Not in HDAS?

[Dan Goncharoff]

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

On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 6:12 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

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> 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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