Ram Jam -Black Betty

[ThrillsNSpills]

Yeah, you've heard the song Black Betty.
It angered some NAACP folks as you can imagine.
Yes it was a hard hitting festive tune but the comedy in it all comes from wiki so take it for what it's worth.


"Later in life Bill Barltet decided to leave Ram Jam and go onto a career in interpretive dance."


(hey, whatever pays the bills, right?)

[ThrillsNSpills]

alright fuckit here's the song.

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you're gonna have to come up with the interpretive dance videos your damn self.

[standin]

That's a rockin tune~
Wonder why it is offensive?

[ThrillsNSpills]

That's a rockin tune~
Wonder why it is offensive?

let's look at the lyric shall we?


wo oh Black Betty ramalam (2x)

Black Betty had a child

the damn thing gone wild.


(they were on the phone after the second line)

[ThrillsNSpills]

to the members of Ram Jam:

It is with great regret that I terminate my position on guitar with your fine organization to pursue my lifelong passion of making up bizarre dance moves on the spot in front of large groups of people. In closing I would like to put on a bee suit and do the Flight of the Bumble Bee dance, as a freebee to show there's no hard feelings.

sincerley,


Bill Barltet


It's got to be a hoax or one of his buddies in the band put that in there.
Who leaves to do interpretive dance? He was in 60's band the lemon Pipers who had a hit with Green Tambourine. Maybe the music biz makes people crazy.

[Hardrock69]

Anyone who is offended needs to go complain to LeadBelly about it. The song was recorded by him the first time in 1939, though that was not the first recording of that song. It was, however, his 1941 acapella recording of it that was most widely heard, and has been covered by numerous other artists (black AND white) between 1941 and 1977 when the Ram Jam version was released.

Here is LeadBelly today: