[Ads-l] Lament: If it wasn=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99t_for_bad_luck_I_wouldn=E2=80=99t_?=have any luck at all

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The saying in the subject line is a member of a family of quips I was
asked to explore. Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/09/02/bad-luck/

Probably the best known instance of the saying in recent decades
appeared in the 1967 song "Born Under a Bad Sign" cowritten by Booker
T. Jones and William Bell:

[Begin lyrics excerpt]
If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.
[End lyrics excerpt]

This saying is difficult to trace because it can be expressed in many
ways. The earliest match I've located occurred in a short story titled
“At the End of the Rope” by E. K. Means (Eldred Kurtz Means) published
in “Munsey’s Magazine” of New York in 1927. The following excerpt
employed dialectical spelling:

[Begin excerpt]
" . . . but ef dar warn’t no bad luck, I wouldn’t hab no luck at all.”
[End excerpt]

Illuminating citations and other feedback would be welcome

Garson

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