Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting

In the tempestuous late ’60s and ’70s America, socially-conscious youth sought in lyrics of the most popular musicians like the Beatles and Bob Dylan a philosphical roadmap for how to navigate such troubling times. When disco emerged in the mid-’70s, one of the critics’ primarily compaints about the genre is that its lyrics were completely devoid of philosophical or political import. The 1974 hit “Kung Fu Fighting,” sung by Carl Douglas, provided a kind of roadmap for the burgeoning genre–a catchy song with a great beat that’s not so heavy on lyrical meaning. Let’s meet disco as much of Europe did–with performances “Kung Fu Fighting,” such as the one in this video, in West Germany.

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