James “Iron Head” Baker and a group of fellow prisoners from a Texas prison - Black Betty
Leadbelly’s version was recorded in 1939. However, this is the first recorded version of this song, recorded by the well known folklorists John and Alan Lomax in 1933. The song itself is most probably even older than that.
Forgive me, I don’t want to nitpick, but this version of the song turned up in my YouTube recommendations a few days before these posts. I came to think of it, and found it to be a funny coincidence. I guess I passed by Ram Jam’s version some time ago. Never hurts with a little music history though.
Speaking of music history, in 1933 John and Alan Lomax also visited a prison in Louisiana, and recorded some songs by a certain Huddie William Ledbetter. The rest is…history
Yes, I really like lots of songs from that era. They had a certain charm to them. And for a while Ricky Nelson was one of the heart-throbs back in those days.
