Brass Monkey? Funky Cold Medina?

Factual Questions
1

I seem to recall that a Brass Monkey is an old term for a stack of cannon balls. But my question has to do with the Brass Monkey we find in the old Beastie Boys song. Is it a drink? A shot? A mickey? A liqueur? A liquor?

Also is Funky Cold Medina something more than a catchy little ditty by Tone Loc?

I just Googled both Brass Monkey and Funky Cold Medina, and found recipes for both (as a drink & a shot), but were these named after the songs, or were the songs named after them?
(http://www.webtender.com/db/drink/3756 & http://www.webtender.com/db/drink/1966)

Happy

2

Funky Cold Medina was about a drink called the Funky Cold Medina. In fact someone in the video was pointing to a bubbling green drink as he said “Funky Cold Medina” and on “I love the 80’s” on VH1 just a little while ago, they were saying that it was something you would drink before “getting it on.” As for Brass Monkey I don’t know.

3

Obligatory Snopes link

(Sorry I can’t be more helpful than that.)

4

A dab of Google also results in a drink called a Brass Monkey - rum, vodka and OJ.

Also referenced as a beverage in a Beastie Boys song.

And a reference to a tray used for stacking cannon balls -

Snopes says otherwise.

5

I’ve always heard it as slang for “penis.” Which explained why the radio station I grew up listening to always had the “Brass Monkey Weather Report.” :eek:

6

Medina is also stinky fertilizer. Actually, that’s my ignorant term - Medina is a soil activator or something, but I don’t know how that is and is not like ordinary fertilizer.

http://www.medinaag.com/gardprod.htm

It’s funky, it makes things grow with amazing speed and vigor…

(and it’s been around since Tone Loc was a child, at least)

7

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers (DC go-go scene) sang about the funky cold medina in the early 80’s. Still wondering WTF it is.

8

Brass Monkey is a great drink…vodka, rum, orange juice(or orange soda) and grenadine. Tasty, but strong. You can usually find it pre-mixed in a bottle under the Club brand of very cheap drinks. Max Carnage and I both found out, to our dismay, how strong an entire bottle is. Whew.

9
      • I once saw a translation of popular rap expressions which said that “Medina” is a slang term for the old Moslem quarter of any large city.
        ~
10

Brass monkey.

Brass Monkey, the wine, is supposedly what the Beastie Boys sang about, if the grapevine (heh) in the 1980s was reliable.

11

By the way, I don’t understand the use of the term “brass monkey” in the wine industry. It has something to do with a season? Brass monkey season? :confused:

12

Maybe Medina is a playful way of saying M.D. as in Mogan David…

Let’s get some em dee, let’s get some emdy, and the the leap to medina.

13

Being a Londoner, we always used to say “It’s brass Monkeys out today!” meaning: it’s cold!

14

There’s an expression that goes “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey”. So I guess brass monkey season would be the cold season.

15

i’d always understood Funky Cold Medina to be a Spanish Fly-type substance

16

A few [lyrics from Tone Loc (hereinafter Mr. Loc) are probably in order.

Obviously “funky cold medina” is not necessarily some form of aphrodisiac. Nor is it necessarily a drink itself–the lyrics don’t make it crystal clear as to whether it might be an additive. Mr. Loc’s description of FCM is that it’s a powerful attractant, not an aphrodisiac, or a potion intended to enhance sexual performance.

Of course, Mr. Loc could have been singing [url=“http://www.kissthisguy.com/archive/lyric.1295.html”]funky Coleman heater](http://www.weddingvendors.com/music/lyrics/song-964.html). That’s something I haven’t tried in a singles bar yet.

17

Holy cow, did I ever mess that coding up. That’s gotta be a record for worst coding evah.