Talk:The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga

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Women or Monkeys?

The 1931 version of this song, collected by Robert Winslow Gordon, the monkeys are in Luzon, but it has the lines "The women get no tail (in Zamboanga), For their husbands are in jail. As Zamboanga was a penal colony for the Spanish colonial administration just prior to this song's being written, this may be the earliest version. The monkeys could be the result of bowdlerization of this line, referring to sex, or of combining the two verses. Pustelnik (talk) 12:20, 17 January 2008 (UTC) I removed speculation about the song being racist. It is originally was a song that incorporated local poems that insulted surrounding areas.Pustelnik (talk) 16:29, 15 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

... around the Flagpole

Please tell me this song has no connection with the march often sung as "The monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole", which has the same meter. (No, not the 1889 Washington Post March but the 1906 National Emblem.)
--Jerzy•t 20:15, 18 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know. You can download Harry McClintock singing Subic on Amazon to get the tune. It is the same tune as the "Wolfhound March", if you can find that. Pustelnik (talk) 21:27, 18 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if it's related, but the upper left of this Asiatic Fleet Collage shows someone wraps up around a tree, with a monkey and a native woman below. "Manila" is written on it. The captions says "tail-less monkeys (Zamboanga, Philippine Islands) and native women". The photo seems to be related to "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga". --Happyseeu (talk) 01:25, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

John Wayne in Donovan's Reef

It is often said that John Wayne sang this song in the 1963 film 'Donovan's Reef'. Did he actually sing the whole song or did he just sing one and a half lines of the song? David Tombe (talk) 15:37, 29 July 2008 (UTC) It was Lee Marvin singing the song also in The Champ by Wallace Beery — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:49:4300:A42:E40D:3DF2:6D20:54DF (talk) 15:22, 4 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"No te vayas de Zamboanga" is actually Spanish, not Chavacano!

"No te vayas de Zamboanga", the one mentioned in "Related Songs and Parody versions" section, is actually Spanish! The website cited says it's Chavacano, but the fact is, it is actually written in perfect Spanish. It is not Chavacano in grammar, for it looks exactly like Spanish in grammar. The lyrics of the song has elaborate Spanish verb conjugation, while Chavacano has a highly simplified Spanish-based verb conjugation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.205.247.20 (talk) 10:42, 25 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What does "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga" mean?

Does the phrase refer to monkeys in Zamboanga, or something else on the island? The meaning is not clear and should be explained if there is a reliable source for it. Happyseeu (talk) 01:10, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]