WILD MAN FISCHER An Evening With Wild Man Fischer ★★★
GONZO CD
Institutionalised
at 16, Larry Wayne Fischer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder but, after escaping from hospital, roamed LA’s streets bellowing his
self-composed ditties for change (named “Wild Man”’ by Solomon Burke), before
being adopted by Frank Zappa as a kind of pet sideshow freak. Zappa whisked him
into a studio with some Mothers in 1968, recording his outpourings and releasing
them as a double-album on his new Bizarre Records. Although blessed with moments
of innocent inspiration, such as the oddly catchy ‘Merry Go Round’, it often
seemed like an in-joke at Larry’s expense. Since then, the album’s been hailed
as outsider classic or dismissed as Zappa’s cynical folly. With Gail Zappa’s
passing (Fischer died in 2011), it gets the expanded CD release she relentlessly
denied after Fischer threw a bottle at her. Only historical researchers or smug,
after-dinner hipsters will want to play it more than once. Kris Needs
I don't think that either Neil Nixon or I are "smug, after-dinner hipsters" but both of us love the album and ten years ago my nephew Ross had Merry Go Round as his mobile ring tone.
Tuesday 10 May 2016
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Most of this blog is related in some way to the music, books and films produced by Gonzo Multimedia, but the editor has a grasshopper mind and so also writes about all sorts of cultural issues which interest him, and which he hopes will interest you as well.
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