Adrian Belew: Shoe Salesman
[purchase from Adrian]
Purportedly, Adrian Belew was discovered playing in a hotel lounge band by none other than Frank Zappa. After putting in time under Zappa's musical tutelage, Belew went on to record with a who's-who of avant-garde artists: Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Laurie Anderson, Nine Inch Nails, and King Crimson, to touch on the most well-known. Throw in William Shatner, Jars of Clay, Crash Test Dummies, and Peter Wolf, and it becomes apparent that Adrian is one of the most diversely spread guitarist/ producers in the rock spectrum.
And, like all most of those artists, he seems to have a pretty good sense of humor, to boot! Check out these grimace-inducing lines from today's selection, for example:
"Oh, I love her even though
she's made a heel out of me
My baby's in love with a shoe salesman
now I don't fit her, no, I don't fit her
now I don't fit her anymore"
...but, within the context of the song, and delivered in Belew's keening tenor, they work perfectly!
"Shoe Salesman" is from the CD single for "Pretty Pink Rose," Adrian's almost-hit that featured David Bowie on vocals. I'm not sure if the song ever was on another official release, and my rushed looking over the Amazon collection didn't turn it up, so the "buy" link up top goes to Adrian's webstore. Lotsa good stuff going on there!
If you really want to keep on top of the guy, he's got his own Blogger page, too: Elephant-Blog!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Footwear: Shoe Salesman
Posted by Anonymous at 6:54 PM
Labels: Adrian Belew, Footwear
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4 comments:
"To boot", Matt? Curses for being the first to bring the pun into this theme, you heel!
I'm an Adrian Belew novice, having only heard his wonderful cover of Harry Nilsson's "Me and My Arrow". This is much more mellow than that one, though - a fine introduction, tantalizing and driving me to the stacks. Great find!
Heh, yeah... It was just sitting there, waiting to be used... and it's so "punny"!
I can't recommend Adrian enough. Either Mr. Music Head or Lone Rhinocerus would be excellent jumping off points to his solo work, though you'd be hard-pressed to pick up something that isn't amazing. I know that sounds like an over-reaching broad-stroke, but he really is an artist who never ceases to please me.
Hell, he even had me listening to that NIN Ghosts thing!
Oh, and there's another Adrian Belew song in my Fathers' Day 2008 post, back at my own space.
There's an artist I need to explore more. Thanks Matt!
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