Peter Gabriel - Shock The Monkey

“Shock the Monkey“ is a 1982 song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. The track is also known for its popular and somewhat disturbing music video which was played heavily in the early days of MTV featuring Gabriel (in white face paint) and a frightened-looking capuchin monkey. The music video features Gabriel in two guises; one as a businessman-type in a dark suit, and the other as a mysterious persona in a white suit with white face paint. The video occurs as a back-and-forth between two rooms, each vaguely resembling an office. A movie projector plays zoo footage of a gibbon (technically, a lesser ape, not a monkey) in both rooms. As the video proceeds, events in the ’normal’ (black suit) office become increasingly irregular and disturbing, with Gabriel displaying increasing pressure, anger, and fear, and with objects in the room in increasing disarray.
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