I wrote this for Dave’s site for Turntable Talk. He wanted us to write about a song with an animal in the title or lyrics.
This is the Beatles at their most caffeinated, most chaotic, and most cracked. It’s them turning up the thermostat on rock & roll just to see if the walls start to melt. I liked the chaos and music they put to this song. It’s intense and doesn’t let up throughout the song. It’s like a cousin to Helter Skelter, but hopped up on confusion. That said, the song is very tight musically underneath the chaos. This is yet another reason I love the White Album. You have this on the same album as Blackbird and Rocky Raccoon. The Beatles, more than many bands, could adapt to a style of music and play it well.
Lennon sounds giddy, high on something, probably Yoko, maybe drugs, definitely freedom. The monkey might be Yoko. It might be his own self-made madness. Or maybe it’s a giant middle finger to everyone trying to box him in. What was it about? John said he, Yoko, and Paul thought it was drugs. Whatever it was made an interesting recording that still grabs my ear.
The Beatles began working on this song, which continued until 3 a.m. The session was not a keeper, and the tape was to be taped over (EMI saving money), but in 2018, while remastering the album, they found an alternative version of this song that was recorded on the first night. Someone didn’t tape over it. Geoff Emerick, the Beatles’ sound engineer, had said that they recorded this song and Helter Skelter at maximum volume in the studio, and it showed in the final recording.
It has one of my favorite song titles of all time. Chaos reigns in this song, and Paul adds a great short bass run…not to mention a fire bell ringing throughout. Lennon once said it was inspired by something Maharishi Mahesh Yogi would say (Take off your clothes and jump in the water type enlightenment), but by the time it was recorded for the White Album in June ’68, John had already dropped the Maharishi and picked up Yoko Ono.
The White Album was released in 1968 and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Chart, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #1 about everywhere else…and it would be #1 as well in Max’s heart.
If you’re looking for one of the most purely energetic cuts in the Beatles’ catalog, something that draws a direct line to punk, garage, and all the future people who liked their rock sweaty and unfiltered, this is your monkey.
John Lennon: About me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love.
Paul McCartney: “He was getting into harder drugs than we’d been into and so his songs were taking on more references to heroin. Until that point we had made rather mild, rather oblique references to pot or LSD. Now John started to be talking about fixes and monkeys and it was a harder terminology which the rest of us weren’t into. We were disappointed that he was getting into heroin because we didn’t really see how we could help him. We just hoped it wouldn’t go too far. In actual fact, he did end up clean but this was the period when he was on it. It was a tough period for John, but often that adversity and that craziness can lead to good art, as I think it did in this case.”
Fats Domino covered this song.
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
Come on come on come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on take it easy
Come on take it easy
Take it easy take it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and
My monkey.
The deeper you go the higher you fly
The higher you fly the deeper you go
So come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on make it easy
Come on make it easy.
Take it easy take it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and
My monkey.
Your inside is out and your outside is in
Your outside is in and your inside is out
So come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on make it easy
Come on make it easy
Make it easy make it easy
Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and
My monkey.
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As Beatles songs go this is one of those I knew nothing about. And Fats covering the song also caught me off guard. Solidifying my ignorance I suppose. I am off on a road trip with a buddy to his daughter’s wedding this weekend. So apologies as I don’t know how much I will be able to hang out on WP.
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Have a great one and congrats!
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John had a monkey on his back when this song was written. Having a monkey on your back is something you cannot get rid of, or control.
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A good song from a great album
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Yes it is…thanks Glyn
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a great picturesque description of it! Thanks again for taking part MAx. Boy, they had a LOT of animal songs – ‘Rocky Raccoon’, ‘I am the walrus’, ‘Octopus’s Garden’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Blue Jay Way’…
I dunno though that monkey seems suspicious. I think he’s hiding something!
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LOl… yea more than I ever thought about…I had to pick the oddest one lol. I love it though..
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I had not heard this one before, thanks for the backstory, Max!
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Thank you Dana!
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One of my faves.
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Thanks! I love Beatles album cuts.
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Perhaps one of the least obvious picks when you think of Beatles songs that have an animal in the title. But this is also what made your post interesting! 🙂
I also find it pretty intriguing Fats Domino covered that song. His version is pretty cool!
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I do like Fat’s version of this. This has to be one of the Beatles most chaotic songs.
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Just looked for more info on the song at wiki and found this: “The final mix was sped up by mixing the tape running at 43 hertz instead of the usual 50” which I would imagine is why it sounds a little more frenetic than usual. I love the title and like the origin of it. This post has given me an idea for a post (you’ll know it when you see it.) For me Geo’s guitar makes this song special. Happy Friday!
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Cool…glad I could help!
Yea I love George’s guitar in this one….it goes everywhere and I love Beatles album cuts.
I’ll be by tonight Lisa…been a day and a half!
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OK, Max. Sorry it’s been a busy day for you. Take it easy, my friend.
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It was awful and I just got home not long ago. Next week will be very hard to comment on Thursday. We have a Franchise Convention and I have to speak a little next Thursday….we have been getting ready for it.
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Where is the convention being held? Sounds stressful. Just take it easy. Your friends in the cyberworld aren’t going anywhere. We’ll be here. Real life always takes precedence.
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At our building…we don’t have a large building but we have a training room and a test kitchen so we all meet in the training area.
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Convenient. Sounds nerve-wracking though.
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No wonder it fair belts along. The title is whacked out.
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It was a good move to speed it up. Yes, I wonder what secrets the Maharishi Yogi had…
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I don’t mind the Fats version but it feels pedestrian compared to the Beatles stumbling around the ragged edge of implosion version. Such a joy indeed.
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Yes it is…when I thought about it…I thought dang…Fats must have wanted something completely different. It’s not a song you would think he would cover…now a song like Martha My Dear…yes but this one was strange. I do like the Beatles version the best.
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Good one. Guitar, bass, voice, bell- all great.
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that’s the thing..yeah love George, and there’s Ringo, but Lennon and McCartney…they seemed to always be writing and just influencing themselves….the Get Back doc showed that they just had fun..unlike the Let it Be movie….along with all the film footage that Peter Jackson found, I wonder if there’s a bunker – or will be- full of things we’ll only hear in years and decades after all four of them are gone….and they still influence….I’ll always remember interviewing a band from Kelowna BC back in the 90s, I think called Jazzberry Ram or something, I asked them what their songwritting influences were, they just said the Beatles, I don’t think they were born until after Lennon died..
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