Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey

perhaps it means that of the beatle's john was the only one who didn't have a pierced penis, the prince albert, a 'p.a' as they are called. 'everybody's got something to hide, 'cept for me and my monkey'

The actual lyric as I remember from the white album picture sleeve was "C'mon IS such a joy", and C'mon IS take it easy. Doesn't make sense grammatically right? But ahhhh - back then in my Rosedale Queens NY neighborhood it was rumored that "come on" was a reference to heroin - as it was sometimes referred to as "come on". Well the song may not be about heroin use according to previous comments here, but if it were - then at least the lyrics are grammatically correct, and make more sense to me in a quirky peculiar perverted Beatle's sense of humor sort of way......

Maybe they were mocking the Maharishi?

Master-Marco......come on, get real man.

I really love the ridiculous "comeoncomeoncomeon" stuff at the end. Sometimes, it actually makes me laugh.

whats wrong with you people?! its about LOVE. "come on, its such a joy". he's happy because he has yoko. okay? thats IT.

Hey my band's name is Me & My Monkey, came from this song...
Check us out at
www.myspace.com/monkeymusicband

Everyone seems to think its either a perverted name or they ask which one is the monkey, which reminds me of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" lyrics - "Oh and by the way, which one's Pink?" which supposedly everyone used to ask them, thinking they had a lead singer name Pink.

Come on, it's such a joy.

Even though I've read this song is not about drugs, it sounds quite like a reference to heroin, which John was using at the time. "The deeper you go, the higher you fly; the higher you fly, the deeper you go" sounds like a needle reference. The "monkey" sounds like a monkey on his back. The "circus-like atmosphere" of the backing sound is similar to that of "Cold Turkey," which is the song about him quitting heroin (the guitars represent the need for a "fix"). One of MANY songs of theirs with multiple double entendres.

Adrian, I don't think this song sounds like Communication Breakdown at all. Communication Breakdown was inspired by something else, not this song.

Yeah, the "monkey" is Yoko. A lot of people were calling her "the monkey on John's back" at the time.

Krista, I think the monkey represents Yoko. I'm not too sure about that though!

This song is beast. Best song title ever.

A great primal scream rocker that actually sounds a bit like early Led Zeppelin and it has a great bass sound.
Sal, Bardonia, NY

it was george that played the firebell throughout the song i have the exact same one in my studio ive tried to recreate the sound its not that easy!

One of the Beatles' best rockers, in my most humble opinion. The line, "The deeper you go the higher you fly", simply means that skin popping heroin does not get one as high as tapping into the vein. John had a lot to hide at that point in his life. He felt that everyone else did, too, but everyone else was in denial. "Who me? No, of course not, I have nothing to hide. Well, except for maybe..." The song became both a raucous celebration of drug abuse and a caustic commentary on hypocrites with more skeletons in their closets than a graveyard.

Lee Adrian's right. "Communication Breakdown" is a great song. It's on Led Zeppelin's first album, which is self-titled.

I do not agree that this a throw away song, I think it's a great song and Why Don't We Do It in the Road is just as good, can you imagine the white album without it.

rocko's modern life is the worst show ever put on tv

Compared to the standard the Beatles set, this was a throwaway song, but it is better than Paul's equivalent, Why Don't We Do It in the Road. Even the Beatles throwaway songs were as good as...say The Boys are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy.

The title is never used in this song, they use "Everybody's got something to hide exept
FOR me & my monkey.
The title was also pairoded on a Rocko's Modern Life epsiode Rocko says to Heffer(or any body, I can't remember)"Everybody's got to something to hide exept my meat and my monkey."I can't remember which episode.

Adrian, I agree with the second half of what you wrote, but I never heard "Communication Breakdown", but I do like hard rock, and will try and corrolate the two when I do hear the song.

The Monkey is a reference to a cartoon done in a London music magazine. The cartoon depicted Yoko as a monkey on John's back with inference she that was sucking the talent out of John's back. Hence the monkey is Yoko, not masterbation or drugs. The rest of the lyric's are positive reinforcement statements the Mahirshi used in his lectures to the Beatles while they were in India in 1968.

On the Beatles Anthology, Paul said that John got the idea from the Mahirshi, who said that everyone had something to hide. John added the part about the monkey.

So yeah, it could be about masturbation, but not specifically. It could be maturbation, fornication, shoplifting, alcohol abuse, etc etc etc etc. When you think about it, doesnt everyone have something to hide? I dont care if it is a hole in their underwear, every body most certainly does.
Not everything the group wrote about had to do with drugs, or even sex for that matter.

Listen closely at the end of the song. The firebell rings, then stops, so you can just hear the guitars, then the firebell starts again with the C'mon lyrics and then fades out. During that part without the firebell ringing and with just the guitars, you can hear Lennon screaming AHHHHH, AHHHHH, AHHHH at the top of his lungs. The volume of his screams, however, are so low, you will need to have your volume up rather high or use headphones to hear it. This is my most favorite part of the song.

This is such a great song, and doesn't it seem like a lennon thing to do, to name such a great song such a long title just to irritate people when they're talking about it?

Marco, that's the stupidest and most f--ked up thing I ever heard. It has nothing to do with Masturbation.

I think this was written about the same time the Beatles were contemplating a breakup. It might have been John's way of saying his bandmates was hiding their true feelings.

This song is great.. but LSD galore.

Masturbation song? O c'mon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Love the way the intro beat got turned around - sets my ear on end!" (Ryco) Yes, that's the key. Good call.

This song was covered by US band The Feelies in the late 1970s.

Re Brittanie's comments about the Beatles not doing speed. In their Hamburg years (1960-62) they regularly took prescription amphetamines to stay awake for the long nights that they played.

Love the way the intro beat got turned around - sets my ear on end! I always heard the lyric as "Come on it's such a joy" refering to the rush one gets when shooting smack. Imho - total drug song saying you can hide anything from anybody except your own self.

Man I never saw that eppisode Im gonna go look for it. and has any one ever seen that eppisode of power puff girls lol. They get all the bad guys together and they make a gang called the beat-alls and john is supposed to be the monkey mojo then this girl monkey comes named like moko hoho or something and ruins every thing just like yoko.

Heffer: I mean, why are your hands in THAT ham and THAT monkey?

Rocko: Everybody's got something to hide except meat and my monkey!

Rockos Modern Life was amazing.

The "monkey" is Yoko, but only because John had seen a cartoon in the Times, or Daily Mail or whatever depicting her as a monkey chained to John.

The monkey is Yoko Ono. Pretty accurate description, dontcha think?

I believe some of the lyrics (ie. "Come on is such a joy") come from some of the Maharishi's lectures. Not sure about the "Monkey" part.

The driving cowbell on the verses is similar to Aerosmith's "Walk This Way".

It makes me think of all the people who are fakey- everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey!!!

I'm sure this song was meant to be interpreted as somewhat dirty, but that's what makes it fun!

This song kind of reminds me of "Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin which was recorded a few months after this and is almost exactly the same length. They are both awesome hard rock numbers and I think John's raw rock n' roll energy really broke through on the White Album and especially on this track. Great song!

They did just about everything Brittanie but i like to tell myself they only smoked Pot and took acid.
It was that Yoko Ono who got John on Heroin anyway.

Ha, I love this song. I don't know why. But I don't think it's about anything disturbed. I'm not too sure what it's about. But not ah-uh, sick stuff. Although that end part where they are saying C'mon really fast somewhat frightens me. I don't know, they sounded sorta off in the head. Maybe they were high, maybe not. We may never know. The end sounds like they were on speed. But I'm sure they weren't. I don't think they did speed.

i believe its a masturbation song