happy birthday, frankie!

the ghosts of Christmas past.

when I think of Christmas so many memories come to mind.
baby jesus in a manger, christmas lights on trees, snow balls,
hot chocolate with whipped cream, a fireplace, and of course:
toys.

as far back as I can recall, toys were always what it's about.

only my family members know this, but I have collected
many things from Christmas's past, or more correctly
things from Christmas have often been the starting point
for collections of things I still cherish.

I was reminded of this over the weekend when my girls
begged me to show their friends my toy soldier collection.
I let them set the soldiers up (all 440 of them)
in mock battle positions for the "good war":
the kind where no one gets hurt and no shots are fired.

I began accumulating these toy soldiers from age 10,
but continued to find rare matching packages of exactly
this type at ma and pa stores around the country
well into my twenties.

I keep them in a wooden box my grandmother gave me.
I know it's silly but somehow I treasure these tiny guys
with their little jeeps and tanks, cannons and trucks,
all standing firmly in their fixed positions.
soldiers with rifles, captains with pistols drawn,
truck driving soldiers, marching soldiers, bazooka guys,
hand grenade throwers, kneeling sharpshooters,
lying down sharpshooters, officers with binoculars,
and soldiers standing guard.

they are a window into a simpler time.
Christmas as a kid.

two new...

CDs I can't wait to have in hand:
the greg hampton CD and
the newest raphael haroche CD.
I contributed major guitar work to both of these.

greg hampton is an L.A. guitarist/writer/singer
who recently produced the latest alice cooper CD.
I love greg's ability to pen a heavy guitar lick
and then to adorn it with NIN-like madness.
greg came to StudioBelew where we added even
more crazedness to his ultra-groovy tracks.
later, he added vocals and is now in the final mix stage.

raphael haroche is the young artist
I went to paris to work with last month.
I loved his songs and his sweet voice to match.
he had an ace studio band as well and we
all worked together to make something unique:
a great pop record.
I still have raphael's songs floating around in my head.
even in a veil of misty rain paris never loses its charms.

my guitar work on both these records ran the gamut
and I was very pleased with the results.
I'll let you know more as I know.

Masters of Rock Guitar

back in february I was asked to write the preface
for a book called Masters of Rock Guitar,
published by the italian company WhiteStar.
I was already familiar with their work due to a
couple of superb books they have on vintage cars.
"masters" includes a foreword by joe satriani,
an excellent text by ernesto assante, and piles of cool
pictures of 66 guitarists, including yours truly.

the guitarists featured range from people
I actually know (robert fripp, jeff beck, ry cooder)
to guitarists I once knew (frank zappa, les paul)
to guitarists I would love to have known
(george harrison, jimi hendrix,).

I have a hard time imagining a fairly stupid kid
from northern kentucky with no musical training
from a lower class working family who had no
connection whatsoever to the world of music and art
ending up in such illustrious company.
me and eric clapton in the same line up? wow.

my body is covered with marks
from pinching myself all the time.

I just received my copy which I'm very pleased with.
Masters of Rock Guitar is an excellent book albeit
one that may be difficult to find. I know I had a hard
time navigating the italian website: whitestar.it
so I figure most of you will have to read my preface here:

what is it about the electric guitar that so fascinates?

what began as a plank of wood on someone's workbench
has transformed into the icon of rock music and the most
popular instrument on the planet.
the electric guitar has many features to recommend.

portability hard to imagine lugging a baby grand back
to your hotel room each night but you can carry
the guitar in a back pack.

simplicity your basic electric guitar has perhaps two
knobs and one hole to plug into; pretty straightforward.
it's fairly easy to learn. but hard to master.

versatility a player can do just about anything with
the electric guitar these days. when I began playing if
you had a fender amp and a fuzztone you were hot!
today I can play my guitar through my laptop.
there is a billion $$ industry of after market
accouterments. everything from amplifiers
and synthesizers to picks and string winders.

longevity when les or chuck or scotty first appeared
who knew it would go this far? but a funny thing
happened: rock music never went away!

sound it can range from raucous to sweetness.
it can squeal or cry.

volume no question about it, the rock guitar is not shy.
as a communication device it's hard to ignore.
it can blow a horn section right off the stage.

beauty the sensual form of the guitar's body has long
been noted. it's sexy. in the hands of a premier luthier
the wood becomes a modern sculpture. as seductive
as a sports car at a fraction of the price.

it's fashionable true, it can make you a rebel or a
preacher, but I believe the fashionable bit soon wears
off. there has to be something more.

personality? now we're getting closer.
players and manufacturers have done just about
everything to personalize the electric guitar.
we've added strings, pulled out frets, sawed off the
headstock, and cut the body into a myriad of shapes,
sizes, and colors.
there was one guy who even burned his on stage!
anything to express your inner self. and that's it!
the one thing that sets the electric guitar apart
is it's capacity for self-expression.

there is simply nothing like feeling your fingers
bending a note and hearing the guitar sing.
through self-expression comes passion.
through passion comes perseverance.
through perseverance you get to be one
of the players on these pages.

so let's celebrate the electric guitar
ands the players who have made it unique.

