The “Golden Hits Of The 70s” 

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RAM JAM

“BLACK BETTY”

(Huddie Ledbetter)

Epic 50357

No. 18   September 3, 1977

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Ram Jam’s main man, guitarist Bill Bartlett (b. 1949) complained to Illinois Entertainer’s Don Case that

civil­ rights groups like NAACP and CORE were calling for a boycott of “Black Betty.”  “[They say that]

‘Black Betty’ is considered an insult to black womanhood, but that’s a lot of hogwash. Leadbelly [Huddie

Ledbetter] was black, and he wrote all of the lyrics.  No blacks that I’ve talked to find the song offensive.”

Despite the protest, “Black Betty” became a Top 40 hit.  Nonetheless, as Bartlett noted, “… Just over 40

per­ cent of all rock stations [would] not play it due to the boycott.”

Ten years earlier, Bartlett had been the lead guitarist with the LEMON PIPERS, known the globe over for

their bubble gummy and allegedly drug-drenched “Green Tambourine.”  “Well, I must admit I still hate

that song as much now as I did then,” Bill told Case.  “But the idea of playing in such a band no longer

bothers me–after all, Joe Walsh was with the Ohio Express at the same time.”

After the Lemon trip soured, Bill went into semire­ tirement, and passed the time by soaking up the sounds

of Albert Ammons, James Burton, Cliff Gallop, and Leadbelly.  One of the tunes he happened across was

Leadbelly’s “Black Betty.”  Bill cut a demo of the song and left his Ohio farm for New York City.  Through a

series of coincidences, Bartlett met the brains behind the bubblegum phenomenon, Super K Productions,

Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz.  Jerry and Jeff immediately spotted the hit potential of the old Lead­ belly

tune.

For their brief duration, Ram Jam was composed of Bartlett, bassist Howie Arthur Blauvelt (an ex-

member of an early Billy Joel/United Artist unit, the Hassles), drummer Pete Charles, and lead singer

Myke Scavone, a fellow that Bill met hitchhiking on the New Jersey turnpike.  Two LPs–Ram ]am (1974)

and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Ram (1975)–were released, and only two other 45s–“Keep Your

Hands on the Wheel” and “Pretty Poison”–are know to have been issued.

In the spring of 1990, a remixed version of the tune charted Top 20 in Britain as by The American Ram

Jam Band.