A new, pocket-sized version of the richly illustrated editionjust the thing for all hipsters, B-girls, weedheads, moochers, shroud-tailors, bandrats, top studs, gassers, snowbirds, trigger-men, grifters, and long gone daddies Much of the slang popularly associated with the hippie generation of the 1960s actually dates back before World War II, hijacked in the main from jazz and blues street expressions, mostly relating to drugs, sex, and drinking. Why talk when you can beat your chops, why eat when you can line your flue, and why snore when you can call some hogs? You're not drunkyou're just plumb full of stagger-juice and your skin isn't pasty, it's just cafe sunburn. Need a black coffee? That's a shot of java, nix on the moo juice. Containing thousands of examples of hipster slang drawn from pulp novels; classic noir and exploitation films; blues, country, and rock'n'roll lyrics; and other related sources from the 1920s to the 1960s, this book lays down the righteous jive.

Max Décharné is a musician—a former member of Gallon Drunk, now the singer with The Flaming Stars—and the author of Hardboiled Hollywood and King's Road.