"Good Clean Fun"

I recently read the entry for 18 October 1969 in Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, in which he writes about the chart performance of "Good Clean Fun."  I've never been too interested in chart numbers, but it got me thinking about the song again.

Back in August, I realized that "I look down" descends (C# A E), musically giving a sense of that "down."  Yester-day, I realized that there's more to it than that.

In the first two lines of the bridge, the singer/speaker looks down at his watch, and the watch looks back at him:

And this plane gets closer ev'ry minute I look down
To a watch that keeps lookin' back at me

This reciprocal looking is also illustrated in the music.  As noted above, "I look down" descends, and - complementing that - "back at me" ascends (A C C#).

"Porpoise Song" b/w "As We Go Along"

According to Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the 60s TV Pop Sensation, "Porpoise Song" b/w "As We Go Along" - the Monkees' eighth single (Colgems 1031) - was released in the U.S. fifty years ago this month (October 1968).