Een weekje een superster uit de zogeheten “tweede rij” of zoals in de fantastische mooie docu uit 2013 gesteld: “Twenty Feet From Stardom” een machtig portret over de backingzangeressen en -zangers die de sterren op het eerste plan vanuit hun plekje op de achtergrond naar een hogere sfeer begeleiden. Deze week geen backingvocalist, maar een fenomenale snarenkunstenaar uit die tweede rij die een weekje het volle spotlicht verdient.

De oorspronkelijke oerriff van Heroes werd op vraag van Brian Eno en David Bowie ingespeeld door de mentor van Belew, Robert Fripp. Fripp nam het in drie stukken op zonder te beluisteren wat hij daarvoor al had opgenomen. Producer Toni Visconti: “I said, look, let me just hear what it sounds like with the other two tracks. You never know. We played it, all three tracks together, and you know, I must reiterate Fripp did not hear the other two tracks when he was doing the third one so he had no way of being in sync. But he was strangely in sync. And all his little out-of-tune wiggles suddenly worked with the other previously recorded guitars. It seemed to tune up. It got a quality that none of us anticipated. It was this dreamy, wailing quality, almost crying sound in the background. And we were just flabbergasted!”

Toen Adrian Belew gevraagd werd om te touren met Bowie, was hij zich niet bewust van de “gelaagde” opnamesessie waarbij werd gedacht dat het onmogelijk was om Fripps partijen te spelen. Toen hij voor een repetitie van de tour aan het meer van Geneve met Eno en Bowie samenkwam, lachten ze hem vierkant uit. Toen Belew zich afvroeg wat er zo grappig was, waarop Bowie repliceerde: “You’re so stupid. You didn’t know you can’t play those impossible guitar parts so you just played them”.

Belew is enthousiast gebleven over Bowie: “I have to say being cast right on the same stage beside a superstar like David was really unbelievable. It was a stratosphere that I never imagined myself being in, socially and otherwise. I was meeting people like Dustin Hoffman and Mick Jagger, traveling in private planes and hearing that whole thing. The first round in 1978-79, I felt like I was just a hired hand, and I knew my place and I just stayed in that place. The second round, in 1990, when he asked me to be the music director and guitarist for a much larger world tour that went to 108 shows and 27 countries, that's really when I felt like I got to know David and we became close friends. I really enjoyed that period a lot, because by then I felt more on his level somehow, and there weren't all the buffers of people who you have to talk to before you get to talk to David. One thing I always really loved about David is that he's one of the very few artists who have been able to actually be so creative and artistic but still make it work in a popular way. Apart from the Beatles and a few other people like that, you don't usually get that. He's done some pretty interesting stuff that's also gotten to be very well liked. That's kind of cool.”

Talking Heads - The Great Curve (1980)

Adrian Belew - Heartbeat (1989)

Adrian Belew & Martha Wainwright - Heroes (2006)

Frank Zappa - City Of Tiny Lites (1978)

King Crimson - Indiscipline (1981)

Talking Heads - Born Under Punches(1980)

David Bowie - Stay (1978)