Wild Man Fischer

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Larry "Wild Man" Fischer (born Lawrence Wayne Fischer, 6 November 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA) has the curious claim to fame of being responsible for Rhino Records' first release—Go to Rhino Records (1975). Larry has been variously described as a jobless, homeless, paranoid, certified-psychotic street singer and as the missing link between Syd Barrett and Homer Simpson.

[edit] Biography

Institutionalized at 16 after attacking his mother with a knife, Fischer wandered L.A. singing his unique brand of songs for 10¢ to passersby. Discovered by Frank Zappa, with whom he cut his first record album, Fischer became an underground club and concert favorite, earning him the title of "godfather of outsider music." Zappa was responsible for Fischer's initial foray into the business of music—An Evening with Wild Man Fischer— contains 36 tracks of 'something not exactly musical'.

He has been linked with Linda Ronstadt, Tom Waits, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin and recorded with Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo).

Fischer went on to record three full-length albums for Rhino. Employees at the Rhino Records store were forced to eject him from their premises because he was given to 'encouraging' their patrons to purchase his records.

In the 1980s, Fischer worked with Art and Artie Barnes (actually Bill Mumy of Lost in Space/Babylon 5 fame and Robert Haimer), to produce two albums, Pronounced Normal (1981) and Nothing Scary (1984).

Over the course of 40 years, he has appeared on national television ( Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in ) been the subject of his own comic book The Legend of Wild Man Fischer^[1] and was the first artist to be recorded on Rhino Records.

In 1986 Barnes and Barnes also wrote and produced "It's a Hard Business", a duet featuring Fischer singing along with the late Rosemary Clooney. The song was the result of a bizarre telephone friendship that began after Clooney heard Fischer's "Oh God, Please Send Me a Kid to Love".

Rhino's The Fischer King in 1999, a two-CD package comprising 100 tracks and a 20-page booklet, sold out within weeks. The limited edition album comprises his entire Rhino catalogue including the albums with Barnes and Barnes and "Wildmania" (1977) alongside his duet with Clooney. He also appears as guest vocalist with the band Smegma on "Sings Popular Songs"."An Evening With Wild Man Fischer" remains unreleased on CD. The profile raising of DERAILROADED did - however - bring all three Rhino albums back as CD releases.

In 2005, Josh Rubin and Jeremy Lubin, collectively known as The Ubin Twinz premiered their documentary about Wild Man Fischer, entitled DERAILROADED, at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.