Tweeter and the Monkey Man chords by Traveling Wilburys

The songwriting credits goes officially to all members of the band, but the song is published by Bob Dylan's Special Rider Music label, which indicates Dylan as the main writer. This is contradicted to a slight degree by George Harrison's account of the song in "The True History of the Traveling Wilburys" documentary: "'Tweeter and the Monkey Man' was really [written by] Tom Petty and Bob [Dylan]. Well, Jeff [Lynne] and I were there too, but we were just sitting there around in the kitchen, and he was for some reason talking about all this stuff that didn't make much sense to me, you know, it was that Americana kinda stuff and we got a tape cassette and put it on and then transcribed everything they were saying."[2] "Tweeter and The Monkey Man" is sometimes regarded as a playful homage to Bruce Springsteen's songs. The lyrics include the titles of many Springsteen songs, and the song borrows many of Springsteen's themes and settings. For instance, the setting of the song itself is New Jersey, Springsteen's home state, and places like Rahway Prison and Jersey City are mentioned by name. Springsteen song title references include: "Stolen Car", "Mansion On The Hill", "Thunder Road", "State Trooper", "Factory", "The River", "Lion's Den", and the song made popular by Springsteen but written by Tom Waits, "Jersey Girl". Additionally, "Lion's Den" and "Paradise" are each mentioned and prominently enunciated in the song, each being the title of a Springsteen song released after the Traveling Wilburys album. Only Petty, Harrison, Dylan and Lynne took part in the song. This is the only Wilburys song on Vol. 1 not to feature Roy Orbison on lead or backing vocals. Dylan sings lead on the song's verses (with the rest of the group joining in on the chorus sections). At five verses in 5 minutes 27 seconds, "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" is the longest Traveling Wilburys song put to record. The chorus was originally part of a verse, but was chosen later for the refrain. The song tells the story of two drug dealers – Tweeter and the Monkeyman – their nemesis, "The Undercover Cop", and the nemesis's sister, Jan. It is hinted that Tweeter is a male-to-female transsexual, in the lines: "Tweeter was a boy scout / before she went to Vietnam...". Throughout the ballad, the fall of Tweeter and the Monkeyman is examined. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.