The other interpretations of this song here are wrong. Toots Hibbert explained it himself to an attractive reporter: "Well, 'Monkey Man' is all about a girl, a very good-looking girl like you. I fell in love with her, and then a monkey-looking man took her away from me -- but I thought she was in love with ME! The guy was ugly, and not good looking like me, ha ha!"
You get it? She's hugging a big guy instead of Toots, and the dude looks like a monkey.
"Monkey Man" has nothing to do with bouncers.
"Monkey Man" DOES have something to do with late great producer Leslie Kong. He produced it! (If the song had been a putdown of Kong why would Kong put his money into releasing and promoting it? Think these things through, people!)
The other interpretations of this song here are wrong. Toots Hibbert explained it himself to an attractive reporter: "Well, 'Monkey Man' is all about a girl, a very good-looking girl like you. I fell in love with her, and then a monkey-looking man took her away from me -- but I thought she was in love with ME! The guy was ugly, and not good looking like me, ha ha!" You get it? She's hugging a big guy instead of Toots, and the dude looks like a monkey.
"Monkey Man" has nothing to do with bouncers.
"Monkey Man" DOES have something to do with late great producer Leslie Kong. He produced it! (If the song had been a putdown of Kong why would Kong put his money into releasing and promoting it? Think these things through, people!)