Porcelain Monkey

Album: Life'll Kill Ya (2000)
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  • He was an accident waiting to happen
    Most accidents happen at home
    Maybe he should have gone out more often
    Maybe he should have answered the phone

    Hip-shakin' shoutin' in gold lame
    That's how he earned his regal sobriquet
    Then he threw it all away
    For a porcelain monkey

    He threw it away for a porcelain monkey
    Gave it all up for a figureine
    He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas
    And his face of velveteen

    From a shotgun shack singing Pentacostal hymns
    Through the wrought iron gate to the TV room
    He had a little world, it was smaller than your hand
    It's a rockabilly ride from the glitter to the gloom

    Left behind by the latest trends
    Eatin' friend chicking with his regicidal friends
    That's how the story ends
    With a porcelain monkey

    He threw it away for a porcelain monkey
    Gave it all up for a figureine
    He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas
    And his face of velveteen

    Hip-shakin' shoutin' in gold lame
    That's how he earned his regal sobriquet
    Then he threw it all away
    For a porcelain monkey

    He threw it away for a porcelain monkey
    Gave it all up for a figureine
    He traded it in for a night in Las Vegas
    And his face of velveteen Writer/s: JORGE CALDERON, WARREN WILLIAM ZEVON
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, Wixen Music Publishing
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • Pat from Albuquerque, NmApparently Elvis collected and decorated with porcelain monkeys in his later years--a lot of them. Try Googling "Elvis Porcelain Monkeys."
  • Andy from Baltimore, MdI knew it was about Elvis. It's typical Zevon, grim subject, songwriter detached about it. But I couldn't find out what the porcelain monkey was. Thanks for posting that.
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