|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGIBSON, Harry 'The Hipster'(d 3 May '91 aged 75) Leon Enken and Eddie Davis opened a speakeasy called Leon and Eddie's on New York's 52nd Street '28; Harry Raab later played cocktail piano there and was thinking of going to Juilliard when, having taken jive lessons from Davis for a few years, he suddenly emerged as Harry The Hipster in '44, combining song and jive. His best-known tunes were 'I Stay Brown All Year 'Roun' ', 'Get Your Juices At The Deuces', and 'Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?' A few years later he was absurdly linked by Time magazine with Slim Gaillard as the essence of bebop, corrupting the nation's morals. He recorded for Musicraft in the '40s and made an album Harry The Hipster Digs Christmas c'74 on Totem; Who Put The Ovaltine etc on Delmark combines two live gigs: an off night in L.A. '76 with a pickup rock band and a much better date '89 further north: 'I flipped my wig/in San Francisco/High on a hill/On all those pills...' |