Monkey 23

'Monkey 23' by The Kills is an alternative track from the album 'Keep on Your Mean Side' (2003). The lyrics build a blunt, self-mocking image of a “monkey on my back”, repeatedly returning to the idea that an unwanted presence pushes the speaker into specific ways of talking and acting. The insistence of the refrain gives it a nagging, stuck-in-the-head quality, as if the behaviour is being compelled rather than chosen.