Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..

Subject: Lyric req.; The monkey wrapped his tail
From: GUEST,Jim Hewitt
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 11:47 PM

I have heard about lyrics sung to the tune of National Emblem march which begin "Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole". Does anyone know more about this?

Subject: RE: Lyric req.; The monkey wrapped his tail
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 12:54 AM

Only "To see his asshole"

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyric req.; The monkey wrapped his tail
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:36 AM

Another music thread taken seriously. Sorry I don't know. But I've heard that being sung to one of those marches, by John Philip Sousa.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Forrest Sherman
Date: 17 May 09 - 03:53 PM

Oh the Monkey Wrapped his tail around his tail around the flag pole,
To see the grass grow around his asshole.
my father used to sing this, but he never continued any farther.
He was a marine and I suspect that it was part of ribald parody.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 09 - 05:52 PM

One more phrase I remember hearing, when I was about 10 years old, i.e. 60+ years ago:

"to see his balls roll"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 May 09 - 07:40 PM

This one does date to WW1.
Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs and Folklore, vol. 2, "Blow the Candle Out," Vulgar Rhymes p.673. has two short rhymes sung to the march, or to a bugle call:

Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole
An' up his ass-hole, an' up his ass-hole!
Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole,
And you can all just .... kiss my ass!

Randolph heard it in 1926, but forgot two syllables marked by '....'

I remember my father sang "Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole, tore his ass-hole, ..." but I can't remember the rest. He picked it up at Ft. Riley, Kansas, about 1918 when he was in training there.

There may never have been a complete song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 May 09 - 08:46 PM

In my family it was

Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole
To see his asshole
Wave in the wind.

To skip the preposterous (or is it postposterous?) anatomy implied by that version is surely to miss most of the fun.

I wonder if Freud ever heard it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Joe, Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired)
Date: 18 May 09 - 03:20 AM

OK, guys, LISTEN UP!!!


Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail
Around the flag pooole.

To let the Wind blooow.
Right up his hooole!!!

Then the people came to see
The icy wind blooow.

Right up his ass hooole
Beside the pooole!!!!

Then the monkey laughed
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho, ho-hoooooooooooooo!!!

To let the people knooooow
That it was time to gooooooooooooo!!!

And so they all went home
And came back the next day.

To see it all again,
Oh-ho-ho-hooooooo!!!


So why do I sing it "...To let the wind blow, Right up his hole." and not "...To let the wind blow, Right up his ass hole. (or asshole)?" Simple. The single sylable of the word 'hole' fits the music better. Same for 'flag pole' versus 'flagpole'. In both cases (along with the word 'blow') the 'o' sound is extended and I show this by writing it as pooole/hooole/blooow. Go download the song and listen to it all the way through. Then play it again, singing the above lyrics to the second section and repeting them when it is played the second time.
OK, the first part of that about the monkey wrapping his tail around the flag pole has been around for quite a while. I've heard from around the end of WW1 but I havent been able to figure out exactly when or who it was that came up with it. As mentioned above, there were any number of variations, such as "...To watch his ass hole, go up and down". The problem is that this clever bit of verse never went anywhere. I decided to rectify that with the above lyric, which uses the entire first repetition of the first half of the second section of the work. I'm working on the same thing for the entire third section.
To clear up a major misconception, the National Emblem March was not at all written by John Phillip Sousa. It is the work of Edwin Eugene Bagley, who would otherwise be forgotten today. The march was written around 1902 but Bagley wasn't happy with it and put it aside. He finally published it around 1907. As he was still alive during WW1, I'm sure he was aware of the words that some GI came up with that would ensure that his melody would live forever.

By the way, I stil remember the first time that I heard this. It was in Germany in the mid-70's. I was at my desk one day when out of nowhere a certain Sergeant First Class Issacson unexpectedly came out with this. I laughed so hard that I nearly fell out of my chair!

