Becoming a dad and having children is a heavy, life altering responsibility. It’s loads of fun, but does require planning and advance thought. When my wife and I were thinking about having a baby she asked me for a motivational song to help us get pumped about the pending parenthood.
“How about Wait, by White Lion”, I said without missing a beat.
“Wait, I thought you wanted to have a child. What kind of a motivational song is that for us having a baby?” said the better half.
In my mind I knew the lyrics to the classic White Lion song. It’s about love, hope and has a great 80’s soft metal vibe with a couple really hot metal babes dancing around. With hair metal bands, the line between video babes and spandex dudes was a thin, but I’m pretty sure this video had both.
Alas, my mind had started to wander and I could tell that “Wait” wasn’t going to be the song that pushed our possible progeny forward. In the theater of my mind I was desperately grasping for other metal songs that could be a nice motivational soundtrack.
“What about something from Metallica?” I proposed.
“Sure what song”, she asked.
As I was put on the spot and I knew that “the one with the great bass solo” would’ve been totally unacceptable, so I submitted to her and said, “Yeah, that wouldn’t work out”.
“What about ‘Jump’ from Van Halen”, she suggested. Bless her heart. I do like some Van Halen, but to have arguably the wussiest song from them as our family catalyst would not be acceptable.
Internally I was trolling my strip club DJ playlist to see if there was something by Slaughter, Skid Row or Journey that could inspire us and get me out of this jam. I was coming up with lots of songs, but nothing that I could quote the words to that would convince my wife that this should be our family song.
I did have an 80’s flashback and almost suggested Sly Fox, Let’s go all the Way. Thankfully the sentinels at my vocal cord gates didn’t let those words form to that insane idea. Additionally, if the lasting memory of our future family was going to be a novelty song I had always insisted that it would be Dance the Kung Fu.
So now I’m a stay at home dad and by default our family was partially planned by White Lion. While they may not take the credit for it and I may have misinterpreted their lyrics; I still love their slick guitar riffs and concept videos.
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
GooglePlus
Youtube
So Carl Douglas is up there with Chubby Checker by milking a concept with another song, eh? I might like Dance the Kung Fu better than Kung Fu Fighting.
Ever since I saw the movie “School Of Rock” with Jack Black, I’ve been partial to “It’s A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock N’ Roll.” That might have to be the Waldrep theme song. It’s about hard work, paying your dues while rocking hard to a guy playing a killer guitar in his knickers. Gotta love it!
Dance the Kung Fu is certainly a rip off of his other hit, but it’s great, groovy and very dancy. AC/DC does most things well, but those bagpipes in ‘long way’ do get on my nerves just a bit. Pay those dues Waldrep, I know you did.