ADD: It's Not Easy Being White

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 21 Aug 17 - 03:24 PM

Van Morrison covered Kermit, not the other way round

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 17 - 06:28 PM

Joe Williams sang it. Love it !

Subject: Lyr Add: IT AIN'T EASY BEING WHITE (Bowser & Blue)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Feb 14 - 09:18 AM

My transcription from YouTube:


IT AIN'T EASY BEING WHITE
As recorded by Bowser & Blue [George Bowser & Ricky Blue, Canadians], on "Bowser & Blue"

I got ...(?) on my Chevy and my VCR is broke.
My wife is gettin' heavy and my son is doin' coke.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
You know, I ain't even allowed out at night.
It ain't easy bein' white.

I keep on workin' real hard, workin' hard downtown.
I may not get a suntan but my nose is gettin' brown.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
Well I know I'm doin' somethin' right,
But it ain't easy bein' white.

To the black folks I'm a honky; to the French I'm a ...(?) carré.
To my daughter[or "doctor"?] I'm a hemorrhoid that just won't go away.
Someone stole my wallet; I'm allergic to our cat.
I think I'm an alcoholic and I know I'm gettin' fat.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
That's why I'm so tight,
'Cause it ain't easy bein' white.

My complexion's kind o' sickly; sex drives me up the wall.
I either [beep] too quickly or I can't [beep] at all.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
And I know that it ain't right,
But it ain't easy bein' white.

My girlfriend doesn't swallow; I don't believe she can.
I found someone who does, but it's a man!
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
Well, it's kind o' hard to tell late at night,
But it ain't easy bein' white.

[There is another more recent video by the same duo here. This one is a true performance video, not just a soundtrack with an image of the album cover. Well made, too. Same tune, different lyrics:]

I'm of Caucasian ancestry.
A person of power, that's me.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
Squares of the world unite!
It ain't easy bein' white.

Poetry to me is "smooth" and "June."
The godfather of soul was Pat Boone.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
That's why I walk with my buddies tight.
It ain't easy bein' white.

I feel bad when I feel good. Is that the blues? No, it isn't.
What I have is Protestantism.
I feel so inadequate, it's a shame
When my partner has a climax, she calls out her own name.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
That ain't polite,
But it ain't easy bein' white.

I put my member in her hand; she takes it like a joke.
She smiles at me and says, "You know I don't smoke."
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
That ain't right.
It ain't easy bein' white.

With me it's always doggie style whenever I go to bed.
I sit up and beg; she rolls over and plays dead.
It ain't easy bein' white.
It ain't easy bein' white.
And it's the same every night.
And it ain't easy bein' white.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 12 Feb 14 - 06:16 PM

Along similar lines, there's an Eric Bogle song, Short White Blues
and a little bit more distant, his Endangered Species

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: GUEST,Henry Anthony
Date: 12 Feb 14 - 02:31 AM

Played golf with Joe in Maui for the John Wayne Cancer Clinic. The night of the big show Joe sang this and brought the house down.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 10 - 06:56 PM

According to Allmusic.com, The Capitol Steps recorded a song called IT'S NOT EASY BEIN' WHITE on their album "Between Iraq and a Hard Place" (2003). There is a brief spoken introduction, and then it begins:

It's not easy bein' white,
Havin' to spend each day the color of a sheet,
When I think it might be cooler bein' black
An' sayin' stuff like "You go, girlfriend," or hip stuff like "Wassup?"....

The tune makes it clear that it's a parody of BEIN' GREEN, written by Joe Raposo and sung by Kermit the Frog (voiced by Jim Henson), of the Muppets.

Subject: ADD: It's Not Easy Being White
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Nov 10 - 03:59 AM

Hmmmm. BMI says there was a song written by Clifton Nathaniel Chase and Sylvia White titled "It's Not Easy Being White." Can't tell for sure if it's the right song.

I also found a cut on an album titled Joe Williams and Friends, June 1985: I Just Want to Sing. This is indeed the correct song. It's a long one, so it will take a while to transcribe. I'll get to work.


-Joe-

---

IT'S NOT EASY BEING WHITE
(POSSIBLE Songwriters: Clifton Nathaniel Chase and Sylvia White)

Well, somehow nothing seems to be the same,
Sometimes I don't seem to be as cool as I was;
Maybe it's the nature of the biz,
Well, I think I know the trouble, and I will tell you what it is:

It's not easy being white,
It's a struggle just to get your rhythm right;
And these days when gettin' down's the thing to do,
You can sing white 'til you're blue in the face,
And wake up in the morning,
Just to find you've been replaced.
It's not easy being white,
Feels so wrong, it can't be right.

Now, I don't want you thinking I'd complain,
'Cause Lord knows nothing's ever gonna stay the same;
I can take the good things with the bad,
But I have narrowed down the problem, and I think it's kinda sad:

It's not easy being white,
You don't sound good saying words like dyn-o-mite;
And you try to be so hip, the way you dress,
First, you try to be so hip and funky,
Then you over-windup (all will wind up?) with a honky-funky mess.
It's not easy being white,
Feels so wrong, it can't be right.

