The Main Monkey Business

"The Main Monkey Business" is an instrumental from Rush's 2007 album Snakes & Arrows. It clocks in at 6 minutes and 1 second, making it Rush's second longest instrumental, the longest being La Villa Strangiato. Drummer Neil Peart remarked that it took him three days to learn the song.^[1]

In a recent interview on HDNET , Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee stated that the song found on the CD is a toned-down version of the original one. They referred to the original version as "crazy".

Background

The title of the song comes from a phrase Lee's mother used to describe someone up to no good:

...Long story short is, uh, this person was up to hijinx and my mother was telling me “Well I think there was some monkey business involved”, and I said, "What do you mean, monkey business? What kind of monkey business? And she said, “The MAIN monkey business”. So I love that phrase and every time I think of her saying “The MAIN monkey business” it makes me laugh.^[2]

—Geddy Lee, Legends of Classic Rock interview

References