MetaChat - "Monkey on my back"

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15 August 2007

"Monkey on my back" refers to addiction generally, or to a specific substance?

post by: Joe Invisible at: 08:03 | 15 comments

As I understand it, it refers particularly to heroin addiction, although I've heard it used in respect of other drug addictions too. I've never heard it used in relation to drinking.

posted by essexjan 15 August | 08:29

I've heard it in relation to heroin, coke and alcohol.

posted by chillmost 15 August | 08:30

When used seriously, heroin only. Facetiously, anything - coffee, chocolates, etc.

posted by mygothlaundry 15 August | 08:33

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by essexjan 15 August | 08:39

[grouse has favorited essexjan's comment]

posted by grouse 15 August | 08:42

So, not only does it apply to heroin, it applies as well to catnip.

posted by essexjan 15 August | 08:50

From here.
To have a monkey on one's back "be addicted" is 1930s narcotics slang, though the same phrase in the 1860s meant "to be angry." There is a story in the Sinbad cycle about a tormenting ape-like creature that mounts a man's shoulders and won't get off, which may be the root of the term.

posted by seanyboy 15 August | 09:26

George Michael - Monkey
Peter Gabriel - Shock the Monkey
Traveling Wilburys - Tweeter and the Monkey Man
The Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Sage Francis - Dance Monkey
Madvillain - Monkey Suite
Gorillaz - Fire Coming out of the Monkey's Head

Monkey Business
Trunk Monkeys
Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Super Karate Monkey Death Car
Monkey Torture
Super Monkey Ball 2

Yeah, I don't know--at first it was just going to be the George Michael video.

posted by box 15 August | 10:16

Wow, box! Awesome! Well now I can't resist linking the songs that inspired my question:

Aerosmith - Monkey on my Back
Led Zeppelin - Nobody's Fault but Mine with relevant lyric

posted by Joe Invisible 15 August | 10:35

I've used and heard it used in reference to addiction/dependence/unshakeable-obsession more generally.

posted by cortex 15 August | 11:26

Everybody's got something to hide, 'cept for me and my monkey.

posted by pieisexactlythree 15 August | 12:31

I've heard it used for just about anything.

Why did I not know George was gay? Denial, it ain't just a river in Egypt.

posted by deborah 15 August | 12:41

I've heard it used for any addiction.

posted by small_ruminant 15 August | 12:58

Yeah, heroin primarily. It appears in The Man with the Golden Arm and Burroughs's Junkie.

In older 19th century slang, though, the phrase meant someone "riled up", and in this sense it has always meant someone with something they can't get rid of no matter how frantically they try. So the general sense is in fact older.

posted by stilicho 15 August | 13:03

It seems it should be older than that in UK English (possibly the origin of the US phrase?).

There's a pub sign called the "Load of Mischief" or "Man Loaded with Mischief", sometimes said to be based on a Hogarth engraving, showing a man carrying a woman and a monkey on his back.

Even older, a 16th Century bestiary offers an explanation of sorts.

The female monkey gives birth to twins, loving one and hating the other. When hunted, she carries the loved one in her arms while the other clings to her back. Eventually she tires, drops the favoured baby and the other one is saved.

posted by GeckoDundee 15 August | 19:20

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