Well, talkin' all this weird-ness makes me grin,
There's just so many categories that I don't fit in;
One day on my tombstone, they will scrawl,
"Why, he was too tall for a midget and too short for basketball."

It's not easy being white,
They can pick you off too easy in the night.
You can waste your summers lying in the sun,
Still, you don't look like each other,
And you're only called a brother by you mother's other son.
It's not easy being white,
Feels so wrong, it can't be right.

It's not easy being white,
Feels so wrong, it can't be right.
[Yodel]

transcribed from album titled Joe Williams and Friends, June 1985: I Just Want to Sing

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Nov 10 - 10:43 PM

The song kermit sang is one of van morrison's.
the thread is about a different song altgether

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Nov 10 - 02:54 PM

I'm sure I saw Willie Nelson on Sesame Street onetime. Or perhaps it was a version of him, played by a Muppet...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: GUEST,W Alan Hall
Date: 04 Nov 10 - 02:30 PM

It was written by Tommy Dearing from Las Vegas and sang by I thing a duo Bonnie and ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: Jack Campin
Date: 29 Oct 07 - 10:49 AM

Another frog, from Gary Larson:

My baby left my lily pad,
My legs were both deep fried.
I have to eat flies all day and when I die
They'll put me in formaldehyde
I got the greeeeens, I got the greens real bad..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: Midchuck
Date: 29 Oct 07 - 10:46 AM

I never forgave The Muppet Show for not getting Willie Nelson as a guest star.

They could have him set in a tavern full of old pigs with long white beards.

Singing "Yesterday's Swine."

Peter

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 29 Oct 07 - 10:39 AM

Reminds me of the day that the late Dick Rosmini lost his job (in a calypso band)because he wasn't black, and his girlfriend, because he wasn't Jewish. Ah, these poor, discriminated-against majorities.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: It's Not Easy Being White
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 07 - 08:41 AM

Joe Williams did indeed record a song called IT'S NOT EASY BEING WHITE. It's on the album "I Just Wanna Sing," 1985. Authorship is credited to "Bromley/Deering, T[ommy]." I transcribed this from a sound sample:

Well, talkin' all this weirdness makes me grin.
There's just so many categories that I don't fit in.
One day on my tombstone they will scrawl….

Subject: Thanks to Jester, 'IT AIN'T EASY......'
From: Zorro
Date: 09 Jul 98 - 11:23 AM

Thanks to Jester who suggested, "It ain't easy bein' white" was an old Joe Williams song from June 1985. Album title was/is "I just wanna sing..." No where could a find any mention of Kermit the Frog doing any of the vocals or back up... Thanks to all who responded. I knew I wasn't crazy... Zorro

Subject: RE: It's not easy...
From:
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 07:12 AM

you're correct, Z. There is a great tune called "It's not easy being white". I heard it preformed...oooh about 15 years ago by Joe Williams, formerly of Count Basie's band. Hey, isn't he...? Yup, not white. I have the vinyl somewhere, but no turntable. A few of the words I remember:

"...Still you don't look like each other and you're only called a brother by your mother's other son..."

Joe preformed the song with a sort of country/western beat, and yodels on the end of it.

Subject: RE:
From: rosebrook
Date: 02 Jul 98 - 01:15 AM

Seems to me that I remember a version of "It Ain't Easy Bein' Green" performed by Natalie Cole, although I can't find anything to verify this. Anyone? Beuler? Beuler? Anyone??

Subject: RE:
From:
Date: 01 Jul 98 - 08:28 PM

It aint easy being green
You just can't stay on the theme

Murray

Subject: RE:
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 01 Jul 98 - 07:35 PM

Just to stay off topic, Kermit sang "It Isn't Easy Being Green" on Sesame Street at least ten or fifteen years before anyone thought you could make a Muppet movie. The song is by either Joe Raposo or someone else.

Subject: RE:
From: alison
Date: 01 Jul 98 - 07:19 AM

Hi,

The rest of the words were changed too. I just wondered if it was the same tune.

If memory serves me right, it was in "The Muppet Movie", with Kermit sitting on a log in a swamp.

Slainte

Alison

Subject: RE:
From:
Date: 01 Jul 98 - 04:04 AM

It doesn't scan Alison. What can green guys do to the rythm?

Murray

Subject: RE:
From: alison
Date: 01 Jul 98 - 02:32 AM

Hi

didn't Kermit do this one? Only it changed to "It isn't easy being green"??

Slainte

Alison

Subject: Jazz / Blues: It Ain't Easy Bein' White
From: Zorro
Date: 30 Jun 98 - 08:26 PM

Help me find a song, Jazz / Blues... All I remember of the lyrics is: "It ain't easy bein' white.. cause us white guys never get the rhythm right...." Who is it by? What's the name of the song? Anything... Anyone???