C/D: Adrian Belew

Moving this here from the Van Halen thread:

...Buckingham is similarly self-taught and doesn't know much if any musical theory, but his playing is impeccable and original. And yet still rarely if ever part of anyone else's projects but his own, because that is really not his thing. He's Lindsey fucking Buckingham and he is one of a kind, just as EVH was one of a kind on an even bigger, more influential scale. (I'd cite someone like Adrian Belew as the cultier equivalent.)

Belew seems v different from this, unless I'm misunderstanding? He has an original style but his career was built on playing on other people's projects. You don't play in Zappa's band and just play whatever you want. Whatever theory he might have lacked he would have surely picked up there.
xpost It's a digression, but I don't know about that. There are a few dudes who played in Zappa's band who famously couldn't read music or not well but did the best they could, which was still pretty great, like I want to say a freak like Bozzio. Anyway, I guess my broader point is that Adrian Belew sounds like no one else and plays like no one else, and even when he's playing in other people's projects he is doing his expected idiosyncratic Belew stuff, and otherwise (in Talking Heads and Bowie) often with another guitarist handling the "normal" stuff. Belew is not someone I would just drop into any band, any band he is in has to make room for his presence, because he really doesn't do anything other than that. I've mentioned before some (filmed) interview with Belew where the interviewer keeps pressing him on his influences, and eventually pries out Hendrix (which is who Fripp typically cites as well). And then the interviewer, as I remember it, keeps trying to get an example of how Hendrix influenced Belew's playing, and eventually, with incredible reluctance, Belew plays a quick Hendrix lick, and I remember thinking, huh, that might be the only time I've heard him play anything other than his own stuff. I don't like Zappa, but I could have sworn I've seen a clip or two of Belew in his band (wearing a dress?) and it definitely seemed like Belew still kinda being Belew.

― Josh in Chicago, mercredi 7 octobre 2020 09:40 (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

So this is an interesting question to me. From what I've read, Belew didn't read music and Zappa just told him to learn his parts quickly with whatever method he could, which I would still regard as an equivalent level of comprehension/transcription if he was able to do it (which he was). There were moments when he got to do his thing but aiui he mostly played rhythm guitar on the Sheik Yerbouti/Baby Snakes era stuff, sometimes doubling Zappa's leads as well? Even his vocals on stuff like "Jones Crusher" sound more like 'normal' blues-rock singing than what he did with KC (although still recognizably him ofc).

Here are some clips I saw (which must be from what I remembered) of Belew soloing with Zappa. In the first he largely seems to be ... improvising?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ5zzNiqSgk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WvXKvXhGgw

These are both from Baby Snakes, right? It's really hard for me to hear what Belew is up to, since it seems a lot of the time he either drops out or Zappa is mixed really high. Also, this music is pretty obnoxious.

FWIW, Belew posted an Eddie Van Halen-related story on social media, but it got deluged with negative comments so he took it down. I missed it but it sounds like people were fighting over what innovations were really invented (or maybe just innovated) by EVH. A shame, I imagine Belew was commenting on his technical prowess and it would've been nice to see what insights he had on his work.

Here's a clip of Belew with Bowie. Some great playing, and informative, because he's playing on a song from before his tenure. But he's not trying to replicate the album version, he's in the Belew zone, very much presaging his Talking Heads work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tWyIug2qP0

I love that Belew played on so much NIN stuff

Totally

It's interesting, though, that all he really does is provide squiggly noise improvs that Reznor manipulated. (There's a great tale you can track down of Belew refusing to join the band because he didn't want to wear silly stage clothes every night). Funnily enough, people forget that Reznor later enlisted none other than (speak of the devil) Lindsey Buckingham to play on a couple of tracks, too, but Lindsey sort of only did what Belew did, just noodled around some stuff for Reznor to use. I could have sworn I saw an interview with Reznor were he admits that he and Bucky were sort of neighbors, and he wanted him on the record because he thought it would be cool to have him as a friend, but the two really didn't click/.

Though it looks like Bucky played with them at the Grammys?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEfOrECg6jI

That’s like Big Love Buckingham on top of NIN. Weird.

Belew put that post on EVH back up. He basically just said he and a guy he played with went to see VH live and were excited to see him also tapping the fretboard. I didn’t see the criticism but I’m guessing it was some people who thought he was trying to take credit for “Eddie’s innovation.”

Re. Belew blending in, I always remember what Xgau said about him in his 80s Consumer Guide’s “Distinctions Not Cost Effective” section:

“Adrian Belew: a welcome addition to other people’s music.”

I have owned the first Bears album for well over a decade and never listened to it. That changes now. It's pretty cool!!

There's a great tale you can track down of Belew refusing to join the band because he didn't want to wear silly stage clothes every night

wait this is the reason that belew didn't end up joining the touring band in 2013? lmao, i don't really remember modern nin having much in the way of silly stage clothes beyond like, 'wear dark colours'.

When Bowie died, I remember being amazed that a clear copy of the Pretty Pink Rose video just didn’t seem to be out there anymore. How does something with him on lead vocal fall into obscurity like that?!

This is the one that never seems to leave me - something about his “weird” vocal just works. (phone call from the moon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K5ixzIr9n0

> I have owned the first Bears album for well over a decade and never listened to it.

great album! i tried to convince my friends to listen to it when it first came out but they physically doubled over laughing at the cover and wouldn’t bother.

Just saw that Chris Arduser, drummer for the Bears/Raisings/etc., passed about a month ago ...

Yeah I think I saw that on Belew’s FB maybe. Sad.

I pulled The Bears’ S/T record out a few months ago on a longish drive and it still sounds terrific.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H678YcwCl4

he's finally explained in more detail what happened with nine inch nails in 2013 - reznor had told him that he wanted to reinvent nine inch nails and that there wasn't any need to learn the songs verbatim, just get to know them, so belew went into the twelve weeks of rehearsals planning to experiment and figure out what his parts should be as the rehearsals went. this approach really didn't fit with the some of the other band members (who were mostly nin veterans) who felt that he wasn't playing the parts right and didn't know the songs properly, and so after seventeen days of rehearsals reznor apologised and cut him from the lineup to placate the other members. a real shame

Eric Avery from Jane’s was also meant to be part of that line-up I think - could’ve been a killer band

yeah, avery withdrew before belew, stating that he just wasn't up for it after having just finished a year-long tour with garbage