Throwback: Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head - Gorillaz
Released in 2005 off Gorillaz's second and acclaimed album Demon Days, "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" is an overlooked and undercover track overshadowed by the album's multiple singles: "EL Mañana," "Dirty Harry," "Dare," "Feel Good Inc.," and "Kids with Guns." While these aforementioned tracks are bangerz in their own right, and have credible influence, "Fire Coming out the Monkey's Head" is arguably one of the most unique songs Gorillaz has ever made, and that's saying something about the band of cartoon musicians.
Song writing takes many forms or styles, particularly laced with metaphors and expressions to not necessarily tell a story but to express an emotion or feeling. Not often do we see the notion of fryetag's pyramid in songs (some notable examples come from artists like Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, J. Cole and Courtney Barnett) as some may feel the format appears boring or too unconventional, but Gorillaz decided to take a crack at it.
We tend to tell stories to promulgate messages or make apparent issues that may formally be swept under the rug or overlooked, which is evident in narrative-based music. With "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" this leitmotif is consistent as the Damon Albarn project attempts to evoke the harmful audacity that powerful nations have when conspiring to abuse their influence and strength on the more impoverished nations while placing ignominy on these same "1st world" countries. It revolves around a small but happy village where the residents are referred to as "happy folk" around the "mountain called Monkey." Suddenly, "strange folk," or assumed foreign powers, infiltrate the village to mine the mountain. The strange folk go undetected, as the happy folk are blind to foreign evils: greed and material pleasures that can be attributed to hedonistic ideals. The happy folk are an almost utopian society; there is no apparent violence, commodity fetishism, or hints of despair, just peace.
As the song/story progresses the strange folk use all of the happy folk's apparent resources found in the Mountain. Unbeknownst to the strange folk, the resources within the mountain, precious to the happy folk are their souls, which had been guarded by the spirit of the Monkey. Angered, the Mountain called Monkey erupts destroying this once perfect society, serving as a metaphor that when these dominating foreign powers enter villages or countries to exploit their resources, only destruction can come of it. The song also has a dark almost clandestine beat (possibly a reference to the "strange folk") but the real magic is obviously that narrative and where the song shines.
Check out "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" on Demon Days, and Gorillaz's upcoming The Now Now, and that dope single "Humility," because it's pretty tight.
We tend to tell stories to promulgate messages or make apparent issues that may formally be swept under the rug or overlooked, which is evident in narrative-based music. With "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" this leitmotif is consistent as the Damon Albarn project attempts to evoke the harmful audacity that powerful nations have when conspiring to abuse their influence and strength on the more impoverished nations while placing ignominy on these same "1st world" countries. It revolves around a small but happy village where the residents are referred to as "happy folk" around the "mountain called Monkey." Suddenly, "strange folk," or assumed foreign powers, infiltrate the village to mine the mountain. The strange folk go undetected, as the happy folk are blind to foreign evils: greed and material pleasures that can be attributed to hedonistic ideals. The happy folk are an almost utopian society; there is no apparent violence, commodity fetishism, or hints of despair, just peace.
As the song/story progresses the strange folk use all of the happy folk's apparent resources found in the Mountain. Unbeknownst to the strange folk, the resources within the mountain, precious to the happy folk are their souls, which had been guarded by the spirit of the Monkey. Angered, the Mountain called Monkey erupts destroying this once perfect society, serving as a metaphor that when these dominating foreign powers enter villages or countries to exploit their resources, only destruction can come of it. The song also has a dark almost clandestine beat (possibly a reference to the "strange folk") but the real magic is obviously that narrative and where the song shines.
Check out "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" on Demon Days, and Gorillaz's upcoming The Now Now, and that dope single "Humility," because it's pretty tight.
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