#107 – Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit
#107 – Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit
-by Stacy Garwood-
This Labor Day weekend marks the anniversary of Jimmy’s death. It has gifted us with multiple celebrations in his honor, including Jimmy Buffett Day on August 30, officially in Florida and unofficially all over the world, and the iconic naming of several sections of Jimmy’s beloved A1A into the Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway. So when I was deciding on a song for this Monday, this week, this weekend, I wanted to touch back to a song that gives us the songwriting panache of a young Jimmy, fresh to what would become his beloved Florida Keys, and bring in a fun, classic song that is all about how much fun writing a song about a fun time can be, along with the temptation of “mortal sin”, which of course is summed up in Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit.
”And, oh, it gets so damn lonely, When you’re on a plane alone, and if I had the money, honey, I’d strap you in beside me, And never ever leave you, Leave you at home all alone and crying…”
Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit was released on Jimmy’s 1973 album A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean. This albums is a change in style for Jimmy’s music, a clear difference from his country folk songs that had come before and is known now as the beginning of Jimmy’s “Key West Phase” of music. The album was released under Dunhill Records and distributed under ABC Records and was produced by Don Gant. While much of the music was written in Jimmy’s time after his move to Key West, it was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee at Glaser Sound Studio.
Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit was released as a single in July of 1973 and by September it had peaked at #23 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and #47 on the Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary chart. I think it was Jimmy’s most successful single at that time, although another song from this album Why Don’t We Get Drunk (And Screw) had become a surprise jukebox hit, a surprise for the song that was a B-side of The Great Filling Station Holdup.
This song is distinctive, right from the very first notes. If you don’t get it in the first two notes, the next two should let you know what song is coming up. The B-C, then B-C, and if that hasn’t alerted the listener, then the F#-G-C comes along and seals the deal on what song is up coming.
Then we dip into some of Jimmy’s fun, casual and no doubt rhyming in the most charming way.
”Grapefruit, A bathin’ suit, Chew a little Juicy Fruit, Wash away the night…”
I have no idea if he was just sitting around playing with rhymes or if he really was inspired, not just by Juicy Fruit gum, but also grapefruit? The first line of this seemingly simple little song is full of interesting things, two of which become the title of this quirky song.
Until I looked into it, I had no idea that grapefruit had an interesting history at all. Honestly, I like grapefruit, but I don’t know that I think any fruit is very interesting. But it turns out that grapefruit was actually an accidental hybrid, a cross between a sweet orange and a pomelo, giving it the classification of Citrus x Paradisi. In my Montana variety of English, that sounds like Citrus of Paradise, and what is more perfect for a man who made his whole brand by promoting his own version of tropical paradise that to sing about a citrus fruit with paradise in its name. Did Jimmy know about grapefruit’s scientific classification? I have no idea, but honestly, if he didn’t, then the whole idea feels kismet.
Another interesting thing about grapefruit is that one of its nicknames, and one of the first things it was called in written reports was “forbidden fruit”. So, this accidental hybridization that produced grapefruit seems to have happened on the tropical island of Barbados, sometime in the 1700’s, was reported by a reverend who happened to be a naturalist named Griffith Hughes. He wrote a publication called The Natural History of Barbados in 1750. I thought it was delightful that a reverend named a fruit “forbidden” that ended up starring in a song that mentions “mortal sin”. Also, kismet?
Having never heard of the Reverend Griffith Hughes, I decided to see what I could find. It seems he was an English educated Welsh man, who was undecided about a career, but perused the clergy and ended up in Pennsylvania ministering to a large Welsh population of immigrants. It seems he was well received, at least at first, and was highly thought of. However, things changed, although it is unclear what happened. Hughes complained of the climate being hard on his health and heading south to Barbados. His congregation complained about his “desertion of his mission”, and unspecified “misbehaviors”.
Misbehaviors? It’s unclear about what that could mean, and a man who names a fruit “forbidden” might make us wonder if he was possibly tempted by something or someone, at some point, but it could simply be that Reverend Hughes became much more enamored of horticulture and natural sciences than of preaching. In his time in Pennsylvania, he published several treatises and even presented information to the British Royal Society about asbestos. Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous plant, that while Hughes certainly didn’t discover, he did bring it to a much broader attention.
