With the coming of the 70’s, we stake our own claim.
It just kind of happened organically. Words we just stopped using, new ones taking over.
‘Groovy’–gone. You could use ‘groove’ describing music, but parties, girls, clothes were not groovy. ‘Hip’ was on its way out; in another two years, no one would say it. These words were used by advertisers and over 50 comedians, so we automatically pressed our collective ‘delete’ buttons. ‘Far out’ and ‘outta sight’ also completely disappeared.
Leaving something/somewhere was not ‘bugging out’, it was ‘splitting’ or ‘outta here.’ But you could still be told to ‘hang loose’, particularly if you were waiting for someone to deliver weed or beer.
‘Cool’ became the watchword, not ‘boss’ or ‘happening’. ‘Intense’ took over. ‘Bad trip/bum trip’: gone. ‘Bummer’ was still in use, but often used sarcastically, as when you got shut down by a girl and your friends wanted to let you know they didn’t sympathize.
John Lennon’s use of ‘Alright’ in “Revolution’ made that word a must-use . No one ever ‘fed their head’–that ‘drug’ word was co-opted to mean doing constructive things, like reading or studying. “Heavy” never went out of style, since rock and roll got progressively louder and faster. New bands/albums were ‘heavy’ or ‘heavy shit’. Great weed could also be ‘heavy shit.’ Confused yet?
‘Pot’ or ‘mj’ was never used. You said ‘weed’ or ‘shit’. ‘Booze’ or ‘sauce’ was never used, except as slang to show how stale the word was. You wanted beer, you said beer. You wanted anything else, you had to say what it was or just say, ‘I need something harder (or ‘harder stuff’)’.
One more interesting word was ‘city’ when it was added to a noun, as in the Byrds’ “Psychodrama City’.
This meant that the noun preceding it was exceptional or intense. So a group of mini-skirted girls was ‘Leg City’, a winter hill covered with sledders was ‘sledder city’, a horrific looking lunch in the cafeteria was ‘indigestion city’. You get the drift.
“Psychedelic’ was out, but ‘psyche’ was kept: you could get psyched out by someone on an opposing team.
“Dig” was fading, but not totally passe (John Lennon, again, kept it in circulation with “Dig It”). You can still ‘dig’ a record or a TV show, but you did NOT ‘dig’ someone, nor can you ‘dig that scene.’ Using ‘scene’ that way was also a very uncool no-no.
“Bread” for money vanished overnight. Which could lead to confusion……if you asked someone ‘how much have you got?’ instead of ‘how much bread?’ you could mean money, booze, or weed.
Nerdy kids were no longer ‘kiss ups’, now they were ‘suck ups.’ Note the obscene overtone of the verbs being changed……
Something great was not a ‘gas’ (in spite of the Stones song), but you could say you were ‘into’ it. Later, you could say that you were ‘into’ a certain alcoholic beverage or a type of weed. But ‘mellow’ was still acceptable, when you talked about getting high or when Elton used the word.
Your hash pipe was ‘pipe’, roach clip was ‘clip’. ‘Stash’ could be your weed, or a stockpile of beer, whisky, porn, etc. And in spite of the song, I never heard anyone say they were ‘One Toke over the Line’………..it was just ‘I’m so fucking stoned.’ Part of 70’s slang was a return to basics.
Finally, a hot girl could be ‘foxy’, thanks to Jimi.
She could also be ‘sweet’ (but never a ‘sweet piece’), fine, a ‘Mona’, or a blast.
You didn’t take a ‘trip’ on drugs, but you could still use the word in describing a very intense album or person.
Cops were still ‘pigs’, but people were no longer ‘squares’………they were assholes or idiots. You were uncool if you called yourself a ‘freak’, BUT it was okay describing someone else, like if a girl still wore loud ’60’s clothes, you’d derisively call her a ‘freak’.
The word ‘hippie’ was on the way out. It was only used derisively to refer to someone whose head, dress, attitude was locked into 1966. Sadly, one of our class’ most beautiful girls (Libby) was labeled a ‘hippie’ and never asked out by us asshole boys.
Oh all right……..I’ll play it.