A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum => Topic started by: knopflerized on September 17, 2016, 11:17:50 AM
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Hi there,
I am trying to figure out what Mark means by : the right like "Betty Bamalam?"
I did some searches "Betty Bamalam" is no one... actually....
The only thing I find is the "Black Betty" songs that says : Whoa Back Betty Bamalam
Anyone could explain please?
Cheers
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I found this explanation about the song "Black Betty" on Wikipedia:
"Some sources claim the song is derived from an 18th-century marching cadence about a flint-lock musket with a black painted stock; the "bam-ba-lam" lyric referring to the sound of the gunfire."
I also found this article about "Sonny Liston". It doesn't explain Betty Bamalam, but it's an interview with MK that I'd not seen before. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/sports/othersports/for-sonny-liston-a-ballad-to-a-heavyweight.html
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Hi , knopflerized and Lestroid. If you continue to look at the Wiki article, there was another possible definition which might also play in here.
"In 1934, John A. and Alan Lomax in their book, American Ballads and Folk Songs described the origins of "Black Betty":
"Black Betty is not another Frankie, nor yet a two-timing woman that a man can moan his blues about. She is the whip that was and is used in some Southern prisons. A convict on the Darrington State Farm in Texas, where, by the way, whipping has been practically discontinued, laughed at Black Betty and mimicked her conversation in the following song." (In the text, the music notation and lyrics follow.)[8]
John Lomax also interviewed blues musician James Baker (better known as "Iron Head") in 1934, almost one year after recording Iron Head performing the first known recording of the song.[9] In the resulting article for Musical Quarterly, titled "'Sinful Songs' of the Southern Negro", Lomax again mentions the nickname of the bullwhip is "Black Betty".[10] Steven Cornelius in his book, Music of the Civil War Era, states in a section concerning folk music following the war's end that "prisoners sang of 'Black Betty', the driver's whip."[11]"
What I have always thought was that that whip probably snapped very fast and viciously - bamalam when it landed. From all reports, Sonny's fist was also very fast and could do vicious damage when it landed!
Anyway, that is my take on the matter. And thanks, Lestroid, for the link to the interview. I also had not seen it previously.
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Thanks Suprlinda!
I had skimmed the Wikipedia article, but until you highlighted the part about the whip I didn't really think about it. The idea that "Black Betty Bamalam" represents the crack of a slave driver's whip fits in perfectly with the line "Scars on his back like slavery tracks." It ties together Sonny Liston's past of being whipped by his father with his power and speed in the boxing ring. It is also a reference to the song "Black Betty" which was recorded by the great blues musician Lead Belly in 1939.