RSS

Black Betty ~ Ram Jam

Fri, Feb 1, 2008

Music Picks

Black Betty is a 20th Century African-American song that has often been credited to Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, but the earliest recordings are not by him.  The original known recording was in 1933 by the convict James Baker, known as “Iron Head”, and a group at the Central State Farm in Sugar Land, Texas.

Many people have done this song, but probably the most famous contemporary version was done in 1977 by a rock band called Ram Jam:

Black Betty

Whoa, black betty (bam-A-lam)
Yeah, black betty (bam-A-lam)
Black betty had a child (bam-A-lam)
The damn thing gone wild (bam-A-lam)
She’s always ready (bam-A-lam)
She’s so rock steady (bam-A-lam)
Whoa, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
Whoa, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
Yeah, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
She really gets me high (bam-BA-lam)
You know that’s no lie (bam-BA-lam)
She’s always ready (bam-BA-lam)
She’s so rock steady (bam-BA-lam)
Whoa, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
Yeah, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
Yeah
Oh yeah
All right
Oh yeah
All right
Oh yeah
All right
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Whoa, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
Yeah, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
She’s from birmingham (bam-BA-lam)
Way down in alabam’ (bam-BA-la)
Black betty had a child (bam-BA-lam)
The damn thing gone blind (bam-BA-lam)
Whoa, black betty (bam-BA-lam)
Yeah, black betty BAM-BA-LAM

When you thought it couldn’t get much crazier, here is Tom Jones doing the song:

Tom Jones does Black Betty

Here is the original Lead Belly version

Lead Belly does Black Betty

StumbleUpon It!

Other Related Posts

  • No Related Posts

This post was written by:

DJ Allyn - who has written 282 posts on A Soundtrack for my Life.

DJ Allyn is a burned out radio guy who went on to become a burned out sound engineer for a famous (but deliberately un-named) Seattle area grunge band, and now back in a different role in radio on a network that I will also deliberately leave un-named. I am always on the lookout for interesting videos, old music, and fun.

Contact the author

Leave a Reply