“I admired and loved the superstar, but I loved the person David was even more,” said former Bowie collaborator Adrian Belew, one of the most inventive guitarists of the past five decades who, on Tuesday evening in Montreal, will celebrate the priceless work of his late friend.
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Opening night at the Colisée de Québec, March 4, 1990. After a few weeks of rehearsals, David Bowie begins his Sound+Vision Tour, a seven-month global journey that will take him to 27 countries. On a stage made up of a huge metal grid, guitarist Adrian Belew runs from one end to the other, while playing one of his heroic solos.
“I was doing my rock star and all the while, David stayed in the middle, motionless, watching me go,” he recalls about the inaugural date of this tour, which also included Louise Lecavalier and La La La. Human Steps – “David loved Louise. »
“But when I finished my solo, continues Adrian Belew, I realized that my 60-foot wire had wrapped around his leg and that he was trapped. That’s when he introduced me as the Fred Astaire of the electric guitar! »
David had a lot of self-mockery. He took his shows seriously, but he didn’t take himself seriously.
Adrian Belew
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RCA
David Bowie on stage during theIsolar II Towerwhich featured guitarist Adrian Belew
Beyond this talent for antics, Adrian Belew, 72, is above all one of the most innovative guitarists in the history of rock, as the main architect of the second life of King Crimson or as a sound landscaper on several albums. legendary, including Remain in Light of Talking Heads or Tea Downward Spiral of Nine Inch Nails. This fall he is one of the headliners of Celebrating David Bowiea tribute show featuring former collaborators and admirers of the Thin White Duke, including legendary singer Todd Rundgren.
In 1978, Belew had just concluded a tour with Frank Zappa when the Man who fell from the sky enlisted him for his Isolar Tower II (immortalized on the album Traineeship), then for the recording, in Montreux in Switzerland, of the album lodger.
On titles that are nevertheless rather pop like dj and Boys Keep Swinging, the American guitarist deploys a hatched, breathless, strange playing, both perfectly mastered and totally disheveled, having more to do with the dripping of Jackson Pollock than with any other musician. Like an insurrection of dissonance that would splash otherwise immaculate songs.
SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE
Adrian Belew, during a show with David Bowie in Tokyo in 1990, as part of the “Sound+Vision Tour”
A result that is easily explained by the conditions in which he was forced to work: “David, Brian Eno [collaborateur] and Tony Visconti [réalisateur] were in the control room and I was in a studio above with a one-way camera that allowed them to see me. They said to me: ‟Go upstairs, put on the headphones, you will hear the drummer counting down and we want you to start playing.” »
Can I hear the songs before? to reply Belew. No. Could someone at least tell me in which range I should run? No more. “They really wanted to capture the accidental responses that the music would elicit from me. »
Bowie and his team will then assemble a single track from the various takes recorded by their guinea pig. “Even though I didn’t record them linearly, I later had to learn to play the songs like they were on the record,” he recalls. Hard ? “I wouldn’t want to be someone else who has to try to be me. »
Educate yourself constantly
“I remember having visited the Prado Museum with David”, says Adrian Belew, evoking the boundless curiosity of his friend, unable not to immerse himself with fervor in a subject that thrilled him. “It was as if I was with a real guide: he was even able to tell me about the impact of certain papal decrees on the history of art. »
It is often said that he was able to reinvent himself, and it is precisely because he was interested in many things. He was constantly educating himself. And that’s how he managed to protect his creative side, despite his mass success.
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew and David Bowie each went their separate ways in September 1990, but stayed in touch, exchanging regular emails (“David was very surprised to hear I was gardening”) in which the singer inquired about his ex’s plans. colleague, who launched last June elevatora 25e solo album recorded entirely independently from his residence in Nashville.
What was special about David Bowie? “Everything about him was special. He is the most unique person I have met. It’s a lot thanks to him if I continue to create without compromise and without thinking about success, because the important thing is to be creative. He was one of those who always had to invent. »
Celebrating David BowieOctober 18 at the Olympia