Loved that drum solo ever since I was a kid.
And, always puzzled about the phrase - what the heck was "6 to 4"?
Then after a mere 30 years or so of contemplating it, I realized...
oh.
According to songfacts, the songwriter wrote this song from the point of view of another songwriter trying to write a hit. Its about being up late writing lyrics and “waiting on the break of day.”
For the numbers, it means the time it was written was either 3:35 or 3:34 am, which would be either 25 or 26 minutes to 4 am.