Song of the Day 8/27: Elvis Costello, “Monkey to Man”

When surveying the state of our society, I am reminded that, though humans like to put on intellectual airs, we’re actually just a bunch of apes — advanced monkeys — who invented agriculture and clothing. And nobody, outside of coconut plantations in Thailand, has ever said, “You know what would help this situation? Monkeys.” Nobody composes poems about the noble monkey, or the loyal monkey, or the brave monkey. The troublesome monkey? The destructive monkey? Yeah, those you’ve heard of. So, basically, what did you expect from smarter monkeys? It’s a miracle we’re still here 75 years after the atomic bomb.

A lot of people don’t like the idea that we descended from monkeys — and the monkeys probably aren’t thrilled with the connection either. Elvis Costello took the monkeys’ point of view in this tune from 2004’s “The Delivery Man.” As his narrator puts it, “It’s been headed this way since the world began, when a vicious creature took the jump from monkey to man.”

Costello’s conceit wasn’t original, and to his credit he cites his source in the song’s first couplet: legendary New Orleans producer Dave Bartholomew’s 1957 R&B track “The Monkey,” a simian soliloquy that concludes,

Yes, man descended, the worthless bum
But, brothers, from us he did not come

Costello and Bartholomew even performed the song together in 2005 with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.