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I Believe I Can Fly
Category: Folk Rhyme
Source: Azizi Powell Collection {Pittsburgh, PA, 1999, 2000; elementary
school age African American girls & boys in various neighborhoods}
I believe I can fly.
I’m being chased by the FBI.
It’s all because of those collard greens
that I ate with the (those) chicken wings.
I believe I can soar
See me running through that open door.
I believe I can fly.
I believe I can fly.
This is a parody of R. Kelly’s R&B hit song “I
Believe I Can Fly”.
A “parody” is a song that changes some of the words of another
song just for fun. I
collected this rhyme in 1999 & 2000 from various Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh area neighborhoods. I never saw anyone add any
hand clapping, foot stomping, dancing or other body motions to this song.
It was just sung for fun.
This parody of “I Believe I Can Fly” was so widely known among African
American children in the Pittsburgh area that I wondered if someone had
heard a published song like it over the radio or on television.
Was this how it spread around the city?
Or did some one hear a community person’s witty version of this
song, and they took it up and it spread all over from there?
Do people in your area know this song?
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