Talk:Tweeter and the Monkey Man

Springsteen songs

"Lion's Den" wasn't even released at the time TatMM was written, and was by no means a concert staple either. "Factory" is a common word and is likely coincidence. The many titles we have mentioned make the point more than adequately. . . Jgm 00:45, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Lion's Den was recorded in 1983. Sure, it didn't come out until Tracks dropped, but the Wilburys were all pretty close to Springsteen and at the very least probably heard a demo of it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.121.43.213 (talk) 09:02, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Songwriting

As mentioned in the article, the fact that the song is published by Special Rider Music (which is unique to Bob Dylan) definitely identifies Bob Dylan as the main (if not the sole) writer of the song, in spite of what George Harrison had to say about it: Lynne and Dylan may have talked about it during the sessions, but I think the actual writing was done by Dylan on his own. Also, Dylan's influence over Bruce Springsteen is well-known and well-documented by the latter, so the many Springsteen references are most probably intended as Dylan's own way of paying him back.Ugo1970 (talk) 15:32, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

That's a good guess, Ugo. Do you have any sources that agree with you? GoingBatty (talk) 23:47, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

@ GoingBatty: no, not really. It is, as you say, just a good guess. However, I still think the Dylan/Springsteen connection is too personal to Dylan for Lynne to be involved in the actual songwriting. Maybe he offered his musicianship to Dylan to help him with the arrangement...Ugo1970 (talk) 16:33, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

"I knew him long before he ever became a Jersey girl"

This song contains a couple of gender-bending lyrics (including the above) but I think it is going a little far to say that it implies that Tweeter was a trans woman. I changed that to say that the lyrics raise questions about Tweeter's gender identity, which I think is fair. In fact it is pretty clear that these lyrics were a joke - the Traveling Wilbury's album is filled with jokes - though that is my opinion and does not belong in the article.

This reminds me of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da in which Paul accidentally sang "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face" (Desmond instead of Molly) and wanted to re-do it, but John convinced him to leave it in, again mostly as a joke. And by the way, in Walk on the Wild Side, Holly (who "Shaved her legs and then he was a she") was not necessarily transgender either. Neutron (talk) 10:43, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

I’ve seen some speculation that this aspect of the song was inspired by the film Dog Day Afternoon (and, by extension, Elizabeth Eden, who had recently died at the time of the song’s creation). If so, that would make it more than just a joke. But the only way to really know for sure would be to ask the lyricist (most likely Bob). 2604:2D80:6984:3800:0:0:0:BCC8 (talk) 04:40, 5 July 2023 (UTC)