Adrian Belew

My first time hearing Adrian Belew play was on Porcupine Tree's Deadwing, loved it, and have since listened Talking Heads' Remain in Light and Discipline. I absolutely love his guitar playing, and since Beat and ToaPP don't seem to be as well regarded as Discipline, I was wondering what other records you lot would recommend that feature him prominently?

An Adrian Belew Facebook post from 1-12-2016 follows:

In 1978 I did my first tour of Europe as "stunt" guitarist and singer for Frank Zappa's band. The night we played in Cologne, Germany unbeknownst to me Brian Eno was in the audience. Brian knew David Bowie was looking for a new guitarist for his upcoming tour. He called David after seeing our show and told David he should come see the guitarist for Frank's band.
The next night we performed in Berlin. There was a part of the show where Frank took an extended guitar solo and most of the band members, including myself, left the stage for a few minutes. As I walked to the back of the stage I looked over at the monitor mixing board and saw David Bowie and Iggy Pop standing there.
Wow! I couldn't believe it!
So I walked over to David Bowie, shook his hand and said, "I love what you've done, thank you for all the music". And he said, "Great, how would you like to be in my band?" I motioned back towards Frank and said, "Well, I'm kind of playing with that guy." David laughed and said, "Yes, I know, but when Frank's tour ends my tour starts two weeks later. Shall we talk about it over dinner?"
David said he would meet me back at our hotel and sure enough when I arrived back at the hotel David Bowie and his assistant Coco Schwab were sitting on a couch in the lobby. As I walked past them they whispered to me, "Get into the elevator, go up to your room, come back down in a few minutes, and meet us outside. We have a car waiting."
It was like something out of a spy film.
When I came back down and went outside there was a black limousine waiting. The driver opened the door and I got in the back with David and Coco. David immediately launched into all this plans for his upcoming tour, the songs we would play, the staging, and so on, and how much he loved my guitar playing! It was so exciting! He said they were taking me to one of his favorite restaurants in Berlin.
How many restaurants are there in Berlin? 25,000?
We arrived at the restaurant, went in the front door, and who should be sitting at the very first table but Frank Zappa and the rest of the band! So the three of us sat down with Frank and the band. David, trying to be cordial, motioned to me and said, "Quite a guitar player you have here Frank."
And Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."
(note: Frank had demoted David from Major Tom to Captain Tom.)
David persisted, "Oh come on now Frank, surely we can be gentleman about this?"
Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."
By this point I was paralyzed. David said, "So you really have nothing to say?" Frank said, "F••• you Captain Tom."
David and Coco and I got up and went back out the front door. Getting in the limo David said in his wonderfully British way, "I thought that went rather nicely!"
(watch for the postscript tomorrow)

I was wondering what pedal/effect/thing Adrian uses in Dinosaur to get that specific mellotron-y/strings section sound on the track; I’ve seen that he plays the part with a guitar, so it must be the pedals..

I've been a king crimson fan for a few years, I finally decided to really listen to some of Adrian's solo albums and I'm so happy that they exist. So far I've only listened to a few (side one, two, three mainly and then young lions and rhino king) and I'm so obsessed with him now.

My primary listening platform is Spotify so I'm missing a lot of the catalogue, but based on what I've heard, I'm willing to spend money on CDs/digital releases to hear the other stuff.

What do you all think about Adrian's solo work? I love it because it's basically the pure essence of what he brought to king crimson but also some electronic style that I felt wasn't super deeply explored in kc.

Which songs does Adrian play on. He once said that he’s less than most people think. I know he’s on

Born Under Punches The Great Curve.

I believe he’s on the outtake Fela’s Riff as I don’t think David is playing the main riff.
Are there any other songs?

I got a kick out of him talking about “trying to be Adrian Belew”. I always like to take a piss out of the people here who want to dress like John, copy his pedal board, etc. But John was literally the same when it came to idolizing Adrian Belew. Just funny to hear about.

I'm honored to have Adrian Belew as my guest on the Mile High Stash podcast this upcoming Monday, February 6. Follow my podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc., or just to be sure not to miss this episode.