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"Black Betty" (Roud 11668) is a 20th-century African-American work song often credited to Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter as the author, though the earliest recordings are not by him. Some sources claim it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations of earlier folk material;〔''The Life and Legend of Leadbelly'' by Charles Wolf and Kip Lornell, Published by Harper Collins, NY, 1992〕 in this case an 18th-century marching cadence about a flintlock musket. There are numerous recorded versions, including a cappella, folk, and rock arrangements. The best known modern recordings are rock versions by Ram Jam, Tom Jones, and Spiderbait, all of which were hits. ==Meaning and origin== The origin and meaning of the lyrics are subject to debate. Historically the "Black Betty" of the title may refer to the nickname given to a number of objects: a musket, a bottle of whisky, a whip, or a penitentiary transfer wagon. 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. Soldiers in the field were said to be "hugging Black Betty". In this interpretation, the musket was superseded by its "child", a musket with an unpainted walnut stock known as a "Brown Bess".〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.cvco.org/sigs/reg64/bess.html )〕 Other sources give the meaning of "Black Betty" in the United States (from at least 1827) as a liquor bottle.〔Thorton, ''An American Glossary'', p. 66: "Black Betty. A spirit-bottle. Obs. The N.E.D. has Betty, 1725. They became enamored of blue ruin itself. The hug the '' "black Betty," '' that contains it, to their bosoms.—''Mass. Spy,'' Oct. 31 (): from the ''Berkshire American.''"〕〔Collins, ''Historical Sketches of Kentucky'', p. 163: "Pretty late in the night some one would remind the company that the new couple must stand in need of some refreshment; Black Betty, which was the name of the bottle, was called for and sent up the ladder."〕 In January 1736, Benjamin Franklin published The Drinker's Dictionary in the ''Pennsylvania Gazette'' offering 228 round-about phrases for being drunk. One of those phrases is "He's kiss'd black Betty."〔(From the Writings of Benjamin Franklin in the ''Pennsylvania Gazette'' 1736 - 1737 )〕 If Black Betty is referring to a musket, it is likely the child to which the song refers is a musket ball: "that child is wild" meaning the ball did not always go where it should. "The child is blind" meaning it did not care who it hit friend or foe, "Black betty don't care" meaning the musket also does not care who is killed by its child, "that child ain't mine" meaning that the shooter cannot be held responsible for the work of the bullet. This is supported by multiple descriptions of the use of the musket in the battlefield. During the Napoleonic/Russian campaign 1/4 of all French casualties were caused by the rear ranks shooting their own front ranks. The line "she's from Birmingham" also fits as the place where muskets were manufactured. "Black Betty" used as an expression for a liquor bottle may ultimately owe its origin to the famous pretty black barmaid who worked at the notorious Tom King's Coffee House in Covent Garden, London, which opened in 1720. In ''Caldwells's Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Washington Co. Pennsylvania of 1876'', a short section describes wedding ceremonies and marriage customs, including a wedding tradition where two young men from the bridegroom procession were challenged to run for a bottle of whiskey. This challenge was usually given when the bridegroom party was about a mile from the destination-home where the ceremony was to be had. Upon securing the prize, referred to as "Black Betty", the winner of the race would bring the bottle back to the bridegroom and his party. The whiskey was offered to the bridegroom first and then successively to each of the groom's friends.〔''Caldwells's Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Washington Co. Pennsylvania of 1876'', p. 12.〕 David Hackett Fischer, in his book ''Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America'' (Oxford University Press, 1989), states that "Black Betty" was a common term for a bottle of whisky in the borderlands of northern England/southern Scotland, and later in the backcountry areas of the eastern United States. In 1934, John A. and Alan Lomax in their book, ''American Ballads and Folk Songs'' described the origins of "Black Betty": 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. 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".〔Lomax, John. "'Sinful Songs' of the Southern Negro," ''The Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 20, Issue 2. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934) 177-87, quoted in William G. Roy, ''Reds, Whites, and Blues: Social Movements, Folk Music, and Race in the United States.'' (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010) 110-1.〕 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."〔Cornelius, Steven. ''Music of the Civil War Era.'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004) 216.〕 In an interview〔see ''The Land Where the Blues Began'', 1st Edition, Alan Lomax, Pantheon Books, 1993〕 conducted by Alan Lomax with a former prisoner of the Texas penal farm named Doc Reese (aka "Big Head"), Reese stated that the term "Black Betty" was used by prisoners to refer to the "Black Maria" — the penitentiary transfer wagon. Robert Vells, in ''Life Flows On in Endless Song: Folk Songs and American History'', writes: In later versions, "Black Betty" was depicted as various vehicles, including a motorcycle and a hot rod. Black Betty is the slang name given to the Queen of Spades in the card game Hearts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black Betty」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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