Song of the Day 2/10: Kent Nishimura, “25 or 6 to 4”
YouTube has brought some amazing musicians to broader public attention, but I haven’t seen anyone finger-pick a guitar the way this 20-year-old Japanese kid does. Kent Nishimura first came to my attention when I found his version of “Man in the Mirror” a few weeks ago, and I’ve seen several of his other videos since.
They all show off his preternatural skills, but this one is mind-blowing. It’s not only that Nishimura sounds like a one-man band — it’s that he recreates Terry Kath’s searing solos while he’s doing it.
In case you didn’t catch it the first time I posted it, here’s “Man in the Mirror.” Perhaps the most amazing part is that he doesn’t bring things to a swift conclusion — he actually improvises his way through the original song’s minute-long fadeout.
So the USAF shot down a UFO that was…. Eight Miles High.
Amazing technical work! Thanks for the heads up. I’ll have to look up his classical guitar work. Pop songs solo are -meh- to me, even if impressively pulled off.
25 or 6 to 4 is frequently associated with an interminable LSD trip. However Pete Cetera (was it Lamb?) said it’s about writer’s block. Then again, John Lennon said Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (get it?) was based on his son pointing to a picture and saying “it’s Lucy in the Sky”. So, yeah
It’s right there in the lyrics. Their exploitative manager, William James Guercio, demanded double albums from the band (he took 50% of their earnings for many years, leaving the nine band members to split the rest) and they were one tune short. Robert Lamm pulled an all-nighter trying to come up with something.