Is It Because I'm 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