only say American because of the little town USA line, it can also hold true for most of the world) just goes about there lives thinking everything is ok, but they don't realize that very bad things are happening in the world. The Strangefolk, I believe, are the powerful minortity (government officials, corporations) that aim to become richer and more powerful at...