"Wild Man" Fischer and "Wild Man" Wilson

[jazzfascist]

Yesterday I saw a documentary called “Derailroaded” about singer Larry “Wild Man” Fischer. I’m sure somebody on this board has heard about him, he was a streetsinger in LA, who was discovered by Frank Zappa, that  helped him make a record at one point. Later they had to part company, because Wild Man Fischer during a fight threw a bottle, which almost hit Zappas infant daughter Moon. Anyway he reminded quite a bit of Brian, first of all in that he was paranoid and thought somebody would come and kill him, actually he himself had tried to kill his mother. He also seemed to lack the normal filters, both in terms of what was coming in and coming out, so he was reacting spontaneously to the situation and at the same time, saying more or less what was coming to him, just like Brian at times and I thought, that was what Brian would have been like, if he hadn’t been financially able to shelter himself, because of the work he after all managed to do, before his mental illness kicked in.
Also the only song Wild Man Fischer sang  in the film, that wasn’t original material was “In My Room” and he actually spent a great deal of his childhood in his room, just like Brian, making up his own music.
Wild Man Fischer has been labelled an outsider artist. “Outsider music” is defined as having an ”utter lack of conventional tunefulness” but on the other  ”an overabundance of earnestness and passion” and I was thinking that Brian was a kind of accomplished outsider musician, because after all he is musically more competent, but on the other hand his songs a lot of times contain the same unfiltered communication and emotion as outsider artists.  Some people think this is a more pure or “true” art, I don’t know if I completely agree with that, but it sure gives the music, whether it’s Wild Man Fischer or Brian, a special emotional impact.

"Wild Man" Søren

[PongHit]

I was thinking that Brian was a kind of accomplished outsider musician, because after all he is musically more competent, but on the other hand his songs a lot of times contain the same unfiltered communication and emotion as outsider artists. 

I know what you mean, but given Brian's enormous commercial successes, he can't possibly qualify as an outsider -- outsiders exist "outside" of mainstream music business circles -- & certainly don't have strings of charting singles, etc....  Plus: Brian had plenty of traditional talent -- not just enthusiasm.
 

[jazzfascist]

I was thinking that Brian was a kind of accomplished outsider musician, because after all he is musically more competent, but on the other hand his songs a lot of times contain the same unfiltered communication and emotion as outsider artists.

I know what you mean, but given Brian's enormous commercial successes, he can't possibly qualify as an outsider -- outsiders exist "outside" of mainstream music business circles -- & certainly don't have strings of charting singles, etc....  Plus: Brian had plenty of traditional talent -- not just enthusiasm.
 

Yes, and I was also basically thinking of the emotional content of the songs, especially on some of those songs he wrote later on, like “Johnny Carson”, “Airplane”, “Everybody Wants To Live” the one about flushing a cigarette, that kind of stuff. I didn’t mean that Brian was a genuine outsider artist. In a traditional sense, he’s far too musically competent for that. But based on the movie Brian and Wild Man Fischer reminds quite a lot of each other, on one hand very open and trusting, on the other hand with paranoid fantasies, for instance Wild Man Fischer thought that Steven Spielberg was out to kill him, and again on some of their songs, there’s that same feeling of unfiltered thoughts and emotion. Hearing Wild Man Fischer do a pretty good version of  “In My Room” in the movie, also seemed to confirm, that at least from his perspective, there was some kind of musical kinship.
BTW not all outsider artists are necessarily completely marginalized, Tiny Tim has been labelled an outsider artist and so has Syd Barrett. 

Søren

[PongHit]

Yeah, that's part of the beauty of being a Brian fan for me...  It's like getting the best of both worlds rolled into 1 package; that crazy outsidery stuff coexisting with some of the most famous & mainstream pop tunes of the century.  Yay!