Recently I've run into a couple of phrases in blues lyrics that I'm not sure I understand. Would appreciate any thoughts...

One, in Sonny Boy Williamson II's "Don't Start Me Talkin'," if "I'm gonna break up this signifyin'"

I've also run into the term "signifyin'" in connection with a series of songs about animals — most notably the "signifyin' monkey."

The other term that's proving pretty elusive for meaning is "shave 'em dry." Paul Geramia uses the term in a song about a 'signifyin' monkey' in what he lists as a traditional blues called "The Monkey and the Baboon."

The meaning in the song seems to alternate between "do as I please" and "make 'em hurt" —— which a dry shave does, to my recollection.

Anybody got a better handle on these meanings?

david