ROBERT CARUSO 

ROCK'N'ROLL'S BEST-KEPT SECRET 

(by Russ Hoffmann)
 

Robert Caruso is a singer-songwriter-guitarist from London, UK. He started in Italy in his early teens as Rob Leer (& The Electric Kids). From the beginning he performed original material, rooted in the Blues, '50s Rock'n'Roll, '60s classics like The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, and Punk Rock like Johnny Thunders, Ramones and Sex Pistols. Starting from his hometown of Cosenza in South Italy, he moved first to Rome and then to London. He toured all over Italy and his early 1980s material was collected on the album Rob Leer & The Electric Kids in 1989. In Italy, he had appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, and in the film 'Primi Amori' by Domenico Rafele (RAI, Italy, 1984). 3 documentaries about him were broadcast on Italian TV while Robert was still a teenager. The lo-fi albums Rob Leer & The Electric Kids (1989, which collected songs from different releases 1980-1988) and Waiting For The Light (1983, issued on CD in 2006), in which his early Proto Punk/Garage Rock met 1980s electronic Techno Pop, were both issued on cassette and later on CD and are no longer in distribution. Rob Leer & The Electric Kids, a double 21-track album, is in its entirety on YouTube.
 

Robert, now 20 years old, moved to London for good. He lived in squats in Brixton, Islington, King's Cross and Stoke Newington, busking, on the dole and starting The Electric Kids (a name used briefly in Rome in 1985). He soon befriended ex-Velvet Underground Nico, Johnny Thunders and Stiv Bators. After playing gigs weekly for 3 years, being played on BBC radio by famous DJ John Peel, gaining a following and some press, The Electric Kids - "Rob Leer" (vocals, lead guitar, organ, harmonica) Andy Dunsby (bass) Dave New (drums) and first Fabrizio Ficco (guitar) and then Mark Forde (lead guitar) - split up in 1988.
in 1990 Robert started performing under his real name, mostly solo and acoustic, playing Dobro slide guitar and rack-harmonica. Some of his "solo & acoustic" recordings were sold as cassettes. Robert then signed with Acetone Records in 1995 and recorded an acoustic album - Robert Caruso on vocals, Dobro slide guitar and harmonica with piano, double bass, congas and a basic, smaller-than-usual drum-kit played with brushes - influenced by the Mississippi Delta Blues tradition, later released as When My Train Comes in 2020. During the '90s Robert toured constantly all over Britain and in France, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Italy and the US. He received rave reviews in the music press for his live performances. He often played as opening act for Rock acts like Johnny Thunders, Steve Marriott, Wilko Johnson, Alan Vega, and American bluesmen such as Ray Charles, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Pops Staples, Taj Mahal, John Hammond, Louisiana Red and many others in London's clubs and Blues Festivals throughout Europe.
Later Robert had a break from "life on the road"; he obtained a BA and MA in Philosophy and English literary studies from University College London, translated for the first time the poets and writers of the Italian Scapigliatura movement (1860s -1880s) in a study for his Ph.D (the Wikipedia entry in English about the Scapigliatura is based on his work) and wrote two poetry collections: 'Transcendence' (2003) and 'Sublimations' (2005) plus translations of 19th century Italian Romantic literature into English, and vice versa, which circulated in limited editions in academic circles; some were published in literary magazines in Britain and Italy.
Before academia, Robert recorded Zeitgeist (2001) an unreleased album of electronic, instrumental tracks written for films, TV and radio programs. Some of it was reminiscent of Classical music, and some tracks were instrumental electronic Rock; it is partly on YouTube, but not in distribution at present; some of the tracks - Technocracy, One Day At A Time and Eros - have also videos; a promo edition also includes Robert's arrangement of Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni's famous Adagio In G Minor For Organ And Strings.

After 10 years of literary endeavours, writing poetry and being in academia, Robert went back to music. In 2009-2017 he performed regularly in London and abroad, getting great reviews in the press, with an Italian newspaper hailing him as 'The King Of Rock'n'Roll". Robert sang briefly with the soon-to-split, reformed, Yardbirds who considered him as a possible front-man replacing Keith Relf who died in 1976, and on one occasion also with Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana from Elvis Presley's original band. He also met his early heroes Lou Reed and John Cale from The Velvet Underground.

