Off Peter Gabriel‘s fourth album, Security, in 1982, “Shock the Monkey” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and No. 29 on the Hot 100, making it his first Top 40 solo release in the U.S., following his departure from Genesis in 1975.
Videos by American Songwriter
The Meaning of “Shock the Monkey”
As cryptic as the track sounds, it’s not centered around electroconvulsive (shock therapy) treatment. And though it has a peculiar music video, featuring Gabriel as a shaman in white face paint and a scared capuchin monkey in one of the many bizarre scenes, the song wasn’t about the mistreatment of animals, or shocking any monkeys.
“Shock the Monkey” is a song about jealousy.
“Most people saw [‘Shock the Monkey’] as a sort of animal-rights song, but it wasn’t actually,” said Gabriel. “It was a song about jealousy.”
Cover me when I run
Cover me through the fire
Something knocked me out the trees
Now I’m on my knees
Cover me, don’t you monkey with the monkey
Monkey, monkey, monkey
Don’t you know you’re going to shock the monkey
Something More Primal
Fused by Gabriel’s more experimental and innovative electronics, the semi-erratic lyrics and chorus— Shock! Shock! Shock! / Watch the monkey get hurt, explores how one’s jealousy can release something more primal, or animalistic in their behavior.
On the surface, it may not appear as one, but Gabriel insisted that “Shock the Monkey” is “just a love song, although it’s not seen as that.” He added, “It refers to jealousy as a trigger for an animal nature to surface.”
Fox the fox
Rat on the rat
You can ape the ape
I know about that
There is one thing you must be sure of
I can’t take anymore
Darling, don’t you monkey with the monkey
Earth Day 2022
In 2022, “Shock the Monkey” resurfaced 40 years after it was first released.
Released exclusively for Brian Eno’s annual collaborative project EarthPercent x Earth Day, featuring dozens of artists, Gabriel shared a previously unreleased alternate mix of “Shock The Monkey.” In honor of Earth Day, all proceeds from the download of “Shock the Monkey” were donated to the environmental organization EarthPercent, founded by Eno.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
