Why Can't We Be Friends

The band got the idea for this song when they were traveling in Japan in the early '70s. War drummer Harold Brown told Songfacts: "We're all connected by language, and by our food, and by our culture. Most racists don't know why they're racist. But you pick them up and take them over and drop them in a country, like India or Pakistan, guess what? 'Why can't we be friends?' Because all of a sudden you find out we're more alike inside than we are on the outside. We started realizing that that's really important. You travel all over the world, you can't speak a lot of their language. But one thing they do know, they know your body language, how you may react."

Each verse was sung by a different member of the band, with Brown singing the first. The line, "I may not speak right, but I know what I'm talking about," is harmonica player Lee Oskar, who is from Denmark and was just learning how to speak English.

This song makes a statement about the absurdity of judging others based on our differences. War started out in the early '60s as a black band called The Creators, and they managed to break down barriers, becoming the first black band to be booked on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. As they evolved into War and went through member changes over the years, the band integrated, often playing with white musicians like Eric Burdon, who was their lead singer for two albums. Harold Brown explains his philosophy: "I like exemplary people around me. I don't judge you by your name, your color, or your money. I judge you by whether or not you're an exemplary person. Because if I know you're an exemplary person, and I want you to move this equipment from here to there, or you're building a house or you're shining shoes or stuff, then I know you're gonna do it the best you know how. That's the bottom line. See, that's where people keep falling off of America here, because we get inferior people in positions they have no business being in."