Word Origins Comics: It's Hip to Be Square

Enough about oddballs and out of the box activity. Let's hear it for the ordinary folk, their humble origins, and their impact on the language...
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Enough about oddballs and out of the box activity. Let's hear it for the ordinary folk, their humble origins, and their impact on the language....

"Hip to Be Square" is a song by Huey Louis and the News, sung from the perspective of a once free-spirited hippie of the 1960's who has now embraced the "square" yuppie lifestyle of the 80's.

Anyone out there remember the hippies? You can find them here.

I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around
But I couldn't take the punishment and had to settle down
Now I'm playing it real straight, and yes, I cut my hair
You might think I'm crazy, but I don't even care
Because I can tell what's going on

It's hip to be square
It's hip to be square

I like my bands in business suits, I watch them on TV
I'm working out most every day and watching what I eat
They tell me that it's good for me, but I don't even care
I know that it's crazy
I know that it's nowhere
But there is no denying that

It's hip to be square
It's hip to be square
It's hip to be square
So hip to be square

It's not too hard to figure out, you see it every day
And those that were the farthest out have gone the other way
You see them on the freeway, it don't look like a lot of fun
But don't you try to fight it, an idea whose time has come

Don't tell me that I'm crazy
Don't tell me I'm nowhere
Take it from me
It's hip to be square
It's hip to be square
It's hip to be square
So hip to be square

Tell 'em, boys
Here, there, and everywhere
Hip, hip, so hip to be a square
Here, there, and everywhere
Hip, hip

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