In late 2012, Robert's best, most recent recordings came out on the album The Best-Kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll, an epithet given by journalists. His singles and albums, his"records", are released on all digital music platforms and were available on CD on Amazon until 2018. His recordings and live repertoire contain much variety which makes it difficult to label. In particular Indian Summer, Red Pills, I Don't Want To Fall In Love With You, Days Of Wine And Roses*, Nowhere Fast, Rebel, Nobody's Girl, Downtown, The Distance, Burn Baby Burn and You're Driving Me Insane became popular with digital radio listeners on the Internet worldwide. Although not regularly, Robert kept performing live in London and abroad both solo and with his 3-piece backing band The Shades. His singles so far are: The Best-Kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll promo, not for sale and used only for promotion, with 6 songs from the first album, including You're Doing Nothing Now, Rebel and Indian Summer, followed by singles Red Pills (03/2013) Sugar Baby Doll (08/2013) When I Drink My Pint (12/2013) Get Crazy (02/2014) I Don't Want To Fall In Love With You (06/2014) Nobody's Girl (09/2014) Sooner Or Later (05/15) Shallow (07/2015) Nowhere Fast (10/15) Diabolical (06/2016) Burn Baby Burn (02/2017) Real Cool Cat (05/2017), Heroin (08/2017), Amsterdam (11/2018) Born To Make You Cry (11/2019) Days Of Wine And Roses* (07/2021) the ballad Paris (04/2023), Down The Line (09/2024) Dark Side Of The Street (11/2025) and You're Driving Me Insane (07/2026). 

His albums are: 1) The Best-kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll (11/2012). 2) Love And Death (10/2014, which includes Boulevard Of Broken Dreams originally written for Nico, who passed away before she could record it). 3) Three Minutes To Midnight (09/2016), available on iTunes, Spotify and all major platforms. They were availale as CDs on Amazon until 2018. All of Robert's albums are in "video format", i.e.: all his songs have videos, something that no other artist has done to date; with other videos they are all on YouTube's Robert Caruso (Official) channel. On his albums Robert usually plays all instruments and produces them too. The first cover Robert ever did, Heroin by Lou Reed/The Velvet Underground, was released as an EP on CD in August 2017. It was followed by his cover of Belgian "chansonnier" Jacques Brel's Amsterdam (11/2018), with English lyrics translated from the original French by Robert himself (rather than the Mort Shuman lyrics previously used by Scott Walker and David Bowie). His single Born To Make You Cry recorded as a tribute to Kim Fowley - known as producer, talent-scout, songwriter and a recording artist in his own right, he broadcast Robert's songs on his radio show and passed away in 2015 - was released in November 2019 and reached #1 in ReverbNation's UK's Indie Rock charts.

November 2020 saw the release of album #4 When My Train Comes, an acoustic, Delta Blues-influenced double album, recorded live in the studio with an acoustic band some years earlier. Songs like Downtown, When My Train Comes, The Distance, Baby I Wonder, London Underground Blues, Desert Sand, Killin' Fields and a cover of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson's 1936 song Last Fair Deal Gone Down got Robert to #2 in the UK Indie Rock charts. Days Of Wine And Roses* (2021 version), a track from first album The Best-Kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll with an over-dubbed pedal steel guitar, was released as a single in July 2021, followed by album #5 Flange in September 2022: a return to electric hard Rock that collected 6 songs previously released only as singles (Real Cool Cat, Burn Baby Burn, Days Of Wine And Roses*) and covers (Heroin, Amsterdam, Born To Make You Cry) plus 4 more unreleased covers: Ramblin' Rose, originally recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis and made famous by the MC5 in 1969; The Animals' We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, The Yardbirds' Heart Full Of Soul and Gram Parsons' Flying Burrito Brothers' Sin City, a Country Rock song recorded with childhood friend Steve Marino on harmony vocals, piano and bass. Robert then released singles Paris (04/2023), Down The Line (09/2024) Dark Side Of The Street (11/2025) and the "solo and acoustic" album #6 Downhome in March 2025. Robert Caruso's latest release is the single You're Driving Me Insane (07/2026).

Robert's following is always growing, with the recognition as a compelling and charismatic live performer and songwriter and guitarist, with an extensive and varied repertoire which combine supersonic Rock&Roll with realistic lyrics, often about transcendence through love, drugs and spirituality. Some wrote of Robert Caruso as an iconic Rock'n'Roll performer for the 21th century: a streetwise, "cool" attitude that goes back to '50s Rockers and 1977 Punk Rock using influences from the Blues, early Rock'n'Roll, the 1960s, Garage Rock, Funk, and 1980s Post-Punk, but with a "Pop sensibility", and lyrics that include "torch songs", Gothic imagery and sometimes a "social commentary"; all realistic and based on real people and events. His sound is characterized by his "buzzsaw guitar", metronome-like drums, funky basslines and sometimes a Vox organ reminiscent of the 1960s and Garage Rock, but also used for both a Gothic-like sound and a 1980s New Wave feel. Likewise his look made of black leather, shades, cowboy shirts and iconic instruments like his Vox Teardrop guitar and 1960s Vox organ has its roots in the best Rock'n'Roll tradition. 

Some writers described Robert as a bona-fide visionary artist; with professional management and the right industry support his chances to obtain mainstream success would be assured. 

There is a Robert Caruso (Official) channel on YouTube, a profile on Spotify and Pages on Facebook, Instagram, ReverbNation, Twitter, Soundcloud, LinkedIn, Parteon, Tradiio and internet digital radios like Jango.

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