Its Indeed he states that she is “shaking that thing”, which is a term that even we in the contemporary world recognize as being a reference to a woman’s body. The song brings me back to high school dances, parties and the fun times of growing up becoming of age. Christine McVie wrote "Songbird" for Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album in just half a hour after she woke up in the middle of the night with the song in her head. So the lyrics have remained the same. Go to YouTube and get some African American input. B5 I said, whoa, Black Betty bamalam, B5 D5 A5 B5 whoa, Black Betty, bamalam. We are all human. Til this very day when I hear it I still get that “omg, I cant believe it” grin, blare the radio and sing my heart out!!! So, what does “Black Betty” mean or refer to in the popular Ram Jam song, that was also sung by Leadbelly? Clearly it’s about a sexy black American woman. You know that's no lie, bam-ba-lam. Black Betty Any caricature of a woman by the name of Betty who is inherently evil or gives you the evil eye (aka the stinky eye) or looks at you with daggers in her eyes. Anthony from Nashville, Vt … Black Betty had a child, bam-ba-lam. Definition of BLACK BETTY in the Definitions.net dictionary. Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Yeah, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) She really gets me high (Bam-ba-lam) You know that's no lie (Bam-ba-lam) She's always ready (Bam-ba … Here's how he wrote songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" with Ozzy and Randy Rhoads. Which makes a ton of sense considering they literally say in the song that “Black Betty” is from Birmingham. You will find it interesting. It is a fun song, if you are one of the people who think it was based on racism……then that must be derived from something within yourself, and the same with the musket and whatever else people are saying. While the lyrical content is pretty standard folk/blues material - about a black woman from Alabama who has a "wild" child, Ram Jam took some heat because some civil rights groups felt the lyrics were disrespectful to black women. It is Betty Rubble in which the singer writes about and goes on to reference the character's son BamBam in the popular lyric: "Bam-ba-lam". It was their first single to reach #1 on the Australian charts. Black Betty had a baby, bam-ba-lam. Your email address will not be published. Not everything is about racism and I wish that people could accept that. John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath got its title from a line in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic": "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.". Amazingly despite the song, Black Betty being covered hundreds of times in the 70 or so years it has existed and it being the subject of academic study and debate, for almost as long, no one, anywhere has ever conclusively proven what the eponymous Black Betty actually is.As far as we know it could either be a gun, or a bottle of hooch. I still do and crank it up so loud! I’ll answer that by saying, no it is not. Clearly, being a small child in 1977 I was clueless to what the he’ll “black betty” or “bamalam” meant….. And it was very unlikely that they were singing in reference to a musket, though it is more feasible that they can be celebrating inebriation. The production of this hit tune was overseen by record producer Jerry Harrison. Black Betty was a liquor, a whip used in prisons for punishment, a musket and/or musket ball, and lastly a sexy black American lady. 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