Wild Man Fischer | |
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 Fischerc. 1975 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lawrence Wayne Fischer |
| Born | (1944-11-06)November 6, 1944 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | June 16, 2011(2011-06-16) (aged 66) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Outsider music |
| Occupation | Songwriter |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1968–2006 |
| Labels | |
| Formerly of | |
Lawrence Wayne"Wild Man" Fischer (November 6, 1944 – June 16, 2011) was an Americanstreet performer known for offering erratic,a cappella performances of "new kinds of songs" for a dime on the beaches ofLos Angeles County and theSunset Strip inWest Hollywood.[1] Most of his life was spent homeless or institutionalized, and he later became regarded as "the godfather ofoutsider music".[1][2]
Born in Los Angeles, Fischer was repeatedly sent to mental institutions as a teenager, where he was diagnosed withparanoid schizophrenia andbipolar disorder. In 1968, he recorded a double album,An Evening with Wild Man Fischer, that was produced byFrank Zappa for theBizarre label. At one point, Fischer was the opening act forthe Byrds,Iron Butterfly,Solomon Burke, andBo Diddley. His relationship with Zappa came to an abrupt end after Fischer threw a bottle that nearly hit Zappa's daughterMoon.
In 1975, Fischer helped jumpstartRhino Records with the novelty single "Go to Rhino Records". The label put out a trilogy of albums that ultimately became his last:Wildmania (1977),Pronounced Normal (1981), andNothing Scary (1983); the latter two were produced by the comedy music duoBarnes & Barnes. A documentary about Fischer's life,Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fischer, premiered at theSouth by Southwest festival in 2005.
Larry Fischer was born on November 6, 1944, inLos Angeles,California.[3][4] From an early age, he experienced majormood swings typical of bipolar disorder. When his mood worsened, he experiencedauditory hallucinations and acted violently toward his family.[5] He attendedFairfax High School[3] but was expelled in 1962 for singing in class.[6] In 1963, he was committed toCamarillo State Hospital for threatening his mother with a knife, and he was diagnosed withparanoid schizophrenia andmanic depression.[5] Released one year later, he appeared at numerous talent shows and was discovered by R&B singerSolomon Burke, who gave him the nickname "Wild Man" and brought him along on a tour. Fischer was still living at home at this time, and in 1965, was once again institutionalized for his behavior. According to Fischer, the hospital stays only exacerbated his condition.[6]
By 1967, Fischer was on medication and acting as a street performer in Hollywood. For a nickel or a dime, he would offer a "new kind of song" to passersby as an a cappella performance. This led him to become an opening act forthe Byrds,Bo Diddley, andIron Butterfly.[3] While performing onstage and outside at the Sunset Strip, he was noticed byFrank Zappa, bandleader forthe Mothers of Invention.[6] Zappa later said: "I thought from the first day I met him that someone should make an album about Wild Man Fischer."[4] He invited Fischer into a studio and recorded him singing about topics such as his mother, mental hospitals, fame, circles, and how he could move faster than a cat could see him. The Mothers of Invention, record producerKim Fowley, radio DJRodney Bingenheimer, and Zappa's girl groupthe GTOs made guest appearances on some of the tracks.[8]
Released as adouble album in 1968,An Evening with Wild Man Fischer was given a positive review inRolling Stone magazine, where it was described as "captur[ing] the total being of one strange member of the human community".[8] On September 23, 1968, thanks to his connections with Zappa, Fischer appeared onRowan & Martin's Laugh-In, singing "The Leaves Are Falling" and "Merry-Go-Round".[3] During this period he also made contributions to the 1968 psychsploitation album "Bedlam" by The Crazy People.[9] In December, Zappa arranged for him to perform at a Christmas show involving the Mothers, the GTOs, Easy Chair, andAlice Cooper. Fischer sang "Circles".[5]
Fischer was frustrated that the album failed to bring him the fame he expected.[3] One day, he visited Zappa and threw a bottle that nearly hit Zappa's infant daughterMoon. This ended their relationship.[5] After Frank's death in 1993,Gail Zappa inherited her husband's musical copyrights, and refused to reissue the album for as long as she lived[4] feeling that the recording was "a poor example of Frank's work."[10]
In 1974, Larry appeared as a guest vocalist on noise bandSmegma's albumSing Popular Songs.[citation needed] In 1975, he recordedRhino Records' first release, a novelty single entitled "Go to Rhino Records". At the time, Rhino Records was only a record shop in Los Angeles. According to theNew York Times: "Demand for [the single] proved so great that it catapulted the store's owners into the record-producing business." Two years later he recorded their very first LP,Wildmania.[1] In the 1980s, Fischer worked with the comedy music duoBarnes and Barnes (Bill Mumy andRobert Haimer) to produce two more albums for Rhino,Pronounced Normal (1981) andNothing Scary (1984). In 1986, Barnes and Barnes also wrote and produced "It's a Hard Business", a duet featuring Fischer andRosemary Clooney. The song was the result of a telephone friendship they began due to mutual acquaintances.[4] In 1988, a judge awarded Fischer royalties on his song "Merry-Go-Round" (from the videocassette release of the movieMedium Cool), but the attorney representing Fischer did not know how to contact him.[3] Fischer was still homeless, living in motels and on the streets while panhandling at places likeDodger Stadium andDisneyland.[3] He performed at the 1988San Diego Comic Con with Bill Mumy's group as his backing band.[8]
In 1998,Date with the Devils Daughter, an album byRobert Williams (a drummer formerly withCaptain Beefheart) includes "Hello Robert", which consists of messages that Fischer left on Williams's phone.[citation needed] In 1999, Rhino releasedThe Fischer King, a two-CD package comprising 100 tracks and a 20-page booklet, which sold out within weeks. The limited-edition album comprises his entire Rhino catalog, including all three of the Rhino albums plus singles, unreleased material, interviews done for this release, and his duet with Clooney. It releases almost everything Fischer ever recorded, exceptAn Evening with Wild Man Fischer, for which the Zappa family still held the rights.[6]
Fischer was mentioned inThomas Pynchon's 1990 novel,Vineland, as well as in his 2009 novel,Inherent Vice. In the early 2000s, Fischer was filmed as she subject of a full-lengthdocumentary,Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fischer, which premiered atSouth by Southwest in March 2005.[4][5] Co-director Josh Rubin called the four years making the film "the most arduous, trying time of my life" due to Fischer's erratic behavior. It included an appearance fromDevo'sMark Mothersbaugh who called him: "as pure a rock and roll icon as you can find. He's mainlined into the creative subconscious."[11] In 2004, Fischer was the subject of acomic book (The Legend of Wild Man Fischer byDennis Eichhorn),[8][12] and in October, appeared on ABC-TV's late-night talk/comedy show,Jimmy Kimmel Live!.[4]
In 2003, Fischer had a six-month-longparanoid episode, convinced somebody was trying to kill him, and he started living on the streets again. He called Bill Mumy up to 20 times a day, hanging up each time, until Mumy finally had to change his phone number. Fischer eventually moved in with his aunt Josephine, but three weeks later she was diagnosed with terminal cancer (this happened during the filming ofDerailroaded). Fischer and his family consented to move him into an assisted-living mental institution inVan Nuys. The medications he was prescribed helped him control his behavior, but it also eliminated his creative drive, or "pep".[3][1] Fischer made his final performance on August 16, 2006, at theTrunk Space in Phoenix, Arizona.[citation needed]
The last seven years of Fischer's life were spent peacefully but uneventfully. On June 16, 2011, he died of heart failure at theRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, at the age of 66.[1][3]
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