Shock The Monkey

I am old enough to remember the birth of MTV. I remember the commercials from its infancy when rock superstars like David Bowie would come on and say, “I want my MTV.” It was cool to see the gods of rock appear more frequently than just on American Bandstand, The Midnight Special, or the occasional appearance on Saturday Night Live. One of the first videos I saw was Peter Gabriel’s Shock The Monkey and I was blown away by the imagery as well as the awesome song. If you haven’t seen it, look it up. It is worth the effort. The line that catches my ear (see lyrics below) is “watch the monkey get hurt.” It puts a different spin on people watching.

I was already a Gabriel fan from hearing Games Without Frontiers on 104.7 FM. That was before I actually knew who he was and where he came from. He was originally the front man for Genesis and went solo. Phil Collins took up the front position from there and Genesis launched into stardom from there. Gabriel put out a trio of great albums, the third being So, which was his big commercial success. Sledgehammer, also a great song and video are worth a viewing.

Shock the Monkey
Shock the monkey to live
Shock the monkey to live

Cover me when I run
Cover me through the fire
Something knocked me out' the trees
Now I'm on my knees
Cover me, darling please
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don't you know when you're going to shock the monkey

Fox the fox
Rat the rat
You can ape the ape
I know about that
There is one thing you must be sure of
I can't take any more
Darling, don't you monkey with the monkey
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey

Wheels keep turning
Something's burning
Don't like it but I guess I'm learning

Shock! - watch the monkey get hurt, monkey

Cover me, when I sleep
Cover me, when I breathe
You throw your pearls before the swine
Make the monkey blind
Cover me, darling please
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey

Too much at stake
Ground beneath me shake
And the news is breaking

Shock! - watch the monkey get hurt, monkey

Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey to life

Icool

Cobb