''Twang Bar King'' is the second solo album by American musician

Adrian Belew Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual and impressionistic approach to ...

. It was released in 1983 on Island Records. The album peaked at No. 146 on the ''Billboard'' 200.

Production

Made while Belew was the frontman of

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

, ''Twang Bar King'' was recorded in between the sessions and tours for ''

Beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

'' and ''

Three of a Perfect Pair ''Three of a Perfect Pair'' is the tenth studio album by English band King Crimson, released in March 1984 by record label E.G. It is the final studio album to feature the quartet of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Bill Bruford. Con ...

'' in 1982 and 1983. Like Belew's debut album '' Lone Rhino'', it features the members of Belew's pre- King Crimson band GaGa (this time augmented by session drummer

Larrie Londin Ralph Gallant (October 15, 1943 − August 24, 1992), better known by the stage name Larrie Londin, was an American drummer and session musician. According to journalist James Byron Fox, "If not the best known, Larrie is one of the most liste ...

). This would be the last album on which Belew would feature the GaGa band, and he would largely perform all the instruments on his future albums himself. The R&B parody interlude "Sexy Rhino" continues the "

rhino A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

" theme from ''Lone Rhino'' and utilized a Roland TR-808 drum machine and

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

Critical reception

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' wrote that the album "does underscore his contributions to King Crimson: the distinctive vocabulary of extra-musical noises, the personality and, especially, the humor, which is in abundant evidence here." ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' wrote that "despite Belew's cleverness, the rhythm section of J. Clifton Mayhugh and Larrie Londin does little that can be considered interesting."

Track listing

All songs written and arranged by Adrian Belew except “I’m Down” written by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and “Paint the Road” written by William Janssen # "

I'm Down "I'm Down" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on a non-album single as the B-side to "Help!" in July 1965. The song originated in McCartney's attempt ...

" – 2:54 # "I Wonder" – 4:39 # "Life Without a Cage" – 3:20 # "Sexy Rhino" – 0:37 # "Twang Bar King" – 1:26 # "Another Time" – 3:02 # "The Rail Song" – 5:39 # "Paint the Road" – 3:19 # "She Is Not Dead" – 4:41 # "Fish Head" – 4:30 # "The Ideal Woman" – 4:08 # "Ballet for a Blue Whale" – 4:44

Personnel

Musicians

* Adrian Belew – guitars,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, lead vocals, arrangements * Christy Bley –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, backing vocals * William Janssen –

saxophones The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

, bass clarinet, backing vocals *

– drums * J. Clifton Mayhugh – bass, backing vocals * Gary Platt – bass trombone

Technical

* Stan Hertzman – executive producer * Rich Denhart – assistant producer * Gary Platt –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

* Rytt Hershberg – assistant engineer * Mike Getz – artwork,

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

References

{{Authority control Adrian Belew albums 1983 albums Albums produced by Adrian Belew Island Records albums