go electric/acoustic

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:29:48 -0500, Mullins, Bill
<Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:

>"Chicago Visitor" Will Leonard
>Chicago Tribune; Oct 11, 1964; pg. G11 col 2.
>"Will was a sterling folk singer a few months ago at Old Town North; now
>his guitar has gone electric and been amplified, and he's a songster of
>all trades, punching vigorously thru a virile repertory that commands
>attention and appreciation."

Good find! It makes sense, I guess, that the expression would first be
applied to the guitar and then metonymically to the player.

The disparagement that the folkies heaped on Dylan for "going electric" in
'65 seems to have been based on an earlier "GO + adj" form frequently used
by musical purists: "go commercial". OED has a 1959 cite, but it goes back
a few decades before that...


1927 _Athens Messenger_ (Ohio) 29 Apr. 4/3 Before Greenwich Village "went
commercial" he had a little shop in the green V-shaped building that now
blazes with the bright colors of batiked gowns just beyond Sheridan
Square.

1927 _Zanesville Signal_ (Ohio) 19 Dec. 8/4 A few troubadors there still
are to sing the songs and tell the stories of Greenwich Village before it
"went commercial."

1930 _Washington Post_ 17 June 6/2 Some will criticize Mr. Rockefeller for
having "gone commercial" in resolving to devote a valuable piece of
property, not to "art," but to the movies and radio.

1935 _Washington Post_ 3 Feb. F6/4 As I was saying, Dr. Dafoe will make
big money if he goes commercial.

1940 _Chicago Tribune_ 2 June VII3/6  Some one should endow Muggsy
Spanier's gem of a band so that it wouldn't be necessary for him to take
summers off to play with the Bob Crosby band or, as he plans, to go
"commercial" with a 12 piece outfit in the fall.

1942 _Washington Post_ 4 Oct. L3/2 In addition to these, he also keeps in
stock Benny Goodman records made before 1938, "when he went commercial,"
and he will, on request, order discs by Duke Ellington, whom he does not
tolerate.

1951 _N.Y. Times_ 25 Nov. 131 Despite his classical music training and
accomplishments...Freeman makes no apologies for "going commercial."

1960 _Washington Post_ 28 Aug. (American Weekly) 15/1 Develop a few
esoteric (there's a handy word for you) passions. Rave about an obscure
17th Century poet, for instance, or an unknown folk singer. If your folk
singer should double-cross you by becoming popular, drop him like a hot
potato -- he's "gone commercial."


--Ben Zimmer