Tuesday, May 17, 2016

ADRIAN BELEW big electric cat 1982

I love Phil Manzanera, guitarista for Roxy Music, and later on, 801 and at least one solo LP. I remember him saying in an interview that he was most interested in making the guitar sound as little like a guitar as he could manage. You know, make it sound like something else. He wasn't the only one.

Johnny Ramone said one time that he tried to make the guitar sound like pure energy. I'd say that he came pretty close. RIP.

But Mr. Belew, Mr. Adrian Belew, succeeds in most spectacular fashion in making the guitar totally disappear. I play guitar myself, and listening to Adrian is a "wait . . . what?" moment. How is he doing that? What is he doing? What the fuck is going on here?

We may never know. But it's all very musical, and it's fun to listen.

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