“Black Betty” – Ram Jam
A man by the name of Charles Simic once said, “Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them”(Quote Land). Poems have been written for thousands of years. When most people think of poetry, they either think of a sonnet, limerick, all the way down to a haiku. They also think that a poem is something that must be recited, but in reality a poem can also be sang as a song. Lately more and more songs that are being released have a story behind them, trying to express feelings of loneliness, death, or past experiences. One of the best examples would be rap. Rappers love to tell about “their” life in the city; when the times were rough because they were poor and all the violence going on. But rap isn’t the only type of music that can be interpreted as a poem.
William Huddie Ledbetter was born on January 29th, 1885 in Louisiana (Ledbelly). Huddie was the world’s greatest cotton picker, railroad track liner, lover, and drinker, but he was better known for his astounding guitar playing. He was a black man who traveled the south singing and recording folk songs. William Huddie Ledbetter was known as “Ledbelly”, and his one song “Black Betty” was widely known. On December 6th, 1949 Huddie died due to lateral sclerosis.
Ram Jam was an east coast band formed in the mid 70’s. It’s members consisted of Bill Bartlett, Howie Blauvelt, Peter Charles, Myke Scavone, and Jimmy Santoro. Ram Jam is known for being a one hit wonder by using William Huddie Ledbetter’s song “Black Betty” It reached number 18 on the charts in 1977, and in the UK it reached number 7 & it’s remix made number 13 (Ram Jam). “Black Betty” can be considered a poem because of its rhyme scheme and many other poetic devices.
When explicating “Black Betty” at first, it’s real meaning is hard to find. It takes more than one try to figure out what William Huddie Ledbetter was trying to dictate in his song. The song is about a black woman who lives in Alabama by herself. She was young and made a couple wrong decisions like drinking, drugs, and having a one-night stand with somebody. This caused her to conceive a child that she wasn’t ready for. She wasn’t ready for the responsibilities of being a mother.
The “king of Western swing,” Bob Wills, was a prominent figure from the 1930s through 1950s. At at a young age he learned to play the fiddle and he and his father performed at dances and other social gatherings. He was exposed to other genres of music as a young boy such a blues, conjunto and mariachi, but it was the new sounds of jazz that inspired him to experiment with traditional country music. In 1929 Wills moved to Fort Worth, Texas, were he formed a band, the Wills Fiddle Band, which would soon change to Light Crust Doughboys. Their music was played was played on the Fort Worth radio station, KFJZ radio, and their unique sound quickly spread which is what the radio advertisers needed during the economic downfall. However, in 1933 Wills left the band and formed a new one called Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and they toured together over the next forty years. In 1945 Wills appeared at the Grand Ole Opry and insisted that there be a horn and drum section on stage. The audience was surprisingly pleased with this unwanted change by the directors. Despite his somewhat strained relationship with Nashville, the local country music establishment formally recognized Wills and his important overall impact on country music when the Country Music Association Hall of Fame inducted him in 1968 (Hartman, 146). Bob Wills died in 1975, but was still a major influence in up and coming young country artists like Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, George Strait and Lee Ann Womack.
The music industry during the 1940s was filled with many talented artists who impacted the music industry and the history of rock n’ roll forever. But one of the very well known and talented artists was Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly was the first to pioneer new music genres and progressive music. Charles Hardin Holley (1936-1959) was an American musician and artist whose creative career began in 1956. The family name is correctly spelled “Holley” but his first recording contract from Decca Records in 1956 spelled his last name “Holly” and he kept it that way for the rest of his career (Griggs 1). Holly took a very influential position in the music industry and built an audience for his Rock and Roll music very quickly due to his unique voice and advanced knowledge of music. Buddy Holly is a prime example of a musical pioneer who blended resources from various music genres including a variety of popular genres such as rhythm and blues (RNB), oriental, and African (Schinder and Schwartz 85).
ballads and poems, a few have risen to the fore front of the genre as an
Dick Dale was born Richard Anthony Mansour in Boston on the 4th of May 1937 to a father of Arab descent and a mother of Polish-Belarusian descent. He started learning to play music from the young age of nine years, the piano being his first instrument. He also played the harmonica and trumpet. After Dale finished his secondary education, his family moved to Southern California and this led Dale to take up surfing. This and
The blues emerged as a distinct African-American musical form in the early twentieth century. It typically employed a twelve-bar framework and three-lined stanzas; its roots are based in early African-American songs, such as field hollers and work songs, and generally have a melancholy mood. The blues can be divided into many sub-genres, including Classical, Country, and Urban. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the careers of two of Classical blues most influential and legendary singers: Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.
