Dave Frishberg: I'm Hip
Musicians:
Dave Frishberg (piano, vocals), Steve Gilmore (bass), Bill Goodwin (drums).
Composed by Dave Frishberg and Bob Dorough
.Recorded: Stroudsburg, PA, April 1981
Rating: 95/100 (learn more)
The first unwritten rule of hipdom must be that hipness is a state of being. One is hip by demonstration, not by proclamation. All of which makes Dave Frishberg’s and Bob Dorough’s “I’m Hip” the classic statement of the wanna-be hipster. For the hip ones in the crowd, the lyric to this song is a goldmine of pseudo-hip references, like Sammy Davis knows my friend and Better show this to Quincy. Frishberg’s performance is a good barometer of hipness: nearly everyone can get the reference to watching French films in a movie theatre while wearing sunglasses, but fewer will dig the line about listening to jazz while poppin’ my thumbs/diggin’ the drums and only the hippest will truly understand Frishberg’s hilarious search for hip notes in the final chord. One thing puzzles me, though: in the original lyric, our hero reads Playboy and in this recording, he reads People. So, was Playboy considered too hip for him?
Reviewer: Thomas Cunniffe
Tags: 1980s jazz · jazz vocals · piano
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