R.I.P. Larry "Wild Man" Fischer

Wild Man's debut album released in 1968.
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www.idiotbastard.com reports that Larry "Wild Man" Fischer has died - of heart disease.
In the 60's Larry Fischer was singing songs for dimes in the streets when Frank Zappa met him and produced the infamous An Evening With Wild Man Fischer album on his Bizarre label.

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Did Zappa use Wild Man Fischer?

In the 60's Wild Man Fischer was "discovered" by Frank Zappa and did some guest appearances on stage with Zappa's group The Mothers. He used to recite some of the stories and sing songs that would can be found on An Evening With Wild Man Fischer, the double album that Zappa produced. Some people would not even call them songs since Wild Man was not much of a singer, actually. He was a mentally disordered guy that was singing for dimes in the streets, while having the dream of being a rock star. One can describe his singing like screaming while constantly changing key. Some Zappa (and Fischer) fans think that Zappa exposed a mentally ill person to an audience that would see him as a freak and would not do anything but laugh at him. Fischer hoped to become a rock star but would never be anything else but a broke down homeless person that lived under poor circumstances during the rest of his life.
The story of Wild Man Fischer truly is sad, but it's hard to tell what purpose Zappa really had. It is possible that Zappa wanted to bring attention to what the flower power movement really could be about. Wild Man Fischer was a person who desperately wanted to be part of that, but the flower children did not want to touch him...The message of love was not for everyone.
On the other hand, Fischer did reach some kind of cult status, Rhino released several Fischer albums, he did a duet with singer/actress Rosemary Clooney and in 2005 Josh Rubin and Jeremy Lubin (The Ubin Twinz) premiered their documentary about Wild Man Fischer, entitled Derailroaded.

R.I.P. Larry!

S.H.

Radio Dupree