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" Black Betty" (Roud 11668) is a 20th-century African-American work song often credited to Lead Belly as the author, though the earliest recordings are by James "Iron Head" Baker and Moses "Clear Rock" Platt, not Lead Belly. Some sources say it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations of earlier folk material.Wolf, Charles and Kip Lornell (1992). The Life and Legend of Leadbelly. HarperCollins, NY.
There are numerous recorded versions, including a cappella and folk. The song was eventually, with modified lyrics, remade as a Rock music song by the American band Ram Jam in 1977. Subsequent recordings, including hits by Tom Jones and Spiderbait, retain the structure of this version.
David Hackett Fischer, in his book ' (Oxford University Press, 1989), states that "Black Betty" was a common term for a bottle of whisky in the borderlands between northern England and southern Scotland; it later became a euphemism in the backcountry areas of the eastern United States. 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." Other sources give the meaning of "Black Betty" in the United States (from at least 1827) as a liquor bottle.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 ."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."
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. 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 the prize, referred 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 groom's friends. Caldwells's Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Washington Co. Pennsylvania of 1876, p. 12.
John A. and Alan Lomax's 1934 book, American Ballads and Folk Songs describes the origins of "Black Betty":
John Lomax also interviewed blues musician Iron Head in 1934, almost one year after Iron Head performed the first known recorded performance of the song. In the resulting article for Musical Quarterly, titled "'Sinful Songs' of the Southern Negro", Lomax again mentions the nickname of the bullwhip is "Black Betty".Lomax, John. "'Sinful Songs' of the Southern Negro", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934) 177-87, quoted in William G. Roy, Reds, Whites, and Blues: Social Movements, Folk Music, and Race in the United States. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010) 110-1. 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."Cornelius, Steven. Music of the Civil War Era. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004) 216.
In an interviewsee The Land Where the Blues Began, 1st Edition, Alan Lomax, Pantheon Books, 1993 conducted by Alan Lomax with former Texas penal farm prisoner Doc "Big Head" Reese, Reese stated that the term "Black Betty" was used by prisoners to refer to the "Paddywagon" β the penitentiary transfer wagon.
Robert Vells, in Life Flows On in Endless Song: Folk Songs and American History, writes:
In later versions, "Black Betty" was depicted as various vehicles, including a motorcycle and a hot rod.
The Lomaxes were recording for the Library of Congress and later field recordings in 1934, 1936, and 1939 also include versions of "Black Betty". A notated version was published in 1934 in the Lomaxes book American Ballads and Folk Songs. It was recorded commercially in New York in April 1939 for the Musicraft Records label by Lead Belly, as part of a medley with two other work songs: "Looky Looky Yonder" and "Yellow Woman's Doorbells". Musicraft issued the recording in 1939 as part of a 78-rpm five-disc album entitled Negro Sinful Songs sung by Lead Belly. Lead Belly had a long association with the Lomaxes, and had himself served time in State prison farms. Lead Belly was first recorded by the Lomaxes in 1933 when he was approximately 44 years old. John Lomax helped Lead Belly get the recording contract with Musicraft in 1939.
Singer Dave Ray of the folk-blues trio Koerner, Ray and Glover also recorded the song unaccompanied on their 1964 album Lots More Blues, Rags and Hollers.
In 1968, Manfred Mann released a version of the song, arranged for a band, on their LP Mighty Garvey!, with the title and lyrics changed to "Big Betty". In 1972, Manfred Mann's Earth Band performed "Black Betty" live for John Peel's In Concert on the BBC, this version was released in 2019 on the double CD / triple LP Radio Days Volume 4, which also contains an earlier rendition from 1971 under the title "Big Betty". The same musical arrangement but with a new lyric and altered vocal melody appeared on the Earth Band's second album Glorified Magnified as "Look Around", credited solely to drummer Chris Slade. A studio version of "Big Betty" was recorded at the same sessions but remained unreleased until the 40th Anniversary box set in 2011.
7-inch (1989)
12-inch (1989)
CD (1989)
CD (1989)
12-inch (France, 1994)
CD (France, 1994)
CD (France, 1994)
At the ARIA Music Awards of 2004, the song was nominated for Highest Selling Single and Best Video.ARIA Award previous winners. Despite the song's success, Spiderbait's drummer, Kram, has considered their version of "Black Betty" a "fluke", as he wanted to perform three drum solos on the recording but was outvoted by the other band members.
In May 2024, Spiderbait announced a national tour celebrating 20 years of their version of "Black Betty", alongside their 2004 album Tonight Alright.
In 2006, UNH students started the "Save Black Betty" campaign. Students protested at the hockey games by singing Ram Jam's "Black Betty", wearing T-shirts with writing on the front "Save Black Betty" and writing on the back "Bam-A-Lam", and holding up campaign posters at the game. The Ram Jam version was again played once at a UNHβUMaine hockey game on January 24, 2013, after a seven-year hiatus.
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