Was just listening to an old 70's song...

[Archae]

By the group "Ram Jam."

The song is called "Black Betty."

They got some flack for it back then, and a couple people now want to ban the song from airplay completely.
(I was listening to Pandora when the song came on)

I don't consider the song to be racist at all.

In fact as I'm typing this, the next song up is "Fortunate Son."

Is that song "elitist?"

[Pas-de-Calais]

1. Tis truth since Civil War

[brush]

2. What are the lyrics considered controversial?

[James48]

5. Black Betty

Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Black Betty had a child (Bam-ba-lam)
The damn thing gone wild (Bam-ba-lam)
She said, "I'm worryin' outta mind" (Bam-ba-lam)
The damn thing gone blind (Bam-ba-lam)
I said oh, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
She really gets me high (Bam-ba-lam)
You know that's no lie (Bam-ba-lam)
She's so rock steady (Bam-ba-lam)
And she's always ready (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Get it!
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
She's from Birmingham (Bam-ba-lam)
Way down in Alabam' (Bam-ba-lam)
Well, she's shakin' that thing (Bam-ba-lam)
Boy, she makes me sing (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, Black Betty
Bam-ba-laaam, yeah, yeah


(. Drank beer to this back in the 70’s/80’s. Never considered the lyrics. The music is awesome. )

[Archae]

11. The title itself, for one.

Apparently the song was created by an old blues artist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Betty

[brush]

19. In 1970 many Black people had rejected the terms "negro" and "colored" and were...

calling themselves "Black"...proudly.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

18. Though I have seen a lot of different intepretations to the title

none of them are that it is about a woman who is black.

[Chipper Chat]

3. Somehow I missed this song back in the 70s.

Didn't even hear it until 2019. Great song. Lyrics sort of pre-rap.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. It's attributed to Lead Belly, although it might have roots further back.

[Chipper Chat]

9. Video

[captain queeg]

20. I stumbled into this video recently

I remember the song being very popular back then. But that video was really a blast from the past. Clothes, hair, car, etc really captured the times.

[happybird]

21. Yes!

Love this video, lol

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. .

a couple people now want to ban the song from airplay completely.

Who?

[greenjar_01]

7. Grow up

Ridiculous.

[jcgoldie]

8. Isn't it based on a Ledbelly song?

I thought it was about guns or something not race... oh and fortunate son is the opposite of elitist I would argue.

[Lars39]

10. It's an old song...

[Ferrets are Cool]

12. Fortunate Son was not an elitist song.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Fogerty talks about the draft. He recalls how most people didn’t support the war, but the government forced them to fight anyway.

“Well, I wrote the song ‘Unfortunate Son’ basically– now you’ve got to remember, way back in the ’60s, I was drafted into the Army Reserves, which I was in for three years. Therefore, that’s a great big subject, but I’ll just tell you that most young people in the late ’60s were against the Vietnam War. I mean, it was pretty much what you might call a left-sided or liberal point of view. Kids did not support the Vietnam War. And also, there was a draft, which meant that many of the young men were going to be conscripted into the military. Perhaps against their will.”
“You Are an American, and That’s What You Do.”

Although Fogerty admits that he was one of the men that was against it, at some point, you have to grow up and do what you are called to do for the sake of your country.

“So, you know, people like me who didn’t support the war and thought it was kind of a stupid foreign policy, you might say– and I believe time has shown that it was. But anyway, and you were never really explained exactly why we are fighting this war. And I don’t think anyone still knows, really. So, that was my position. But I was drafted, and at some point, you stop kicking and screaming and do your duty. I’m trying to make light of it. But there were millions of guys just like me who then went ahead, and because we love our country, you know, regardless of how you feel personally, you are an American, and that’s what you do.”

[DFW]

13. We saw the Rolling Stones a couple of years ago in Stuttgart

They sang a song called Brown Sugar. The lyrics seemed to condemn the slave trade in antebellum America, but maybe it's due for the banning list all the same?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. Which version did they sing?

[DFW]

15. As far as I remember, they were these:

Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Skydog slaver knows he's doin' all right
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
Drums beatin' cold, English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wonderin' when it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doin' all right
You should have heard him just around midnight

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. So the last line was not the original version.

[DFW]

17. No idea

I was never a huge fan of theirs, and never learned the lyrics to their songs to the point that I remembered them years later.