(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Bob Wiseman, the former pianist and organist of Blue Rodeo, rose to prominence as a singer-songwriter with In Her Dream (Atlantic, 1989), which revealed his exceptional talent as a composer and storyteller. His style ranged from blues to country & western, from jazz to folk. But what stood out most was his way of singing and playing, an indefinable manner straddling the urban "wit" of Randy Newman, the rural surrealism of John Hartford, and the high notes of a village madman. The lyrics are attributed to a wandering poet and philosopher, Wrenched Tuttle, and are among the most hilarious and clever to be heard since Jonathan Richman.
Wiseman has ten skins, and he wears them all inside out. The casual jamming of Older Brother evokes the Grateful Dead, the prankish Bhopal recalls the Fugs, the hippie tone of Blind Horse resembles Donovan’s Season Of The Witch, the solemn pace of In Her Dream hints at early Neil Young, and the exuberance of All The Trees recalls Neil Diamond… all transfigured by his quirky humor. At the same time, the album is a continuous homage to early 20th-century music: country (If I Knew), blues (Just Tourists), jazz (Cockroach), boogie (Dog On A Leash), rhythm and blues (Airplane On The Highway),…
The same humor and eclecticism make Presented By Lake Michigan Soda (Worn Er Muzak, 1991) an equally personal work. Additionally, it includes a title like Diary Of a US Crop Dusting Pilot Spraying The Defoliant Tebuthiuron (Spike) On Cocoa Plantations In The Upper Huallaga Valley (Peru).
Somewhat distracted is the third album, City Of Wood (Worn Er Muzak, 1992), in which the artist seems to contemplate himself and his music-making without success.
After three "underground" albums, the artist was rediscovered in the USA through the anthology In-By Of (Bar None, 1994).
However, the next work was again subdued: the instrumental jazz-rock trio improvisations of Beware of Bob (Sabre Torque, 1994).
Wiseman, the man who surprised "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" by announcing his intention to change his own name to "Prince," has not stopped displaying masterful "wit" on Accidentally Acquired Beliefs (Worn Er Muzak, 1996).
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
More Work Songs From The Planet Of Apes (GFC, 1997) includes the
ten-minute Sweet Gertrude.
By his standards, It's True (Blocks Blocks Blocks, 2004) is only
intermittently demented. The
odd autobiographical rant of My Cousin Dave and the tragic
portrait of Lori employ only acoustic guitar, one in a street-minstrel
style and the other one in a sloppy, dissonant style.
But his musical genius is best appreciated in the
Queen of Sheba, possibly his idea of a neoclassical lied (majestic
melody, soaring harpsichord-like accompaniment, bubbling electronica),
Fluke Fluke Fluke, which blends
Jonathan Richman's self-parodic wit and
the rhythm of Talking Heads' Psycho Killer,
and Born To Love You, a wedding of intergalactic signals mix with doo-wop harmonies.
Whether he goes purely acoustic or he ventures into electronics,
the results are always unpredictable.
Theme and Variations (2006), several years in the making, is a concept
about a failed relationship.
Bob Wiseman tortures himself to death by reenacting
the story of his love and of its ending. He begins by searching for his
identity in Who Am I, and then pities himself in the relatively
upbeat pop tune Man of Misery, that (at nine minutes) stands as one
of his most accomplished visions of how to put feeling into words into notes.
Search The World is another poppy peak, in which
languid melody and tender lyrics are perfectly integrated in the piano-based
accompaniment.
So is the desolate elegy of Three Men, dressed up in semi-waltzing chamber music and audio-verite'.
And the six-minute agony of Kissproof, sung from a distance and topped by a barely-tuned piano that awkwardly flirts with both blues and jazz music, displays more of these "scenic" virtues.
However, Wiseman seems more comfortable singing his misery in the
spare folkish style of Passion Flowers and Henry Moore Room.
The "theme" of the album is not particularly engaging but some of the variatios
are strokes of pure genius.
Giulietta Masina at The Oscars Crying (2013)
is a hodgepodge of political songs and tributes.
