Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. excellent, wonderful, the best [on bad = good model].

1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 16: evil. Anything pleasant.
1957		C. MacInnes City of Spades (1964) 55: ‘Give us some bad song now, man!’ ‘Some little evil tune, Lord Alexander!’.
1970		(con. 1950s) H. Junker ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 101: Bad, Mean, Wicked, Evil. Bitchin.
1971		Current Sl. VI 4: Evil woman, n. Sexy female.
1977		(con. 1965) P. Caputo Rumor of War 141: ‘He’s a shitbird in garrison, but a real evil dude in the boondocks’ .

2. unpleasant, neurotic, cruel.

1937		C. Himes ‘A Nigger’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 29: The landlady, Miss Lou, an evil old ex-whore with a grudge against the world.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 213: A lot of people [...] took plenty advantage of Louis’ good heart, but he never once came up evil about it.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 61: He had fallen on the beat and evil days that come to young guys in their middle twenties.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 219: The runt was getting tired and evil.
1972		‘Soulful Spider’ ‘Pimp in a Clothing Store’ in Milner & Milner (1972) 285: Boy, things was so bad that the devil wasn’t even giving him no evil breaks either, you understand me, couldn’t find nothing wrong to do, for a young man.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 235: evil 1. Mean. 2. Violent. 3. Worthless.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 55: Looked most evil geezer we ever met, reckoned he had to be carrying a blade.

3. in a bad mood.

1939		Herbert & Spencer Jitterbug Jamboree Song Book 32: evil: in bad humor.
1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 255: evil (adj.): in ill humor, in a nasty temper.
1945		C. Himes If He Hollers 12: ‘By God, here’s a man wakes up evil every morning’.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 87: By the time I got home in the evenings, I’d be tired and evil as hell.