1. This song is not literally about shocking someone or a monkey.
Peter Gabriel has never elaborated much on the meaning of “Shock The Monkey,” other than to say in a 1993 interview, “This song is about jealousy and a sort of animal nature.”
However, another Gabriel song, “We Do What We’re Told,” was inspired by the infamous 1961 Milgram experiments in which subjects believed they were administering shocks to other test subjects and continued to administer higher and higher “shocks” when instructed to do so.
2. “Shock the Monkey” was the first song from Peter Gabriel that charted in the U.S. Top 40.
It also charted higher in US than the UK.
3. Peter Hammill sang backup.
He was a member of the band Van Der Graaf Generator.
4. Gabriel recorded a German version on his Deutsches album called “Shock Den Affen.”
5. The music video was directed by Brian Grant, who has directed TV episodes of “Doctor Who,” “Hex,” and the film “The Immortals”.
He also directed the music videos: “How Will I Know” by Whitney Houston, “She Works Hard for the Money” by Donna Summer and “Physical,” by Olivia Newton-John.
6. Although dark and disturbing the video has many layers.
Gabriel is shown in two guises: A modern-day businessman and a spiritual shaman with white tribal markings. By the end of the video, he’s given in to his more primitive self. Grant expands “men, as time has progressed, have sort of lost their primeval instincts. As we become more modern and the more technology takes over, the less instincts we have. That’s what the two men in the video basically represent. The man in the business suit represents modern man. The man in all white is representative of his more primal side trying to tap into his subconscious. The white just felt more tribal, more primeval and we drew our inspiration from some tribes in South America.”
7. The video draws inspiration from Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”.
At the time Brian Grant had just seen a private viewing of Blade Runner. “The lights inside and the lights outside, came because we had just seen ‘Blade Runner’ and I was fascinated by all of the machines and the lights that whizzed by outside the windows.”
8. This song was featured in the South Park episode “Raisins”
When Stan held up a boom box playing this song on Wendy’s front lawn only to find out she was with Token. The scene was a play on the movie Say Anything, which featured Gabriel’s song “In Your Eyes.”
4 comments
Aight e’rybody, let’s take a look at the REAL meaning of this song, but start from looking at the last lyrical line in the song, “Shock the monkey to life.” This song is 100% about Peter’s experience with making and smoking crack cocaine. Monkey, of course, refers to the intense craving effect a drug has on a person. Crack first was known to hit the streets in the US in ’80 and ’81; this song was released in 82. Additionally, when making crack, the final critical step is to ‘shock’ it whereby the crack, still in its liquid state and still in the hot water right after the cook, is doused with cold water to push any remaining air and salts out of the ball of oil, increasing its potency, while also turning it into a very hard rock of crack (https://how-to-properly-make-crack-cocaine-940.peatix.com/). It is also worthy to note that in the live version of this song, the last line lyric is, “How much am I paying you?” So, from this lens, the rest of the lyrics make much more sense and fall right in line with this theme of Peter’s experience with smoking crack cocaine. Also, note in the following album in the song, Sledgehammer, he writes a lyrical line, “I kicked the habit. Shed my skin,” and these lines echoed and emphasized by the background singers right after Gabriel sings them. You can’t necessarily believe what he publicly declared the song to be about (jealousy) obviously because he had SO (pun intended) much on the line. ‘Monkey’ in this song refers to both the “primitive monkey mind” and its urges and compulsions of the crack addict as well as the addictive drug, crack, itself.
