Not in HDAS?

Fri Jun 3 00:51:27 UTC 2011

At 6:44 PM -0400 6/2/11, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>I have seen it defined as a rod with a loop of chain at the end used to make
>barrels, and as the chain used by loggers to lash logs together to be
>floated down river. Neither makes sense to me.
>
>DanG

Seems to be a topic for hot debates on the net, for example the ones at
http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/dictionary/stavin_chain.htm
http://www.bluescentric.com/blues/dictionary/index.php

I see that in the latter "Stave 'n Chain" is another possible
analysis--a familiar dilemma (cf. "spittin' image"/"spit 'n' image").
I don't suppose "staven chain", with the past participle, is a live
option in this case, though.

LH

>
>On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 6:12 PM, George Thompson
><george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: Not in HDAS?
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Jelly Roll Morton has a line in Winin' Boy Blues, recorded in 1938 and 1939
>>  -- not sure which version I've heard:
>>  Pick it up and shake it like sweet stavin chain.
>>
>>  I have read somewhere (liner notes, perhaps?) that "stavin chain" was the
>>  chain that shackled prisoners in the penitentiary.  I don't know whether
>>  this was a well-founded explanation.
>>
>>  GAT
>>
>>  George A. Thompson
>>  Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>>  Univ=
>>  .
>>  Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>>
>>  On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>  > On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 8:32 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>>  >
>>  > wrote:
>>  > > My innocent interpretation of "Deadbone" was that it was just an
>>  > arbitrary
>>  > > name for a cartoon strip. =C2 That's the only association I have with
>>  i=
>>  t.
>>  > >
>>  > > And I know "Stavin' Chain" only as the title of a bawdy
>>  African-America=
>>  n
>>  > > folksong - sung, e.g., in a tame by "Tricky Sam" of the Texas State
>>  > > Penitentiary at Huntsville for John and Alan Lomax in 1934.
>>  > >
>>  > > It starts out, "Stavin' Chain was a man like this...."
>>  > >
>>  > > What's a real stavin' chain anyway? What's the connection with what you
>>  > > said?
>>  >
>>  > In a (fictional?) article in NatLamp detailing the slings and arrows
>>  > of outrageous fortune - uh, I'm essentially running on empty, here,
>>  > memory-wise - to which we men - or, possibly, only the author - are
>>  > subject, even after we succeed in conning some poor, naive chick into
>>  > allowing us to "tap that ass," as they say on TV, the author notes
>>  > that, in addition to the possibility of having one's glans penis
>>  > rendered like unto a sieve by the strings of her IUD, but there's also
>>  > a reasonable possibility that, IIRC, "an attack of deadbone" will lame
>>  > out the whole scene.
>>  >
>>  > No definition of _deadbone_ is provided, but none is necessary, in
>>  contex=
>>  t.
>>  >
>>  > _Stavin Chain_  is an AA folkloric personage like unto Stackalee (and
>>  > random other written renditions of the name). As Scott Joplin is
>>  > sometimes said to be, in Marshall, a native of Marshall, TX, so also
>>  > is Stavin Chain  often said to be - in Saint Louis - the Saint Louis
>>  > equivalent of Stackalee, though Stave is not held to be the same
>>  > danger to life and limb that Stack is reputed to have been.
>>  >
>>  > The assumption that "Stavin" is the AAVE pronunciation of _staving_,
>>  > hence, the proper spelling of the name - some kind of nickname based
>>  > on some participle whose meaning has been lost - is _Stavin'_... Well,
>>  > I'll just say that my opinion of that neologism is the same as my
>>  > opinion of _booty_ and leave it at that.
>>  >
>>  > A blues song published in 1938 has the words,
>>  >
>>  > Well, I wonder what's the matter
>>  > Wth my Stavin Chain
>>  > It have gone down on me
>>  > My baby is the blame
>  > >
>>  > My Stavin Chain been all right
>>  > Till my baby wanted it every night
>>  > Man, she been wanting it every night
>>  > And my Stavin Chain won't act right
>>  >
>>  > I'm going away
>>  > Babe, about / Baby, 'bout 45 nights
>>  > When I get back,
>>  > My Stavin Chain
>>  > Be all right
>>  >
>>  > My baby see my Stavin Chain
>>  > Was all right
>>  > She didn't have to do nothing
>>  > But get in the bed and hold me tight
>>  >
>>  > Since I went away
>>  > Stayed 'bout 45 nights
>>  > Since I been back
>>  > My Stavin Chain
>>  > Been all right
>>  >
>>  >
>>  > Of course, "Stavin Chain" may here mean something more abstract, such
>>  > as "sexual prowess," etc., but, WTF?
>>  >
>>  > --
>>  > -Wilson
>>  > -----
>>  > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>>  > to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>  > -Mark Twain
>>  >
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>>  >
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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