Lawrence Wayne "Wild Man" Fischer (November 6, 1944 – June 16, 2011) was an American
street performer known for offering erratic,
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
performances of "new kinds of songs" for a dime on the beaches and the
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the city of West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with the city of Los Angeles near Marmont Lane to its western border with Beverly H ...
in
West Hollywood
West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...
.
Most of his life was spent homeless or institutionalized, and he later became regarded as "the godfather of
outsider music
Outsider music (from " outsider art") is music created by self-taught or naïve musicians. The term is usually applied to musicians who have little or no traditional musical experience, who exhibit childlike qualities in their music, or who su ...
".
Born in Los Angeles, Fischer was repeatedly sent to mental institutions as a teenager, where he was diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. ...
and
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
. In 1968, he recorded a double album, ''
An Evening with Wild Man Fischer
''An Evening with Wild Man Fischer'' is a 1969 double LP album by Wild Man Fischer. It was produced by Frank Zappa and released on his Bizarre record label.
The album is split into four different areas on each record side for the type of son ...
'', that was produced by
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
for the
Bizarre label. At one point, Fischer was the opening act for
the Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...
,
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly is an American rock band formed in San Diego, California, in 1966. They are best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", providing a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of hard rock and heavy metal music. ...
,
Solomon Burke
Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke (born James Solomon McDonald, March 21, 1936 or 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s. He has been ...
, and
Bo Diddley
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...
. His relationship with Zappa came to an abrupt end after Fischer threw a bottle that nearly hit Zappa's daughter
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
.
In 1975, Fischer helped jumpstart
Rhino Records
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
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), and ''Nothing Scary'' (1983); the latter two were produced by the comedy music duo
Barnes & Barnes
Barnes & Barnes are an American musical duo, formed in Los Angeles in 1970. Though commonly associated with novelty music and comedy rock, their music has also incorporated elements of new wave, synth-pop, and folk rock.
The duo formed in 1 ...
. A documentary about Fischer's life, ''
Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fischer'', premiered at the
South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
festival in 2005.
Biography
Early life
Larry Fischer was born on November 6, 1944, in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
From an early age, he experienced major
mood swing
A mood swing is an extreme or sudden change of mood. Such changes can play a positive part in promoting problem solving and in producing flexible forward planning, or be disruptive. When mood swings are severe, they may be categorized as par ...
s typical of bipolar disorder, and developed a habit of singing
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...
songs at the top of his voice, which he called having "the pep". When his mood worsened, he experienced
auditory hallucination
An auditory hallucination, or paracusia, is a form of hallucination that involves perceiving sounds without auditory stimulus. While experiencing an auditory hallucination, the affected person would hear a sound or sounds which did not come from t ...
s and acted violently toward his family.
He attended
Fairfax High School but was expelled in 1962 for singing in class.
In 1963, he was committed to
Camarillo State Hospital
Camarillo State Mental Hospital, also known as Camarillo State Hospital, was a public psychiatric hospital for patients with both developmental disabilities and mental illness in Camarillo, California. The hospital was in operation from 1936 to 1 ...
for threatening his mother with a knife, and he was diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. ...
and
manic depression
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
.
Released one year later, he appeared at numerous talent shows and was discovered by R&B singer
Solomon Burke
Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke (born James Solomon McDonald, March 21, 1936 or 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s. He has been ...
, 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.
''An Evening with Wild Man Fischer''
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 for
the Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole cons ...
,
Bo Diddley
Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...
, and
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly is an American rock band formed in San Diego, California, in 1966. They are best known for the 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", providing a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of hard rock and heavy metal music. ...
.
While performing onstage and outside at the Sunset Strip, he was noticed by
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
, bandleader for
the Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention (also known as The Mothers) was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.
Originally an R&B band ...
.
Zappa later said: "I thought from the first day I met him that someone should make an album about Wild Man Fischer."
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 producer
Kim Fowley
Kim Vincent Fowley (July 21, 1939 – January 15, 2015) was the American record producer, songwriter and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed The Runaways in the 1970s. He has been ...
