Why Can't We Be Friends?
by War

Album: Why Can't We Be Friends? (1975)
Charted: 6
Play Video
  • Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
    Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
    Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
    Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

    La, la, la, la, la, la
    La, la, la, la, la, la

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    I seen you around for a long, long time
    I remembered you when you drank my wine

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    I seen you walking down in Chinatown
    I call you but you could not look around

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    I pay my money to the welfare line
    I see you standing in it every time

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    The color of your skin don't matter to me
    As long as we can live in harmony

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    I'd kinda like to be the president
    So I can show you how your money's spent

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    Sometimes I don't speak right
    But yet I know what I'm talking about

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    I know you're working for the CIA
    They wouldn't have you in the mafia

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    Why can't we be friends?
    I want to be your friend
    Why can't we be friends?
    I want to be your friend

    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?
    Why can't we be friends?

    Why can't we be friends Writer/s: Charles Miller, Gerald Goldstein, Harold Brown, Howard Scott, Lee Levitin, Lonnie Jordan, Morris Dickerson, Thomas Allen
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 7

  • Person from PaTheir name is "War", but they have a song called "Why can't we be friends." Maybe I'm missing something here lol.
  • W from Montreal, QcIt was played in outer space when NASA beamed it to the linking of Soviet cosmonauts and U.S. astronauts for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in July 1975.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 27th 1975, "Why Can't We Be Friends" by War entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #82; and on August 17th it peaked at #6 (for 1 week) and spent 20 weeks on the Top 100...
    It reached #9 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart...
    Between 1971 and 1982 the band had fourteen Top 100 hits; six made the Top 10 and "The Cisco Kid" was their biggest hit, it peaked at #2 (for 2 weeks) on April 22nd, 1973...
    The two weeks that "Cisco Kid" was at #2, the #1 record for both those weeks was "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree" by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando.
  • Joel from Vallejo, CaThis was also used in one of the Lethal Weapon films.
  • Jim from Long Beach, CaMy mother and my aunts wennt to high school with most of them at Long Beach Poly(Long Beach,Calif.). I love War and they continue to this date with two splinter bands, War and another band name that slips my mind...
  • K from Geneva, NyDave Matthews gives a nod to this song on his "Funny the Way it is" from Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King.
  • Drew from Tulsa, OkWhat a great song. While War and this song will always be associated with unity, it's clear from the lyrics that they drew the line somewhere, as if they were to say I want to be your friend, even though you drank my wine but now you don't, even though I called your name but you couldn't acknowledge me, and even though you seem to be on permanent welfare, I'm cutting you a break. Until you join the CIA, that is!
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