One more interesting tidbit about the Reverend Griffith Hughes is that he coined the term, “yellow fever” to describe a viral illness that can cause yellowing of the skin related to liver jaundice. At that time, no one realized the virus was spread by mosquito, but they certainly knew that the symptoms, which could also include black vomit, which was why it was known as “vomito negro”, or Black Vomit, in Spanish speaking places in the Caribbean. It was first called “yellow fever” apparently by Hughes, after an outbreak in 1744 in Barbados, but had been affecting people in the new world for at least one hundred years.
In the 1760’s, someone on the island of Barbados who was not the Reverend Griffith Hughes, placed the nickname “smaller shaddock” onto grapefruit, but that is not nearly as thrilling as eating “forbidden fruit”, so I am sticking with the nickname granted to us by the “misbehaving” reverend.
Sometime after 1758, the Reverend Griffith Hughes, who had been living back in the British Isles for as long as a decade, disappears from any historical record, but he left us with “forbidden” grapefruit, “yellow fever” and the introduction of asbestos to British scientists. And I discovered all of this because of a Jimmy Buffett song, which is really pretty neat.
Besides grapefruit being introduced to us in the title of the song, which has led down an unusual path, there is also the mention of Juicy Fruit in the songs title.
Most people will recognize Juicy Fruit is a brand of gum, even if they have never tried it. Now, I grew up in the seventies and eighties and I “loved” Juicy Fruit. Maybe it was the bright yellow packaging or the flavorful sweetness that was so different that the minty flavors of most gums, but it was my go-to for chewing gum. And that was long, long before I discovered JB’s song that claimed chewing it was good for the soul, along with committing mortal sin.
What’s not to love about Juicy Fruit when you look at it that way?
William Wrigley was an entrepreneur who had some of his father’s money, and he also had his father’s recipe for scouring soap. He opened his business, making and selling scouring soap, which he initially sold along with baking powder as a free gift with purchase, but it soon became apparent to him that people liked the baking powder more than the scouring soap, so he decided to just make and sell baking powder. But the free gift with purchase idea was something he realized that customers liked, and so in 1892, he started making chewing gum and attaching a few sticks to each box of baking powder.
But just as people preferred the bcking soda to scouring soap, people also much preferred the chewing gum to the baking soda, and William Wrigley Jr. decided to go into the chewing gum business. The first gum was spearmint flavored but the next year, in 1893, he added a new, fruity flavored gum to his product lineup.
Juicy Fruit gum was the second gum that was invented and produced by the Wrigley’s Company of Chicago, Illinois, coming a year after its premier product, Wrigley’s Spearmint Chewing Gum. And it was a clear hit with chewing gum enthusiasts everywhere. Over the years, the packaging has changed, going from a plain package with red letters, to a green and white striped packaged to the bright yellow that most people recognize as the Juicy Fruit.
Something I found interesting was that Juicy Fruit was taken off the market during World War II, mostly because of ingredient shortages and that Mr. Wrigley did not want to sell an inferior product to the greater population. But with the rations of the appropriate and original ingredients that he had, the Wrigley Chewing Gum Company continued to make their original recipe Juicy Fruit and place it in ration packages sent overseas to troops fighting all around the globe.
After WWII had ended, Juicy Fruit was reintroduced to the public, with its new bright yellow packaging. I remember great jingles and commercials in the eighties, claiming “the taste is going to move you”, with people having simply the best time while chewing Juicy Fruit. I knew those fun, vibrant commercials encouraged me to buy Juicy Fruit when I was at the store, and I am certain that was the same kind of vibrant fun that Jimmy was having while doing whatever inspired him to write this song.
Honestly, I am not sure what flavor Juicy Fruit is. The pre-World War II packaging claimed a “fascinating artificial flavor”, but I don’t believe the true flavors have ever been divulged. Maybe, just maybe, there is a hint of grapefruit in mix? A little “forbidden fruit” to temp anyone’s taste buds.
”Drive in, You guzzle gin, Commit a little mortal sin, It’s good for the soul…”
If the first line of the song seems to hint at repairing something from the night before, the second line of the song comes right in swinging, talking of drive in’s, gin, mortal sin being good for the soul. Okay… sounds like a pretty good night.
