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jimct
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| Posted: 18 April 2008 at 11:21am | IP Logged
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My commercial 45 has a listed time of (2:32), but an actual time of (2:29).
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 19 April 2008 at 12:31pm | IP Logged
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I apologize in advance if this comes across a bit self-indulgent, but I just have to share a story about my one uncredited "claim to fame"... Back in 1993 when I was a student attending Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA, I worked for the campus audio services department. One of my duties involved setting up the audio equipment for each of our men's basketball home games and coordinating music with the cheerleaders for their dance routines. I was also responsible for selecting music to be played during pre-game, post-game, in between periods, and timeouts.
Now months earlier, I had picked up a new Rhino CD called Super Hits of the '70s: Have a Nice Day, Volume 21 and I was blown away by the lead track on that disc... Ram Jam's "Black Betty". I had never heard the song before, nor did any of my local radio stations ever play it, but I noticed in my Whitburn book that "Black Betty" had reached the Top 20 on Billboard back in 1978. As I listened to it, I remember thinking what a great adrenaline-pumping song it would be to play during a timeout in a critical moment of the game to get the crowd energized. So I made it a point to blast the song over the PA system at least once each game... and to my delight the crowd responded favorably to it by clapping furiously to the song's chorus! My buddy, who was my roommate at the time, attended one of the games and was sitting in the front row bleachers where he could hear two of the referees commenting about what a great song "Black Betty" was. Funny thing is, this buddy of mine attended a Seattle Supersonics NBA home game a couple months later and was awed to discover that THEY had suddenly begun playing "Black Betty" during timeouts! Not long after that, I was told the Portland Trailblazers NBA team was starting to play "Black Betty". Today, you can't go to a sporting event at any stadium or arena in the country without hearing "Black Betty" at least once!
Even though I can't prove it, my buddy and the 500 or so folks who regularly attended PLU basketball games in 1993 can attest to where they first heard "Black Betty" played at a sporting event... And I guess I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for my first royalty check from Ram Jam! ;-)
Edited by Todd Ireland on 19 April 2008 at 12:58pm
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Yah Shure
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| Posted: 19 April 2008 at 1:18pm | IP Logged
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Todd, that's a great story! Take a well-deserved bow. No doubt, you'll always make the connection every time you hear it.
Back in my college days in the early '70s, the University of Minnesota men's basketball team came up with an elaborate pregame ritual, the highlight of which was a guy by the name of George doing incredible ball-handling tricks to the tune of Jay & The Techniques' 1967 hit, "Keep The Ball Rollin'." This resulted in the song's renewed popularity as a flashback at our student-run college station.
When I became music director at a classic hits FM in town in the late '80s, one of the first phone calls I received was from George. The first words out of my mouth were, "Oh, I remember you! 'Keep The Ball Rollin'!'" He was elated, and the reason he'd called was to find a copy of the song. I was more than happy to meet him, thank him for having made the song memorable locally, and to present him with a dub of the record. And I still make that connection whenever I hear the song.
Edited by Yah Shure on 19 April 2008 at 1:20pm
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80smusicfreak
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| Posted: 01 May 2008 at 2:31pm | IP Logged
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Yep, cool story, Todd... :-)
To this day, I still scratch my head in disbelief that Loverboy's 1985 hit, "Lovin' Every Minute of It", isn't also a sports classic! I've never heard it at a game, but it certainly could and deserves to be - it would work very well after any big play by the home team...
"Touch that dial/
Turn me on/
Start me like a motor/
Make me run/
Lovin' every minute of it/
Lovin' every minute of it
Turn that dial all the way/
Shoot me like a rocket into space/
Lovin' every minute of it/
Lovin' every minute of it/
Lovin' every minute of it/
Alright!"
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 05 May 2008 at 10:19pm | IP Logged
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I agree with you 100% that Loverboy's "Lovin' Every Minute of It" would make for an awesome sports arena anthem, Greg! I can just hear the crowd enthusiastically singing the chorus and then roaring the "Woooohh-uh-ooooh, Woooohh-uh-wooaahh" part in unison. If I ever get back into programming music for sporting events again, I'll be sure to play it and credit you for the idea once the song catches on and becomes the next arena staple! ;-)
Edited by Todd Ireland on 05 May 2008 at 10:20pm
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 09 March 2022 at 10:25pm | IP Logged
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Non-hit 1975 recording by Starstruck
Starstruck was formed by former members of The Lemon Pipers ("Green Tambourine", 1968), including Bill Bartlett. The entire recorded output of Starstruck was one 45 (Truckstar 1001), the A-side of which was a cover of "Black Betty", with proper writing credit for "H. Ledbetter" (Leadbelly). No producer credited, but the label says "Music and Arrangement by Bill Bartlett". Printed time 4:25, actual time about 4:43.
This recording has a great intro (0:00 to 0:35), a great first verse (0:35 to 0:52), and a decent ending (3:55 to 4:43). And everything that's not in the first 52 seconds or the last 48 seconds goes off the rails. You'll either think the three-minute interior of the song is pure genius or... not so much.
This version of the song doesn't exist on CD.
Hit 1977 45 version by Ram Jam
Bubblegum producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz had their peak popularity as bubblegum producers in the late 1960s. I don't know how or why they found the Starstruck 45, but apparently, they liked what they heard. Specifically, they liked the first minute and the last minute of the song. The middle three minutes... not so much.
Kasenetz and Katz drastically edited and remixed the song, using only parts from the first minute and the last minute of the Starstruck version in the Ram Jam 45. They also had Starstruck lead singer Bill Bartlett record two new verses, with lyrics that weren't on the Starstruck version. They came up with a potent track running only 2:32 (printed; actual was pretty close to 2:32).
