| April 26, 2016 | |||||||||
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Lyrics: Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam) Black Betty had a child (Bam-ba-Lam) Oh, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
She really gets me high (Bam-ba-Lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam) She’s from Birmingham (Bam-ba-Lam) |
Tonight on DWB Radio, we are featuring the song that will play during the closing credits of my life’s story—oh, yes, there will be a movie—Black Betty by Ram Jam. At the very least, if you greedy bastards can’t find it within yourselves to commission a movie, the very least you can do is play this song as I am lowered into the ground. Seriously, I am not kidding about this. At all. Ram Jam was a short-lived rock band (1977-78) formed by mostly unheard of rock heroes. Their sole hit appeared on their self-titled debut album and spawned the hit single, Black Betty, which climbed to number 18 on the charts in 1977 and has remained a staple of AOR-oriented rock radio stations for decades. What most don’t know about this song, however, is that the song’s title and meaning go back as far as the 18th century. It’s exact meaning and origin were hotly debated at the time Ram Jam’s version climbed the charts, but the term, “black betty,” has been used for everything from a bottle of whiskey, a whip, a musket, and even a prison transfer wagon. Some say that it is an African-American work song, while some say it originates to the 18th century as a marching cadence song (as in the soldiers were hugging their “black betties”—in other words, their muskets). The first recorded version was a 1933 a cappella version by convict James Baker and a group of convicts at Central State Farm, in Sugar Land, Texas (a State prison farm). Manfred Mann released a version of the song in 1968 for its LP, Mighty Garvey, though the title and lyrics were changed to “Big Betty.” In 1976, a little known Cincinnati band, Starstruck, recorded a version of the song, which was a commercial failure. As a kid, I remember walking through the halls at school singing this song under my breath and wondering why the other kids didn’t know the song. It turns out—at least insofar as I can tell—that my dad was just a lot cooler than the other dads. We had this 8-track, and I remember sitting in the living room rocking chair and rocking out to this album. I didn’t have (and still don’t have) any preconceived notions of what a black betty is or isn’t. All I can tell you is that the song—and particularly the video—embody everything that was awesome about the 1970s. Legal notice: Because of its possible African-American work song roots, the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality called for a boycott because of its perceived insult of black women. We here at Dances with Bass Radio are huge civil rights supporters (ask anyone, they’ll tell you) so please don’t perceive our featuring this song as meaning anything other than it’s a great rock track. We mean no insult or disrespect to anyone. Video: And without further ado, this is the 1970s boiled down into a thick syrup. Just a little over two minutes will do ya:
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