Lyrics below are from the sheet music at Baylor University. You can also hear a recording at YouTube, and another at the Library of Congress, both made from 78-rpm Edison disks.
STAVIN' CHANGE : THE MEANEST MAN IN NEW ORLEANS
by Al Bernard
New York: Joe Morris Music Co., ©1923.
1. I'm gonna tell you 'bout a bad man, down in New Orleans,
Now you can rave about your Jesse James, but this man sure was mean,
He sure was rough; he used to strut his stuff, up and down the avenues,
He was a long, tall dressed-up brown, from his hat down to his shoes.
CHORUS: Stavin' Change, the good Lord knows he was bad.
Stavin' Change, he made the sweet mammas glad, and sad.
He had a knife long enough to row a boat,
A big forty-four, underneath his coat,
Looking for a tussle, at a fish fry ev'ry night.
Mustard browns, they loved the tiger in his eye.
Satin blacks, they used to feed him rock and rye.
He said: "There's changes in the ocean, changes in the sea,
Never gonna be any change in me,
'Cause I'm Stavin' Change, the meanest man in New Orleans."
2. I'm gonna tell you now how Stave loved a gal named Lindy Lee.
He always told the men around the town, "That gal belongs to me."
She sure was bold, just like the story old, trifled on him one sad day.
He shot poor Lindy through the heart; that's why folks down there all say: CHORUS
[The recording has 2 variations in the last 3 lines of the chorus which are not present in the sheet music:]
2. He'd say that "Once I was happy; once I was free,
But pro-high-bition made a wreck out o' me,"
Said....
3. He'd say that, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
Show me a woman that a man can trust,"
Said....[This was recorded by Waring's Pennsylvanians, on the flip side of STACK O' LEE BLUES.
Jelly Roll Morton's song WININ' BOY mentions a man with a similar name, but I have always seen it written down as "Stavin' Chain." I have even seen people theorize on what a stavin' chain was, and how it might come to be somebody's nickname. Those theories seemed pretty speculative to me. On the other hand, I have no idea why somebody might be called Stavin' Change, either.