Monkey Drawer
I wrote this song at around 3am on a Sunday night/Monday morning. Scott was on break from college but I still had school, it was in November or December. It was one of those not uncommon nights where Scott was up all night like always (doing whatever it is that he does) and I was up all night doing laundry and homework. While I was procrastinating Scott gave me a paper pin-wheel thing that allows one to match up whatever key signature they want with the correct chord progression. At first I thought it wouldn't help me out since I shun music theory, but it then occured to me that it could be a good source of inspiration. So I picked the key of D because the chords that it said were in that key happened to be ones I already knew. I put my cassette player on and the song was finished. I thought it was pretty funny and strange and something my brother Kevin might appreciate. After the impromptu cassette session, I went and played the tape immedeatly for Scott. I said "this is a technically accurate song in the key of D." And he said "It may be technically accurate, but I'm not sure it's a song," with his typical clever snide.
Clearly the story of Monkey Drawer is of a person who goes to The Monkey Store (which is like a pet shop but only sells monkeys and monkey paraphenalia) and he either doesn't have enough money to buy, or is simply too timid to buy the monkey whom he loves. So he keeps going to the monkey store to see this monkey, and as an excuse he'll purchase things like a 'monkey drawer' (a drawer for a monkey to sleep in) or a 'moneky door' (a door that seperates the monkey part of a house from the non-monkey part of a house). Then one day he comes back to the store and someone has bought his love away from him.
It has no greater purpose. Or, at least, I had no deep or philosophical intentions for writing it. Both Lori Pearce (talented Coffee Den performer) and Ms. Otto (math teacher), among others, specifically implied that the song has some kind of deep meaning or inspiration. I'd very much like to hear what they think it means, because when I wrote the song at 3am I was just being random and silly. I'm very glad that people do think it's got a greater purpose though. I thank them for thinking of me in that way, because that's how I'd like to be viewed. In fact I did have a project a long time ago where I was going to write a song that seemed really typical but then every single word in it would be some big symbol. I abandoned that project, though, deeming it silly.
Since people have said that the song has some depth to it, I've been reevaluating it. I realized that Monkey Drawer ironically mirrors my situation with crushes and girls... you could accurately depict me as a person who'll make strange excuses to go and spend time in the proximity of someone whom I'm interested in, but then I'll never make a move. And sure enough if I never make a move somebody else will and then my love will be gone. I didn't intend the song in that way, but I think even the word-choice connotations are very accurate to my own personal situation, so I might as well have written the song as a metaphor.
If you want to go a bit more philosophical, here's a suggestion... How about the monkey store is like drugs, and the monkey is something hardcore like heroin, and the monkey drawer is weed and the monkey door is alcohol. So the boy... um.... does drugs, and then the monkey is gone.... because someone else did it... and uhh he can't do heroin. Wait that's stupid and non-sensical.... duuuuurrrpp!! You can probably come up with something a lot better. Maybe it's a political satire.
Other things about the song: My favorite thing about this song is the "la la la la la" part... it sounds an awful lot like the background music to my favorite TV show, Gilmore Girls! Monkey Drawer is definetly my most requested song. Allie Jackson insisted that I put it on my album.
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