Press, saying "It's a reference from what I understand to be Hebrew numerology, and I don't know a lot about it or any of it really. I just remember someone telling me of the supposed fact that in the Hebrew language, especially in the Bible, you can find lots of references to man in the 5th and Satan in the 6th and God in the 7th. [...] I didn't go to the library and figure it out". The song's numerology is alluded to on the single's cover, which features figures of five, six and seven, and also a monkey with a halo. Ben Sisario, author of Doolittle 33⅓, offers a slightly different interpretation of the song: "Neptune, the god of this realm [in reference to Francis' ocean comment], the 'underwater guy who controlled the sea,' hung out down there, the personification of man's relationship with the earth. And what happens to Neptune? He gets 'killed by ten million pounds of sludge from New York to New Jersey.' Same thing with the "creature in the sky," who gets stuck up there in a hole in the ozone layer. Man the divine manifestation effectively dies, and what remains is his degraded animal nature; the chintzy halo stuck on the primate's head is the symbol of that unhappy fall". In February 2022, Black Francis elaborated on the song's meaning: "I guess it’s loosely inspired by the so-called human dilemma of existence, our existential problem on whether we can survive as a race. But it’s told without any agenda or judgment and mixes in some very loose biblical, sing-songy things because, you know, “The devil is six and God is seven” rhymes with heaven. It’s a nursery rhyme with mythological folk imagery. In oversimplified evolutionary terms, we are descended from apes and monkeys, so they are the animal we metaphorically most relate to because of this evolutionary kinship. So that’s why it’s not a bird or a fish gone to heaven." Structure "Monkey Gone to Heaven" is written in the key of D major, and opens with Francis' rhythm guitar playing a short chord progression backed by the bass guitar of Kim Deal and drums of David Lovering. The guitar intensity fades as Francis begins to sing, leaving Deal's bassline and Lovering's steady drum-beat. Between each line of the verse, Francis pauses, leaving the drums and bass playing. Joey Santiago's lead guitar does not