March 21, 2025: ScopesStudying: “Part Man, Part Monkey”

[100 yearsago this month, the Tennessee General Assembly passed the ButlerAct, prohibiting public school teachers from teaching evolution. Sothis week I’ll AmericanStudy that law and the famoustrial it produced, leading up to a weekend post on current attacks oneducators.]

On threelayers to the monkey-centered content and tone in Bruce Springsteen’sunder-appreciated gem (one of my wife’s favorite Boss songs):

1)     Humorous Intent: I don’t think Bruce haswritten a funnier verse than this song’s first: “They prosecuted some poorsucker in these United States/For teaching that man descended from theapes/They coudla settled that case without a fuss or a fight/If they’d seen mechasin’ you sugar through the jungle last night/They’da called in that jury anda one two three/Said part man, part monkey, definitely.” I have to believe thatBruce, who has a delightful sense of humor in and about his work (and in lifein general), began writing this song with precisely that straightforward thought—thatthis was a really funny premise and twist on relationship songs (he apparentlyfirst wrote and recorded it during the Tunnel of Love sessions, when hewas focused on such subjects). Plus, as my wife would insist I add, “theseUnited States” is one of Bruce’s funnier individual turns of phrase in anysong.

2)     Human Impulses: I can count on one hand theBruce songs that don’t have multiple layers, though, and it’s the way in which eachverse in this song takes us to a new place that makes it as great as it is. Theopening lines of the second verse connect the song’s central image very fullyto Tunnel’s raw, honest, and frequently dark portrayal of marriage: “Wellthe church bell rings from the corner steeple/Man in a monkey suit swears he’lldo no evil/Offers his lover’s prayer but his soul lies/Dark and driftin’ andunsatisfied.” When the song’s speaker then asks the “bartender” what he seesand the bartender responds, “Part man, part monkey, looks like to me,” that repeatedtitular image is no longer just a funny depiction of the quest for sex or love—it’sa reflection of some of the most natural yet most destructive human impulses,the most animal and unattractive parts of ourselves.

3)     The Heart of the Issue: After a very sexybridge, the song’s final verse takes us to a logical but still I would argueunexpected place—back to the Scopes monkey trial, and to the heart of thattrial’s debates. “Well did God make men in a breath of holy fire?/Or did hecrawl on up out of the muck and fire?/The man on the street believes what theBible tells him so/Well you can ask me, mister, because I know/Tell themsoul-sucking preachers to come on down and see/Part man, part monkey, baby that’sme.” By the heart of the issue, I do mean in part questions of religion andevolution, of what we believe about where we come from. But I also andespecially mean the question of whether we believe because of the myths we’retold by traditional “authorities,” or believe based on our own critical perspectiveson and understandings of the world as it is. And I’m with Bruce’s speaker (andClarence Darrow, and Scopes): to believe based on the myths we’re told is, ultimately,soul-sucking.

21stcentury contexts this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?