Oddly enough, you if asked almost anyone in the military today if they had ever heard of this, the would say no because it's not part of today's military culture anymore. Singing it to them will normally produce gales of laughter because they've never heard it before and because it's so out of place in today's politically correct armed forces. Same goes for the card game of pinochle. It used to be that you could never expect to become a sergeant if you couldn't play double-deck pinochle. Again, no one in today's military has ever heard of it. Too bad.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail arou
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 May 09 - 08:55 AM

Thanks, Joe!

Eventually on Mudcat all questions are answered in depth.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Douba
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 03:00 AM

The version my aunt taught me (she was employed at the Stars and Stripes in Germany) goes:

The monkey wraps his tail around the flagpole
to show the people his dirty asshole.

It has the melody of J. P. Sousa's "National Emblem March".

Hope I could help!
Douba

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: PHJim
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 10:39 AM

I seem to recall a Law & Order episode where a character named Lemonhead sang this song. He never made it past the first line. Did anyone else see this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 12:35 PM

Not Sousa. It was written by E. E. Bagley

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 04:42 PM

I knew a guy in college who'd learned the first two lines from his father who had learned them in WWII in the Pacific. The third line was "Every day!" And that was that!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 07:23 AM

If, in spite of what I wrote above, anyone who still believes that John Phillip Sousa (Douba, ...) wrote the National Emblem March needs to read this...

http://www.dws.org/sousa/monkey.htm



Sanitized version for kids:::

Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail,
Around the flag pole.

To let his eyes roll,
In to the bowl.


Then the people came to see,
The monkey's eyes roll.

In to the soup bowl,
Beside the pole.

The rest is the same as in my post above.


French version...

Oh, le singe enrouler le sa queue,
Autour le mat du drapeau.

Pour laisse le vent souffler,
Dans le trou de son cul!

C'est toujours tres amusante en francaise!!!


BY THE WAY, Ladies and Gentlement...

The BENNINGTON Flag was the one flying on the pole on that historic day when the monkey wrapped his tail around it!

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-ben.html


OK, that's today's history lesson for you.

See you again...


Joe, Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:33 AM

My father sang:

Oh, the monkey wrapped his tale
Around the flagpole
So the folks below
Could see his asshole . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:41 AM

Is 'National Emblem' the same tune as

'Have you ever caught your bollocks in a rat-trap' ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Nov 09 - 08:11 AM

In reply to the post by Bryn Pugh, the answer is Yes. It's also known as 'Have you ever caught your bollocks in a mangle?' As with the original, I've never found a version of this that continued past the opening phrase.


See You Soon, Big Raccoon!!! (SYSBR!!! if you prefer)


Joe, Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Ken, ex Navy
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 03:44 AM

Oh the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole
to show his asshole--to the crowd.

Oh the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole
to show his asshole, 'cause he was proud.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 10 - 04:18 AM

then the monkey rapped his tail around the flagpole to show his asshole to the stands, and repeat

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jun 10 - 11:37 AM

in a Marine Corps PX we used to sing when things would get really tense, and we wanted to let the other employees know that we were getting crazed..

oh, the monkey stuck his finger up his ***hole,
to the elbow...........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 10:58 PM

Oh, The monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole,
just to see what he could see.........................................
at the end of the song says
"Well you may think that this is the end. Well it is!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 09:00 AM

That's also the last line of "Be Kind To Your Web-footed Friends" which is usually sung to part of Sousa's "Stars & Stripes Forever".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Feb 11 - 09:42 AM

ho the monkey fell off the flagpole

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Apr 11 - 04:06 PM

My father used to sing: Oh the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole...yes, he did; yes, he did,

So the whoooooole wide world could see his asshole...yes, he did; yes, he did!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Anne, San Antonio
Date: 16 May 11 - 08:19 PM

In the late thirties and early forties, my Dad was on staff at a military school. He would sing the first line, start laughing, and refuse to sing the rest. Many of the students would do the same, at Parade and Pass in Review.
Then after WWII, after my uncles came home from overseas, the singing would start up again...always only the first line, accompanied by much laughter.
I have spent my entire life (from time to time) wondering how the song continued.
Thanks, everybody

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Carlene Jones
Date: 17 May 11 - 05:09 PM

My mother was born in 1914. She taught me two lines of this song when I was a child: "Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole, to watch the grass grow, beneath his asshole." I never knew the song had more lines.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 19 May 11 - 02:05 PM

