Who is the original artist that played "Black Betty", ?

Question

Who is the original artist that played "Black Betty", ?

Answer 1

Whoa looks like Marylin went into a whole history I didn't know existed about the song, interesting. I was thinking more like Ram Jam's Black Betty.

Answer 2

You mean the song, right? Not an actress, correct?

"Black Betty" 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. 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. Lead Belly was associated with the Lomaxes. Some sources claim it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations of earlier folk material; in this case an 18th century marching cadence about a flint-lock rifle.

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 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 In this interpretation, the rifle was superseded by its "child", a rifle known as a "Brown Bess".[2]

Other sources claim the term was a contemporary reference for a prostitute, a prison bullwhip, or the "paddywagon".

In Lead Belly's version of the song, Black Betty is characterized as a woman with a child:

Woah, Black Betty

bam-ba-lam

Woah, Black Betty

bam-ba-lam

Black Betty had a baby

bam-ba-lam

Black Betty had a baby

bam-ba-lam

d**n thing gone crazy

bam-ba-lam

d**n thing gone crazy

bam-ba-lam

In an interview (see The Land Where the Blues Began, 1st Edition, Alan Lomax, Pantheon Books, 1993) 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 penetentiary transfer wagon. Below is a song in which the term "Black Betty", used to refer to the wagon, appears in the context of a prison work song.

Black Betty's in the bottom,

I can hear her roar,

She's bringing some po sucker,

With an achin soul.

She'll bring you here and leave you,

Let your hammer ring,

For a hundred summers,

Let your hammer ring.

(and now we hear the most familiar part of the song)

Black Betty's got a baby,

Let your hammer ring,

d**n thing's gone crazy,

Let your hammer ring,

Dipped its head in gravy,

Let your hammer ring.

In this interpretation, Black Betty's baby may be the prisoner himself, who has by his own admission "gone crazy" -- seeing as it was "Black Betty" who delivered the prisoners into the prison world ("She's bringing some po sucker"). In the lyrics above, the phrase "Let your hammer ring" is used repeatedly. In this case, the "hammer" refers to the hoes used by prisoners to break up the ground in the cotton fields. The song itself was used to keep a steady rhythm among the workers as they toiled in the field. It had the added benefit of helping the time go by faster through collective participation.

Many early blues and proto-blues songs follow the theme that all the wickedness of man (Adam) is the result of a woman (Eve). A number of early artists sang of how they got mixed up with a woman and ended up in prison as a result. As such, the characterization of the prison wagon as a woman is not unprecedented.