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Street Fighting Man

Another weapon in the arsenal  for any parent is the power of song. A soothing voice that when combined with your well established Rock is a very effective tool to get your child to go to sleep. For weeks now I have been singing Noah to sleep almost every night; the melody may change with each rendition and the words are almost always made up more or less spontaneously, usually describing how tired he is but often it can be about anything; what I've done today, what colour his sleepsuit is, how desperate I am for the toilet and so forth. I figured it wasn't important, its not like he can understand me anyway is it? So I've sung nursery rhymes, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones and other great classic ballads, even the song my parents used to sing to me which I demanded every night for years and sometimes on loop (The Cuckoo by Pentangle if you're interested). But for Noah, nothing works quite as well as Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas.

Of course sometimes nothing works and you are in for a very long night indeed.



"Kung Fu Fighting"

Oh-hoh-hoh-hoah
Oh-hoh-hoh-hoah
Oh-hoh-hoh-hoah
Oh-hoh-hoh-hoah

There was funky China men from funky Chinatown
They were chopping them up
They were chopping them down
It's an ancient Chinese art
And everybody knew their part
From a fainting, to a slip
And a kickin' from the hip

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting
Those kids were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit fright'ning
But they fought with expert timing

There was funky Billie Chin and little Sammy Chong
He said, here comes the big boss, let's get it on
We took the bow and made a stand
Started swaying with the hand
A sudden motion made me skip
Now we're into a brand new trip

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting
Those kids were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit fright'ning
But they did it with expert timing

Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh, ha
Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh, ha
Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh-ha
Keep on, keep on, keep on
Sure enough
Everybody was Kung Fu fighting
Those kids were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit fright'ning
Make sure you have expert timing
Kung Fu fighting, had to be fast as lightning...

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