"One monkey don't stop no show": precise meaning and origins of this saying, please.

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I keep thinking of "Hail to the Chimp."

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

"the sky is held up with a bottle of Helleman's."

― QUOTATIONS OF CHAIRMAN MAYO (hstencil), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

honey cone

― duke name, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry, bad translation.

― QUOTATIONS OF CHAIRMAN MAYO (hstencil), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

It's the name of a Bette Midler song. That's good enough for me.

Apart from that, nothing. Google sucks.

― I Wish You Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 03:50 (twenty-two years ago)

honey cone

-- duke name (dan...) (webmail), May 18th, 2004 9:49 PM. (later) (link)

yeah, well, why do you think this came up?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 04:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a bad feeling it's racist in origin.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 04:37 (twenty-two years ago)

james taylor don't wear no clothes

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 04:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"I have a bad feeling it's racist in origin. "

i suspect, to the contrary, it's actually from afro-american folk culture, see also signifying monkey etc.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 04:44 (twenty-two years ago)

gregg perry appears to be a producer/arranger, my guess is general johnson wrote the lyric then. check his online shop and you see not only stuff for his band "chairmen of the board," but alongside them an even more bromidic torrent ("gone fishin'"?!). conclusion: he must have drawn from the (maybe even carolina?) vernacular, or attempted coining something of those contours, since he's so clearly taken by functional banality. glad to be of help...

― duke caroliner, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 06:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"gregg perry appears to be a producer/arranger, my guess is general johnson wrote the lyric then"

but this phrase dates back to songs by joe tex (1960s) and even further back in the r&b tradition. but i don't recall hearing it in any prewar blues.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 07:08 (twenty-two years ago)

it dates to the nesmith-kirshner feud

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 07:22 (twenty-two years ago)

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