Space Monkey Lyrics by John Prine

Space Monkey Lyrics

    Space monkey, space monkey
    What you doing out there?
    Why it's dark as a dungeon way up in the air

    Come gather round me you little monkeys and a story i'll tell
    About a brave young primate, outer space knew him well
    He was born at the top of a big old tree
    Way back in 1953.

    He could swing through the jungle and hang by his toes
    Till they took him to russia cause they could i suppose
    They dressed him up in a spacesuit and it started to snow
    Shot him off in a rocket where no man would go

    Space monkey space monkey
    What you doing out there?
    Why it's dark as a dungeon way up in the air
    There'll be no one to greet you when you get back home
    No hammer or sickle you'll be on your own.

    He had plenty of cuban bananas and loads of spam
    But he found great difficulty trying to open the can
    One day he slipped on a banana peel and the ship lost control
    It spun out of orbit and shot o]ut the black hole

    It's been four decades now, that's nine monkey years
    That's a long time for a space monkey to confront all his fears

    Space monkey space monkey
    What you doing out there?
    Why it's dark as a dungeon way up in the air
    There'll be no one to greet you when you get back home
    No hammer or sickle you'll be all on your own.

    Space monkey, space monkey
    It's time to get real
    The space race is over, how does it feel
    Cold war's had a heatwave, iron curtain's torn down
    They've rolled up the carpet in space monkey town

    Now leningrad is petersburg and petersburg's hell
    For a card-carrying monkey with a story to tell
    The space monkey was reportedly last sighted about
    A half a block off of red square
    In a karaoke bar having a few drinks with some of his friends
    There was the dog that flew sputnik
    And a blind red-headed, one legged parrot
    Who had done some minor research for dow chemical
    They were drinking american vodka
    Imported all the way from paducah, kentucky
    And reportedly had their arms around each other's
    Shoulders singing.
    "those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end"

    Space monkey, space monkey
    There's nothing to do
    But it's better than living in a communist zoo
    There'll be no one to greet you when you get back home
    No hammer or sickle you'll be all on you own

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