Good Lord, the First Ram Jam Album Is Awesome

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.)

yeah, why not, and we can call it glam!

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.

As opposed to Kid Rock's North of [Windsor] Canada faux Southern rock, Frank?

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.

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.

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.

" 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.

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.

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

"It's such a fine line between a rut and a groove..."