Shock the Monkey

Due to its title and the content of the video, the song is frequently assumed to be either an animal rights song or a reference to the famous experiments by Stanley Milgram described in his book Obedience to Authority.[4] It is neither, although another Gabriel song, "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)", from his 1986 album So, does deal directly with Milgram. Gabriel himself has described "Shock the Monkey" as "a love song" that examines how jealousy can release one's basic instincts; the monkey is not a literal monkey, but a metaphor for one's feelings of jealousy.[5]

The track is known for its disturbing music video, written and directed by Brian Grant of MGMM Studios.[6] The video was played heavily in the early days of MTV featuring Gabriel (in white face paint) and a frightened-looking capuchin monkey. Gabriel appears in two guises; one is as a businessman-type in a dark suit, and the other as a "modern primitive" shaman painted and dressed in white with geometric markings in black on his face.[7] The video occurs as a back-and-forth between two rooms, each vaguely resembling an office. A movie projector plays zoo footage of a gibbon (technically, a lesser ape, not a monkey) in both rooms. As the video proceeds, events in the 'normal' (black suit) office become increasingly irregular and disturbing with objects in the room in increasing disarray. Gabriel displays increasing pressure, anger, and fear as the chaos occurs. The office footage is increasingly interspersed with black-and-white footage of Gabriel fleeing from something unknown in a wilderness, and a disoriented Gabriel in different settings including central London in what looks to be a hospital. At the end of the video, the dark-suited Gabriel merges with the face-painted Gabriel. In the final shot, the two Gabriel's faces are superimposed over that of the gibbon.

"Shock the Monkey" was released as a 7-inch picture disc in addition to the 7-inch and 12-inch black vinyl singles. Club DJ remix service Hot Tracks crafted an 8:12 version that intersperses verses and choruses sung by Gabriel in German with the more familiar English lyrics. A seven-minute-long concert version of the song appears on Gabriel's album Plays Live (1983). It is also included on the compilation albums Greenpeace (1985), Shaking the Tree (1990) and Hit (2003). The music video appears on the DVD compilation Play (2004).

• Peter Gabriel – lead and backing vocals, LinnDrum programming, Prophet-5, Fairlight CMI synthesizer and sequencing[8][6][9]
• Tony Levin – Chapman Stick
• David Rhodes – guitars
• Jerry Marotta – drums
• Larry Fast – Prophet-5
• Peter Hammill – backing vocals

An online contest was held in September 2006 by Realworld Remixed in which musicians and engineers were invited to submit a remix of the song. The original tracks were made available for download, offering an opportunity to work with the raw material from a hit song. The winner was Multiman's "Simian Surprise".

"Shock the Monkey"
Single by Coal Chamber featuring Ozzy Osbourne
from the album Chamber Music
Released	1999 (1999)
Format	CD single
Genre	Gothic rock nu metal industrial metal
Length	3:33 (radio edit) 3:45 (album version)
Label	Roadrunner
Songwriter(s)	Peter Gabriel
Producer(s)	Josh Abraham
Coal Chamber singles chronology
"Not Living" (1999) "Shock the Monkey" (1999) "Fiend" (2002)
Ozzy Osbourne singles chronology
"Buried Alive" (1999) "Shock the Monkey" (1999) "N.I.B." (2000)

The nu metal band Coal Chamber covered "Shock the Monkey" on their 1999 album Chamber Music. The cover featured guest vocals by Ozzy Osbourne. The music video was directed by Dean Karr. It shows the band playing with Osbourne and it has shots of a monkey.

• List of number-one mainstream rock hits (United States)

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics