Balloon Man

• Artist: Bill Morrison
• Rating:
• Release Date: 2004
• Total Time: 42:34
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Spoken Word

Review

Balloon Man unearths 40 one-minute "bio-vignettes" recorded in 1971 by monologist and performance artist Bill Morrison in the hopes of landing a national radio syndication deal -- the material defies logic as well as easy description, expounding on subjects spanning from Leonardo DaVinci to rectal disease as Morrison gets increasingly worked up, sputtering nonsensical phrases, emitting self-consciously funny noises and yukking it up over end music seemingly cribbed from an old vaudeville revue. Example monologue: "At one time I wanted a beautiful lady to be gushing at the door when I came home all spiffed up and lookin' ideal, like Fred Allen maybe 30 years before he died -- you know how he ate gourmet foods she'd prepared, she'd drool over my daily analysis of the widdle problems that the Balloon Man brought home and during popped blue balloon moods she'd tell me funny mankind stories like Margaret Mead and when we're making love she'd be as sensitive as a dying philosopher and whisper in my ear, 'God is alive, I tell ya!'" It's impossible to imagine this stuff on the radio, and alas, Morrison never landed the syndication package he sought -- even now, it requires ironman endurance simply to sit through three or more of these bits in a row. But if radio wasn't the medium for Morrison, the iPod Shuffle may be -- his monologues are best experienced in solitary doses when least expected, making them ideal for the randomized listening habits that define early 21st century consumer culture. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Previous:	Balloon Man (1988 Album by Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians)
Next:	Balloon Mood (1996 Album by Anja Garbarek)