Consider the lyrics below with the interpretted context in *brackets* beneath each respective line:
Cover me when I run
*Drug run- when he is running to get the cocaine, or when he is high and speeding from the high*
Cover me through the fire
*Either when he’s using a flame to cook the coke into crack or using the flame to smoke it, or both *
Something knocked me out the trees
*Trees referring to where and when he was high AF on crack*
Now I’m on my knees
*Figuratively in agony and in submission from the cravings, or literally on his knees carpet creeping hoping to find any last tiny little bits he had dropped, desperate for the rush from just one more crack hit, or both*
Cover me, don’t you monkey with the monkey
*Lie for him, and don’t mess with him in his monkey mind state, or mess with the monkey, crack*
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don’t you know when you’re going to shock the monkey
*Make the crack or mess with him in his withdrawing, craving, animalistic state*
Fox the fox
*Have to be sly*
Rat on the rat
*If he gets caught, he’ll flip and give up his coke dealer*
You can ape the ape
*A person can fool another dumb person*
I know about that
*Because he’s already done so (fooled people)*
There is one thing you must be sure of
I can’t take anymore
*Can’t take any more of the crack experience, specifically him running out, or can’t take any more of her chastising or lecture*
Darling, don’t you monkey with the monkey
*Don’t mess with him or the crack*
Monkey, monkey, monkey
*Him withdrawing, the crack*
Don’t you know you’re going to shock the monkey
*She’s going to mess with him or succumb to the temptation and cook crack for herself, or cook crack for him*
Wheels keep turning
*Thinking how can he get more*
(Monkey)
Something’s burning
*The cooking, the smoking, or the desire for more crack*
(Monkey)
Don’t like it but I guess I’m learning
*Doesn’t like the severe cravings and is learning that whoever had warned him about the cravings from smoking crack was right*
Shock!
Shock!
Shock!
Watch the monkey get hurt, monkey
Shock!
Shock!
Shock!
Watch the monkey get hurt, monkey
Cover me, when I sleep
Cover me, when I breathe
You throw your pearls before the swine
*The person who turned him onto crack telling him, “Oh, once you try this crack, you’ll think snorting it is a waste moving forward, because the high is SO MUCH MORE INTENSE AND BETTER!”*
Make the monkey blind
*Peter is already a snorter coke head, and the temptation to feel what is a “snort coke buzz to the tenth power” when smoked as crack is absolutely irresistible, despite knowing the risk of deep addiction*
Cover me, don’t you monkey with the monkey
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don’t you know you’re going to shock the monkey
Too much at stake
(Monkey)
*Addiction*
Ground beneath me shake
(Monkey)
*Realizing that crack is so good that he may have an addiction*
And the news is breaking
*E.g., “Gabriel was found smoking crack,” or “Gabriel checked into rehab,” as reported by the media.*
Shock!
Shock!
Shock!
Watch the monkey get hurt, monkey
Shock!
Shock!
Shock!
Watch the monkey get hurt, monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey to life
*Pouring cold water over the still hot cocaine oil is the last step in processing cocaine into crack. This last step is bringing “the monkey” that will be on Gabriel’s back into reality and bringing this potential to life*
(Shock the monkey to life)
Shock the monkey to life, hey, hey
(Shock the monkey to life)
Shock the monkey to life
(Shock the monkey to life)
Shock the monkey to life, hey, hey
(Shock the monkey to life)
Hey, hey, hey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey
Shock the monkey to life
I actually thought that it had to do with giving in to the temptation of drugs. The jealousy thing just didn’t make alot of sense. I didn’t know about his addiction to Crack though. Your interpretation makes complete sense. Thanks for the explanations and interpretations!
My interpretation of Peter Gabriel’s, Shock the Monkey was about the corporate world and being in it and what you value and how you somehow lose that. How we become more animalistic and competitive in nature, even predatory. The video even shows this dark and light nature about somebody who is going to work and trying to put food on the table and clap clothes on his back. And the anxieties that we feel while we are at work. ” Cover me when I sleep[…] Run, breathe… these are all stressors/anxieties from work. In the video, you see Gabriel ‘s business man’s character going to his dark prison like cage to that same office being painted white. He is running in a forest for cover…a flight or fight response. Gabriel’s character changes from a black suit to a white suit and starts wearing what looks like tribal paint looking animalistic. i.e. fox, rat ape, monkey, That he mentions in the lyrics. Even the ceiling in his office is coming down on him. His bosses or colleagues are jumping on his back and biting him. The video shows Gabriel ‘s character as this angry man spinning amid the shock of who he’s become. In the video He’s up to his neck in water inches from drowning. One of my favorite lyrics from the song is when he says, “wheels are turning.” “Don’t like it but I guess I’m learning.” It’s a Constant reminder about who you are in this world of work and your choices and no matter how old you are or whether you like it or not, we continue to learn about life and ourselves.
I love this song. I’ve played it probably a thousand times over the years. There’s a post 11 years ago on YouTube where a guy remixed it and it’s a really good too. His handle is Music MMi and it’s titled shock the monkey remix.
There was another great remix a few years ago but it got taken down. That one was more of an African mix and really good!