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Questions. Or, 'I'm too lazy to do any research'.

14:24 / 14.10.01

Hey, old dudes.

I'm writing a story set in that good year 1970, and would be very grateful if anyone could shed some light on the following matters;

1.What kind of slang/swear words were popular in 1970? 'Fuck' gets dull after about a dozen uses, and i guess phrases like 'sucks', 'rules' etc. weren't generally used, and un-ironic use of hippy words like 'groovy' sounds ridiculous, and Amazon haven't made good on their promise to deliver The Dictionary of Hipster Slang, so, er, any ideas?

2.Were there any more dark edged/negative/scary cult bands operating in 1970 (apart from 'Sabbath and the Stooges)?

3.Y'know that 'pledge of alligence' nonsense American kids have to say in school? How often do they have to say it and at what ages?

4. Where can I find the words to the Pledge?

Thanks in advance. More questions are possible as I run into them.

14:55 / 14.10.01

The Pledge of Allegiance was/is recited every morning of every school day, from kindergarten to the end of high school--ages 5-18: right hand on heart, face the flag in the corner of the room, and say (line breaks indicate rhythm)...

I pledge allegiance
to the flag
of the United
States
of America:
and the republic
for which it stands,
one nation
under God
indivisible
ith liberty
and justice
for all.

17:25 / 14.10.01

That is scary Jack. Don't people just take the piss. Yopu would not get away with that in an English school.

1970 was kind of Manson time; lots of dark creepy stuff there- he particulary dug the beatles by making up his meaning to the lyrics.

A band called Black Widow were rather more occultly pro - active than the sabs 'Come to Sabbath Satans There' was a big hit for them.

For general in your face psychotic stuff Loughboroughs Edgar Broughton Band were sing lots of madness things: schizophrenia was dead trendy at the time.

I do remember walking around town chanting
'Acid is great Kill the pig'. The Pig was a very popular term at the time.

I'll think on this and maybe get back to you on more slang.

[ 14-10-2001: Message edited by: Luke Wing ]

17:45 / 14.10.01

Maybe this is too mainstream, but the Stones' Altamont concert was in the last few days of '69. And after listening to Marvin Gaye's "What's going on" sat night, I'd have to say that "right on" was in use as a phrase.

20:46 / 14.10.01

third question first... once a day and I don't remember what ages. up until high school? I think I did it there.

as for slang pick up materials from the time. specifically underground papers and magazines. you'll find them if you look. those should reproduce slang more accurately than the wider-circulation publications.

04:35 / 15.10.01

It occurs to me that the 'Freak Brothers Comics' were once linguistically of that time. I would use these, but with caution, so as to not come across like your trying to hard.

I remember the introduction to the Fritz the Cat film (c 1975)
'Hey man, the 1960's. Good time's, heavy times'.

Fairly typical adjectives and syntax used above. Women were unselfconsciously called 'chicks' and 'cool' was also unironically present as in 'stay cool'.

I'm going to e-mail you some images of San Francisco free sheets from the late sixties. I know it's 1970 you're interested but this is close enough I feel. The early seventies were by and large a widening and shallowing of the late sixties, up to the emergence of popular andro/bi sexuality.

[ 15-10-2001: Message edited by: Luke Wing ]

17:34 / 15.10.01

"Keep on truckin'" was a bizarrely popular slogan of the era.
Yes on the Beatles.
1970 was the year Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix died. I wonder if the 13th Floor Elevators were still around (as far as dark/crazy underground music goes).
"Far out." "Freak" or "freak out." "My pad." "Hang loose." "Hey, cool it man!" "What's the buzz?" (those last two from Jesus Christ Superstar). The use of "head" specific to drug use, as: "He's a real head."

Tim Leary was still at large, if I remember right. Or maybe he'd been arrested the first time.

It's pre-Watergate, and most importantly, pre-the personal computer.
NOBODY used concepts like "processing information" or "data overload" or words like "glitch" or "hacking." The closest to that would be either sci-fi geeks (who are really outsider rejects and NOT COOL AT ALL) or phone phreaks, people who essentially hack the phone system.
People still have pen pals and write personal correspondence.
Andy Warhol would have been big in New York.
(VELVET UNDERGROUND)
Airline travel was still for millionaire playboys.
World just emerging from psychedlic years...
(PINK FLOYD, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE) LSD is incredibly frightening now to mainstream America - or about to become so, once the Manson Family Murders hit the headlines.

Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers would be a trove of slang; so would R. Crumb comics and other "head" publications.

10:05 / 16.10.01

"I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America. And to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I added a "to" and made the stops and pauses into basic punctuation... y'know, I can't remember seeing it printed ever, so I don't know if there's really a period where I put one.

I'm sure that my school didn't start with the pledge until first grade*, and for some reason I think it may have stopped in middle school (a.k.a. junior high), putting it at ages 6-14. But I could just be misremembering.

I seem to recall reading that a "hack" was originally a term for a practical joke, in a very limited area (such as, only M.I.T. students used it, or some such)... I thought the computer term MIGHT be coming into usage, again in an incredibly limited peer group... Hell, just listen to grant and forget the word exists.

* I'm afraid I don't know if these terms mean anything to non-Americans; kindergarten is ~5 years of age, first grade is the one after kindergarten.

11:33 / 16.10.01

Thanks everyone for the advice. Lot's of useful and thought provoking stuff..

I'm not going for a total retro-fest, it just happens to be 1970 for, well, I'm not sure why really, it just is..

Manson and acid paranioa are gonna play their parts and grant has just reminded me that the VU are exactly the kind of band I had in mind. (Which makes me wonder why I didn't think of them before cos I was playing 'White Heat/White Light' just the other day..)

Thanks to Ian for emailing me those hippie papers. They're really cool, but then I'm a sucker for that kinda thing anyway..