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Kofi Mensah

The Red Guitar

Plays his father's guitar and says the songs were already inside it

style

  • highlife
  • palm wine guitar
  • horn section
  • gentle percussion
  • male tenor
  • warm and wise
  • vintage west african production
  • uplifting
  • west african accent
  • vintage west african horn section

the numbers

bpm
129
key
C major
energy
0.73
dance
0.90
valence
0.45
vocal at
5.8s
length
3:33
language
En

lyrics

(instrumental, warm)

My son bought the red one with his own money, all of it
Electric, shiny, a cable thick as my thumb
He played it very loud and very badly for a month
(for a month)
And I said nothing, which was the hardest thing I have done

My father said nothing to me either (nothing to me)
For a whole year. I understand him now. Finally.

The red guitar
(the red one)
He has to break it himself, that is the lesson
The red guitar
Nobody ever learned patience from being told

In month two he asked me about the fifth string
One question. Small. He looked at the floor when he asked it.
I answered it and did not add one extra word
(one extra word)
That restraint took forty years to acquire and it worked

(solo palm wine guitar, 8 bars)
He came into the room. He sat down. He listened.
Month three. He is asking now. Slow money.
(HORNS RETURN, WARM)

The red guitar
(the red one)
He has to break it himself, that is the lesson
The red guitar
Nobody ever learned patience from being told

(slow money...)