Product Description
These two albums were originally released on the Island label in 1982 (‘Lone Rhino’) and 1983 (‘Twang Bar King’).

Adrian Belew has played with some of rock’s biggest names: he did the guitar work on Talking Heads’ classic album ‘Remain In Light’ and on offshoot group Tom Tom Club’s albums. He played on King Crimson albums ‘Discipline’, ‘Beat’ and ‘Three Of A Perfect Pair’ as well as David Bowie’s ‘Lodger’ album, and appeared on Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ single and Nine Inch Nails’ ‘The Downward Spiral’ and ‘The Fragile’. More recently Belew put together a solo album with Primus bassist Les Claypool and Tool drummer Danny Carey lending a hand.

Review of ‘Lone Rhino’ from AMG: “The first solo album from monster alternative guitarist Belew comes in the middle of Robert Fripp’s early-80s reformulation of King Crimson, so it’s no surprise that many a Crimson-esque herky-jerky guitar run and melody line pops up among Belew’s other trademark sound, that of the animal-turned-guitar wail.”

Review of ‘Twang Bar King’ from AMG: “Diversified and relentlessly creative – giving space to new artistic and emotional expression – this second solo album from guitarist Adrian Belew expands upon his already remarkable solo debut… Belew’s inventiveness, both as a guitarist and as a songwriter, keep this album fresh and exciting at nearly every turn.”

Lone Rhino
1. Big Electric Cat
2. The Momur
3. Stop It
4. The Man in the Moon
5. Naive Guitar
6. Hot Sun
7. The Lone Rhinoceros
8. Swingline
9. Adidas in Heat
10. Animal Grace
11. The Final Rhino

Twang Bar King
12. I'm Down
13. I Wonder
14. Life Without a Cage
15. Sexy Rhino
16. Twang Bar King
17. Another Time
18. The Rail Song
19. Paint the Road
20. She Is Not Dead
21. Fish Head
22. The Ideal Woman
23. Ballet for a Blue Whale

Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HM6AQW/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002HM6AQW/?tag=imwan-21

Boy, if we ever do a "Rhinoceros" Friday List, there's lots of material here!

I got this two-fer a couple of years ago, and it brought high school flooding back for me. I'd really missed both albums after the Great Cassette Purge Of '03.

Thanks for the news (and links) Linda.
I've wanted these on CD for many years now.

Best regards,
Barry
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Well, I've ordered this one.
And when I did, I took a closer look at the cover art.

A bit scary that no one appears to have noticed they got the title of the second album wrong.
"Twang Bar Kid"?!?!
I hope they were paying attention to the audio but this isn't a good sign.

Still, looking forward to hearing these again.

Best regards,
Barry
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com

I noticed that too, Barry. I can't wait to hear Man In The Moon again. That song made me weep for my Dad, even before he died!

Hi janschfan,

What a great song!
Looking forward to that myself, along with "Another Time", "The Rail Song" and "She Is Not Dead", along with the rest.

Best regards,
Barry
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Barry,

Amazon was using the cover art from the previous (2005) pressing of this two-fer, which according to their customer reviews was riddled with problems, including being sourced from vinyl on many tracks. This new pressing is supposed to be a fresh remastering from the actual master tapes — a 2009 review at Amazon UK says there are no audio problems — and the word "King" has been corrected in the cover art (see updated image in the first post).

To be absolutely sure you're getting the right version from Amazon, buy it new only, not from a third party dealer.

Hi Linda,

Thanks for the word.
I'll be checking the cover as soon as it arrives.
(I did purchase direct from Amazon, not a third party.)

Interesting how the Amazon (US) page still lists 2005 as the release date.
Now I'm nervous.

Best regards,
Barry
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com

I think I'll stick with my Japanese mini lp CDs. I have both of these titles individually and also "Desire Caught By The Tail".

Great comp!

I think you may be thinking of Desire of the Rhino King which was a comp of tracks from the three albums I originally mentioned.

You are correct, I am wrong. DotRK was a great comp. Thanks for clarifying.

Okay, the package arrived yesterday and while I had feared I might see "Twang Bar Kid" on the cover (and perhaps hear vinyl noise on some of the tracks, as mentioned in an old customer review I saw), my concerns proved to be unfounded.

The cover has the titles right and first listen (though it was in the car) did not reveal any vinyl noise. In fact, I was surprised I didn't have to turn the volume control down as much as I normally have to for modern, squashed masterings. I'll check it out on the main system later today but so far, what I've heard is encouraging.

Great to hear these albums again. Thank you again Linda, for the "heads up".

Best regards,
Barry
http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com

This reissue was actually done then by an English label called Gott Discs (named for its founder Mike Gott). Mike and his team put out some pretty cool reissues (all twofers I think). I don't know exactly how many releases Gott did but at one time his catalog had a couple dozen nice twofers including this Adrian Belew. This was catalog number GOTTCD012 on Gott. They also did the first four Three Dog Night albums. In fact TDN and Suitable for Framing were released as GOTTCD001.

A couple of years back, Gottdiscs stopped doing business. Over the last year, some of their titles have shown up on BGO. If you've got any other BGO releases, you'll note that the layout of the art and the print on Adrian's disc, for example, are a little more geometric, neater, straight lines, more neutral (or "white") space than BGO normally does. This was Gott's design style.

I actually wrote to Gott in a moment of fan frenzy when I first purchased the Adrian set and asked whether he would consider a few other titles I was having trouble finding (i.e., A Group Called Smith) for his catalog. Not only did he write back right away and was quite cordial, he also, pointed me to places where I could find some of what I was looking for on other labels.

Sorry for all the in-depth stuff here. I'm really fascinated with how the re-issue labels work, from a business standpoint. Seeing as how the artwork hasn't changed from the Gott releases to the BGO releases, I wonder if BGO struck a deal with Gott personally to captialize on whatever license time he had left on those releases or if they re-upped the licenses under their name and parntered with Gott to re-re-release these. Wonder if Gott was a prodigal son of the BGO family now back in the fold? I'm sure the audience and buying public for these albums is relatively small, but I hope Adrian reaped some benefit from this as well.

BTW -- On my Gottidsc version Twang Bar King is "Twang Bar King" --- not kid. And sounds good. I wonder if there was yet another go at this in recent years by another label?

I have the original Japanese releases of these and they sound quite good. I'm just wondering if they used the original master tapes for this. While some folks have mentioned that the second album (If I recall correctly) was sourced from vinyl I think that was mere speculation.