Dan Burley

Mon Jul 19 04:49:46 UTC 2010

After I had moved (relatively) North to Saint Louis, ca.1941-43 (even *I* do
not claim to have a clear memory of my *entire* past;-)), the local bruz and
cuz quickly pulled my coat to the fact that "hep" was unhip and a clear
indication that I must be unhip.

The point was driven home so deeply that, from that moment on, I never again
used "hep," though I *knew* that it was - well, had been - hip to use "hep."

'In 1939, Buddy Johnson waxed his first 78 for Decca, "Stop Pretending (So
_Hep_ You See)."'
-AllMusic Guide to The Blues, 2003.

Stop pretending
Yeah! Yeah!
Stop pretending
The devil's gonna get you
...
[I'm] so _hep_, you see

That's the best that I can do in a search of memory. (My mother had a copy
of the record.) But, no doubt, someone will look it up and supply any
necessary additions, editions, and corrections.

Cab Calloway used "Hep! Hep!" in his song, The Jumping Jive. But it could be
argued that he used it merely as an exclamation to emphasize the rhythm.

-Wilson

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 1:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Dan Burley
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _Juba to Jive_ is, I fear, not a very reliable source.
>
> HDAS shows that _hep_ appears in print a few years earlier than _hip_,
> though not long enough to prove anything.
>
> Both forms antedate the jazz era, and both appear in the speech of whites.
> Not that that proves anything either.
>
> "Hep" was very widely used in the swing era.  In the mid to late '40s,
> "hip"
> was suddenly prescribed and "hep" was out, possibly to some extent because
> the new wave of be-boppers and R&B artists wanted to get away from the
> nuances of swing culture.  It probably is true, though, that white Middle
> American teens hung on to "hep" a few years longer than did black jazz and
> blues musicians. As usual, go figure.
>
> As I may have posted some while ago, I personally heard a black student at
> NYU in the early '70s exclaim in class, "White folks just ain't hep!"  She
> obviously hadn't been influenced by print.
>
> OTOH, that was probably the last time I heard anybody say "hep" in
> spontaneous speech.
>
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Dan Burley
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I once read that during the jazz era, 'hip' was used by blacks and 'hep'
> > by=
> >  whites. According to _Juba to Jive_ (Major) 'hep' was the misspelled
> > versi=
> > on of 'hip.'
> > Cool in current AAE seems to mean OK, acceptable, satisfactory, approved.
> > =C2=A0
> > --Margaret Lee
> > ________________________________________
> >
> > --- On Sun, 7/18/10, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> >
> > From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: Dan Burley
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Date: Sunday, July 18, 2010, 1:19 AM
> >
> >
> > GB has a full-page legit scan of _Billboard_ in 1955 that mentions
> "uncool
> > music."=C2=A0 That's the earliest one I've seen.
> >
> > As for hep/hip in my limited experience:
> >
> > AAVE:=C2=A0 no diff.
> >
> > AALE: you lame or something?=C2=A0 (if "L" stands for "literary and
> media")
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LI
> > =
> > STSERV.UGA.EDU <http://stserv.uga.edu/>>
> > > Poster:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 Re: Dan Burley
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > ------
> > >
> > > Is there any distinction between _hep hip_ and _cool_ in AAVE or in
> > > AALE? How old is _uncool_?
> > >
> > > -Wilson
> > >
> > > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
> > > <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > > Sender:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L@
> > =
> > LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <http://listserv.uga.edu/>>
> > > > Poster:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Benjamin Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at BABEL.
> > =
> > LING.UPENN.EDU <http://ling.upenn.edu/>>
> > > > Subject:=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 Re: Dan Burley
> > > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > ------
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 9:47 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> > > > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> The intro to HDAS draws attention to the writing of Dan Burley (1909
> -
> > > 1962,
> > > >> acc. to Wackipedia), the African-American journalist and musician
> who
> > > >> probably did more than any other individual human being to expand
> and
> > > >> popularize "jive" (urban BE slang), through his columns in the
> > > _Pittsburgh
> > > >> Courier_ and later in NYC's _Amsterdam News_, which he also edited.
> > > >> Burley wrote _Dan Burley's Original Handbook of Harlem Jive_ in 1944
> > >=C2=A0 (ISTR
> > > >> an earlier edition in 1941 that I was unable to obtain) and _Diggeth
> > > Thou?_
> > > >> in 1959.=C2=A0 I see that Thomas Aiello has recently edited both
> > under=
> >  the
> > > title
> > > >> _Dan Burley's Jive_ (2009). About time!
> > > >>
> > > >> My point?=C2=A0 ProQuest now carries the _Amsterdam News_, and a
> > searc=
> > h for
> > > "Dan
> > > >> Burley" reveals hundreds of his weekly columns back to the late
> '30s.
> > >=C2=A0 They
> > > >> get jivier as time passes.=C2=A0 OED and others should find many
> > anted=
> > atings
> > > >> there.=C2=A0 And some whippersnapper might find diss. inspiration.
> > > >
> > > > A search on the ADS-L archives will turn up several posts of mine
> > > > citing Burley's "Back Door Stuff," as it appeared in the Amsterdam
> > > > News and the Chicago Defender.
> > > >
> > > >
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=3Dind0512C&L=3DADS-L&P=
> > =3DR1615
> > > >
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=3Dind0512D&L=3DADS-L&P=
> > =3DR4384
> > > >
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=3Dind0802A&L=3DADS-L&P=
> > =3DR4306
> > > >
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=3Dind0802B&L=3DADS-L&P=
> > =3DR2259
> > > >
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=3Dind0809A&L=3DADS-L&P=
> > =3DR2413
> > > >
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=3Dind0809A&L=3DADS-L&P=
> > =3DR4552
> > > >
> > > > I also made mention of Burley's column in my On Language column on
> > > > "cool," as evidence that the term was *not* in common "jive" use in
> > > > the '30s.
> > > >
> > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/magazine/30FOB-onlanguage-t.html
> > > >
> > > > --Ben Zimmer
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > -Wilson
> > > =E2=80=93=E2=80=93=E2=80=93
> > > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=E2=80=93=E2=80=93a
> > strange=
> >  complaint to
> > > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > > =E2=80=93Mark Twain
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --=20
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > =0A=0A=0A
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

Wilson

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