Re: Adrian Belew

[Chris Richards <kohntarkosz@yahoo.com>]

<<I remember listening to Adrian Belew's "Desire
Caught By The Tail" and thinking, "Adrian's got a
new Guitar Synth and he wanked around with it and
made an album."  All but a few tracks seemed thin
in the content world... unless you think of them
as an album about the GR-300.  (not sure if
this was the model, but you know...)>>

Actually, I believe he used both the GR-300 and
GR-700 on that album. I remember reading an
interview he did in Guitar World where he said he
found out how to make GR-700 do things it wasn't
really meant to do. He also played dobro and
percussion on that album, as well using one of
those boxes with the plastic record inside of it
for the laughing heard on The Laughing Man. So
it's not all guitar synth "wanking". 

<<But he stuck with the Guitar Synth and quickly 
  learned how to *use* it, instead of showcasing
it's features. >>

Actually, he had been using the guitar synths for
several years by the time Desire Caught By The
Tail came out. He used the GR-300 on his second
album Twang Bar King (recently reissued in Japan
and available via AdrianBelew.net and
Disciplineglobalmobile.com) and King Crimson's
Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair. He may have
also used it on Discipline, but I'm not positive
if he and Fripp had them at that point. Based on
what I hear on those records, I would suspect
Adrian already KNEW how to use a guitar synth by
the time he got to Desire Caught By The Tail. 

As to whether or not what Adrian does on that
particular record is wanking, I'd have to go back
and listen to it again to give you my thoughts
therein. 

=====
May you never thirst!
The Scuba Diver Presently Known As Chris

"What do you get when you give a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?"-James 
Earl Jones

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