The word was pretty much passé by 1972, but that fact didn’t prevent the theme for the Brady Kids cartoon from including the lyrics
I remember a newspaper comic strip called Go Go Gruver and long assumed the “hip” main character’s last name was a play on the word “groovy”, but the only Google hit on the title says the feature debuted in 1959 (the year I was born, and about ten years before the late lamented Cleveland Press ran the strip).
There was a 1970 cartoon called Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies, later syndicated as The Groovy Ghoulies and Friends. Apparently the original “creative” spelling had a short shelf life…
Same here. And never intended to last. It was used with a certain deliberate insouciance even then. Most of the leaden, prescriptive 60s ‘truisms’–which actually happened in the 70s, btw–lost all their charm, pith and punch by being coopted by the media, which never remotely ‘got’ what they reported. Actually, it was playful, subversive self-aware irony way before irony became a nearly universally misunderstood catchphrase. Say something that, if it doesn’t mean the direct opposite, at least carries deliberately freighted overtones.
‘Groovy’ was…a deliberately disposable phrase for an ineffable, transitory grasp of moments. It was a joke inside a joke–that wasn’t quite, entirely a joke. Most of the joke was tossing ‘groovy’ out there, to be adapted, spun and fermented into…something else. Verbal ping pong, speed chess, a precursor to rap. Very organic–and hilarious, not to mention creative–no matter the dreary, portentious THING made of it then and now.
Bah. Rappers are sociopathic gangsters, rapist and animalistic losers. Goths are suicidal nihilists–vegetarian vampire wannabes–looking for a reason to become mass murderers.
Very stupid, all of it, and time–not to mention assorted pundits and academics and media hacks on any side–rarely, VERY rarely, delve below the surface, much less appreciate and celebrate deliberately transitory, quirky human commentary for what it is.
Which was pretty much what imthjckaz said–I think–but with a lot more blithering and grumping.
I always knew I wasn’t cool. Groovy has always been one of my favourite words. I have used it consistently for the last 30 years. I just like the way it sounds. I quite liked being the only one using it too.
I recall it was more of 60’s word before the eight track tape deck overtook the grooved vinyl discs as the primary mode of delivering rock music to the masses.
For me it seemed that the sincerely-feel-good-patchouli part of the 60’s thing began towards the end of the decade and was over around '71 or '72. I heard “groovy” used maybe a couple times, still have my 59th Street Bridge record, but I myself never used the word.
Naive hipster-wannabe that I was (and am?) I did not note any ironic self-awareness with ‘groovy.’ All I knew was that at age 13 or 14, to me, the word felt a bit cultivated, or perhaps synthetic , and I knew I wasn’t going to use it.
But yeah, like **ccwaterback,**we said “far-out” all the time, with no hint of irony. There was also the phrase “out of sight” which sort of became one word, “outasite,” but it seemed a bit on the ‘groovy’ side. We had our own words, too–that was the most fun of all. The 70’s were good times for me.
Funny how the media picks up on some catchphrases, but leaves other things alone. Suppose it all depends on marketability. :rolleyes:
Haven’t seen anyone enthusing about the ‘sick’ new line of Abercrombie and Fitch clothing, nor any gossip columnists snickering about some ‘crunk’ behavior at a recent party in the Hamptons.
Of late, that word has crept back into my vocabulary. I was a child of the 60’s-early 70’s, and I remember it being used. I still use it and don’t know how it got lodged up there again. Still use “far-out”, too… :wally I can trace that to my love of Tommy Chong’s read on the line…" FAR-OUT, Man!".
For some reason, tho, I find the use of “Right-ON” to be annoying when I hear it. And lately I hear it more frequaintly
Yeah, everyone knows the 70s weren’t “groovy.” They were “far out!”
In addition to Cheech and Chong, you had such hepcats as John Denver popularizing the phrase.
(And FaerieBeth, Scooby Doo debuted in the 1969, when some lame TV writer might have though “groovy” was still current.)
Confusing the '70s with the '60s. That’s what this is. I started noticing this circa 1990, when the band Dee-Lite had video hits on MTV. The buzz about Dee-Lite was their retro “Seventies” style. What malarkey! Anyone could see that their style was Sixties! It was reminiscent of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In circa 1968 or '69. At the time, I wondered how anyone could confuse the Seventies, the decade of leisure suits and Saturday Night Fever, with the Sixties, the decade of psychedelia and tie-dye. The two are nothing like each other. Looks like the confusion continues.
Darling, I’m actually old enough to remember the Sixties. I was a kid then. “Groovy” was already passé by 1969 at the latest. I remember hearing it mocked on the radio in '68 or '69.
R. Crumb made a cartoon autobiography of the Sixties. I read it in 1984. His comment on the year 1970: “I felt during the whole year of 1970 like I was riding a down elevator.” There was a definite, sharp change in the Zeitgeist in the year 1970, making Seventies culture sharply different from the Sixties. No way could anyone confuse them! I remember how much people complained during the Seventies how boring everything was. On New Year’s Eve 1979, my friend advertised the party he was throwing with the theme “ESCAPE FROM THE SEVENTIES.”
I was 12 - 22 in the Seventies. I’d say that, in my little world at least, slang was fairly understated. I don’t remember us using any real slang at all, except college-party type expressions such “-age”–that is, adding -age to anything to make it a noun. For example: “spillage”, the act of spilling or the liquid spilled, usually in the context of beer. Or “spliffage”, meaning pot. Another big one was “mega”, an adverb or adjective meaning very much or to a great extent.
However, these terms were usually used with a touch of irony or humor. I always attributed the understated nature of the time as a reaction to the high-flying Sixties. Kind of boring, if you want to know the truth. Musically, it seemed to me that the rock bands of the time were trying so hard not to be affected or gimmicky that they went too far in the other direction.
Just giving you a hard time. Mostly, you’re right.
