“Comfortably Numb” is over 40-years-old. This guitarist shows why so many people still love the iconic song.
When most people hear the words “Pink Floyd,” a few things immediately spring to mind.
For example, their amazing albums Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall are world-famous. And then there are their hit songs, like “Another Brick in the Wall” (which is probably better known by its lyric “We don’t need no education,”) and “Comfortably Numb.”
“Comfortably Numb” was first released on the album The Wall in 1979. In 1980, a shorter version of the song was released as a single, which gave the tune a much wider audience.
All these decades later, people are still listening to and enjoying the song. One YouTube guitarist has reinterpreted the song and made a whole new generation fall in love with it!
The original single is very much a product of its time.
It’s a British prog-rock gem, with elements of glam. And of course, to tie it all up, it has a psychedelic echo.
The YouTube guitarist’s version is significantly simpler.
It’s just the guitar solo played on an acoustic guitar. But sometimes, paring back a song can really make people appreciate it in a whole new way.
That’s certainly the case here. Thanks to the video of the guitarist playing the song, it’s possible to see just how many chord changes the solo needs. It sounds easy on the ears. But performing the song is complex!
The musician’s performance of the solo has gone viral.
In fact, to date, it has gained over 7.6 million views. It also has more than 145,000 likes and 3,900 comments. People have been saying things like this:
So who is this talented guitarist who is making people appreciate classic rock?
His name is Juha Jarvinen. And his YouTube channel is called Acoustician. His “Comfortably Numb” cover isn’t even his most successful upload.
His most successful video is a cover of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns ‘N Roses.
This video dwarfs the reach of the “Comfortably Numb” video, with over 17.1 million views.
His YouTube channel also features acoustic covers of songs by Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Queen and more. And they’re all well worth watching and listening to!
Juha Jarvinen is Finnish. Right now, he has posted only cover songs to his YouTube channel.
But hopefully, in the future, he will upload some of his own work. After all, pretty much every great musician started out by learning and reinterpreting the music of those they admired. That’s true of Pink Floyd. When they first started out, they played covers of the band The Searchers before developing their own sound.
So who knows, perhaps Jarvinen’s covers are the start of a whole new musical revolution?
That may sound overblown. But who could have guessed that a college covers band in the early 60s would go on to sell millions of records and influence a whole new generation of musicians, as Pink Floyd did?
Press play below to enjoy his amazing cover of “Comfortably Numb!”
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