, radio DJ
Rodney Bingenheimer
Rodney Bingenheimer (born December 15, 1946) is an American radio disc jockey who is best known as the host of ''Rodney on the ROQ'', a radio program that ran on the Los Angeles rock station KROQ from 1976 to 2017. In the early 1970s, he also ma ...
, and Zappa's girl group
the GTOs
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
made guest appearances on some of the tracks.
Released as a
double album
A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...
in 1968, ''
An Evening with Wild Man Fischer
''An Evening with Wild Man Fischer'' is a 1969 double LP album by Wild Man Fischer. It was produced by Frank Zappa and released on his Bizarre record label.
The album is split into four different areas on each record side for the type of son ...
'' was given a positive review in ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine, where it was described as "captur
ngthe total being of one strange member of the human community".
On September 23, 1968, thanks to his connections with Zappa, Fischer appeared on ''
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (often simply referred to as ''Laugh-In'') is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Da ...
'', singing "Leaves Are Falling" and "Merry-Go-Round".
During this period he also made contributions to the 1968 psychsploitation album "Bedlam" by The Crazy People. In December, Zappa arranged for him to perform at a Christmas show involving the Mothers, the GTOs, Easy Chair, and
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
. Fischer sang "Circles".
Fischer was frustrated that the album failed to bring him the fame he expected.
One day, he visited Zappa and threw a bottle that nearly hit Zappa's infant daughter
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
. This ended their relationship.
In a song Fischer later wrote ("Frank"), he alleged that Zappa subsequently withheld his recording income ("Frank's got my publishing rights / You could say he's on my mind / I think about him all the time"). After Frank's death in 1993,
Gail Zappa
Adelaide Gail Zappa ( Sloatman; January 1, 1945 – October 7, 2015) was the wife of musician and composer Frank Zappa and the trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. They met in Los Angeles in 1966 and married while she was pregnant with their first ...
inherited her husband's musical copyrights, and refused to reissue the album for as long as she lived
feeling that the recording was "a poor example of Frank's work."
Rhino Records albums
In 1974, Larry appeared as a guest vocalist on noise band
Smegma
Smegma (Ancient Greek σμῆγμα : ''smēgma'') is a combination of shed skin cells, skin oils, and moisture. It occurs in both male and female mammalian genitalia. In females, it collects around the clitoris and in the folds of the labia ...
's album ''Sing Popular Songs''. In 1975, he recorded
Rhino Records
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
' 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 the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'': "Demand for
he single
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
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''.
In the 1980s, Fischer worked with the comedy music duo
Barnes and Barnes (
Bill Mumy
Charles William Mumy Jr. (; born February 1, 1954) is an American actor, writer, and musician and a figure in the science-fiction community/comic book fandom. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a child actor, which included television appeara ...
and
Robert Haimer
Robert Haimer (born March 2, 1954) is an American musician, singer and songwriter.
Haimer performs in the two-man band Barnes & Barnes as his stage persona Artie Barnes, alongside actor and musician Bill Mumy. Barnes & Barnes are best known for ...
) to produce two more albums for Rhino, ''Pronounced Normal'' (1981) and ''Nothing Scary'' (1984). In 1986, Barnes and Barnes also wrote and produced "It's a Hard Business", a duet featuring Fischer and
Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as " Botch-a-Me", " Mambo Italiano", ...
. The song was the result of a telephone friendship they began due to mutual acquaintances.
In 1988, a judge awarded Fischer royalties on his song "Merry-Go-Round" (from the videocassette release of the movie ''
Medium Cool
''Medium Cool'' is a 1969 American drama film written and directed by Haskell Wexler and starring Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill and Harold Blankenship. It takes place in Chicago in the summer of 1968. It was notab ...
''), but the attorney representing Fischer did not know how to contact him.
Fischer was still homeless, living in motels and on the streets while panhandling at places like
Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ( ...
and
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
.
He performed at the 1988
San Diego Comic Con with Bill Mumy's group as his backing band.
