Yesterday Once More

23 Sep 2014

Lingo

Hi Listeners,

This week we are presenting a vast topic called ‘Lingo’ or language. The idea is to demonstrate how popular language of the day was reflected in song titles and lyrics. The fifties, sixties and seventies each had their own distinctive words and phrases. ‘See you later, Alligator. In a while, crocodile’ rose directly out of Bill Haley’s song of the same name in the fifties. In the sixties Timothy Leary coined the phrase ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’ which crystallized the counter culture generation of the sixties. In the seventies phrases like ‘May The Force Be With You ‘are directly from seventies popular culture. But, there were also words and phrases which persisted across all three decades even though the meaning may have changed slightly. An interesting example of that is a word which you hear spoken on mobiles throughout the tram network today – ‘Oh cool’. In the fifties ‘cool’ was also popular but applied more specifically to a person’s demeanour and attitude -‘You’re so cool, man’.

We have examples of fifties lingo in Elvis’s hit ‘(I Don’t Care) Baby You’re So Square’ and Teresa Brewer’s song ‘You Send Me’. The Coasters contribution ‘Three Cool Cats’ encapsulates and sends up the whole notion of being ‘cool’. Interestingly, the Johnny O’Keefe song ‘So Tough’ uses an unusual word ‘tough’ which literally meant you are ‘great, terrific’. Changes in the language are reflected through the use of ‘Dig’ (I Dig Rock N Roll Music) and ‘mod’ (She’s A Mod) a specific reference to a type of subset of teenagers. ‘Funky’ and ‘Groovy’ were used mainly in the seventies to represent something good – ‘Play That Funky Music’ and ‘Boogie Wonderland’

We hope you are as fascinated by this theme as we are and that the songs will speak to you in their languages.

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