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.
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.
He was discovered by Frank Zappa ("wandering the streets of Hollywood selling songs for a nickel") and has been linked with Linda Ronstadt, Tom Waits, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin and recorded with Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo).
Zappa was responsible for Fischer's initial foray into the business of music—"An Evening with Wild Man Fischer"—which contains 36 tracks of 'something not exactly musical'.
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}.
In 1986 Barnes and Barnes also wrote and produced "It's a Hard Business", a duet featuring Fischer singing along with 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".
The final (to date) Wild Man release was Rhino's "The Fischer King" in 1999, which was a two-CD package comprising 100 tracks and a 20-page booklet.
References
- A Wild Man Fischer Discography (http://home.online.no/~movidar/discographies/wmf.html)