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 material was collected on the album Rob Leer & The Electric Kids. He appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, and in the film 'Primi Amori' by Mimmo 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 is in its entirety on YouTube.
 

Robert, although still in his teens, moved to London for good, befriending ex-Velvet Underground Nico, Johnny Thunders and Stiv Bators. After The Electric Kids split up, he started performing under his real name, mostly solo and acoustic, playing Dobro slide guitar and rack-harmonica. He recorded two self-produced albums sold as cassettes in the 1990s and signed with Acetone Records, recording acoustic album Robert Caruso in which his previous Rock style met the Mississippi Delta Blues tradition. 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" and 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.
 

In 2009-2017 Robert performed regularly in London and abroad and got some great reviews, with some writers hailing him as 'The King Of Rock&Roll". Robert sang with the soon-to-split Yardbirds who considered him as a possible front-man, and also with Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana from Elvis Presley's original band. 

In late 2012 his best, most recent recordings came out on the album The Best-Kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll, an epithet given by journalists. His "records" are released on major digital music platforms and some as CDs on amazon.com. His recordings and live repertoire contain much variety. In particular Sugar Baby Doll, Red Pills, I Don't Want To Fall In Love With You, You're Doing Nothing Now, Days Of Wine And Roses, Indian Summer, Lisa, Rebel, Nobody's Girl, Nowhere Fast, She Makes Me Feel Like I'm Dying, Downtown and Born To Make You Cry became popular with digital radio listeners on the Internet worldwide. Robert kept performing live in London and abroad both solo and with his 3-piece backing band The Shades. His singles so far are: 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) You're Driving Me Insane (02/2015) 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), the EP Heroin (08/2017), Amsterdam (11/2018) Born To Make You Cry (11/2019) Days Of Wine And Roses (07/2021) and the ballad Paris (04/2023). 

His albums The Best-kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll (11/2012), Love And Death (10/2014, which includes Boulevard Of Broken Dreams originally written for Nico, who passed away before she could record it) and Three Minutes To Midnight (09/2016) are available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Spotify, etc.. and as CDs on amazon.com. All of Robert's albums are in "video format" and can be watched as films that include all of the albums' songs, something that no other artist has done to date; with several other videos they can be watched on YouTube's Robert Caruso (Official) channel. On his albums Robert usually plays all instruments and produces them too. Zeitgeist (2001) an offcially unreleased album of electronic, instrumental tracks written and used for films, TV and radio programs is also on YouTube although is not in distribution at present; some of the tracks, like Technocracy, One Day At A Time and Eros have also videos; a promo edition includes Robert's rendition of the Italian national anthem (Fratelli D'Italia) and his arrangement of Reinassance composer Tomaso Albinoni's famous Adagio In G Minor For Organ And Strings. The first cover Robert ever released, Heroin by Lou Reed/The Velvet Underground, was released as an EP on CD in January 2018. It was followed by his cover of Belgian "chansonnier" Jacques Brel's Amsterdam (11/2018), with English lyrics translated from the original French lyrics 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, songwriter and a recording artist in his own right, a pen-pal of Robert who 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 When My Train Comes, an acoustic, Delta Blues-influenced album, recorded live in the studio with an acoustic band. Videos of songs Downtown, When My Train Comes, The Distance, Danglin' Man Blues, Baby I Wonder, London Underground Blues, Providence, National Express 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 The Best-Kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll album with an over-dubbed pedal steel guitar, was released as a single on all major platforms in July 2021. His latest album is Flange (09/2022) a return to electric hard Rock which collected 6 songs released only as singles (Real Cool Cat, Burn Baby Burn, Days Of Wine And Roses* and covers Heroin, Amsterdam and Born To Make You Cry) plus 4 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 by Robert with childhood friend Steve Marino on harmony vocals, piano and bass. Robert Caruso's latest release is the single Paris (16/04/2023). 

Robert's following is always growing, with the recognition as a compelling and charismatic live performer and his originality as 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 critics 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 Punk Rock, using influences from the Blues, early Rock'n'Roll, the 1960s, Garage Rock, Funk and Post-Punk with a "Pop sensibility" and lyrics which include "torch songs", Gothic imagery and sometimes a "social commentary", with a sound characterized by his "buzzsaw guitar", metronome-like drums and funky basslines. Likewise his look made of black leather, shades, cowboy shirts and iconic instruments like his Vox Teardrop guitar and '60s Vox organ has its roots in the best Rock'n'Roll tradition. 

Some writers described him 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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