One of my favorite songs from my youth is "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" by McFadden and Whitehead. Truthfully, like most other kids, I knew all the lyrics of the song, but never just sat down and thought about what any of it meant. Many, many years later, it happened to hit me that this was about as motivational a song as one could get.

First, here are the lyrics of the song, with some clipping to cut out too much redundancy:

Ain't no stoppin' us now,
We're on the move.(We're on the move)
Ain't no stoppin' us now,
We got the groove.(We got the groove)

There's been so many things that held us down,
But now it looks like things are finally comin' around.
I know we've got a long long way to go,
And where we'll end up I don't know.
But we won't let nothin' hold us back.
We're puttin' our selves together, we're polishin' up our act.
Well, if you've ever been held down before
I know you'd refuse to be held down anymore.

Don't you let nothin' nothin'
stand in your way,
I want y'all to listen listen
to ev'ry word I say, ev'ry word I say.

Ain't no stoppin' us now,
We're on the move.(We're on the move)
Ain't no stoppin' us now,
We got the groove.(We got the groove)

I know you know someone that has a negative vibe,
and if you're trying to make it they only push you aside.
They really don't have, no where to go.
Ask them where they're going, they don't know.
But we won't let nothin' hold us back,
we're gonna put our selves together,
we're gonna polish up our act!
And if you've ever been held down before,
I know you'll refuse to be held down anymore!

Don't you let nothing, nothing,
Stand in your way!
I want ya'll to listen, listen,
to every word I say, every word I say!

Ain't No Stoppin Us Now!
We're on the move!
Ain't No Stoppin Us Now!
We've got the groove!

Yeah, that's it, and they turned that into 3 minutes and 18 seconds for the most part. However, this video, which is a true flashback from Soul Train, is 20 seconds less, and of course they're lip synching. So what; it's the message that counts; the dancing is just for fun: