"Up tight" (1967 drug ref)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

We've gone around "uptight" here a few times, most recently in a
thread where I wondered whether methamphetamine users were responsible
for the mid-'60s shift to the 'nervous, on edge' sense. I quoted some
reminiscences that suggested this, referring to the Feb. 1966
mixed-media event known as "Andy Warhol Up-Tight":

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0512E&L=ADS-L&P=R293

I haven't found any contemporaneous evidence that the name of the
Warhol event was intended as a drug reference. But on Google Book
Search I came across a good source for the drug-related sense from
1967: _Up Tight!_ by John Gimenez (as told to Char Meredith), a memoir
billed as "the true account of a destructive journey along the drug
route and miraculous entry into a land of freedom." An excerpt:

-----
http://books.google.com/books?id=d9CUOrIfJ1QC&q=tight
I was a stinkin' filthy no-good junkie, twisted out of my mind. Up
tight. Bound by dope. A chronic addict. A chronic criminal. A chronic
liar. There was no way out. The doctors said it. The psychologists
said it. The narcos said it. My family said it. (p. 17)
-----

Unfortunately, like so many titles on GoogleBS, only selected strips
of text are visible. There's a two-page "junkie's glossary" at the
beginning of the book that looks pretty interesting, though. Might be
worth the $2.95 that it's selling for on Alibris.


--Ben Zimmer

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