Blue Balls

Mon Jun 8 14:17:45 UTC 2009

Black people talk to white people all the time. Why are such conversations "totally artificial"? Is Wilson suggesting that African-Americans who could be so in tune with the majority culture as to know the tem BLUE BALLS in the sense ' venereal disease' would use it in that way when speaking in the presence of white people and only then? Like Anglos who intersperse their English conversation with "Ay yaye yaye" when talking to Mexicans?
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-----Original Message-----
From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>

Date:         Sun, 7 Jun 2009 22:02:52
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] Blue Balls

As I noted, I first heard a reference to "blue balls" in 1950, though
I didn't discover its meaning till years later. IME, the use is rare
among all speakers and absolutely *never* used by black speakers. I
was, therefore, surprised to hear the term used by a black speaker on
a recording from 1934 and find it trivially interesting that this term
appears to have vanished from the vocabulary of today's black
speakers.

BTW, if you're white and have heard black speakers use the term,
please be aware that your very presence on the scene renders the scene
totally artificial.
 The mos realistic version of black speech isto be found in
neo-blaxploitation movies, featuring black actors that most people,
including your humble correspondent. Naturally, I realize that the
experience of others may be different.

I find the implied suggestion that the singer's reference was not to a
case of lover's nuts, but to a case of clap to be annoyingly racist
and totally unfounded.

