“While in Starstruck, Bartlett took Lead Belly’s 59 second long “Black Betty” and arranged, recorded and released it on the group’s own TruckStar label. She is the whip that was and is used in some Southern prisons. Spiderbait's "Black Betty" was used in the following films: Without a Paddle (2004), Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), Guess Who (2005), The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), The Condemned (2007), Death Race 2 (2011), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017), and Birds of Prey (2020). Their version is basically the exact same as the Starstruck version, except slightly worse in my opinion, slightly more repetitive, despite being half the length. Ram Jam: Black Betty Lead Belly was first recorded by the Lomaxes in 1933 when he was approximately 44 years old. While in Starstruck, Bartlett took Lead Belly's 59 second long "Black Betty" and arranged, recorded and released it on the group's own TruckStar label. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have another loud version which is, disappointingly the rock version, not blues. She seems utterly bored while singing. The Melvins added little to it in 2011. More words, more rhymes. Unfortunately that alone doesn’t make it good. For the "Black Betty had a child" line, Buckingham substituted the name of the reporter Ed Murrow. 29 April 2016. Which I’m not into. We're all about the quality, and support good writing and reading. One of those phrases is "He's kiss'd black Betty. Instead, because he’s endlessly classy, he did the Lead Belly version. This was done with many very early blues musicians singing folk songs and prison songs (including Lead Belly) and the work was hugely important to the history of music, black culture, the Mississippi Delta and of course, rock and roll owes a lot to it. The party-rock song, whoa-O Black Betty, bam-ba-lam, whoa-O Black Betty. Big City Rock did a version for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack. Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) and Martha Promise Ledbetter, Wilton, Connecticut, February 1935, Up To 90 | Emma is Gene Hackman and Fungie is Dead, NO ENCORE #239 | PADDY HANNA | THE HILL | TRACK BY TRACK, #126 | You Can’t Cancel Connery with Sir Sean Connery. If you want to know more about our chocolate chips, please visit our Privacy Policy page. Gone are the days of Iron Head’s mellow acapella sing-a-long. His version called “Looky Looky Yonder/Black Betty/Yellow Women’s Doorbells” is a sort of medley, and it appears to be about a woman called Black Betty, who ends up pawning his clothes (that’s if the songs are linked). "Brown Bess, n." OED Online. And since this version of the song, we now only really get this version. Damn thing went wild. [9] Steven Cornelius in his book, Music of the Civil War Era, states in a section concerning folk music following the war's end that "prisoners sang of 'Black Betty', the driver's whip."[10]. But it had one important difference. - Manfred Mann | Songs, Reviews, Credits", "Kicking Against the Pricks - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave | Songs, Reviews, Credits", The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs, John Farnham & Tom Jones – Together in Concert, The Unfinished Spanish Galleon of Finley Lake, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_Betty&oldid=983129523, CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from July 2017, All articles needing additional references, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from September 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2020, Singlechart usages for Belgium (Flanders), Singlechart usages for Billboarddanceclubplay, Certification Table Entry usages for Canada, Pages using certification Table Entry with shipments figures, Certification Table Entry usages for United Kingdom, Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming figures, Pages using certification Table Entry with shipments footnote, Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming footnote, Certification Table Entry usages for Australia, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz release group identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, "Black Betty" (Rough 'n' Ready Remix – Edit) – 3:12, "Black Betty" (Rough 'n' Ready Remix) – 5:28, 2002 Throttlerod, on the compilation album, This page was last edited on 12 October 2020, at 12:16. This is where the bottle of whisky version of Black Betty would come into it. "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. ^shipments figures based on certification alone. He also claimed to be a habitual prisoner. While Lead Belly's 1939 recording was also performed a cappella (with hand claps in place of hammer blows), most subsequent versions added guitar accompaniment. Not a gang of thugs whose weapon of choice was a chain. Now he's working on getting his novel on, and being in charge of HeadStuff.org. music video for "Black Betty" by Ram Jam. Basically… with Stefanie Preissner | What’s It Like To Be A Progressive TD, Holly Cairns? Ministry did it. Why? It was also used in episodes of Malcolm in the Middle and My Name Is Earl, and the games Need for Speed: Underground 2 and Gran Turismo 6. Both the Ram Jam and the Spiderbait versions appear in the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard, with the Ram Jam version also appearing on the soundtrack album. It was a major hit. Though she does dance around during the musicy bits. These include folk-style recordings in 1964 by Odetta (as a medley with "Looky Yonder", with staccato guitar strums in place of hand claps), and Alan Lomax himself. Sheryl Crow did a version during which I’m surprised she managed to stay awake. Bill Bartlett sets the record straight on the only known 6/12 Mosrite Special. Then he started writing fiction and it has been published in several literary magazines and anthologies including 30 Under 30 which Joseph O'Connor chose as one of his books of the year for The Irish Times. ), John Lomax also interviewed blues musician James Baker (better known as "Iron Head") in 1934, almost one year after Iron Head performed the first known recorded performance of the song. Acapella. By revival I mean the song was going to become an international hit, heard daily by more people than had heard it in the previous hundred or so years accumulated. They recorded the Southern Rock classic "Black Betty" which after a major edit and release became the group Ram Jam. Mr. Cave is a brilliant musician, we all know that, and he’s a blues appreciator and he’s the one musician who took the song up post Ram Jam and didn’t do the rock version with the guitar riff. Musicraft issued the recording in 1939 as part of a 78-rpm five-disc album entitled Negro Sinful Songs sung by Lead Belly. Add the first question. Soil did it. In 1972 Manfred Mann's Earth Band performed "Black Betty" live for John Peel's In Concert on the BBC, but this has not been publicly released.[15]. In an interview[11] conducted by Alan Lomax with a former Texas penal farm prisoner named Doc Reese (a.k.a. It is Thursday night at Three Trees Pub in Oxford, Ohio. Starstruck originally included Steve Walmsley (bass) and Bob Nave (organ) from the Lemon Pipers. You gotta love Nick Cave. So it's easy for you to find and enjoy high quality content from our wonderful contributors. [5][6], In Caldwells's Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Washington Co. Pennsylvania of 1876, a short section describes wedding ceremonies and marriage customs, including a wedding tradition where two young men from the bridegroom procession were challenged to run for a bottle of whiskey. Bill was with the Lemon Pipers in the 60's and his group Starstruck in the mid-70's. [16] The level Castle Rock from the 2013 video game Rayman Legends is based on Ram Jam's version of "Black Betty". When he recorded ‘Black Betty’ and other songs with the Lomaxes he was on his sixth term in prison, thirty-four years, and he was sixty-three years old.