It Wasn't Hip to Say Hep…

History of the word hip…

Yesterday I was thinking about the word hip and wondering if it was a verb — adverb?

I really like the word, it’s held up over decades, meaning cool, tuned in, informed, “with it.”

Searching around, I came on this particle of history on Wiki.:

In 1947, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson wrote the song "It Ain't Hep" about the switch from hep to hip:

”Hey you know there's a lot of talk going around about this hip and hep jive. Lots of people are going around saying ‘hip." Lots of squares are coming out with "hep.’ Well the hipster is here to inform you what the jive is all about.

The jive is hip, don't say hep
That's a slip of the lip, let me give you a tip
Don't you ever say hep it ain't hip, NO IT AIN'T
It ain't hip to be loud and wrong
Just because you're feeling strong
You try too hard to make a hit
And every time you do you tip your mitt
It ain't hip to blow your top
The only thing you say is mop, mop, mop
Keep cool fool, like a fish in the pool
That's the golden rule at the Hipster school
You find yourself talking too much
Then you know you're off the track
That's the stuff you got to watch
Everybody wants to get into the act
It ain't hip to think you're "in there’
Just because of the zooty suit you wear
You can laugh and shout but you better watch out
Cause you don't know what it's all about, man
Man you ain't hip if you don't get hip to this hip and hep jive
Now get it now, look out
Man, get hip with the hipster, YEAH!
Got to do it!”

The 1936 drama film August Week End uses the term "hip" in dialogue. Norman Mailer, one of the voices of the hipster movement, formulated the content-related interpretation of the terms "hip" and "square" in an essay in 1957 as opposites in attitudes towards life,

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_(slang)#See_also

Harry the Hipster played at Harlem nightclubs in the ‘30s and (according to Wikipedia) he was known for “…his energetic and unorthodox piano styles, and his intricate mixture of hardcore, gutbucket boogie rhythms with ragtime, stride and jazz piano styles.”

I used to make fake driver’s licenses when I was in high school by switching numbers around to make me and my friends appear to be 21 years of age. (This was in 1951.) This allowed us to get into bars such as the Say When Club on Bush Street in San Francisco, where my favorite drink was a sloe gin fizz.

We saw Harry there several times, and he sang: “Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine?” as well as ” Who Put the Spanish Fly In Mrs. Murphy’s Apple Pie?”