Lyrics Monkee in the Mango Tree - Lena Horne, Ricardo Montalban

Monkee in the Mango Tree

Three monkeys in the mango tree
Were indulging in philosophy.
And as I walked by the mango tree,
One of them addressed himself to me:
«Hey, man, is it true what they say?
Hey, man, is it true that today
They claim that my brothers and me
Are the predecessors of humanity?
Hey, man, why you give us bad name?
Hey, man, it’s a blight and a shame
To claim this uncivilized cuss
Could have been descended from the likes of us.
How can you have the brazen face
To scandalize our noble race?
Don’t identify yourself with me,»
Said the monkey in the mango tree…
«Hey, man, why you give us bad name?
Hey, man, it’s a blight and a shame
To claim, most un-biblically,
That this chump could once have been a chimpanzee.»
That’s the monkey language!
The monkey very clever!
Which is to say, in his own way,
Would a monkey ever
Analyze his psyche, amortize his soul,
Tranquilize his frontal lobes with al-co-houl,
Televise his follies and the life he lives,
Eulogize his gargles and his laxatives,
Simonize his teeth, lanolize his hands,
Hormonize his chromosomes with monkey glands,
Mechanize the Greeks, modernize the Turks,
And then with one little atom -- poof!
-- atomize the works?
«Hey, man, do you call it fair play?
Hey, man, is it brilliant to say
That the monkey and his uncles and his cousins and his aunts
Are the parents of such foolishment and de-ca-dance?
Don’t identify yourself with me,»
Said the monkey in the mango tree.