HARRY THE HIPSTER GIBSON - BOOGIE WOOGIE IN BLUE

Harry the Hipster Gibson is one of those slightly marginal figures of 20th Century American music who plowed his own furrow and, in the way of many great musicians was both of his time and completely ahead of it.

Harry Raab was born in New York in 1914 and came from a family of musicians. Apparently his father was keen for him to study law but Harry had other ideas and from the young age of 13 he was playing barrel house piano in Harlem clubs. Before long he was embracing ever aspect of 1940's New York music - which at that time included hanging out with Charlie Parker and talking his way out of drug busts. I am sure that he and Charlie had a high old time!

He not only hung out with Parker but was also instrumental in getting Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to Billy Berg's club in California where they played in 1945. Parker famously stayed behind when Dizzy returned East.

But Gibson is not just a white footnote in the story of bop. He was a wonderful musician himself who graduated from Juillard. His playing is not straight ahead jazz, and certainly not bop. It owes a debt to Fats Waller and other boogie woogie pianists. But he was very much his own man. He played standing up, used his elbows and feet while playing and ad libbed to the audience.

Does that sound familiar? Could it be a description of Jerry Lee Lewis? Look again at his picture on the record sleeve. Is that a quiff he's sporting?

In my view Harry should have featured in Nick Tosches' Unsung Heroes of Rock and Roll. His mix of blues, stride, pop and jazz was rock and roll just ten years too early. By the time that Elvis made rock and roll famous Harry had already done it all. Just listen to the two driving instrumentals on this record and tell me that they are not proto rock and roll!

But Harry was not just a piano player. He was a very funny comic lyricist too. His Hipster name was not just a persona but was really how he lived his life. His use of hip words and phrases was not an attempt the make himself seem cool - or indeed an attempt to ridicule the cool jazz world he was part of. In the fifties he became friends with both Lord Buckley and Lenny Bruce - tellingly both comedians rather than musicians - both men who took hipster slang and used it for square audiences.

Listen to his signature song, Handsome Harry The Hipster. Add electric bass, drums and guitar and you have Jerry Lee Lewis - albeit singing some very funny lyrics.

They call him Handsome Harry, the Hipster
He's the ball with all the chicks
He plays piano like mad, his singing is sad
He digs those mellow kicks

They call him Handsome Harry the Clipster
'Cause he'll hype you for your gold,
He's frantic and fanatic
With jive he's as addict
I don't know, I was only told

And every night you'll find him around the club
Playing and singing so wild
And if you want to get straight with a solid stud
He comes on like a motherless child

They call him Handsome Harry the Drifter
He won't ever marry you, sister
He got a shape in a drape, his story is great
I'm talking about Harry the Hipster

(piano)

They call her Careless Carrie the Clipster
She's the chick with all the tricks
She plays piano like mad, her singing is sad
She digs those mellow kicks

They call her Careless Carrie the Clipster
'Cause she'll hype you for your gold,
She's frantic and fanatic
With dope she's as addict
I don't know I was only told

And every night you'll find her around the club
Playing and singing so wild
And if you want to get straight with a solid stud
She comes on like a motherless child

They call her Careless Carrie the Clipster
She won't ever marry you, mister
She's got a shape in a drape, her story is great
I'm talking about Carrie the Clipster
She's the sister of Harry the Hipster
Yeah, that's right

The main reason I got this record was that I had heard Who Put the Benzedrine In Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine. How it got recorded in 1944 I will never know. There is no attempt to hide the drug references behind any kind of slang or double entendre. They are in your face and at the same time very funny. The lyrics are below:

Mrs Murphy couldn't sleep
Her nerves were slightly off the bean
Until she solved her problem
With a can of Ovaltine
She drank a cupful most every night
And ooh how she would dream
Until something rough got in her stuff
And made her neighbors screa. OW!
Who put the Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?
Sure was a shame, don't know who's to blame
Coz the old lady didn't even get his name
Where did she get that stuff?
Now she just can't get enough
It might have been the man who wasn't there
No Jack, that guy's a square
She never wants to go to sleep
She says that everything is sold all reet
Now Mr Murphy don't know what its all about
Cause she went and threw the old man out - Clout
Who put the Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?
Now she wants to do the Highland Fling
She says that Benzedrine'e the thing that makes her spring


This is the second chorus you know
The name of this chorus is called "Who put the Nembutals in Mr Murphy's overalls
I don't know


She bought a can of Ovaltine most every week or so
And she always kept and extra can on hnad
Just in case that she'd run low
She never never been so happy, since she left Old Ireland
'Til someone prowled her pantry and tampered with her can - Wham!
Who put the Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?
Sure is a shame don't know who's to blame
Cause the old lady didn't even get his name
Where did she get that stuff
Now she just can't get enough
It might have been the man who wasn't there
No Jack, that cat's a square
She stays up nights making all the rounds
They say she's lost about 69 pounds
Now Mr Murphy claims she' s getting awful thin
And all she says is "Give me some skin. Mop!"
Who put the Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine?
Now she wants to swing the Highland Fling
She says that Benzedrine's the thing that makes her spring


Spring it now Gibson


Some incredible stories about his life that may or may not be true:
He owned a club but was forced to close it because he couldn't pay the cops and the Mafia
Playing with Charlie Parker in LA the two men played a game of draughts, each one moving his piece while the other soloed
He used to play in small towns under the name of Knuckles O'Leary
He was involved in a car accident in a Native-American reservation and while convalescing he fell in love with the chief's daughter. They got married and moved to New York but he had to divorce her when he found out she was a compulsive shoplifter
While serving time for drugs he became the conductor of the choir of the female prisoners' wing
He wrote a hymn that was accepted by the Vatican for the Marian Year


I would have liked to have met Harry. Somehow I think an evening in his company in the clubs of New York would have been a riotous laugh. In place of that I will have to listen to his wonderful music.

Here is a short video made by Harry's daughter and grand daughter -  flip your wig man!