Monkberry Moon Delight (song)

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Album This song officially appears on the Ram LP.

Timeline This song has been officially released in 1971

Timeline This song has been written (or started being written) in 1970 (Paul McCartney was 28 years old)

Song facts

“Monkberry Moon Delight” is a song from 1971 album “Ram” credited to Paul & Linda McCartney. From Beatles Bible:

Inspired by his children’s use of wordplay, Monkberry Moon Delight featured lyrics chosen more for their phonetic sound than their meaning.
The title was derived from an alternative word for milk that the McCartney children used. Further inspiration came from the 1959 Leiber and Stoller song Love Potion No. 9.
Love Potion No. 9 featured a similarly surreal tale as McCartney’s later song, in which a man looking for love speaks to a gypsy who sells him the titular potion. It causes him to fall in love with all he sees, including a policeman on the street.
Monkberry Moon Delight takes the surrealism a step further, defying interpretation and logic to present an Edward Lear-esque stroll through the lighter recesses of McCartney’s imagination. As with The Beatles’ Glass Onion, it was almost a direct challenge for those fans who looked avidly for hidden meanings in his songs to spend hours poring over his wild free-association in search of autobiographical clues.
While the music is a light canter, McCartney’s vocals were strident and strained, recalling his classic rock ‘n’ roll performances in such songs as Long Tall Sally and Oh! Darling. Linda McCartney provided the perfect counterpoint with her backing vocals, delivered without affectation.
Monkberry Moon Delight was one of two Ram songs included in Blackbird Singing, McCartney’s 2001 collection of lyrics and poetry. It featured in the section headed The Business. The other Ram song in the book was Heart Of The Country.
“Monkberry Moon Delight I liked, so much so that it’s in my poetry book.” Paul McCartney, Mojo magazine, July 2001

McCartney’s gruff delivery clearly found favour with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who recorded Monkberry Moon Delight for his 1979 album Screamin’ The Blues. McCartney used Hawkins’ version in his pre-concert tape before his 1993 concerts.

When my kids were young they used to call milk ‘monk’ for whatever reason that kids do – I think it’s magical the way that kids can develop better names for things than the real ones. In fact, as a joke, Linda and I still occasionally refer to an object by that child-language name. So, monk was always milk, and monkberry moon delight was a fantasy drink, rather like Love Potion No. 9, hence the line in the song, ‘sipping monkberry moon delight’. It was a fantasy milk shake.
Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney in "Man On The Run", by Tom Doyle:

I tried to avoid any Beatles clichés and just went to different places. So the songs became a little more episodic or something. I took on that kind of idea a bit more than I would’ve with The Beatles. I suppose I was just letting myself be free. So if I wanted to do “Monkberry Moon Delight” with a “piano up my nose”, then I figured, that’ll be ok.

Man On The Run

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Last updated on June 6, 2020

Lyrics

So I sat in the attic
A pillow up my nose
And the wind played a dreadful cantata (ta-ta ta-ta)

So was I bound to crack with my head in this hole
And the horrible sound of tomato (matoes, matoes).

Ketch up Ketch up Super doorsy
Don't get left behind
Ketch-up behind
Be left behind
Be left behind

When I rattled the brass I'd awoken
The sinews the nerves and the veins
My piano was boldly out-spoken
Had a chance to repeat its refrain

So I stood with a knot in my stomach
Then I gazed at that terrible sight
What do your stars conceal in a barrel
Sucking Monkberry moon delight

Monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight

The sinews,
The nerves and the veins.
My piano was boldly outspoken,
In attempts to repeat its refrain.

So I stood with a knot in my stomach,
And I gazed at that terrible sight
Of two youngsters concealed in a barrel,
Sucking monkberry moon delight.

Monkberry moon delight,
Monkberry moon delight.

Know no banana is older than the rest
In my hair is a tangled buretta (re-ta re-ta)
And I would leave my pyjamas to Phyllis Budapest
Don't get the gist of your letter (letter Ooh)

Ketch-up Ketch up
Cats and kittens
Don't get left behind (get left behind)
Behind get left behind
Be left behind

When I rattled the brass I'd awoken
The sinews the nerves and the veins
My piano was boldly out-spoken
Had a chance to repeat its refrain

So I stood with a knot in my stomach
Then I gazed at that terrible sight
What do your stars conceal in a barrel
Sucking Monkberry moon delight

Monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight
Moon delight

Monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight
Monkberry moon delight