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

[Amy West]

On 11/22/25 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> Date:    Fri, 21 Nov 2025 15:26:29 -0500
> From:    Ben Zimmer<bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Scag" (Heroin)
>
> 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."

^^^^^^^^^^^

A much earlier positive "dope" than I expected. (But I have to allow for 
my ignorance.)

---Amy West


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