"Compressed emotions," that is the explanation a teacher once gave to the ongoing question, "What is poetry?" He said it was someone's deepest emotions, as if you were reading them right out of that person's mind, which in that case would not consist of any words at all. If someone tells you a story, it is usually like a shell. Rarely are all of the deepest and most personal emotions revealed effectively. A poem of that story would be like the inside of the shell. It personifies situations, and symbolizes and compares emotions with other things in life. Louise Erdrich's poem Indian Boarding School puts the emotions of a person or group of people in a setting around a railroad track. The feelings experienced are compared to things from the setting, which takes on human characteristics.
	For as long as anyone can remember, B.B. King has reigned as the "King Of Blues." With his Gibson guitar named Lucille, along with his unique vocals, king has put out some of the most down-home sounds in African-American music.
Suga Boom Boom (Chasing Dragons) was written and sung by D. L. Downer a.k.a. James Williams and his 16-year-old niece Laleazy. It is a rap and hip-hop song that was released on October 26, 2014. It was produced as a single by MajorEpic music label and is two minutes and fifty-five seconds long. This song is a metaphor for James Williams’ life and it is about a man who was working and living his life like everyone else when he was led to try heroin for the first time. This caused him to lose his job because he was not going to work. One day when he was going through severe withdrawals, he decided to attack and rob a man, even though he was in clear view of the cops because he wanted more heroin. Suga Boom Boom is like a metaphor for James Williams’
From the Ancient Greek word poieo, meaning “I create”, poetry is, what is said to be, the most linguistic art form known to mankind over the years. Poetry, as the dictionary states, is a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhyme. Poetry has made its mark on modern European languages in its most relative element-rhyme. Although rhyme did not make its way into classic Greek or Latin poetry until the late Middle Ages, along with many other literary devices, such as alliteration, and assonance has made poetry a sound of music to readers. Some say poetry is merely words on a page, but to others, it is an art form, an illustration of someone’s life, someone’s feelings, and an emotion given away through words in hopes that someone else might find serenity.
Although he later denied that he ever said it, Sam Phillips-the man who discovered Elvis Presley-is reputed to have said, “if I could find a white man who had the Negro sound the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars” (Decurtis 78). Certain radio stations would not play the work of black artists in the segregated America of the 1950s. But, nevertheless, rock ‘n’ roll was an art form created by African-Americans. Little Richard, whose songs “Tutti Fruitti” and “Long Tall Sally” became hits only after white-bread versions were made by Pat Boone, said, “It started out as rhythm and blues” (Decurtis 78).
Chuck Berry is one of the founders of rock and roll. He is the only one living today. He has performed for millions of people with his famous “Duck Walk.” He still has what Corliss & Bland describe as a slim, toned body, wavy hair drenched in Valvoline oil, and a sharply cut masculine chin and cheeks etched with pain and promise. Even today he only wants a Lincoln Town Car, his Fender Bassman amp, and his guitar. Chuck Berry has had for decades one of the shortest and most ironclad contracts in the music business (Jacobson 6).
Poetry is a form of writing that is commonly used to express feelings. There are many famous poets, from modern and past times, that are famous for the expression of their feelings through poems. One of the most famous rappers of all time is Tupac Amaru Shakur. Tupac Shakur was not only a Rapper, but also an actor, and a poet. One of his most famous works is “When Ure Heart Turns Cold”. In this poem, he talks about his loss of emotion caused from his experiences. Tupac’s work was very famous in his time because he was a unique poet; He talked about things nobody really spoke about in his time. In his poems and raps, Tupac expressed his thoughts towards police brutality and personal experiences, using figurative language, unique diction, and
Rhythm and blues, also known as R&B, is something that I really enjoy. I am a singer and along with country music, R&B is my favorite thing to sing. With rhythm and blues, there is a song for every emotion, so most of the time the songs can be very relatable. The songs have a variety of subjects like sex, work, and even drinking. In this paper I will briefly discuss how rhythm and blues started, how it evolved into today’s music and why I like it so much.
Poetry is very difficult to interpret because everybody has a different approach, understand, meaning and point of view. My next writer is an African Americans whose poem is” Black Art” by Amiri Baraka “Black Art”. In the poem “ Black Art “, the poem is dedicated to African American to wake up and reverse the situation , by taking control over everything . The author urges the audience to be conscious and unconscious about African-American. Amiri is saying I need to see all the hardworking of the African American not just word but reality, proof, demonstration, and action been taking. In addition, in a poem the author express his anger; frustration to the audience how he feels and the action need take
Poetry is a form of written word which has experience created by sound and meaning. It integrates various elements: Imagery; a figurative language which prompts the reader as well as the listener of the poem to create mental images. Poetic choice of words; this is based on the sound that is, denotation and connotation. Denotation refers to the accurate meaning of the word while connotation refers to the intended meaning of a word. The sound is another element of poetry which about the rhyme; words that sound similar or exactly alike in the poem. It employs metaphor which expresses something new and meaning way by way of comparison on unlike things. The theme as the main element is the purpose of the poem. Poetry is tied as an art because of