From
Wikipedia How to Speak Hip is a comedy album by Del Close and John Brent, released by Mercury Records in 1959.
The album is designed as a satire of language-learning records, where the secret language of the 'hipster' is treated as a foreign language. Part of the joke, however, is that it actually does a good job of describing the Beat Generation/Beatnik sub-culture: Basic concepts such as "cool" and "uncool" are taught, as well as vocabulary building ("dig", "dig it", "dig yourself, baby", "dig the chick", "dig the cat", "What a drag!").
Many of the phrases and expressions survived to become elements of the counterculture vocabulary.
Social notes are presented as for many language courses, and later in the album, the teacher (Close) is taken on field trips into the secret life of the hipster (Brent). However, the hipster rebels against participating in the teaching tool, leading to a humorously compromised teaching style.
Introduction
Basic Hip
Vocabulary Building
The Loose Wig
The Riff
The Hang Up
Put On, Put Down, Come On, Come Down, Bring Down
Cool
Uncool
Field Trip No. 1
Field Trip No. 2
Field Trip No. 3
Summary
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