Good Lord, the First Ram Jam Album Is Awesome

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (47 of them)

Y'll might be overthinking this one a bit, I think. Ram Jam was just a pretty cool boogie band who had their amps turned up a little louder than the others. Most of their brethren didn't manage to have a hit the size of "Black Betty" 'neitter. But they weren't much different than Nantucket, Black Spirit, the eary non-prog Demon stuff, I'll bet groups that I haven't listened to in ages (and some, at all) that xhuxk put in his metal book qualify here as well. The stuff inspired early Motorhead, early Priest (Rocka Rolla)... In fact, I think that "'70s Boogie Metal" can be a genre unto itself.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 21:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Caveat: I only own the Ram Jam "best of" disc which I think does sample all of the band's works but also has the limitations of selective samples inherent in compilations.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 21:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Cool, I don't know Nantucket, Black Spirit or Demon. Can't help but imgaine that the LP isn't "just a pretty cool boogie band," though. They had a real spark and it's there on every song.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 22:08 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm not commenting on the quality. I actually like Ram Jam, even the non-hits. It just seemed that some were making the band out to be some kind of revelatory group tapping into some specific-to-them genre or something and I wouldn't go that far. There was a scene of like-minded groups at the time, I think - but I wasn't there so I gleam this from hindsight. Maybe those who were there never heard a Grand Funk connection between them all...

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 7 March 2006 22:45 (eighteen years ago) link

anybody dig on the Good Rats?

― doodaa, Friday, 10 March 2006 08:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Occasionally. Tasty and the one with Takin' It to Detroit on it. The Good Rats were goofs but the classic LI bar band. "Fred Upstairs and Ginger Snappers" -- boy, now there's a joke. Wrote the theme song for the Catholic priesthood, "900 Boys" as in the chorus line guaranteed never to be played on radio, "I slept with 900 boys."

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMLnDuzgkjo&search=ram%20jam

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 11 March 2006 18:44 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Both LPs are compiled on that ubiquitous German collection, strangely (tho accurately) called "The Very Best Of..."

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

seven years pass...

" 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

one year passes...

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

seven months pass...

"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

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.