A few days ago, Philadelphia-born musician Todd Rundgren inducted his fellow rockers The Hooters into the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame. Here’s a little of what he had to say, as recorded by Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Explanatory note 1: Jerry Blavat, aka The Geator, aka The Boss with the Hot Sauce, is a legendary Philadelphia DJ whose career has spanned from 1960 till the present day.
Explanatory note 2: “chuffed” is a NOOB meaning, basically, pleased as punch.
The magic of the Internet reveals that Rundgren–who’s had lots of collaborations and contact with British musicians, notably Ringo Starr–has used the word at least once before, in this 2017 interview with Variety.
He must be pleased as punch.
I wonder if “dischuffed” will appear as Noob? This means unhappy, annoyed, fed up etc. These days I am more likely to hear “dischuffed” more than “chuffed”.
I would have said that chuffed isn’t only a Britishism, it’s a northernism. Not sure if it’s used in Scotland, but it was quite common when I was growing up in County Durham, Often people would say they were “dead chuffed”, and in the local dialect, “dead” would be pronounced more like “deed”.
It’s used in the south too. Coincidentally, it came back on to my radar when I noticed an American friend, living in London at the time, using it.
Wait a minute. The use of the word chuffed isn’t the surprising thing here. It’s that the 2017 Variety article referred to The Pursuit of Happiness, Moe Berg’s amazing band, as sounding almost like a Todd Rundgren tribute band. I’m an Adult Now has a hard and cynical core never to be matched by the much sweeter Rundgren. Rundgren would never have written, “I can’t take any more illicit drugs/I can’t afford any artificial joy/
I’d sure look like a fool dead in a ditch somewhere
With a mind full of chemicals/ike some cheese-eating high school boy/.
‘Cause I’m an adult now
Rundgren might never have written those lyrics, but he was the producer of that album . . .