Dave's Song of the Day
Black Betty – Ram Jam
Friday song of the day: Nobody knows for sure who wrote today’s song.
The other day, news reports told of a drug from Ely Lilly that was set to enter testing for use against COVID-19. The drug’s name is Bamlanivimab, which prompted numerous people to say that the name reminded them of the “Bam-a-lam” refrain in the song
Black Betty, best known as a hit record by the band Ram Jam in 1977.
The song
Black Betty has a long and murky history. While it is often credited to Huddie Ledbetter – better known as “Lead Belly” – most agree that the song predates him. Lead Belly recorded his version in 1939, as part of a medley with
Looky Looky Yonder and
Yellow Women’s Door Bells. Like many songs that Ledbetter recorded, these are believed to be older traditional songs. As a matter of fact, ethnomusicologists John and Alan Lomax recorded convict James “Iron Head” Baker singing the song at Central State Prison Farm in Sugar Land, Texas in 1933, six years before the Lead Belly recording. Lead Belly had been in and out of prisons for much of his life, including a stint in Sugar Land from 1918 to 1925, so odds are good that both he and Baker learned the song in the same way, namely through oral tradition with the song passed down from person to person over the years.
There are several theories about the early meaning of the song, with some claiming it originated as a British marching song and that Black Betty referred to a flintlock musket. Other theories claim it came from the days of slavery, with Black Betty identified either as a whip, or a carriage for prisoners. Some felt the song simply referred to a prostitute. Regardless, by the time Iron Head Baker and Huddie Ledbetter sang it,
Black Betty referred to a woman. Most later versions owe their genesis to having heard either the Lead Belly recording, or later recordings that were influenced by Lead Belly.
In 1968, Manfred Mann recorded a cover version with the title
Big Betty, which took the woman’s race out of the description. It was included on an EP, but not released as a single. A few years later, his new band, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, recorded another version using the song’s original title of
Black Betty for airplay over England’s BBC radio network, with the song not being released on record.
Guitarist Bill Bartlett apparently heard
Big Betty, and he recorded a version of
Black Betty with his band Starstruck that was influenced by the Manfred Mann recording. The Starstruck record was released in 1975 by the band’s own TruckStar label. As a self-released single, it sold poorly and did not chart.
Two years later, Bartlett formed another band that he called Ram Jam, with the band signed to Epic Records. One of the songs on Ram Jam’s first album was
Black Betty, with the song created by editing and remixing the earlier Starstruck record, taking out some of the more flowery instrumental breaks and making it a more straightforward rock song. This time the song hit, placing at #18 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart.
It is highly likely that
Black Betty would have placed even higher on the charts, but even in 1977 a song about a black woman who is “always ready” and “shaking that thing” created some controversy. The NAACP and The Congress of Racial Equality felt that the song was demeaning to black women and called for radio stations to boycott the record. Some stations did refuse to play it, particularly in New York City and other large markets.
While a handful of versions preceded the Ram Jam recording of
Black Betty, that record sealed its place in popular culture, and over thirty new covers have been released since 1977. These include versions by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Tom Jones, Meat Loaf, and Australian band Spiderbait, who had a #1 hit with it in their home country in 2004.
Ram Jam, 1977
View: https://youtu.be/qWPEt0WVpyE
Medley:
Looky Looky Yonder,
Black Betty,
Yellow Women’s Door Bells, Huddie Ledbetter “Lead Belly”, 1939
View: https://youtu.be/QaQXyGP_3x8
Starstruck, 1975
View: https://youtu.be/ihTqpNZQNwE
Big Betty, Manfred Mann, 1968
View: https://youtu.be/m0iOttYKM08
Tomorrow: There’s gotta be a little rain some time