Syl Johnson - Is It Because Im Black

      Is It Because I'm Black

Syl Johnson

Only two chords but SO MUCH SOUL


Abm                                                              
The dark brown shades of my skin only add colour to my tears
       Dbm                                                    Abm  
Ooooooh    That splash against my hollow bones, that rocks my soul

Looking back over my false dreams, that I once knew

Wondering why my dreams never came true
Dbm
Is it because I'm black?
                             Abm
Somebody tell me, what can I do Oh Lord
Dbm
Something is holding me back
                  Abm
Is it because I'm black?

In this world of no pity

I was raised in the ghetto of the city
Dbm
Momma, she works so hard

To earn every penny

Something is holding me back
                  Abm
Is it because I'm black?

SOLO (same chords)

Abm
Like a child stealing candy for the first time, and got caught

Thiefing around life's corner somewhere I got lost
Dbm
Something is holding me back ahaaaaaaaaa
                            Abm
I wonder, is it because I'm black?
                            
Somebody tell me what can I do

Will I survive, or will I die?

            Dbm
You keep on holding me back

You keep on holding on

You keep on picking on me

You keep on holding me back

You keep on holding on

You keep on holding on
                  Abm (Abm until the end!!!)
You're holding me back

I wonder why, you do me like that

But you keep on holding me back

You keep on putting your foot on me

But I, I've got to break away

Somehow and someday

Cause I wanna be somebody so bad, so bad

I wanna be somebody, I wanna be somebody so bad

You see, I want diamond rings and things, like you do

And I wanna drive Cadillac cars

I wanna be somebody so bad

But you keep on putting your foot on me

And I, I believe, I believe I can break away

And be somebody, somehow, and someway

Ya see, I heard somebody say one time

You can make it, if you try

And some of us, we tried so hard, we tried so hard

I want you to know that I don't speak for myself

But I speak for y'all too right now

Ya see, if you have white-like brown skin and a high yeller

You're still black

So we all got to stick together right now

This I wanna say to you my sisters and my brothers

Right on sister

Right on brother

Dig this:

And we keep on pushing down

We've got to make it a little bit further

We've got to make it a little further

All we got to do is try, try, try

And some of us, we've tried so hard

We've tried so hard, we've tried so hard

We've tried so hard, so hard to be somebody

We've tried so hard, although, they're holding us back

And it stairs the reason, that they're doing us like that

You know what? It is

I believe, it is because we are black

But hey, we can't stop now, we can't stop now

We've got to keep on, keep on, keep on, keeping on

We've got to keep on keeping on

I know and I know and I know that you know that I know it ain't right

Oh, it ain't right, it ain't right, it ain't right

That they hold us, hold us, hold us back

They're holding us back, they're holding us back

I wonder, sometimes I sit down, sit down and I wonder