"Monkeys For Uncles"

Courtesy of ApologetiX drummer Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner:

Ha, head-bands for everyone! I love it.

I've always been bummed that they've only done one "official" video... wish they had the funds to do more

Always enjoyed this parody. Now that they've made a video, it's twice as funny.

I kinda want to learn the guitar riff too.

DBF - have you seen the original video by Dire Straights ? Money for Nothing was a totally cool video in the 80s that was like "cutting edge" computer graphics for it's time. The Apo parody video is exactly like the original video... what a crack up

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

DBF - have you seen the original video by Dire Straights ? Money for Nothing was a totally cool video in the 80s that was like "cutting edge" computer graphics for it's time. The Apo parody video is exactly like the original video... what a crack up

Never seen the original video. I looked up the lyrics, and I'm just thankful Apo' used "maggot" instead of something else, if you know what I mean.

Yeh, no doubt !
There were 2 versions of the song in '85. The full length with the derogatory term on the album, and a shorter radio friendly version (although some stations played the longer version).

The story behind the original is interesting. One of the members of Dire Straits actually overheard a couple of appliance movers/deliverers who had stopped to watch a little bit of MTV (which was new at the time and only played music videos) on one of the TVs at a store - The words sung in the song are pretty close to what the actual person said about how they should've learned to play guitar, it'd be a much easier job to stand up on stage and make a bunch of noise than to haul around appliances all day.

Thus the idea for the song that went to # 1 in the 80s. The video used CUTTING EDGE computer graphics for the time and back then people were wowed by how cool it looked... today, we laugh at it as lame !

But it's still a classic -

And we musn't forget that our favorite ApologetiX are not the first to parody this video... there was Weird Al's tribute to The Beverly Hillbillies tv show:

What is funny about the original is that the writer is a homosexual and did not find the original terms derogatory. It was just part of the slang of the day.

Either way, I liked the original and the two parodies listed here.

alldatndensum wrote:

What is funny about the original is that the writer is a homosexual and did not find the original terms derogatory. It was just part of the slang of the day.

I had never heard that before.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Yeh, no doubt !
There were 2 versions of the song in '85. The full length with the derogatory term on the album, and a shorter radio friendly version (although some stations played the longer version).

The story behind the original is interesting. One of the members of Dire Straits actually overheard a couple of appliance movers/deliverers who had stopped to watch a little bit of MTV (which was new at the time and only played music videos) on one of the TVs at a store - The words sung in the song are pretty close to what the actual person said about how they should've learned to play guitar, it'd be a much easier job to stand up on stage and make a bunch of noise than to haul around appliances all day.

Thus the idea for the song that went to # 1 in the 80s. The video used CUTTING EDGE computer graphics for the time and back then people were wowed by how cool it looked... today, we laugh at it as lame !

But it's still a classic -

Dude… Those tiles and rows of boxes… I've seen that before in some old VeggieTales show… was it Madame Blueberry, or the Buzz Saw Louie one?

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

What is funny about the original is that the writer is a homosexual and did not find the original terms derogatory. It was just part of the slang of the day.

I had never heard that before.

Me neither ! Wow.

And DBF - VEGGIETALES RULES !!!

like the video.. not my favorite Apologetix parody.

So I'm curious… what type of songs does ApologetiX play live? Stuff from their newest album, or a mix of everything they've done?

They play long sets. Usually a good 90 minutes. They play at least half of the songs from their latest release, and tons of songs from past albums. However, in recent years they haven't played much from their early albums, except the immortal Metallica's Sandman/Samson. That seems to be a big crowd pleaser. The first concert I seen they did more Led Zepp songs, the last one they didn't do any Zepp songs at all. They once said in an interview that they have several playlists, when they get to the concert, they observe the crowd... if it's mostly older folks, they play an oldies set. If it's mostly youth, they play a mixed set of modern songs with a few oldies in there.

The last concert we went to there was a lot of older folks there. My family was invited on the stage with them (cuz we were the largest group). So I decided to snap pix while I was up there - here's a photo of their set they chose that night:

Sweet pics, G/F. I like the pack of Gibson strings beside the pedal

The following was in their latest newsletter... The video they just completed for "Monkeys" was a gift of love from a 19 year old !! I think this is amazingly cool. My hats off to this kid.
"The appearance of our "Monkeys for Uncles" video may seem abrupt, but it's actually something we've had in mind since we first released the song in November 2011.

We knew it would require a lot of work, because we wanted to spoof the classic "Money for Nothing" video, which features quite a bit of animation.

Our videographer from the 20:20 Video DVD, Brent Urmey, shot the live footage for it last August (with us in costume) before our 20th anniversary show. He was going to get a friend who specializes in animation to provide that part, but the friend's schedule got very busy.

That didn't stop God from providing. In January, we got a DVD in the mail from Jalon Rairdon, a 19-year-old fan in Minnesota who has been listening to us since he was five.

Jalon attached a letter explaining that he'd been experimenting with video animation and had decided "Monkeys for Uncles" would be a good first project for him.

He donated his finished project to us as a gift. As he said in his note, all he needed was live footage to match the original video's live footage. He had no idea that we had already shot the live footage and just needed the animation.

In the time since, Jalon and Brent have worked together to bring this project to fruition. And we praise God for both of them. We think they did a fabulous job, and it was a true labor of love for both of them."

Wow that is fantastic. Just amazing that the live footage and the video animation came together from two different sources at the same time like that. I never would have guessed it as someone's first computer animation project.

From the Apo' newsletter:

Buy New CD, Get 2 Old CDs Free
April 10, 2013, 10:41 am UTC

For one week only, buy our new Hot Potato Soup CD and get two of our old CDs free -- Adam Up (2003) and Wordplay (2006).

Both Adam Up and Wordplay feature 20 or more songs in a variety of styles. We stopped making those titles when we introduced our Classics CDs, but still have a limited number in stock. Once they're gone, that's it.

http://www.apologetix.com/store

When you order a Hot Potato Soup CD, we'll automatically send you Wordplay and Adam Up too. They won't appear in your shopping cart, but will be in your shipment.

Order two Hot Potato Soup CDs, and you'll get two Wordplay and Adam Up CDs. And so on.

This offer ends next Tuesday, April 16, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Note: some Wordplay CD cases may have slightly damaged spindles, but the CDs are in perfect shape and still in the shrink wrap. The Hot Potato Soup CDs in this special offer are not autographed.