Nov 27, 2024–Young people today think they are hip.
When we were in high school, we thought we were cool.
But before there was “hip” and “cool,” there was “hep.”
I’m reading a history of the big bands from 1920 to 1960. It’s fascinating how their popularity followed the arc of a Behind The Music segment. Groups of musicians gathered in the Roaring 20s to play popular tunes in local clubs and dance halls. Radio came along with live remotes, bringing bands a nationwide audience. Vinyl recordings were invented and jukeboxes delivered the tunes to the hinterlands. Big bands peaked during and immediately after World War II, dominating the charts and packing new extravagant ballrooms in major cities.
Inevitably, interest dwindled as returning soldiers turned to raising families, ballrooms burned, and TV stars Uncle Miltie and Lucy took over the nation’s attention. Big bands were relegated to playing high school gymnasiums and nostalgia tours.
But there was one relic of the age that still resonates. I came over a clipping of Cab Calloway’s Hepster’s Dictionary from the mid-1930s. Cab Calloway was famous as “The Hi-De-Ho Man,” leading bands on stage, radio, and film. With his trim mustache, zoot suits, signature smile, and riveting stage presence he oozed “hep” before it had a name. Some entries from his Hepster’s Dictionary:
Apple–the big town, the main stem, Harlem
I find it clever that the “main stem” on the Big Apple was Harlem.
Armstrongs–musical notes in the upper register, high trumpet notes
Of course attibuted to Louis Armstrong’s celestial chops.
Barbecue–the girl friend, a beauty
Interesting they used two names for the opposite:
Battle–a very homely girl, a crone
Faust–an ugly girl, a bag
Cat–musician in a swing band
Lay some iron–to tap dance
Lily whites
Not what you think. This is slang for bed sheets. Clean ones, I assume.
Hide-Beater–A drummer
My new nickname.
Icky–one who is not hip, a stupid person, can’t collar the jive
Obviously I am this, as I have no idea what “collar the jive” means.
Black–night
Bright–day
Blip–something very good
Beat up the chops–to have a conversation
For introverts, that is an accurate description of cocktail party chatter.
Dig–It actually had several meanings:
1) meet, as in “I’ll plant you now and dig you later.”
2) look, see, as “Dig the chick on your left duke.”
3) comprehend, understand, as in “Do you dig this jive?” Still in use by beatniks, hippies, and unemployed uncles trying to impress women.
Doss–sleep, as in “I’m a little beat for my doss”
Drape or Dry Goods–a suit of clothes
Final–used as a verb, to leave, to go home. “I finaled to my pad.”
Frisking the Whiskers–woodshedding, practicing the instrument, or “what the cats do when they are warming up for a swing session”
It sounds slightly perverse.
Got your boots on–knowing what it is all about
Jeff–a pest, a bore, an icky
Jelly–anything free, on the house
Icky–one who is non-hip, a stupid person
Igg–to ignore someone
Today it might be akin to “diss.”
Kill Me–show me a good time
Knock–to obtain, “I’m going to knock me some food”
Most of these have gone the way of all slang, as succeeding generations invent new ways to confuse their elders. Yet some terms endured:
Clambake–a jam session
Joint is Jumping–the place is lively
Jive–to kid along, to give someone a line
Kopasetic–absolutely OK
My hep glossary ends at the letter M because A-M is all they reproduced in the book. So, I guess that finals this column.
23 Skiddoo.
XXX
Phil Houseal is an Icky and owner of of Full House PR, www.FullHousePR.com.