Not in HDAS?

[Wilson Gray]

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. Â That's the only association I have with it.
>
> And I know "Stavin' Chain" only as the title of a bawdy African-American
> 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 context.

_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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