Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song

Subject: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 03:48 PM

The Gruen Watch Song

Now Shirley was a burley cutie
Dancing in the line.
She smiled across the footlights
And I knew that she was mine.
I asked to take her home
And she was sweet as she could be.
The next day was her birthday
And she wanted jewelry.

So I gave her a gorgeous Gruen
And the precision movement drove her mad.
She said it was a gem
As she fiddle with the stem.
It was the best time piece she ever had.

Now Lucy played Debussy
On the clarinet so fine.
She smiled across the footlights
And I knew that she was mine.
She played for me one night
And I was certainly impressed.
Her lips did half the work and,
Boy, her fingers did the rest..

So I have her a gorgeous Gruen
And the precision movement drove her mad.
She murmured as we kissed,
"Gee, it's curved to fit the wrist."
It was the best time piece she ever had.

Now Helen she was sellin'
Up at Woolworth's number nine.
She smiled across the counter
And I knew that she was mine.
The mean old store detective
He was mad as he could be,
For what she sold to other guys
She gave to me for free.

So I gave her a gorgeous Gruen
And the precision movement drove her mad.
She giggled with delight,
"Gee, I'll bet it runs all night."
It was the best time piece she ever had.

Now Mabel waited table
Up at Hollywood and Vine.
She smiled at me so pretty
And I thought that she was mine.
She asked me for a Cadillac
And I felt just like a dunce,
Playing second fiddle
To a jerk like Madman Muntz.

So I gave her a gorgeous Gruen,
And the precision movement drove her mad.
She said it was a prize
And she tried it on for size.
It was the best time piece she ever had.

From a loose mimeographed sheet that came into my possession at
Caltech in 1954. Mention of Madman Muntz, a widely advertised Los
Angeles car dealer in the 1940s & early 1950s, places & dates it
pretty closely. I do not know the tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 04:05 PM

I posted this so I could put a link to it on the "double entendre" thread, but now I can't find that one. What am I doing wrong?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 10:00 PM

Hi, Joe - the "entendre" thread dropped off the Forum Menu because nobody had posted to it for 24 hours. I used the Filter and brought it back, and posted a link to this thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Aug 04 - 07:07 PM

Joe Offer: Thank you. I supposed it had dropped off, but I searched for it & couldn't bring it up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: GUEST,W d barber h
Date: 24 Feb 14 - 06:38 PM

Ed barber

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Will Fly
Date: 25 Feb 14 - 05:39 AM

Has anyone got a tune for this? I shall get my Gruen Precision Curvex out - curves beautifully round the wrist...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 07:49 AM

My sources tell me that words and music to THE GRUEN WATCH SONG are in a songbook called "Roll Me Over" edited by Harry Babad and published by Oak Publications in 1972, on page 72.

You might be able to find it in a library near you if you follow this link to WorldCat.org.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 12:24 PM

Cheers, Jim - I'll do some work.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 01:35 PM

Yep, I would love to have the tune, if you find it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Joe_F
Date: 26 Feb 14 - 09:27 PM

So would I. %^)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: GUEST,ketchdana
Date: 27 Feb 14 - 03:27 AM

Seeing a picture of the cover of the book mentioned above by Jim Dixon,

I realized: I have that book!
Dug it out (literally, from a stack/pile of boxes (I've moved a bit)) and there, on page 72 of Roll Me Over, Oak Publications, edited by Harry Babad, was the tune and words of The Gruen Watch Song.
The book only lists one chorus ("curved to fit the wrist") for the four verses. Joe_F's post above seems to have a better set of words, with a fitted chorus for each verse.

Here's the music, first (X:1) as in the book, with some of the bells and whistles (chord symbols and words), and second (X:2) as the raw tune.
Program "abcm2ps" will make a printout of either. Program "abc2ps" gets confused by some of the extra stuff in X:1, but prints the raw tune just fine.
"abc2midi" seems to work about the same on either.