From my days on school bus trips - "Did you ever get your k*ack*ers in a rat trap."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Joe, Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired)
Date: 31 May 11 - 07:18 AM

.
Oh, the monkey shoved the flag pole up his ass hole...
.
.
I'll let the rest of you figure out how to conclude that one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,LeeAnn
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 10:10 PM

John Wayne starts to sing part of it in Donovans Reef, he gets interupted.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Oct 11 - 05:40 PM

My eighty nine yr. old mother sings...Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the....flaaag pole.
And all the soldiers came to see his...ass...hole.
and that's all she can remember. My dad was a 5th Marine division machine gun squad leader on Iwo Jima during WWII ..I suspect that is where she heard it. Wish someone knew all the lyrics. Maybe someone at the VA home will know it. Lost my dad 2 years ago, he would probably have known it but wouldn't sing it in front of his daughter! lol!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 05:56 PM

A second verse I've heard is:

"Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the bass drum,
we saw his rectum,
we saw his scrotum........

hope this helps!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Dec 11 - 11:35 PM

My school bus driver from the early 80's always sang this but he would say "Oh the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole and called it brave-o"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 11:20 AM

My wife said ever since she was a little girl, there was a family friend who would sing "Oh the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag poooooole..." and it wasn't until she was in her twenties that he sang the second and third lines... "to see his ass hoooooole, and it was biiiiig." She figures he heard it from his dad.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 08 Jan 12 - 09:30 PM

My Mother and my Aunt used to sing this also, and if they were alive today they would be in their late 80's. They always sang......
Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole
And showed his asshole to the crowd...
Like most others, that is as far as they usually sang.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 20 Jan 12 - 06:59 PM

There was an instrumental "pop" version of this in the late 50s. Anybody know the artist or if it's available?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Mr. Machinist
Date: 06 Mar 12 - 10:22 PM

My father would always sing, "the monkey chased his tail around the flagpole to see his asshole" he just passed away last august and I thought o would never know the rest untill now. Thanks Joe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 08 May 12 - 02:50 PM

Sutmbled onto this thread and have been having some fond memories.

I was a trombonist in the 9th Infantry Division Band in the 70's. I always heard it sang to the tune of the National Emblem (as many have said here) like this:
And the Monkey Wrapped His Tail Around the Flagpole
To See his Asshole
It was Red
After the Monkey Wrapped His Tail Around the Flagpole
And Showed His Asshole
Then the Band Began to Play

It became quite a joke over time - when someone of authority would come into a room, one of the band members would play the first bar or two of National Emblem and everyone would laugh...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 08 May 12 - 03:38 PM

Well, I'm not sure it's the same tune I have in mind, 'cause mine has another set of words:

Oh, the monkeys have on tails in Zamboanga,
Zamboanga, by the sea.
'Cause the monkeys are all males in Zamboanga,
Zamboanga, by the sea

The tune is not at all like "Stars & Stripes" ("Web-Footed Friends"), but I don't think the "Wrapped his tail" tune is, either. Without the tune in my head, some of the responses don't match what I think the tune should be.

And like that.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 12 - 01:03 PM

o the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole to show the people his dirty asshole thats my dad version of it

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Flash Company
Date: 11 May 12 - 10:59 AM

Memory from childhood (Tune of 'The Keel Row')

Oh the monkey cocked his tail up,
His tail up, his tail up,
The monkey cocked his tail up
And showed his little hole.
Which hole, what hole his dirty little ass-hole
The monkey cocked his tail up and showed his little hole!


FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 09:29 PM

...to show his ass-hole, to all the pea-pol

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 09:51 PM

scholars seem to differ..............

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 05 Jul 12 - 08:33 AM

Why should there be two songs about monkeys doing this?

