"Blue balls"

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:41 PM -0400 6/5/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>He goes on to say "Who'es got all my money / Them bitches done shaved
>me dry" or words to the effect, so the song doesn't me strike as
>having anything to do with a social disease. Even in the disease
>blues, "Goin' Down Slow," by Saint Louis Jimmy, it's not clear that
>it's a social disease that's wasting his ass. It's more likely that
>the sound is about consumption. Even "Killing Myself, Slowly by
>Degrees" is a dope song. I don't know of *any* songs relating to
>social diseases, but, given that there are probably hundreds, if not
>thousands, of songs that I have yet to hear *of*, let alone hear, such
>songs may very well exist.

Well for starters, there's this, courtesy of Sleepy John Estes
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_John_Estes)
via Tom Rush, David Crosby, et al.:

Drop Down Mama (1935)

Drop down mama
Let your daddy see
You got somethin' down there
That keeps on worryin' me

No definitive diagnosis as to which if any social disease is
involved, but it doesn't look promising...

LH


>So, you never know. But I can't think of
>any reason to suppose that, in a song by a black man that mentions
>"blue balls,"  the phrase, "blue balls," is actually code for the
>effects of a social disease and not the slang term with the meaning,
>"blue balls."
>
>Why would you want to consider the possibility that "blue balls" might
>have something to do with a social disease in this particular case,
>Ben? Scientific curiosity or unconscious racism? That you should raise
>that particular question is in the context of my post seems strange.
>
>BTW, what does "venereal buboes" mean? I realize that I could probably
>Wikipedia the term. But, since you obviously have already studied up
>on them, to the extent of wondering a black man might one have sung
>about them, you can just tell me what they are and save me the
>trouble.
>
>The only slang term that I know of for gonorrhea is "clap." But, who
>knows what (other) terms the colored may have used in 1934?
>
>-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
>
>
>
>
>
>On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Benjamin
>Zimmer<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender: ?  ?  ?  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster: ?  ?  ?  Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>>  Subject: ?  ?  ? Re: "Blue balls"
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 1:36 AM, Wilson Gray<hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>  When I was a freshman in high school, Harry Gleason, the asshole who
>>>  sat in front of me, used to use the just-for-the-hell-of-it phrase:
>>>
>>>  "_Blue-balled_ bastard from Piss-Pot Creek"
>>>
>>>  This, (9/1950) was the first time that I had heard "blue balls" or any
>>>  of its variations, combinations, permutations, or probabilities. The
>>>  phrase, in that context or any other, meant nothing to me and
>>>  continued to mean nothing till ca.1991. When a (white) friend happened
>>>  to use the phrase, "blue balls," for some reason, I finally felt like
>>>  asking what it meant. From the explanation, I divined that "blue
>>>  balls" was the white term for "lover's nuts." That satisfied me till I
>>>  listened to a blues recorded in 1934 by Walter Roland, whoever he was,
>>>  of Alabama. This song opens with the verse:
>>>
>>>  You know, since I lef' Cincinnati
>>>  You know I had somethin' on my mind
>>>  [...] the head o' my dick
>>>  And blue balls in my groin
>>  [...]
>>>  IAC, this is the first time that I've ever heard "blue balls" used,
>>>  except in its literal meaning, by a black person in my life.
>>>  Consequently, I would have bet money, heretofore, that the average
>>>  black male of whatever age probably had also never heard it. If it
>>>  wasn't for the fact that, to paraphrase Dave Chapelle, "I know white
>  >> people," I would have no idea what "blue balls in my groin / croutch"
>>>  could possibly have meant, back in '34, since it would be brand-new to
>>>  me.
>>
>>  Any possibility that Roland was using one of the other senses of "blue
>>  balls" attested by HDAS -- either 'venereal buboes' or 'gonorrhea'?
>>
>>
>>  --Ben Zimmer
>>
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>
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