I've added some extra "abc comment symbols" = "%" to hide the html line-feeds, so that it can be cut-and-pasted directly to a text file from the screen, or from the show-page-source listing.
Anyhow, here it is:

X:1 %
T:The Gruen Watch Song %
M:C %
L:1/4 %
K:G % Em actually, same key signature: one sharp. %
% ------------------------------ %
"^Em"E3/2 E/ B B | "^Am"A3/2 A/ c c | "^Em"B3/2 B/ G G | "^B7"A3 A | %
w: Shir-ley was a bur-ley cu-tie, danc-ing in the line. She %
% %
"^Em"E E B3/2 B/ | "^Am"A A c c | "^Em"B B B G | "^B7"F3 F | "^Em"E F G E | %
w: smiled out at the front row and I knew that she was mine. I asked to take her %
% %
"^B7"F G A F | "^C"G A B G | "^Am"A3 z/ A/ | "^Em"E E B3/2 B/ | "^Am"A A c c | %
w: home and she was sweet as she could be. The next day was her birth-day and she %
% %
"^Em"B3/2 B/ "^B7"A F | "^Em"E2 !fermata!E !fermata!E || "^Chorus:""^G"G2 G3/2 B/ | d d d B | %
w: want-ed jew-el-ry. So I gave her a gor-geous Gru-en %
% %
"^C"G3/2 G/ c e | "^G"d c B2 | G3/2 G/ G B | d d d2 | %
w: and the move-ment drove her mad. Then she mur-mured as we kissed %
% %
"^Em"B3/2 B/ B B | "^B7"A G F F | "^Em"E3/2 E/ B B | "^B7"A3/2 A/ F F | "^Em"E4 |] %
w: "Gee, it's curved to fit the wrist." It was the best time-piece she ev-er had. %

%
# stripped version, tune only, can use "abc2ps", which doesn't understand some of # the features of abcm2ps. %

X:2 %
T:The Gruen Watch Song %
T:(tune only) %
M:C %
L:1/4 %
K:Em %
E3/2 E/ B B | A3/2 A/ c c | B3/2 B/ G G | A3 A | %
E E B3/2 B/ | A A c c | B B B G | F3 F | E F G E | %
F G A F | G A B G | A3 z/ A/ | E E B3/2 B/ | A A c c | %
B3/2 B/ A F | E2 E E || G2 G3/2 B/ | d d d B | %
G3/2 G/ c e | d c B2 | G3/2 G/ G B | d d d2 | %
B3/2 B/ B B | A G F F | E3/2 E/ B B | A3/2 A/ F F | E4 |] %

%

I actually had a Gruen watch way back when, worn usually above my elbow, set 3 hours 15 minutes ahead of local time. But that's another story. It's gettin' late.

=//= Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Feb 14 - 04:25 AM

Thanks Bob! Just put the abc into my music program - sounds quite spooky!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: GUEST,ketchdana
Date: 27 Feb 14 - 11:23 AM

At that (default) speed, spooky.
Try putting "Q:1/4=240" in the header between the X: and the K: lines.
Downright jaunty. (Johnny Cope has gone awa'...) Could become an earworm. (I understand Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" began as a jazzy piano piece.)

... Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: GUEST,ketchdana
Date: 27 Feb 14 - 12:19 PM

( Oops. Forget anthing I said above about cut-and-pasting to an abc text file from the web page source. It apparently goes through a compacting process which removes the original line-feeds.
From the browser screen works fine, though.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 14 - 08:28 PM

The book is available on Amazon -- cheap! I have ordered it: easier than picking my way thru abc. When it arrives, I'll post the tune in solfa for those of that persuasion.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Will Fly
Date: 28 Feb 14 - 04:29 AM

Thanks Bob - sounds much jauntier at 240!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Feb 14 - 08:25 PM

That latest GUEST was me -- cookie crumbled.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Gruen Watch Song
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Mar 14 - 08:13 PM

_Roll Me Over_ arrived today, and from it I discover that the editors got it from _Songs of Raunch and Ill Repute_ (compiled at Caltech while I was there, 1958) and fitted it with a tune of their devising. So we still don't know the original tune.

The version in RMO, like the one in SORAIR, is defective in that it only gives the chorus once, tho in the original (as ketchdana noted) there is a couplet in it that changes from verse to verse. The compilers in Ricketts House at Caltech almost certainly got it from the loose sheet that I acquired as secretary of Fleming House, but they probably overlooked that subtlety.

Young folks may need to be told that "best time piece" represents a pun: "best timepiece", "best-time piece". "Piece" (short for "piece of ass") was extremely common vulgar slang in those days, but I haven't heard it for many years, and good riddance!