Black Betty

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"Black Betty"
Form work song, marching song, jody call
Original artist Iron Head
Recorded by Iron Head, Lead Belly, Ram Jam, Manfred Mann, Ministry, Spiderbait, Meat Loaf, Soil
Performed by 10,000 Maniacs

"Black Betty" (Roud 11668) is a 20th century African-American work song often credited to Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter as the author, though the earliest recordings are not by him. Some sources claim it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations of earlier folk material;[1] in this case an 18th century marching cadence about a flint-lock rifle.

Contents

[edit] Early recordings

The song was first recorded in the field by U.S. musicologists John and Alan Lomax in 1933, performed a cappella by the convict James Baker (also known as Iron Head) and a group at Central State Farm, Sugar Land, Texas.[2]

The Lomaxes were recording for the Library of Congress and later field recordings in 1934, 1936 and 1939 also include versions of "Black Betty". It was recorded commercially in New York in 1939 for the Musicraft label by blues artist Lead Belly, as part of a medley with two other work songs: "Looky Looky Yonder" and "Yellow Woman's Doorbells".[3] Lead Belly had a long association with the Lomaxes, and had himself served time in State prison farms.

[edit] Post-1939

While Leadbelly's 1941 recording was also performed a cappella, most subsequent versions added a guitar accompaniment. These include folk-style recordings in 1964 by Odetta (as a medley with "Looky Yonder"), Dave "Snaker" Ray,[4] and Alan Lomax himself.[5] In 1976 a Cincinnati band, Starstruck, recorded a rock version of the song on the Truckstar label which had little success.

In 1977, the rock band Ram Jam — whose members included Bill Bartlett, formerly of Starstruck and The Lemon Pipers — rerecorded the song with producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz under Epic Records. The song became an instant hit with listeners, as it reached number 18 on the singles charts in the United States and the top ten in Australia. At the same time, the lyrics became the cause of a boycott by civil rights groups NAACP and Congress of Racial Equality, who claimed it insulted black women.

In 1990 dance remixes of Ram Jam's version made the top twenty of the US dance charts and top thirty in Australia. Other notable artists such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1986) and Tom Jones (2002) have covered the song.

In 1992 notable remixer Hank Shocklee of The Bomb Squad used a riff from the Ram Jam single as a sample for a remix of Live's "Pain Lies on the Riverside". It was not until 1997 that the remix became commercially available.

Australian band Spiderbait recorded it on their album Tonight Alright and released it as a single which reached #1 on the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia in May 2004 and stayed there for three weeks. This version was later accredited double platinum in Australia and was the third-best-selling single in Australia in 2004. The recording was ranked #5 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004.

In 2006 the University of New Hampshire administration controversially banned the playing of Ram Jam's "Black Betty" at UNH Hockey games. UNH Athletic Director Marty Scarano explained the reason for the decision: "UNH is not going to stand for something that insults any segment of society".[6] In 2006 the students of University of New Hampshire started the "Save Black Betty" campaign. Students protested at the hockey games by singing Ram Jam's "Black Betty", wearing t-shirts that were blue with white writing on the front "Save Black Betty" and white writing on the back "Bam-A-Lam", and holding up campaign posters at the game.

[edit] Meaning and origin

The origin and meaning of the lyrics are subject to debate. Some sources claim the song is derived from an 18th century marching cadence about a flint-lock musket with a black painted 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 with an unpainted walnut stock known as a "Brown Bess".[7]

In "Caldwells's Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Washington Co. Pennsylvania of 1876", there is a short section describing wedding ceremonies and marrige customs on page 12. Caldwell describes a wedding tradition where two young men from the bridegroom procession were challenged to run for a bottle of whiskey. This challenge was usually given when the bridegroom party was about a mile from the destination home where the ceremony was to be had. Upon securing prize, refered to as "Black Betty" the winner of the race would bring the bottle back to the bridegroom and his party. The whiskey was offered to the bridegroom first and then successively to each of the grooms friends.

The earliest meaning of "Black Betty" in the United States (from at least 1827) was a liquor bottle.[8][9] In January 1736, Benjamin Franklin published The Drinker's Dictionary in the Pennsylvania Gazette offering 228 round-about phrases for being drunk. One of those phrases is "He's kiss'd black Betty."[10][11]

David Hackett Fischer, in his book Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (Oxford University Press, 1989), states that "Black Betty" was a common term for a bottle of whisky in the borderlands of northern England/southern Scotland, and later in the backcountry areas of the eastern United States.

In an interview[12] conducted by Alan Lomax with a former prisoner of the Texas penal farm named Doc Reese (aka "Big Head"), Reese stated that the term "Black Betty" was used by prisoners to refer to the "Black Maria" — the penitentiary transfer wagon.

