Band: Ian Brown
Album: Unfinished Monkey Business
Year: 1998
Label: Polydor
Status: Still going
This song is one harsh critical piece underneath the thudding beat, guitars that switch from classical sounds to whale sounds, harmonica solo, and Brown’s ghostly subway singing. It accuses its target of being a habitual liar and a drug user, then Ian tells them to slip their neck into a rope (the last bit an unpleasant reminder of another Ian, 1980). It’s been claimed that a number of this album’s songs are aimed at The Stone Roses guitarist John Squire, who Ian had accused of being a selfish, unreliable, cocaine abuser. We’ll get to Squire in a later chapter. Whether the sometimes-obscure lyrics really relate to Squire or not, it’s clear Brown wasn’t lacking in talent, and whatever motivated him led to this album’s revelation of his true talent. Oh, as well as writing the songs Ian played most of the instruments himself, feeling it would give a more honest sound. And Ian produced it. And financed it.
The official video starts with monkeys, then Ian jiggling round with his trademark heavy-browed ape-like stare. That iconic Ian Brown appearance also graces the cover of this, his debut solo album. The album’s name is a further nod to the simian analogy: Ian said he’d been called a monkey so much over the years that he adopted it as part of his persona. So what if his arms are long compared to his body? It just means he can reach that bit farther. And as he swivels in a rotating chair, headphones on, he is even more laid back than the Gallaghers: he exudes confidence, and it’s easy to see why he is so often emulated. (Lastly about the video: it includes women eating shellfish, putting “corpses in their mouths”, but it’s more likely to be an overly-literal joke than a veggie agenda).
