"Right on"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 17:42:09 -0000, Jonathon Green <slang at ABECEDARY.NET>
wrote:

>It's certainly in the 1968 edition of _Current Slang_ III:2, subtitled
>'The Slang of Watts'. I think Jesse might be being a trifle restrictive; I
>definitely recall being very well aware of the term in mid-late 1969,
>certainly in the context of working on the London 'underground press',
>albeit at that stage for the short-lived UK edition of a still relatively
>radical Rolling Stone. In other words, we were far, both lit. and fig.,
> from the Black Panthers.  We probably picked it up through the old UPS
>(the Underground Press Syndicate, via which all such papers circulated
>material).

Another way that many people might have become familiar with "Right on",
by early 1969 at least, is through James Brown songs.  The single "Give It
Up Or Turn It Loose" (released in January 1969, peaking at #15 on the pop
charts and #1 on the R&B charts) has James Brown exhorting, "Get it
together, right on, right on."

--Ben Zimmer