choogle

English

Etymology

Coined by John Fogerty of the band Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Verb

choogle (third-person singular simple present choogles, present participle choogling, simple past and past participle choogled)

1. (slang, intransitive) To have a good time.
   • 1985 June, Joe Nick Patoski, “Last One In!”, in Texas Monthly, volume 13, number 6, page 227:

     The swimming hole is about 75 yards wide and averages 10 feet in depth, ample space for a swimmer to splash and choogle.

   • 1993, James Franklin Harris, Philosophy at 33 1/3 rpm: themes of classic rock music, page 176:

     So, choogle on, baby, and choogle on down the highway, man.

   • 2000, Robert Christgau, Any Old Way You Choose it: Rock and Other Pop Music, 1967-1973, →ISBN:

     The two categories come together in "Down on the Corner," which is about poor boys who choogle.

   • 2001, Patrick McCabe, Emerald Germs of Ireland, →ISBN:

     He was sitting on the wall with his friends. 'Hey Pat, man! Choogle on over, yeah?' he cried.

   • 2011, Greil Marcus, The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes, →ISBN:

     “You're all invited. Born to choogle,” he adds, because they kick the tune off with riffs from Creedence Clearwater Revival's premier chooglin' extravaganza, “Born on the Bayou.”

Noun

choogle (plural choogles)

1. (music) A funky musical romp.
   • 1980, Ronald Zalkind, Contemporary Music Almanac, page 234:

     Hawkins was the king of the choogle, a southern guitarist from Louisiana who played with the down home swamp funk sound that characterized his greatest hit, the 1957 smash "Suzie Q," a tremendous inspiration on bayou rocker John Fogerty, who used it to get Creedence Clearwater Revival their first hit in the 70's.

   • 2013, Chris Handyside, Fell in Love with a Band: The Story of The White Stripes, →ISBN, page 85:

     Their sound was a collision of glam rock strut, Stooges thuggery, and pub rock choogle.

   • 2015, Ben Graham, A Gathering of Promises, →ISBN:

     Highlights include the voodoo-choogle swamp rock of It's A Cold Night For Alligators and the driving, bubbling groove of Sputnik, driven along by Jeff Sutton's disco-tight, Clem Burke-like drumming, which Billy Miller claims is Roky's answer song to Joe Meek's Telstar.

   • 2016, Chuck Eddy, Terminated for Reasons of Taste, →ISBN:

     In fact, it might be a stretch to call R.E.O. Speedwagon prog at all, if they didn't temper the riverboat-pianoed bonfire-in-the-woods choogle of their first two albums with occasional outrageously ambitious, amp-cranking, Hammond-pumping gloom monsters that, like sundry early Kansas/ Head East / Styx tracks, seemed to owe more than a bit to the majestic post-psychedelic organ-metal funderals of the UK's Uriah Heep.