Black Berries

(album: The Brothers: Isley - 1969)

You know my brothers and I was raised in Cincinnati
Cincinnati Ohio
And I remember when we were kids we used to walk to the woods
And go black berry picking
Swinging our baskets on our arms
Skipping down the road, you know
And Kelly used to have an expression, you used to say back then
We made a song out of that expression
I remember the words of it
It used to go a little like this

The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice
He said these words
The blacker the berry he said the sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry sweeter the juice

You know he digged black berries so much
And everywhere he would go he would use that as his excuse you know
Staying out late at night
And my brother Rudolph he used to like strawberries, if I remember correctly, at the time
And at the time my thing was wild cherries
I remember the three of us used to steal tomatoes
And lay on the ground and peel all kind of ice potatoes [?]

Saying
The blacker the berry
The sweeter the juice
Alright
Lord have mercy

Yeah, yeah
We used to strip down bananas
And throw the peelings away at the same time in the street, you know
And when it got hot we just drank all the lemonade we could get
Til we knocked ourselves clean off our feet
And we walked along
Singing the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice
Come on y'all
Black berry
The sweeter the juice
Help me sing this song
Black berries
The sweeter, the sweet the juice
Now how would you look eating a green berry, you know
What's the use
Swing you basket on your arm
Sing it sing it sing this song
The blacker the berry
The blacker the berry
Yeah yeah
The sweeter the juice
I like black berries
And everywhere I go, that's my excuse
I can still hear them singing the song
If you listen hard enough you'll hear
The sweeter the juice
The blacker the berry
Blacker the berry

I like black berries
That's my excuse

Black black black
Sweeter the juice
Sing it one more time
Little baby
The sweeter the juice

I like black berries
I like black berries
That's my excuse

Sing, sing sing the song
Blacker the berry
Sweeter the juice
Blacker the berries
Sweeter the juice

I like black berries
I like black berries
That's my excuse

We would wander along
Sing sing sing the song

I like black berries
I like black berries
That's my excuse