Okay, let’s get this part out of the way:<\/p>\n
In 1925, the Tennessee state legislature passed The Butler Act, which made it a crime to teach evolution in public schools. It didn’t take long for a young science teacher named John Thomas Scopes to challenge the law by flagrantly violating it and inviting prosecution, which came swiftly and with much notoriety.<\/p>\n
The “Scopes Monkey Trial” attracted worldwide media attention, thanks in large part to an all-star cast that included presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan leading the prosecution, famed attorney Clarence Darrow and the American Civil Liberties Union representing the defense, and popular journalist H. L. Mencken calling the play-by-play for the people at home.<\/p>\n
The trial became a media and spectator circus, and if you don’t already know how it turned out, it’s easy enough to consult a history book or a google search to find out. It’s not worth our time to discuss it any further here.<\/p>\n
I bring this up only because every–and i mean\u00a0every<\/em> written account I’ve ever seen of “Part Man, Part Monkey” paints Bruce’s song as a commentary on the Scopes Monkey Trial.<\/p>\n But it’s not.<\/p>\n It may have been inspired by Inherit the Wind–<\/em>a play, film, and TV movie that dramatized the events of the trial–but that’s not what the song is about<\/em>. So let’s take a listen to this\u00a0Human Touch<\/em> outtake (which Bruce eventually released as a B-side to “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)<\/a>” and on Tracks<\/em> six years later), and then we’ll discuss.<\/p>\n