Happy 25 Years

for some reason I woke up this morning musing over
the music from desire caught by the tail.

my third solo record.
the first record on which I played all the instruments.
my first all instrumental record.
the record which cost me my record deal,
the record label (island) hated it so much.
and so the record was unceremoniously dumped.
many fans didn't even know about it.

one fan (sic) hated it enough to break the vinyl
record into pieces and send it back to me!

but frank zappa after hearing desire was quoted
as saying "adrian has re-invented the electric guitar".
thanks frankie.

so I went to the kitchen computer and played the first
piece, the seven and a half-minute tango zebra.
it brought back a flash of memories of fiddling with
the earliest guitar synthesizer, of playing the steel-
bodied dobro with the daddad open tuning,
of playing on the back of the dobro
with rubber mallets to create drum sounds.
of riding my bike to the closet-size studio each day,
thinking of myself as some kind of "artiste".

and as I reeled from the sensory overload I realized:

this is desire caught by the tail's 25th birthday!

to this day it remains undiscovered by many people
who like my music and that's a shame.
the japanese re-issue CD we sell at the online store
is so perfectly re-mastered that the quality sounds
as fresh as though it were made yesterday.

...25 years ago...
wow.

mind meld

kirk:
"spock! are you out of your vulcan mind!?"

so much has happened in the last 6 months
I wish I could do a mind meld with all of you.
too much to say and no way to convey it all.

first, since it is thanksgiving
let me say Happy Thanksgiving!
(unless you're a turkey, then it's not so happy)

2009 has been another great year.
after three years in the making we released e,
and the trio traversed a million miles to play
hot shows to eager-eared audiences worldwide
who rewarded us, not so much with mucho dinaros
but with praise and appreciation.

thanks to all of you.
it does not go without notice how fortunate I am,
an off the wall artist who still has a thriving career
in the brutal machinations of the music business.

I have high hopes for the new year.
see you there!

heaven.

now I know where it is.
heaven's in emeryville, california.
1200 park avenue to be exact.
you can't miss it; there's a big sign out front.
it says P I X A R.

once you get through the gates of heaven
you enter an indescribable universe.
it's where I want to live forever.

my personal version of heaven goes like this:
I live in a home depot shed in the animators section.
my formal title is: Pixar Good Will Ambassador.
my job is to greet the creative geniuses each morning
with hot cups of java and donuts and crisp conversation.
my day is spent spreading joy to the Pixar workforce,
drinking free cokes with lots of ice,
and giving outsiders the same special guest tour
I was given by andrew stanton and pete docter.

in my spare time (this is the heaven part)
I sit in the steven jobs-inspired in-house theatre
endlessly watching Pixar films and
reciting each line of dialogue perfectly.
yes, it's the theatre with the ceiling
covered in lights to match the constellations.
(exactly as the stars would be were there no roof)
look! there goes another shooting star!

Pixar is a visual feast filled with storyboards
and concept drawings and like a little boy
in a toy story shop I study every frame.

occasionally I slip into the voice-over studio
to perform a scratch voice-over
for an upcoming wonder at the same mic
used by the likes of billy crystal, john goodman,
holly hunter, tom hanks, tim allen, christopher
plummer, don rickles, kevin spacey, samuel jackson,
the ever-present john ratzenberger and so many others.
hey, you never know when a scratch vocal
just might be the perfect character voice.

in the evenings I take up residency in the secret
Lucky 7 lounge where I practice bartending
for the tired geniuses and technicians.

and lastly, as the workforce leaves
filled with happiness and go juice
I perform an improvised concert
in the vast Pixar lobby to send them home
inspired and ready to return.

that's my version of heaven.

ps: thanks andrew and pete for the best
tour diversion I've ever had.

psst: I didn't mention martha or my kids,
the power trio, or all my best friends
because to be in heaven you have to be
dead.