Lyrics to
I Wanna Be Black

This version of I Wanna Be Black was released by Lou Reed in 1978.

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I wanna be black, have natural rhythm
Shoot twenty foot of jism too
and fuck up the jews

I wanna be black, I wanna be a panther
Have a girlfriend named Samantha
and have a stable of foxy whores
Oh, oh, I wanna be black

I don’t wanna be a fucked up
middle class college student anymore
I just wanna have a stable of
foxy little whores
Yeah, yeah, I wanna be black
Oh, oh, I wanna be black
Yeah, yeah, I wanna be black

I wanna be black, wanna be like Martin Luther King
And get myself shot in the spring
And lead a whole generation, too
and fuck up the jews

I wanna be black, I wanna be like Malcolm X
And cast a hex
over President Kennedy’s tomb
and have a big prick, too

Oh, I don’t wanna be a fucked up
middle class college student no more
Yeah, I just wanna have a
stable of foxy little whores

Yeah, yeah, I wanna be black
I wanna be black
I wanna be black
I wanna be black
I wanna be black
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I wanna be black
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I wanna be black
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I wanna be black
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
(Yeah, yeah, I wanna be black, oh, oh)
(Yeah, yeah, I wanna be black, oh, oh)
(Yeah, yeah, I wanna be black, oh, oh)
(Yeah, yeah, I wanna be black, oh, oh)

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Want more lyrics and songs by Lou Reed?

Lou Reed has released many songs over the years besides I Wanna Be Black. Lou Reed released songs from 1972 to 2000 spanning across albums like Transformer, Lou Reed, Berlin, Sally Can't Dance, Rock 'n' Roll Animal, Coney Island Baby, Rock And Roll Heart, Street Hassle, The Bells, Growing Up In Public, The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts, New Sensations, Mistrial, New York, Magic And Loss, Set The Twilight Reeling, and Ecstasy. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Lou Reed.

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About Lyrics and I Wanna Be Black by Lou Reed

When you decide to study the lyrics to I Wanna Be Black, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1978 song by Lou Reed. Some of the lyrics to I Wanna Be Black have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Lou Reed and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to I Wanna Be Black if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to I Wanna Be Black" means the words set to the music of I Wanna Be Black, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Lou Reed. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to I Wanna Be Black and the lyrics to I Wanna Be Black are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Lou Reed who came here looking just for the lyrics to I Wanna Be Black, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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