Lyrics to
Look Out Johnny (There’s A Monkey On Your Back)

This version of Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) was released by The Hollies in 1975.

Our About The Hollies page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) from 1975 as well as all of the other lyrics from The Hollies that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Hollies or about the 1970s in general.

Johnny was a pusher on the east side
Pushing anything to be pushed
Laid something on a guy who didn’t get high
Didn’t know the guy was a hood

Wheeling-dealing Johnny got frightened
Thought the best place was out of town
Packed up his bags and threw them in the back
Packed up his bags and threw them in the back
Of his Chevy put his foot flat down

Look out Johnny there’s a monkey on your back
You better beware there Johnny
’cause the monkey’s packin’ a gat
Drivin’ over red lights speeding down the freeway
Johnny Johnny get away

You better beware there Johnny
There’s a monkey on your back

Johnny thought he’d do something clever
Turning south on the old Coast Road
Pushing 94 swerving leaning on the door
Trying to shake off his heavy load

Crossed the state line feeling safer
Drinking in the corner of a bar
In walked a guy looked the barman in the eye
Said “Hey is Johnny in here”

You better beware there Johnny
There’s a monkey on your back
Be good

You better beware there Johnny
There’s a monkey on your back
Look out Johnny ‘cos the monkey’s packin’ a gat
Drivin’ over red lights speeding down the freeway
Johnny Johnny get away

You better beware there Johnny
There’s a monkey on your back
Look out Johnny there’s a monkey on your back

---

Want more lyrics and songs by The Hollies?

The Hollies has released many songs over the years besides Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back). The Hollies released songs from 1964 to 1998 spanning across albums like Stay With The Hollies, In The Hollies Style, Hollies, For Certain Because, Would You Believe?, Butterfly, Evolution, Hollies Sing Dylan, Hollies Sing Hollies, Confessions Of The Mind, Distant Light, Romany, Another Night, Russian Roulette, Write On, A Crazy Steal, 5317704, Buddy Holly, What Goes Around, The Hollies At Abbey Road 1963-1966, and The Hollies At Abbey Road 1966-1970. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Hollies.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1975 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) by The Hollies

The lyrics for Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1975 song by The Hollies. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) - The Hollies and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) by The Hollies in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back)" means the words set to the music of Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back), or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Hollies. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) and the lyrics to Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back) are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Hollies who came here looking just for the lyrics to Look Out Johnny (There’S A Monkey On Your Back), but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

More Songs & Lyrics by The Hollies

Visit our The Hollies profile for more The Hollies songs, lyrics & info!

)