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One man band rock6/15/2023 ![]() But he didn’t like depending on other people, so in the ’70s he began to form his own band. One night, the owner invited Nakane to sing in the dining room, and soon he was singing professionally and putting together bands. But after immigration and educational troubles, he ended up in L.A. ![]() That’s the more interesting one.Ī half century ago, Nakane was sent from Japan to Canada by his dad to attend college. I just work at it.” But in the second version, he recounted his American journey as a series of accidents and failures. The first was a pure work-hard-and-you-can do-anything American story. He is full of jokes and always chats up children in the audience.įor years, Arthur has told me his story in two versions. He plays thousands of songs, mostly American rock ’n’ roll standards, in English that carries the accent of his native Kyoto. Sitting in a contraption of his own design, Arthur plays bass with his feet and harmonica with his mouth, shakes a tambourine attached to his mic stand, operates a drum machine (his only automatic instrument) and a tape recorder (with his right foot, so he can do a vocal duet), and bangs two cymbals, chimes, and keyboard with sticks attached to the electric guitar he carries on his shoulder. He’s Arthur Nakane, he’s 76, and if you’re a Southern Californian who enjoys the region’s public spaces, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered him-maybe on Santa Monica’s pier or Third Street Promenade, maybe in the plaza in L.A.’s Little Tokyo. So does that mean that each of us has to be a One-Man Band?įortunately, there’s a Californian who has been reckoning with this fundamental question more deeply and intimately than any of us. ![]() For better and for worse, today’s America leaves its citizens to fend for themselves.
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