The Black One - Live from the Belasco Theater, 2008

Who lends the club that speakeasy air?
The black one
The black one
Who dances like a god and has wunderbar hair?
Der Schwarze

Now he's the life of every soiree
He'll give the bum's rush to your ennui
Turn up these lights 'cause I barely can see
The black one

Is he the postmodern lawn jockey sculpture?
The black one
The black one
Or just a soul on a roll
Exploding your culture
That black one

An artist creates surfaces
And then comes the fee
He's doing the same thing
Except I call the surface "me"
He's dancing in a cage
But I'm the one with the key
And he's the black one

He's the real voice of America
And Berlin, listen closely
Speaking as a Negro from There-ica
He was automatically (am I real now?)
An expert on its evils (can he feel now?)
An authority on its crimes (am I real now?)
And he could wax lyrical
His knowledge was almost empirical
Of oppression from the present back to slavery times

Yak-ta-tak-ta ya-ta-ta-ta ya-ta-ta-ta
Who lets us know that we're in the right place?
The black one
The black one
Who's got the Times painted right on his face?
The black one

He's living truth 'cause his life is a dare
In LA he had two left feet
Our Berlin Fred Astaire
He's so down-to-earth when he's moonwalking on air
Just 'cause he's a black one
I'm a ghetto warrior, yowza!

Oh, the LAPD never thought
He was that cute
But now a squad of ice queens are in hot pursuit
I'm super fly in the buttermilk
And we find him sehr gut!
'Cause I'm the black one

I envy you so much
I want to be reincarcerated as a black man
Oh, yeah!