[Ads-l] Antedating of "Scag" (Heroin)

[Ben Zimmer]

Here it is a day earlier!

---
https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbury-park-press-scag/185412726/
Asbury Park (NJ) Press, Jan. 19, 1964, p. 1, col. 3
State police Detective Frank Lacitra, who spoke with the pair the morning
after their arrest, said that Marks told him he had been using "scag," a
slang term for heroin, for about a year.
---

On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 4:40 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Excellent work, Fred and Ben. Here is a slight antedating. The
> original text has an incorrect apostrophe after the word "youth".
>
> Date: January 20, 1964
> Newspaper: The Daily Record of Long Branch
> Newspaper Location: Long Branch, New Jersey
> Article: Two City Youths Jailed On Illegal Drug Charge
> Quote Page 4, Column 5
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-record-scag/185409947/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Detective Frank Lacitra, of the State Police narcotics squad, who was
> called to interrogate the youths' testified that Marks had told him he
> "had been on the stuff a year, and was using a bag a day. He was on
> scag, a term for heroin."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 3:27 PM Ben Zimmer
> <00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 7:02 AM Shapiro, Fred <
> > 00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > scag (OED, 2., 1967)
> > >
> > > 1965 Newport (R.I.) Daily News 3 July 1/8 (Newspapers.com)
> > >
> > > Archie Shepp ... definitely had something to say, so strongly that he
> > > could not leave it all to the music, in "Scag" erupted into words with
> > > verses about the effect of heroin on the downcast and dejected.
> > >
> >
> > This is about Archie Shepp's performance of "Scag" at the Newport Jazz
> > Festival on July 2, 1965, which was recorded for the album _New Thing at
> > Newport_ with John Coltrane (released Feb. 1966). The liner notes for the
> > album explain: "'Scag,' Shepp observes, 'is a colloquialism for heroin.'
> > The mood is bleak and mesmeric. As you can hear Shepp say, 'Where tracks
> > is, the money ain't.'" Shepp's spoken-word poetry ends with the line,
> "Scag
> > ain't dope, it's death."
> >
> >
> https://www.discogs.com/release/873311-John-Coltrane-Archie-Shepp-New-Thing-At-Newport
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Ho1xme008
> >
> > --bgz
> >
>

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