-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 Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 1:41 PM, Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:    American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:    Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:   Re: Blue Balls
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 12:36 PM -0400 6/7/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>John-Patrick could not get this through and he's asked me to forward these
>>authentic exx.
>>Warning: For "blue balls" devotees only.
>>JL
>>--- On Sat, 6/6/09, John-Patrick
>><email1 at folklore.ms<http://us.mc539.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=email1@folklore.ms>>
>>wrote:
>>
>>From: John-Patrick
>><email1 at folklore.ms<http://us.mc539.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=email1@folklore.ms>
>>>
>>Subject: Fw: Re:"Blue balls"
>>To: "Jonathan YAHOO Lighter"
>><wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com<http://us.mc539.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wuxxmupp2000@yahoo.com>
>>>
>
> Well, I'd be interested in reading these, but after 10 minutes of
> trying to open any of them (even after signing up for yahoo mail as
> instructed on the web site to which I was directed), I am stymied. I
> can read about bodies discovered bobbing in the ocean near Brazil on
> Yahoo News, but I don't see any of the above messages. Any hints?
>
> LH
>
>>Date: Saturday, June 6, 2009, 6:18 AM
>>
>>
>>
>>Jon,
>>
>>For some reason I can't post to the ADS list.=C2=A0 Could you forward this?
>>
>>----- Original Message -----=20
>>From: "JohnPatrick"
>><j0hnpatrick at aol.com<http://us.mc539.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=j0hnpatrick@aol.com>
>>>
>>To:
>><hwgray at GMAIL.COM<http://us.mc539.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hwgray@GMAIL.COM>
>>>
>>Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 4:15 PM
>>Subject: Re:"Blue balls"
>>
>>
>>Greetings,
>>
>>It seems that "Blue balls" can be a venereal disease (that causes the
>>scrotum to turn blue) or a condition of sexual lust.
>>
>>Below are several examples of "blue balls" from various songs.
>>
>>Yours,
>>
>>John Patrick
>>~
>>
>>Sung to the tune of "Sound Off" below is a link that ends in the
>>following verse:
>>
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0"Ho Chi Min is a son of a bitch!
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Got the blue balls, crabs and the seven year=EF=BB=
>>=BF itch"
>>
>>
>>=C2=A0 From here:=C2=A0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DjPwYWzrK1fc
>>
>>
>>This segment is from the movie "Full Metal Jacket".
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>From the song "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan" performed by The
>>Sons of the Pioneers and recorded in 1942:
>>
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0O, that strawberry roan
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0How many colts has he thrown?
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0He's got gonorrhea, the glanders and syph
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0The blue-balls and claps
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0But his tool is still stiff
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Look out for that strawberry roan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>From the song "Ring-Dang-Do" sung by Glenn Orlin. First learned in the
>>1950s while cowboying.
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0From Arkansas come a son-of-a-bitch
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0He had the clap and the seven-year-itch
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0He had the syph and the blue balls too
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0And he left them all in her ring-dang-do.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>From the song "Blue Balls from Belman" sung by Buford Pipen.=C2=A0 Issued o=
>>n
>>the 1981 LP Just Something My Uncle Told Me.=C2=A0 Learned in the 1930s.
>>
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Blue Balls From Bellman
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Sung by "Buford Pippin"
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Blue balls from Bellman
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Come boys, come.
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Well they sure hung a sign[???]
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Hung a sign on her back door
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0One dollar down no less will do
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0To get a little smell of my ring-tang-do
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Blue balls from Bellman
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Come boys, come.
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Ain't coming after with a knife in the grass
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Cut off my dick, cut close to my ass
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Blue balls from Bellmen
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Come boys, come.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Parody of School Days in the folklore collection titled "Apples of Eden"
>>1945:
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 School Days
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0School days, school days,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Good old golden rule days
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0First you get blue balls and then you get clap,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0And then you get hell from your mammy and pap,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0And then to the doctor you must go,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0And get old John wrapped up in calico.
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0When you wrote on my slate,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0"I burnt you so"
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0When, we were a couple of kids.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>TIE MY PECKER TO A TREE
>>(Tune: Chisolm Trail)
>>
>>CHORUS:
>>Come and tie my pecker to a tree, to a tree
>>Come and tie my pecker to a tree
>>
>>Fucked her sittin', fucked her lyin'
>>If I'd had wings I'd fucked her flying
>>
>>I awoke in the morning and guess what I saw
>>Fifteen crabs and big blue balls
>>
>>I went to a doctor cause my pecker was sore
>>My God said the doctor you've been taken by a whore
>>
>>And now you can see I'm a peckerless man
>>I fuck 'em with my finger and fool 'em when I can
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>The song "Ricky Dan Do" in the 1971 Australian fighter pilot songbook
>>_Songs My Mother Taught Me_
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0There came a guy, a son of a bitch,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Who had the pox and the sailor's itch,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0He had blue balls and shankers too,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0And he played all night with her Ricky Dan Do
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>The song "Ring Dang Do" in the songbook"Songs of Raunch" issued at UCLA
>>in 1958.
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 How from out the hills there cciae a son-of-a-bitch
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 He had the clap* and the seven year itch=C2=A0 =C2=A0=C2=A0=
>>=C2=A0*(clap hands)
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 He had the syph and the blue balls too,
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 And she let him ride on the Ring Dang Doo.
>>
>>
>>
>>This is the complete song of "John Brown's Body" from an untitled marine
>>songbook c1943.
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 JOHN BROWN'S BODY
>>
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 John Brownfs body1s in a better place than this,
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 Far from the clap and the dirty syphilis;
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 Blue-balls,.and the chancre, and the granulated piss:
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 His balls are soldered on!
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 Glory, glory, gonorrhea! Glory, glory, gonorrhea!
>>=C2=A0 =C2=A0 Glory, glory, gonorrhea! His balls are soldered on!
>>
>>
>>
>>Another "Ring Dang Do" from the Death Rattler's 1951 marine songbook.
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0so along came a prick named mobey dick
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0he had the syph and the seven year itch
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0he had the clap and the blue balls too
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0and he put them ail in the ring dang doo
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>From an untitled Hash House Harrier songbook c2006
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0WHO NEEDS SEX?
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Melody - Three Blind Mice
>>
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Who needs sex?
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Who needs sex?
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0It's no fun,
>>=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0It's no fun,
>>
>>=C2=A0 You meet a new women and go on a date,
>>=C2=A0 You hug and you kiss and you think that it's great,
>>=C2=A0 She gives you blue balls and you masturbate,
>>=C2=A0 So, who needs sex?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>The Sewing Machine
>>The tune is "Down in the Valley."
>>
>>
>>Down in Cunt Valley, where the bullshit runs thick,
>>Where the soldier boys ramble, and babies come quick,
>>That's where she lives, the gal I adore,
>>That cock-sucking hussy, the Heidelberg whore.
>>
>>She took me upstairs and she turned out the light,
>>And she said, "Big boy, you're here for the night."
>>So I took down my pants and I crawled in between,
>>And I started to sew on her sewing machine.
>>
>>I sewed and I sewed until crack of dawn,
>>Then she said, "Big boy, you had better be gone.
>>Come back tomorrow night without being seen,
>>And you're welcome to sew on my sewing machine."
>>
>>She gave me the clap and the blue-balls too.
>>The clap doesn't hurt, but the blue-balls do.
>>For seventeen days, she hasn't been seen.
>>I hope she's in Hell with her sewing machine.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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