In 1995 Bill released what I would say was his first major work Wild Love. This record was distinguished by a more lush sound than his early work. It has a plain cover with a frame drawn on it and a small picture of a cloud and lightening and rain.
Bathysphere is another song about him wanting a life at sea but not liking water, this Bill sings about wanting to live in a bathysphere but he doesn’t know how to swim. I presume this is a metaphor and that he didn't really want to live in a bathysphere. It is a curious theme to write two songs about wanting to live at sea but not liking water or being able to swim. Bathyspheres are essentially surveillance devices for looking at the ocean. Wild Love is about someone cutting down his wild love. Sweet Smog Children is about his young fans and how he feels awkward talking to them. Bathroom Floor is a song about a girl bleeding and the narrator says the mother thought she was a late bloomer but the mother didn't know she'd "already bloomed and died". The Emperor is instrumental and seems to refer to Julius Caesar. Limited Capacity is about him being a loner and so is It’s Rough. These songs talk about women lying and how he prefers listening to records to human company. Sleepy Joe has a narrator who talks to another man who says he can’t feel anything and the narrator wants to be violent to him “I’d like to break a chair across your back, and throw you in the ocean, then tell me you don’t feel a thing” because the man had sex with “Jenny”. The Candle is another song about cheating. The narrator has sex with his girlfriend but she thinks about the other man during sex. The narrator thinks it's unfair as he is a constant presence for the woman and this other man was there just one day and the girlfriend is burning a candle for the other man. This song refers to Bill Callahan being "dark" again, with the woman saying “a light I need a light”. The next song is possibly one of Bill's most controversial songs about women. Be Hit is a song about women wanting to be hit, and the narrator not hitting them so they leave him. Prince Alone In The Studio is about the Artist Formerly Known As Prince (Prince changed his performing name to Love Symbol in 1993). Prince is described in the studio where he prefers music making to women and sex: “He finally gets that guitar track right, and it's better than anything any girl could ever give him Because Prince is alone, Oh Prince you are so alone”.It is a strange depiction of an artist in the 1990s who was known for songs about sex and did not give the appearance of being alone particularly. One could say that Bill really projected his own feelings onto Prince in this song. The final song Goldfish Bowl has a domestic theme, the narrator does not like his girlfriend watching him like a hawk and he says that wild love can’t grow in a small apartment where its like “a fish in goldfish bowl”. Bill is an intelligent man, but for a 29 year old there is a lack of reflexive awareness in this song — he is the one that is putting their relationship in a goldfish bowl as a songwriter and performer and recording artist.
Bill was criticised in the 1990s indie music fanzine culture for being a misogynist, especially for the song Be Hit. This charge has never really been answered by Bill, but the music press stopped mentioning the issue as fashions morphed in the hedonistic early 2000s.
The next blog post I am working on will be the start of a section on Bill's reaction to Will Oldham's affair with Cindy Dall, which Bill wrote 2 LPs and 1 EP about, marking it out as one of the most important events of his life. For some reason the music press has not really reported on this affair.