#33: Monkey Business

Playlist for Sunday April 26, 2009
Hosted by Greg Denton with guest Ian Reid

1. Wake Up Jacob - Prince Albert Hunt & His Texas Ramblers

2. Monkey On The Interstate - Michael Hurley
3. Monkey On A String - Cal Stewart
From a 1907 wax cylinder recording! Cal Stewart was born in Virginia in 1856 but was famous for his vaudeville character performances as Uncle Josh Weathersby from the fictional town of Punkin Center, New England. A friend of Mark Twain & Will Rogers, and a recording pioneer, Stewart started recording for Edison in 1897 and also made recordings for Columbia & Victor before his death in 1919.

4. The Lonesome Ape - Jimmy Driftwood
5. Monkey That Became President - Tom T. Hall

6. Too Much Monkey Business - Chuck Berry
7. Rock 'n' Roll Jungle - Joe Benson
8. Monkey Man - Toots & The Maytals
9. Monkey - Lord Messam & His Calypsonians
Though Lord Messam calls his band Calypsonians, he's known as a preminent example of Mento. Mento is a Jamaican folk music closely related to Calypso (originating in Trinidad & Tobago) but with a distinct history and lacking the Spanish influences. Largely played on acoustic string instruments with hand drum accompaniment, and very popular in the 1950s, Mento is a precurser to Jamaican ska and reggae music.

10. You Gonna Look Like A Monkey - Michael Hurley
11. Too Many Monkeys - Randy Sutherland
A song co-written by Randy Sutherland & Bill Cino. Recorded live with Tamarack in 1984 & featuring Jeff Bird, James Gordon, & David Houghton.

12. One Monkey - Gillian Welch

13. Porcelain Monkey - Warren Zevon
Written by Warren Zevon & collaborator Jorge Calderon after noticing a porcelain monkey with onyx eyes on the coffee table in a postcard of Elvis Presley's TV room at Graceland. From the Life'll Kill Ya album, released a year before and portending Warren Zevon's diagnosis of a rare asbestos related lung cancer. After suffering shortness of breath and dizzyness while playing some 2002 Canadian folk festival gigs, he saw a doctor for the first time in 20 years and, after one day of tests, was told he had 3 months to live. Warren Zevon described himself as a folk singer. Because he had a big hit early in his career (Werewolves Of London) he thought he was viewed, late in his career, as a down & out 70s rock star. He said, in a 2001 interview, that he prefered to think of himself as a very successful folk singer.

14. Tweeter & The Monkey Man - The Traveling Wilburys

15. Jealous Daddy's Death Song (Don't You Monkey With My Widow) - The (Un)Holy Modal Rounders