I don’t actually care if you’ve seen either or both of these videos before – they deserve another look if you have, and if you haven’t, I’m pleased to introduce you to them.
Okay, the chances are fairly good that you’d already heard that one; I’ve known about it for a few years and I don’t even do the social media horseshit thing. It’s a duo (Stjepan Hauser and Luka Šulić) known as 2Cellos, and they’ve been doing rock and pop covers on cellos for most of their career – it’s probably safe to say it is their career.
But then there’s this one:
The artist’s name is Moyun, and I can’t tell you much about her except that the instrument is a guzheng, a type of 21-string Chinese zither and, according to my source, she always appears with her face covered – her official YouTube channel is here.
A small thing that I noticed: The handle that she uses at the beginning is simply a tuning wrench, and she’s re-tuning a particular string to get the tremolo down, solely because her other hand is so busy – you can see later on that she accomplishes the same thing with her left hand.
What’s impressive about both videos is that, not only do they play the notes provided by the lyrics in the original song (which, I guess I should say, is ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC,) they also play the parts of several instruments: lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass (guitar,) and drums – that’s outstanding. Moyun also taps out a rhythm with the fingerpicks on the outside of the sound board.
Of course, the above artists chose this particular song because ‘Thunderstruck’ is both recognizable and iconic. It’s been said that AC/DC has been “playing the same song” for years – at least, most of their lineup is instantly recognizable as theirs – but everything came together extremely well for this track, and while Brian Johnson has a voice that sounds like someone doing a bad impression of Gonzo from The Muppet Show, he knows exactly how to use it to best effect. The lyrics, while not terribly poetic, nonetheless form a distinctive melody that’s just as much a riff as Angus Young’s lead guitar, necessitating their use in the above instrumental covers – it’s not ‘Thunderstruck’ without being able to hear, “Broke all the rules, played all the fools,” in there.
Now I need to look up if ‘Thunderstruck’ has been covered more times than ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ by The Rolling Stones…