I was never a groovy kind of guy.
Fact is the term “groovy” was never a big-ticket item in my junior high circles when it was a brand new pop culture word.
If I had decided to exercise my right to use the term ”groovy”, then I may have had to defend it in a schoolyard scrap and I had modest fighting skills.
However, I liked songs with groovy in the title; that was an acceptable use of the term.
‘Groovy Kind of Love’, ‘Groovin’, ‘Feeling Groovy’- they all made the grade-just as long as they were sung and not spoken by junior high kids in the late 60s.
Groovy could be used in a sarcastic context, and it could be used to mock an advertising character named George W Groovy.
There was a popular jingle and radio blue jean campaign in the late 60s that starred George and he immediately became the most un-hip character on the planet.
George’s infamy as a high priest in the 60s nerd religion was actually a brilliant marketing ploy for GWG jeans.
The company wanted to broaden their appeal beyond a working- man’s pair of jeans, so they produced bell bottoms that caught a wave with kids.
George was their spokesman, and his notoriety as a laughable loser gained a lot of extra press for GWG in kid circles.
Whether GWG planned the campaign to succeed because George was a joke would be open to debate.
Language will always be an evolutionary entity but, like the dinosaurs, not every word or catch phrase will survive.
Groovy is definitely a casualty, but it hardly had a chance to become a permanent term part of the English language when you consider that it really is a corny expression. We figured that out as 12-year-olds.
Another casualty from the late 60s and early 70s would be the term “far out”.
This expression had a lot more traction than groovy because the stoner crowd embraced it with a passion. Nothing said “far out” like a THC and/or LSD fan in that era.
The stoners’ vacant-eyed facial expressions seemed like a good marriage with the vacant-headed term “far out”, and it was often the most intelligent thing that they would have to say for a few hours.
“Far out” got a big boost from stoner comedians Cheech and Chong and crossed over into mainstream pop culture for a brief stint in the early 70s.
The expression could be parroted by anybody with a few bucks that bought the Cheech and Chong comedy albums.
Guys named Dave were less likely to buy Cheech and Chong albums.
The famous “Dave’s not here” routine became a signature catch phrase in the 70s. Now it is used as proof of age for over-55-years-old discounts at department stores.
If you know who made it famous and when, then you get the discount. It can also still be used to annoy guys over 55 named Dave.
My final one is an ancient 60s expression that seems to have survived in some circles to this very day.
I still hear the term “right on” on occasion. It has remarkable durability for its age and seems destined to exist for a few more years before it takes an exit on 23 Skidoo Boulevard.
Jim Sutherland may be reached at jim@mystarcollectorcar.com