And that is as much as I am going to touch on mortal sin and our souls…
But let’s talk about this drive-in!
In Jimmy’s Parrothead Handbook, when describing a little memory about each song, or what inspired him to write the song, for Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit, Jimmy wrote, “The place was the Islander Drive-In Theatre, and the movie was Payday staring Rip Torn. The girl was from St. Petersburg, Florida, and she was running away from a bad boyfriend. The popcorn was salty, and the beer was cold.”
The Islander Drive-In Theater was on Stock Island, Key West’s closest neighbor. The drive-in was opened in 1953 and claimed to have Florida’s largest screen, although many drive-ins claimed the same thing. The parking area had enough room for 650 cars with in-car-speakers, which is impressive. Honestly, that feels like it must have been a huge space on Stock Island. Arial photos show that cars faced the screen, which was impressively large (biggest screen in the state or not) and was itself impressively backed by the beautiful gulf coast waterways. I am sure that going to a movie at the Islander was quite an experience, and I am grateful that Jimmy was inspired enough to put it into a song, so it can live on in the history of the Florida Keys.
The Islander Drive-In changed ownership a couple of times, before it was closed in 1984, when it fell into disrepair, as most drive-ins across the countryside have. In was torn down in 2004, so when I made my first trip to Key West in 2000, it must have been still partially standing, although I don’t seem to recall seeing it. I was probably too entranced by the highway lined by mangrove trees and the shimmering, shallow blue waters off the coast. If I did see it’s ghostly remains in the distance, I don’t remember, nor did I realize at the time the tie that drive-in had to one of Jimmy’s iconic songs.
Personally, the last couple of months have been challenging due to serious health concerns in my family, and while I planned to write a blog post every Monday for the entire year, life changed those plans, as life often does. Priorities arise and I wouldn’t do anything differently, even if I didn’t fulfill my blog goal for the year. As spontaneously as I started sharing songs and stories with my friends and family on Facebook that eventually led to this blog, I am well aware that I wrote my first post last year on September 2, sharing the song Changing Channels, and I am writing this post for September 2, a whole year later.
I don’t know when (or if) there will be another blog post here, time will tell, but there was no way I was going to miss this Monday, this Labor Day Monday, on the first Labor Day weekend since Jimmy exited his life’s stage. His music and books and stories and smiles simply mean to much for me not to honor his memory in some way.
It’s been a year… a year that seems like it has taken a decade and flown by in a week. Time is a funny thing. I remember staying up late on the 1st last year, late enough that I seen the post on Jimmy’s official Facebook page, and I laid in bed, then finally slept fitfully, and getting up before the sun even had broken the horizon to face the reality that Jimmy had left this lifetime.
“Ah, take it Reefers, Ladies choice, everybody dance, Here we go…”
But what I have come to realize, after I spent a whole weekend sobbing in my living room last year, that the lifetime Jimmy had was so special, and he blessed this world with songs and stories and adventures and laughter and smiles. And those things have gone on and will continue to go on, for as long as we want them too. For as long as his fans, long-term or new, old or young, wish to keep it alive. So, keep listening to his music, keep reading his books, keep watching his interviews, keep supporting his beloved bandmates and their music, and he will live on and on and on.
“You chew a little Juicy Fruit, It’s good for the soul…”
Stacy
Please enjoy Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit. I have included several links below, from the 1973 studio album version, and two live versions, one from 1978’s You Had To Be There, which shares the fun of Jimmy Live’s shows early in his career, and a live version from 2001, later in Jimmy’s career, which still showcases Jimmy’s wonderful personality and rapport with his fans. Enjoy!
1973 Studio Version:
1978 Live Album Version:
2001 Live From Chicago:
The links are from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
Other links that might be interesting:
HUGHES, GRIFFITH (fl. 1707-1750), cleric and naturalist | Dictionary of Welsh Biography
splendAd – Juicy Fruit – The Taste Is Gonna Move You
Juicy Fruit Gum Existed During The Gilded Age (chowhound.com)
Islander Drive-In in Stock Island, FL – Cinema Treasures
Florida Memory • Aerial view of the Islander drive-inn theater – Stock Island, Florida
