Adrian Belew

Like many virtuoso musicians, Adrian Belew is not just bored easily, he reacts against an imposition (e.g. working in a band) by creating music that's diametrically opposed to his day job. While that's good for a musician, as a fan, it creates some frustration in that his SOLO albums are experiments...and not just in one direction, sometimes in several.

Mind you, looking at his SOLO work, there's no doubt that Belew:

• plays a mean...make that really mean guitar
• increasingly became a superb one-man-band (1995's Here is exquisite) &
• writes very good, sometimes brilliant songs

Lone Rhino

Lone Rhino, Belew's first SOLO effort was quirky and original, yielding several good...but one great, song. It has now been packaged with his second SOLO album, Twang Bar King, a far more confident effort with a goofy sense of humor. 

Young Lions

There's an incredible difference between Young Lions & the previous album, Mr. Music Head...with Belew powering out of the speakers with confidence and swagger. Having David Bowie on lead vocals for two tracks didn't hurt, either and the seldom heard Young Lions is well worth having.

There are also a couple of tracks, Men In Helicopters & Looking For A UFO, which some consider preachy, ideas that would be continued in Inner Revolution & Here. Let's get one thing straight: Belew's position is left-wing liberal/humanist...and to be fair, opposing Ecology is increasingly, downright stupidity!      

Inner Revolution

Belew's marriage had been in trouble for a very long time...and when it finally broke, it gave him the emotional core to creat a truly wonderful, powerful piece of work. Inner Revolution is a real winner...and with its follow-up, Here, what I consider to be the two greatest albums that The Beatles never made. 

Here

If Inner Revolution was Rock'n'Roll, Here is Pop, exquisite pop:

• Passionate songs
• Love buried
• Love found
• introducing Adrian Belew's cello playing...

...it's all here. Simply wonderful.

Op Zop Too Wah

Undoing the finesse of  Inner Revolution & Here, Op Zop Too Wah is greatly loved by many hardcore Belew fans...but I'm not really convinced. It's a dream-like, psychedelic series of tracks, half-tracks, meanderings, sound doodles & beat poems. Unfortunately, it mostly sounds sloppy to me. 

If you really want to see this approach succeed, try Todd Rundgren's 1973 album, A Wizard, A True Star. However, because so many Belew fans like it, you may want to pay it a bit more attention than I suggest it warrants.

Acoustic Belew

Adrian has released:

• one acoustic album
• one mostly acoustic album &
• a compilation with extras

Whew!

The Guitar As Orchestra:

Experimental Guitar Series, Vol. 1

And so Mr. Belew presented a number of film soundtrack-like pieces to see what strange noises the guitar could make. I can only suggest that you listen to the snippets at Amazon...and see whether you like them.

Here's an entry from Adrian's Elephant Blog with a chance to purchasing an unreleased track from the sessions directly from him.

Coming Attractions

Released as the fore-runner for a 4-CD Anthology-like retrospective, Dust, (which never appeared), Coming Attractions was mean to be a teaser of what was to come. 

• a new pop song, Inner Man
• an interesting re-recording of The Man In The Moon from Lone Rhino
• a demo?/re-recording House  Of Cards from Mr. Music Head
• a demo?/re-recording of Bird In A Box from Mr. Music Head
• a LIVE recording of Inner Revolution from Inner Revolution 
• a LIVE recording of Time Waits from Op Zop Too Wah
• an instrumental, No Such Guitar
• a King Crimson-like instrumental, Predator Beast
• a demo of People from King Crimson's Thrak
• Animal Kingdom from a planned experimental guitar album, 12 minutes of rainforest noises, animal calls, tribal beats, made mostly via Belew's guitar 
• 117 Valley Drive a new song from his band The Bears 

Coming Attractions is an impossible album to review, it's that diverse. I can only suggest listening to Amazon snippets and see if anything takes your fancy.

It looks like Dust won't ever be appearing as an anthology...though bits and pieces are, as Dust Particles, available from Adrian's site

New Releases

I have yet to hear the latest  releases from Mr. Belew. They are...

• Side 1 King Crimson-like power trio
• Side 2 electronic and avant-garde experiments 
• Side 3 previously released songs reworked &
• Side 4 (coming soon) a LIVE album by The Adrian Belew power trio  

Extras

• Zappa 1...Adrian's band before Zappa, Sweetheart
• Zappa 2...detailed interview about joining Frank's band
• Zappa 3...meeting Ringo Starr
• Talking Heads...the truth behind the rumors that he was asked to join the band
• King Crimson...meeting Robert Fripp + Fripp flashes his willy at Adrian
• Adrian describes his work-from-home set-up 

Commercials:

Interview snippet from  Inner Views 1992 Q:     You've done some television ads for a company in Japan called Daikin. What did you make of the experience? A.B.:   The commercials don't tout a product as such. It's very different. They do a profile about me. In other words, the commercial is about me and at the end it says: I'm always unique, like Daikin is. That's it. I don't have any problems with it from an artistic view. It's not an artistic thing, it's a commercial thing...a thing you do for money and I enjoy it a lot. In the United States, it's frowned upon for an artist to do commercials. It's not looked at as artistic enough. But in Japan, people do commercials there who wouldn't do commercials here because they have a different outlook on it. The commercials are very short and often they're the best things on television. [laughs] People like Robert De Niro and David Bowie have done commercials there who wouldn't do them in the States. I was told that it's one of the only ways for a non-Japanese person to achieve stardom in Japan because they don't play the music on the radio. You can't go through the normal channels. So, the best way to be popular is to do these television commercials. A lot of people do them for that reason. I did them because it was an attractive idea and because the money was good. I really enjoyed it. It was like making a rock video. I liked the end result. I wish they'd show it here. It's a great little profile of me.   Daikin Commercial 1  impersonating rooster, cat & elephant   Daikin Commercial 2  impersonating monkey & seagull    Daikin Commercial 3   impersonating an orchestra

see also:

• wikipedia: Adrian Belew