― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link
bbbbut they have taken note. for years and years.
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 15:48 (eighteen years ago) link
K&K assert on the liner notes to the album that "Black Betty" is "not a bubble record!" I do hear it as one, though, I think partly because Dadaismus is right that K&K did hard rock stuff early on (the Lemon Pipers' Green Tambourine album ends with two hard rock tracks) and partly because blues/soul melodies were the earliest bubblegum w/ Tommy James and then you had records like "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" and further moves toward bubblegum within soul proper (from Jackson Five through Sylvers and stuff) and so why not hard rock, too? There's something about the structure of "Black Betty" that works as bubblegum. And the dance music element reinforces it. (I think the hi-hat in it is at least part of why it's hard as being sort of disco, btw.)
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:15 (eighteen years ago) link
yeah, why not, and we can call it glam!
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:21 (eighteen years ago) link
With Tommy James, you've got blues diatonic melodies as early as "Hanky Panky" (which was just rock and roll). And re. structure of songs, maybe if "Mony Mony" (and "Rock and Roll Part Two") are gum, then "Black Betty" is also gum.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link
As opposed to Kid Rock's North of [Windsor] Canada faux Southern rock, Frank?
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 17:13 (eighteen years ago) link
You gotta be kidding me. Slayed?! Slade Alive Sladest kill by stomping with boots. Play It Loud Old New Borrowed & Blue and Nobody's Fools ain't bad, either.
Kasenetz-Katz were definitely trying for mass appeal in the hard rock arena, which probably had something to with the shuffling of Ram Jam players after the first album didn't blast off quite like they wanted. Lucky us, the fortuitous accident resulted in one of the odd pleasant surprises of rock and roll. Stylistically almost completely different but still real good. And the pop shuffle of "Right On the Money" still should have been heard by as many who heard "Black Betty." Could've easily been a second single off the first album.
― George 'the Animal' Steele, Tuesday, 7 March 2006 18:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 19:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 19:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 21:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 21:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 21:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 22:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 22:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― doodaa, Friday, 10 March 2006 08:14 (eighteen years ago) link
Very much an acquired taste unless you saw them live regularly, at which point you probably thought they were the greatest thing ever. Especially after 8 beers.
― George 'the Animal' Steele, Friday, 10 March 2006 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 11 March 2006 18:44 (eighteen years ago) link
picked this up for $12 and after two listens have to say: GREAT! don't know which I like better, trax 1-10 (the Bartlett lineup)are unique countryrock/metallic/bubbleglam, while trax 11-20 are highenergy popmetal...it's all good. "Too Bad On Your Birthday" is definitely my favorite song, like glitter-encrusted farmboyzz covering T Rex while wearing flannell shirts & platform shoes.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 6 May 2006 11:09 (eighteen years ago) link
" I've always been baffled by that strange edit near the beginning of "Black Betty" - the way the song's first 30 seconds or so is spliced in to repeat itself just after the first verse. Kinda like "Run Lola Run" or something. Very peculiar; I wonder why that was done?
apparently it was edited from an earlier version by Bartlett's band between the Lemon Pipers and Ram Jam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73T5EJmaS4
p cool but i think i like the Ram Jam version better.
― |citation needed| (will), Thursday, 29 August 2013 23:06 (ten years ago) link
Wow! That's crazy, I had no idea. I like this version, though it really doesn't lend itself to playing over the end credits of college sports radio.
― bioethical technothriller (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, 30 August 2013 05:49 (ten years ago) link
Playing Rayman the other day, and Black Betty makes a guest appearance. In all seriousness, I think this is the definitive version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yOEuOuhINc
― dlp9001, Monday, 8 December 2014 00:52 (nine years ago) link
"It's such a fine line between a rut and a groove..."
― a poetic ODE to FORNICATION (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, 1 August 2015 19:42 (eight years ago) link