In 1939 the Musicraft Recording Label released a record which included the track, “Black Betty” by William Huddie Leadbetter better known as “Lead Belly. ” “Black Betty” had been said to be originated as far back as the 18th century or the early 1930’s. Lead Belly was the first one to ever commercially record it however, giving him most of the credit for the song. Lead Belly was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced. It was recorded acapella with just Lead Belly singing and clapping on the 4th beat in the 12 bar blues style song.
The form is kind of AABCDEAA, where each verse begins and ends with “Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-Ba-Lam).
” At the end of each line Lead Belly also repeats the phrase “Bam-Ba-Lam. ” Although this song did gain some popularity in the early 1940’s because of Lead Belly, it really gained the world’s attention in 1977 when a band by the name of Ram Jam recorded it. Ram Jam was an east coast band formed in the mid 70’s. Its members consisted of Bill Bartlett (guitar), Howie Blauvelt (bass), Peter Charles (drums), Myke Scavone (lead vocals, guitar), and Jimmy Santoro (guitar).
The song was released on their self-titled debut album Ram Jam in 1977. It reached the #7 position in the UK singles chart in September 1977. The single also reached #18 on the singles chart in the US. The album reached #34 in the Billboard Pop Albums chart in the US. Even though “Black Betty” shot Ram Jam to stardom overnight, it also brought along much controversy because of its lyrical meanings. Since this song has been said to have been originated back in the 18th century, the lyrics’ meaning has changed numerous amount of times. The origin and meaning of the lyrics are subject to debate.
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Some sources claim the song is derived from an 18th century marching cadence about a flint-lock rifle with a black head-stock; the “bam-ba-lam” lyric referring to the sound of the gunfire. Soldiers in the field were said to be “hugging Black Betty”. In this interpretation, the rifle was superseded by its “child”, a rifle known as a “Brown Bess”. Other sources claim the term was a contemporary reference for a prostitute, a prison bullwhip, heroin or the “paddywagon”. Lead Belly was said to have been incarcerated a number of times so the second meaning rather than the interpretation about the flint lock rifle seems more accurate in his case.
A more in depth look at the lyrics could possibly say that the song is about a black woman who lives in Alabama by herself. She was young and made a couple wrong decisions like drinking, drugs, and having a one-night stand with somebody. This caused her to conceive a child that she wasn’t ready for. She wasn’t ready for the responsibilities of being a mother. Her child was out of control because of all the drinking and drugs she had done prior to having it. It was hard to be a single black woman and a mother in the south so the easiest thing she could do was to sell her body as a prostitute.
The man in the song talks about how whenever he needs her she will be ready waiting for him. This is the kind of interpretation that gave Ram Jam much criticism and controversy. Members of the NAACP and other groups such as them were very angry saying the song degrades black women. Ram Jam just always said it’s not leaning towards race, it’s basically just having a good time with girl, whether a prostitute or not, and taking drugs such as speed which would go along with the line “She really gets me high. ”
Analyzing the musical aspect of the song is much easier than the lyrical because I is pretty straight forward. The poetic devices in this song are kind of repeating because the song isn’t that long. “Black Betty” has an AA, BB, CC rhyme scheme. The stanza is “whoa Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)” which is repeated 10x’s throughout the song (lines 1, 2, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, & 24).
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The song is really just three verses so there is a lot of pure instrumental with miniature solos by all the instruments. The instruments used were, 3 guitars, a bass, and drums.
The drummer keeps the beat throughout the first 35 seconds of the song with the hi-hat cymbal by hitting on all four beats by itself for the first 10 seconds but for the rest of the 35 seconds the guitars and bass come in to play the bridge. The crash cymbal then comes in with guitars and bass stopping and lyrics are sung and the crash cymbal is hit on beats 2 and 4, the back beat, and the hi-hat now hits on beats 1 and 3. This back beat is used widely through rock, hard rock, and especially by all forms of metal.
Although it was used efore this song came out, “Black Betty” definitely highlighted the use of the backbeat. During this first verse, and the other 2 verses also, it is just the drummer and the singer with the guitars and bass coming in and just playing between every 2nd and 3rd beat. Once the verse is over however the tempo speeds up and the showcase of guitars begins. Once the second verse begins, it goes back to the drums and singer but once this second verse ends, the tempo speeds to double time beginning with a drum solo into guitar solos for a solid 1:35.
Once that 2:50 part hits the song takes a turn towards an easy groove feel with the tempo going back to the way it was in the beginning. At 3:05 however the tempos speeds up a little bit and plays the bridge that it had played before the first verse was sung. At 3:30, the third and final verse is sung just like the other two with the drummer playing that same crash cymbal on beats 2 and 4 and the hi-hat on 1 and 3. Once the third verse is done, they play about 10 seconds of an outro and the song is over.
Although lyrically the song is pretty simple, I believe if you can perfect a simple song, it will make it great and with the guitar, bass, and drums that Ram Jam had put into this song to accompany the lyrics, it is a great song. You can obviously see that they were influenced by Lead Belly, but also by early rock bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, Kansas, and ZZ Top because it’s that southern rock sound and feel that those bands made famous. Since Ram Jam released “Black Betty” it not only put their name on the map but also rocketed that song to tons of movies and TV shows. It will go down as one of the best rock songs of all time.
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