iMedia: Apeman

I shall hopefully be brief, because I don’t want to waste my day when my long lengthy blog wouldn’t post, and blogger decided to delete my saves…. For this reason I will also post the video in a separate post, because I didn’t have problems until I tried to include the media.

Apeman, by the Kinks, is one of those seventies songs that includes one word for the title which the lyrics had repeated a good dozen or so times. Lightweight, slow song that is easy to follow along to. How hard is it to memorize the chorus?:

“I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man
I'm an ape man I'm a king kong man I'm ape ape man
I'm an ape man”

*Now would be a good time to listen to the song in the other post. :]

A personal reason I like it is because it not only conveys a message I enjoy, but the means of getting the message across enacts it. Like what we learned about literature, there are words that when spoken, sound like their definition. The tempo and lyrics are relaxing and slow, just like how we have to slow down and enjoy life. Singing and dancing along, I forget a little about the homework I have to do and role in society I have to fill (dependent and me doing this blog, to get the grades, to go to college, to get a job). It’s a song I can just revert back too.

Probably the most universal aspect of this song is the criticism of human kind. We think we’re so “civilized” that we’re doing the world more good than harm. We’re more sophisticated than the other animals such as gorillas and elephants. The song contests this by saying “I am an apeman.” When it comes to comparison to nature or the sun, we will always be uncivilized. Even if we think that we are doing good by recycling or planting trees, we must not forget who creates the trash and cuts down the trees in the first place. We have lost our connection to nature.

“I think I'm so educated and I'm so civilized
cos I'm a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I dont feel safe in this world no more
I dont want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
and make like an ape man”

The above stanza from the song, captures most of the criticism. The irony, that we think we are the best for this earth, while we destroy it. The Kinks talk about wishing to go back where they can relax and swing in the trees. De-evolution. When man was one with nature, and away from an industrialized society on the run. Why, you say this is living like a primate? You’re the one living like an apeman, it can’t be any worse that that.