Epic released the single in 1977 under the name Ram Jam. There was no band Ram Jam, just the producers Kasenetz-Katz and Bill Bartlett. (The B-side of the Ram Jam 45 was "I Should Have Known", which was the same song as the B-side of the Starstruck 45. Maybe a remix, too? Don't know.)
The song hit US#18 in September 1977. Those bubblegummers have a good ear. As far as I know, this was their last hit as producers.
The oldest CD I have with the 45 version is Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 17 1977 Take Two (1991). It sounds fine, but the fade suspiciously lacks hiss and may have some odd EQ artifacts. Noise reduction? Not sure. Time-Life reissued the disc (with RE-1 in the matrix number) with a slightly revised track lineup. The RE-1 reissue is digitally exactly 1.9 dB louder than the original release. The same analog transfer is used on Time-Life's Guitar Rock Vol. 3 1976-1977 (1993), but with the left and right channels swapped.
There's a different analog transfer on Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 21 (1993), which has a more natural-souding fade with some hiss. The same analog transfer is used on Simitar's Number Ones: Super '70s (1998), but with additional compression/limiting.
1977 album version by Ram Jam
Kasenetz and Katz recruited a full band to complement Bill Bartlett and recorded a full album to go along with "Black Betty". None of the band members played on the song "Black Betty"; the instrumentation was all from the Starstruck tapes. Safe to say that no one wanted to hear the rest of the Ram Jam album, either. Reviews of the full album were not kind. A follow-up single failed to chart.
The album version had a printed time of 3:57 (actual time pretty close to 3:57).
There's a significantly longer solo on the album version. If one were to edit the LP version down to the 45, one would delete 1:56 to 3:21 of LP version to form the 45. The solo also came from the latter portion of the Starstruck 45.
I have the LP version on Priority's Seventies Greatest Rock Hits Vol. 1 Hard N' Heavy (1991), where it sounds a little odd. I also have it on EMI Australia's 5-CD box Seventies Complete Vol. 2 (1999). I'm not real happy with either one of these. I'd guess that any of the compilations on Sony Music Special Products, Epic/Legacy, Risky Business, or (possibly) Razor & Tie might sound better, but I can't confirm.
Reverse-engineering the Ram Jam 45 version
I picked this apart and discovered that the instrumentation of the first verse of the Starstruck version is repeated for all three verses of the Ram Jam version (with different lyrics in all three verses). The guitar lines that lead into the first verse of the Starstruck version are used twice, verbatim, to lead into the first and second verses of the Ram Jam version. Kasenetz and Katz must have really liked the intro and first verse of the Starstruck version and really disliked the rest of the song!
The first 51 seconds of the Ram Jam 45 match the first 51 seconds of the Starstruck version. The times listed below are for the Ram Jam 45.
0:00-0:04 Eight beats, starting with gong, 4-on-the-floor bass drum. This is taken verbatim from the Starstruck version.
0:04-0:34 Sixty beats of guitar intro (starting with the first downbeat where you hear a guitar) This is taken verbatim from the Starstruck version.
0:34-0:51 Thirty-two beats of first verse (starting with the first downbeat in the vocals) This is taken verbatim from the Starstruck version. After 0:51, the Starstruck version goes off the rails.
0:51-1:14 Forty-eight beats of guitar intro - literally 0:04 to 0:26 repeated!
1:14-1:30 Thirty-two beats of second verse - uses the same instrumentation as 0:34 to 0:51 but with different vocals. From 1:30 onward, the ending of the Ram Jam 45 tracks with the ending of the Starstruck version except that the one-line last verse of the Starstruck version is fleshed out to a full verse in the Ram Jam 45.
The last minute of the Ram Jam 45 matches the last roughly 45 seconds of the Starstruck version, but with a full third verse being added to flesh out out the one-line last verse of the Starstruck version.
1:30-2:02 Solo. I didn't count beats here. The solo comes from 3:55-4:24 of the Starstruck version.
2:02-2:17 A little short of thirty-two beats of third verse. On the Starstruck version, this third verse is only one line long, so it's fleshed out to a full verse using a portion of the instrumentation of 0:34 to 0:51 again! The bass drum/hi-hat portion is inserted into the Starstruck version; the bass drum-only part is what's present in the Starstruck version.
2:17-2:25 End noodling
2:25-2:30 Final gong hit
Yes, I realize that this is silly. I think it's interesting that so much of the song is repeated, much like "Keep On Dancing" by the Gentrys and "One Step Beyond" by Madness. (I welcome other examples where significant chunks of the song are repeated; this sounds like a good set for the radio show.)
Edited by crapfromthepast on 09 March 2022 at 10:29pm
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AdvprosD
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| Posted: 10 March 2022 at 10:29am | IP Logged
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Well, I just had to go out and find this on YouTube. Sure enough, I wasn't disappointed. One of the commenters made note about a Manfred Mann song?
"Thanks for posting. Manfred Mann (Earth Band) recorded "Big Betty" in 1968 and then did "Black Betty" in 1972.
It sounds like Starstruck was heavily influenced by Manfred Mann's recorded versions to me. Everybody borrows from everyone before them. This song goes even further back than Iron Head's
version of Black Betty back in 1933."
I haven't yet looked for those songs to preview, but assume there might be some influence there. The rhythms of the song are amazing! I distinctly remember when this charted. It
was one of the most unique sounding songs I'd ever heard in Top-40 radio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihTqpNZQNwE&t=98s
I also noted there was an actual Ram Jam video as well. Did I see some Eddie Van Halen style lead guitar there?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2D8Eo15wE
Edited by AdvprosD on 10 March 2022 at 10:40am
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Topic: Ram Jam-"Black Betty"