In 1998, ''Date with the Devils Daughter'', an album by
Robert Williams (a drummer formerly with
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...
) includes "Hello Robert", which consists of messages that Fischer left on Williams's phone. In 1999, Rhino released ''The 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, except ''
An Evening with Wild Man Fischer
''An Evening with Wild Man Fischer'' is a 1969 double LP album by Wild Man Fischer. It was produced by Frank Zappa and released on his Bizarre record label.
The album is split into four different areas on each record side for the type of son ...
'', for which the Zappa family still held the rights.
Final years and death
In the early 2000s, Fischer was filmed as the subject of a full-length
documentary, ''
Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fischer'', which premiered at
South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
in March 2005.
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 from
Devo
Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...
's
Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (; born May 18, 1950) is an American composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as co-founder, lead singer and keyboardist of the new wave band Devo, whose " Whip It" was a top 2 ...
who called him: "as pure a rock and roll icon as you can find. He's mainlined into the creative subconscious." In 2004, Fischer was the subject of a
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
(''The Legend of Wild Man Fischer'' by
Dennis Eichhorn
Dennis P. Eichhorn (August 19, 1945 – October 8, 2015) was an American writer, best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series ''Real Stuff''. His stories, often involving, sex, drugs, and alcohol, have been compared to tho ...
),
and in October, appeared on ABC-TV's late-night talk/comedy show, ''
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...
''.
In 2003, Fischer had a six-month-long
paranoid
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy c ...
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 of ''Derailroaded''). Fischer and his family consented to move him into an assisted-living mental institution in
Van Nuys
Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
History
In 1909, t ...
. The medications he was prescribed helped him control his behavior, but it also eliminated his creative drive, or "pep".
Fischer made his final performance on August 16, 2006, at the
Trunk Space in Phoenix, Arizona.
The last seven years of Fischer's life were spent peacefully but uneventfully. On June 16, 2011, he died of heart failure at the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...
in Los Angeles, at the age of 66.
Discography
Studio albums
* 1968: ''
An Evening with Wild Man Fischer
''An Evening with Wild Man Fischer'' is a 1969 double LP album by Wild Man Fischer. It was produced by Frank Zappa and released on his Bizarre record label.
The album is split into four different areas on each record side for the type of son ...
'' (
Bizarre Records
Bizarre Records, self-identified simply as Bizarre, was a production company and record label formed for artists discovered by rock musician Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen.
History
Bizarre was originally formed as a produ ...
)
* 1977: ''Wildmania'' (Rhino Records)
* 1981: ''Pronounced Normal'' (Rhino Records)
* 1983: ''Nothing Scary'' (Rhino Records)
* 2018: ''Deep State'' (CDBaby)
EP
* May 1968: ''Laminas''
Compilations
* 1981: ''The First One ...(First-1)'' (A.T.C. Records)
* 1999: ''The Fischer King'' (Rhino Records)
Singles
* 1975: "Go To Rhino Records" (
Rhino Records
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
)
* 1981: "Don't Be A Singer" / "I Got A Camera" /" Do The Salvo" (Rhino Records)
* 1981: "Larry Comes Alive" (A.T.C. Records)
Filmography
* 2005: ''
Derailroaded: Inside the Mind of Wild Man Fischer''
See also
*
Freak scene
"Freak Scene" is a song by American alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr., the opening track on the group's third studio album '' Bug'' (1988). Written and produced by frontman J Mascis, the song was recorded at Fort Apache Studios by engineers Paul ...
*
Bobby Jameson
*
Wild man
The wild man, wild man of the woods, or woodwose/wodewose is a mythical figure that appears in the art and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to '' Silvanus'', the Roman god of the woodl ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Wild Man
1944 births
2011 deaths
American street performers
Outsider musicians
People with bipolar disorder
People with schizophrenia
American rock musicians
Freak scene musicians
Freak scene
American rock guitarists
American acoustic guitarists
Guitarists from Los Angeles
Singers from Los Angeles
Homeless people
American male singer-songwriters
Singer-songwriters from California