TOTPArchive, Mar 7, 2012
Stevie Wonder performing his hit, "Uptight" live
in the Top of the Pops studio, back in 1966. The performance is repeated here
on a TOTP2 special.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This post also presents information about the positive meaning that Stevie Wonder used for the word "uptight" and its use in some other 1960s records.
The content of the this post is presented for linguistic, cultural, and entertainment purposes only.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Stevie Wonder for his musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/02/james-browns-1964-r-song-out-of-sight.html for a closely related pancocojams post entitled "James Brown's 1964 R&B Song "Out Of Sight" and Some History Of The Use Of The Phrase "Out of Sight" With The Meaning "Amazing" Or "Great" ".
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PARTIAL LYRICS FOR "UPTIGHT (EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT)"
(Stevie Wonder)
"[Intro]
Baby, everything is all right, uptight, out of sight
Baby, everything is all right, uptight, out of sight
[Chorus]
And it's all right, what I can't do
Out of sight because my heart is true
She says baby everything is alright, uptight, clean out of
sight
Baby, everything is all right, uptight, clean out of sight
Baby, everything is all right, uptight, hahahahaha, yeah
Baby, everything is all right, uptight, way out of sight
Baby, everything is all right, uptight, clean out of sight"
SELECTED COMMENTS ABOUT THE USE OF THE WORD "UPTIGHT" IN STEVIE WONDER'S SONG "UPTIGHT (EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT) AND IN SOME OTHER SONGS
These comments are numbered for references purposes only. These numbers don't necessarily correspond to the numbers in those discussion threads.
Quotes within these comments from other commenters are given in italics.
From https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?21918-The-Way-Stevie-Used-The-Word-quot-UPTIGHT-quot The Way Stevie Used The Word "Uptight"
1. 09-14-2018, Boogiedown
"The Way Stevie Used The Word "UPTIGHT"
In his song, UPTIGHT [[EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT), has it been
explained how Stevie Wonder came to use the word "uptight" in a
positive light?
Dictionaries seem to provide only a negative connotation:
"tense" , "uneasy", rigid" "
**
2. 09-14-2018, Boogiedown
"I thought maybe it was an anomaly of Stevie's, but recently
I noticed it being used in the same way here:
[ A photograph of a 45 record of Peggy Scott &
Jo Jo Benson -"Lover’s Holiday" is attached to this comment.]
**
3.
"This goes to show just how much language changes over the
years [[the clue is in the parenthetical title: "Everything's
Alright".)
Although I was born a year after this record came out, I do remember "Uptight" still being used as a slang or expression when I was a kid. As I remember it, if everything was "groovy" [[there's another one for you that probably means absolutely nothing today), if everything was good, going well, working out, you said it was "Uptight".
Marcus: Hey, man, how's it going?
Leon: Awww man, everythang is UPTIGHT! I got a new car, my
woman is comin' by tonight, it's ALL UPTIGHT, OUTTA SIGHT!
You probably won't find this meaning of Uptight in any dictionary because it was slang usage. Just like for a hot minute, kids were calling anything good "Sick" or "Insane". If you're looking for a detailed explanation of Stevie's usage of the word, you won't find it. This is just one of those things where "you had to be there" and young person of those times.
Outta Sight! Dig It! Way Out! Solid and Uptight, Baby!"
**
4. 09-14-2018, #4Boogiedown
"thanks WWLFAC.
The use of "sick" or "insane" was the
intentional inverting of those words' meanings , same as the way bad" came
to be used to mean "good."
Are you saying at the time Stevie's record came out ,
"uptight" was already commonly being used to mean tense and uneasy ,
but Stevie [[ and others ) were reversing the meaning in a slang way?
**
5. 09-14-2018, Boogiedown
"i found this:
"tense," slang, 1934, from up- + tight [[adj.). Meaning "straight-laced" first recorded 1969. It was used in a sense of "excellent" in jazz slang c. 1962.
from: https://www.etymonline.com/word/uptight "
**
6. 09-14-2018, WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance
Quote Originally Posted by Boogiedown
Are you saying at the time Stevie's record came out ,
"uptight" was already commonly being used to mean tense and uneasy ,
but Stevie [[ and others ) were reversing the meaning in a slang way?
Pretty much yes. It's sort of a thing where if you go digging for some sort of scholarly explanation of this slang, it's like needing a college professor to explain the appeal of a Hostess Twinkie to children. "Uptight" was just one of those words with different meanings to different people.
In a pejorative way, you used it to say someone was tense
[[or if you really wanted to cut someone down, you used it to say someone was
just way to serious and dull.) In a street-cool way, It was just a slang for
"Everythng's Alright" and nothing more, nothing deeper. Stevie Wonder
didn't start the use of "Uptight" as a slang- it was just a street
saying that had been going on."
**
7. 09-14-2018, mysterysinger
"James Brown had used Uptight in a similar vein the year
before [[1964) in his song "Out Of Sight"."
**
8. 09-14-2018, #14marv2 marv2
"If you also listen to James Brown's "Outsight" you
will see he uses the word to convey the same meaning as Stevie does. Remember
when the word "Bad" meant "not good". Well By the 60s,
"Bad" meant "Great!".
**
9. 09-15-2018, 18144man
Quote Originally Posted by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance\
"\Oh my! I remember very well how some 70's sitcoms got a
lot of stale mileage out of someone not understanding that
"BA-A-A-A-D" meant "Great!" I'm thinking of shows like
"Good Times", "The Jeffersons" or some show where an
African American would say something like, "Man that's BAAAAD" and
someone would be completely baffled by it- "Oh I'm sorry, I seemed O.K. to
me!" "No man, BAD is GOOD!" cue the overdose of audience
laughter.
Good memories!
As 100Proof [[Aged In Soul) sang on Hot Wax,
"Everything good is bad, and everything bad is good".
**
10.
Quote Originally Posted by Boogiedown
Ha! I'm going to try using "groovy" just to see
what kind of rise I can get! Here in California , that's where I am WWLFAC,
maybe not as much.
I was thinking, I can't think of any songs that use the word "uptight" in its more common way . [[??)
I'm sure there are others but has anyone forgotten the song
Giving Him Something He
Can Feel from the film Sparkle? Aretha recorded it too...I
guess as far as uptight is concerned it's a generational thing...Some of us are
just one step far back enough to remember when uptight was a positive term."...
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