[edit] In the media

 The inclusion or exclusion of items from this list, or length of this list, is disputed. Please discuss this issue on the talk page.

[edit] Movies

[edit] Television

[edit] Advertising

  • Was used on a Toyota ad in Australia in 2005 promoting the new Hilux.
  • Was used in Nintendo's Mario Pinball Land commercial.
  • Was used in commercials for Battlefield: Bad Company

[edit] Games

[edit] Books

[edit] Sports theme

  • New Japan professional wrestler Togi Makabe uses the Ram Jam version as his entrance music, as does Ring of Honor professional wrestler Adam Pearce.
  • Former Major League Baseball pitcher Mike Timlin used the song when he came out of the bullpen at home games.
  • Texas Rangers' second baseman Ian Kinsler uses this song as his intro music when he comes up to bat.
  • During his NHL career, Cam Neely reportedly would listen to this song once before every game as part of a supersitious ritual.
  • MLB' first baseman-outfielder Darin Erstad uses this song as his intro music when he comes up to bat.
  • The New York Yankees commonly play this song during their home games in Yankee Stadium most often during key rallies.
  • ABN Amro used the name Black Betty for their main boat which won the Volvo Ocean Race 05/06.
  • The Kansas City Chiefs play "Black Betty" before every kick at home games at Arrowhead Stadium at the Truman Sports Complex.
  • The New Zealand A1 GP Team use a modified version of "Black Betty" sung as "Black Beauty" as the new theme song for their "Black Beauty" race car
  • The Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders use the song to pump up the crowd, usually before a big face-off
  • The UNH Wildcats men's hockey team used to use the song during warmups until it was banned by the NCAA.
  • The New York Mets major league baseball team used the Ram Jam version of this song as the theme song to their pre-game and post-game shows on their radio station WFAN 660 AM New York for all of 2007 and 2008.
  • Was used as the entrance song for Jesse Lennox at UFC 101.

[edit] Selected list of recorded versions

[edit] Fleetwood Mac take-off

On Fleetwood Mac's 2003 album Say You Will, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham reworked the chorus of "Black Betty" for his song "Murrow Turning Over In His Grave," a scathing attack on the contemporary news media. For the "Black Betty had a child" line, Buckingham substituted the name of respected 20th Century reporter Ed Murrow.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Life and Legend of Leadbelly by Charles Wolf and Kip Lornell, Published by Harper Collins, NY, 1992
  2. ^ allmusic ((( Deep River of Song: Big Brazos > Overview )))
  3. ^ Document Records Vintage Blues and Jazz
  4. ^ With "Spider" John Koerner and Tony "Little Sun" Glover on Lots More Blues, Rags, and Hollers (Elektra - EKL 267)
  5. ^ allmusic ( Texas Folk Songs > Overview )
  6. ^ Melamed, Kristen. "This "Betty" won't play anymore" (web reprint). http://www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/news/2006/01/24/News/This-betty.Wont.Play.Anymore-1502180.shtml. Retrieved 2008-03-19. 
  7. ^ "The Brown Bess". http://www.cvco.org/sigs/reg64/bess.html. Retrieved 2008-01-12. 
  8. ^ Thorton, An American Glossary, p. 66: "Black Betty. A spirit-bottle. Obs. The N.E.D. has Betty, 1725. They became enamored of blue ruin itself. The hug the "black Betty," that contains it, to their bosoms.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 31 [1827]: from the Berkshire American."
  9. ^ Collins, Historical Sketches of Kentucky, p. 163: "Pretty late in the night some one would remind the company that the new couple must stand in need of some refreshment; Black Betty, which was the name of the bottle, was called for and sent up the ladder."
  10. ^ Benjamin Franklin; William Temple Franklin, William Duane (1859). Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 2. Derby & Jackson. p. 496. http://books.google.com/books?id=SrIEAAAAYAAJ. 
  11. ^ From the Writings of Benjamin Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette 1736 - 1737
  12. ^ see The Land Where the Blues Began, 1st Edition, Alan Lomax, Pantheon Books, 1993
  13. ^ Shanty Tramp (1967)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0991028/

[edit] Bibliography

  • Collins, Lewis. Historical Sketches of Kentucky. Cincinnati: James & Co. (1848).
  • Thornton, Richard H. (ed.). An American Glossary. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company (1912).

[edit] External links

Preceded by
"My Band" by D12		 ARIA (Australia) number one single (Spiderbait version)
May 23, 2004 - June 6, 2004		 Succeeded by
"F.U.R.B. (Fuck You Right Back)" by Frankee
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Betty"
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