There's only one song about Sir Patrick Spens.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Jul 12 - 02:56 PM

Here's a guess: Very large numbers of people first heard this song in circumstances such that the singer did not dare go beyond the first line. Thus, each of them was forced to continue it according to his wits.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Old man
Date: 05 Jul 12 - 08:14 PM

My father who was in WWII used to sing the first line and sort of threaten to go on, and my mother would shush him. It was played in local parade 4th of July, so I Googled it, and now I know there were lots of second lines, but most scatological!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,pjintexas
Date: 30 Nov 13 - 10:00 AM

I was living in Glossop in England in the mid 1970s. My classmates all began singing a version of this, and I had the impression that they heard it on a TV show. In any event it went like this:

Have you ever caught your thingy in a mangle
What a tangle
In a mangle

Then some stupid bastard goes and turns the handle
Of the mangle
Ooh the pain...

That's all I remember. Been singing this in my head for the last 40 years!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 30 Nov 13 - 02:19 PM

Just to point out that this is the trio tune of Bagley's "National Emblem" march. THe first part of the msrch is a rather neat arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,HCG
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 02:24 PM

We used to sing this under our breath during 'pass in review'. USNA 1984 to 1988. I'll have to ask my 95 year old grandfather if he sang it when he was in the Navy back during World War II.
Why'd the monkey wrap his tail around the flagpole... ripped his asshole...
Then we hummed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 10:44 PM

Ohhhh the monkey...monkey ...monkey climbed up the flag pole to scratch his asshole.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,HhD
Date: 31 Mar 16 - 08:33 AM

I remember
and the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole
every body paid a dime to see his ass hole
so did I

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Duke
Date: 08 Aug 16 - 09:03 PM

The pop version mentioned above was National City by the Joiner, Arkansas Junior High School Band. I found a copy on Youtube.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,John Adams
Date: 08 Jul 17 - 04:38 AM

When I was young, I often stayed at with my Aunt and Uncle at weekends. The BBC used to have a Saturday morning programme called 'Marching and Waltzing'. On one occasion they played 'The National Emblem' march. I was very surprised when my Uncle started to sing in tune, 'Have you ever caught your bollocks in a rat trap ?' He had been 'transported' back to The Somme battlefield in 1916 and explained that they were the words which the infantry sang while marching up to the front. He was in the Norfolk Regiment.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Dillo
Date: 14 Jun 18 - 06:36 PM

And the monkey wrapped his tail 'round the flagpole, to see the grass grow, around his assole

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Joe, Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired
Date: 14 Jul 18 - 03:50 PM

UK Version

Have you ever caught
Your bollocks in a mangle

To see them dangle
Before your eyes?

Have you ever caught
Your bollocks in a mangle

To see if they would
Attract some flies?

Have you ever caught your
Bollocks in a mangle

So you could piss off
The others guys?

Well, if you've done all that
Then I'll tip my hat

And give you a
Great big prize


Here's a link to the best version on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U40OIESDwlU


And here's a link to the junior high school version mentioned above...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCwbuoVtJBc


HAPPY BASTILLE DAY

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Ex Cell, N.C.
Date: 04 Jul 19 - 09:32 PM

Oh the monkey wrapped it's tail around the flagpole
To see its arsehole through a knothole
Oh the monkey wrapped its tail around the flagpole
And the band began to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Listener Robert in comments at page linked b
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 08:16 PM

Thanks, Sergeant Joe. Like all the other parents referenced above, Daddy sang only the first line, so I never knew the rest. The reason I'm thinking about it now is that Frankie Yankovic's instrumental "Saigon Sally", a recording of which was played tonight by DJ Stashu on "Dance With Me, Stanley" ( http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/90726 ) sounded like a bunch of variations of the "monkey-flagpole" passage of "National Emblem".

I hope you'll soon finish the lyrics to the whole piece. The opening passage obviously needs to parody lyrics from one of the 5 stanzas of "Star Spangled Banner", but the closing passage, who has any idea?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 06:30 PM

I always heard:

Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole,
It was ice-cold
Froze his asshole.

The tune was Stars and Stripes Forever.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: PHJim
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 11:45 PM

Law & Order about 1:20

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around..
From: GUEST,Brian Ramsey
Date: 07 Jul 21 - 10:34 AM

The way I heard it up in Canada in the '40's:
Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole
To feel the wind blow
Up his ass hole.