Said the Gramophone

Bridge

Brown Bird - "Monkey or an Engineer"

Don't look down upon Brown Bird just because he can't decide whether he is a monkey or an engineer. It isn't always easy to distinguish. One point of confusion, for instance, is that monkeys engineer and engineers monkey. Another is that engineers and monkeys both have tails, are good at mathematics, drink white wine to the exclusion of all else, etc. Capuchin? That's a monkey. But, Spider Monkey? da Vinci? Rhesus? Alexander Graham Bell? Who can tell?

Brown Bird is not a sound engineer, that's for sure: tape hiss is featured prominently throughout his song. Then again, the song he engineered is artistically sound, and therefore, yes, in at least two senses he is a sound engineer. We mustn't forget, though, that monkeys are also sound engineers of, for example, monkey nests. So what do we know? Certainly not whether Brown Bird is a monkey or an engineer. We do know, however, that "Monkey or an Engineer" is neither a monkey nor an engineer, but a wise old ballad. [Info]