Top 10 ‘monkey’ songs

This week saw the release of the latest in the Planet Of The Apes franchise ”˜The Rise of The Planet Of the Apes’ ”“ The film is essentially a prequel explaining how our nearest relatives got so damn clever. The primates featured are smart and in the remainder of the films we see them get smarter still, until we are herded like cattle and treated to a like of servitude; however, smart as our cousins might have become they don’t appear to have discovered rock ”˜n’ roll – or is that on the Directors Cut?

So here we list ten tracks featuring all things primate as a mark of respect to our cousins.

1. Pixies ”˜Monkey Gone To Heaven’ ”“ Appeared on the bands 1989 album ”˜Doolittle’ and examined environmentalism and biblical numerology, no less.

2. Toots & The Maytals ”˜Monkey Man’ ”“ Initially released in 1969, and climbed into the UK Top 40, the song was a not so subtle swipe at the bands producer Leslie Kong. The song has more recently been covered both The Specials and Amy Winehouse.

3. National Velvet ”˜Sex Gorilla’ ”“ In 2003 Canada’s (only goth band?) National Velvet for reasons best known to themselves opened their ”˜Courage’ album with the track ”˜Sex Gorilla’. Apparently the track was called ”˜Sarsaparilla’ but when played live it was frequently mis-heard as sex gorilla ”“ oh how they must all have laughed”¦.

4. Noise Box ”˜Monkey Ass’ ”“ 1995 release by Seattle based EBM/Industrial band Noise Box. Sadly we have no idea why they play such close attention to our cousin’s nether regions…

5. Pest ”˜Chimps’ ”“ Appeared on the 2005 Ninja Tune released album ”˜Pat Pong’ ”“ Another track we are struggling to find some details about, anyone got a few clues?

6. Elvis Costello ”“ Mr McManus is obviously a man who appreciates his cousins for on his 2005 ”˜Club Date ”“ Live in Memphis’ DVD he featured two tracks with ”˜monkey’ in the title; ”˜Monkey To Man’ and ”˜The Monkey’

7. The Beastie Boys ”˜Brass Monkey’ ”“ Taken as a single from the 1987 ”˜Licenced To Ill’ album ”“ The title refers to a strong alcoholic drink, and is mentioned numerous times throughout the song.

8. The Kinks ”“ 1971 and The Kinks released ”˜Apeman’ ”“ the Ray Davies composed track has Davies fed up with the modern world and declare that he wants to “sail away to a distant shore and make like an apeman”. He also expresses how man created our problems and, given half a chance, he would leave the cities and traffic to live in the jungle.

9. Peter Gabriel ”˜Shock The Monkey’ ”“ Released in 1982, and mistakenly believed to be an animal rights song; Gabriel states that the song is “a love song that examines how jealousy can release one’s baser instincts; the monkey is not a literal monkey, but a metaphor for one’s feelings of jealousy”

10. Devo ”˜Go Monkey Go’ – Not surprising for a band devoted to the theory of devo-lution, that they name check those only a few genes behind us in the evolutionary ladder. ”˜Go Monkey Go’ was actually used in the theme to the 2005 film ”˜The Powerpuff Girls’