Wild Man Fischer: the outsider musician who inspired Harmony Korine
It’s fair to say that the films of Harmony Korine are pretty tricky to define under anything other than the filmmaker’s singular umbrella of style. There’s undoubtedly a transgressive quality detailed across most of the Californian director’s back catalogue, and he’s never shied away from exploring the most taboo themes and subjects.
From his writing debut, Kids, to his stoner comedy, The Beach Bum, via the likes of the downright peculiar Gummo and the raucous Spring Breakers, Korine is carving out a legacy for himself as a filmmaker who possesses a fearless commitment to the stranger side of visual narratives. But that doesn’t mean other sensual art forms haven’t pervaded his sense of self.
Music has always played an essential part in the movies of Korine, too, whether in Gummo’s violent black metal or the brilliant use of Van Morrison in The Beach Bum. In a feature with Pitchfork, the legendary director once named the musical pieces that defined him as a person and an artist.
It may come as no surprise to learn that the list is full of enigmatic and esoteric artists, with Korine showing his love for the weirder side of aural artistry. However, there are few musicians that lie in the heart and mind of the director as downright erratic as the American street performer Wild Man Fischer.
“My dad had Wild Man Fischer’s Wildmania, which looked like a novelty record, but then when you put it on, it was so much more,” Korine said of his first experience listening to the infamous musician. “I couldn’t believe how it even existed, that people would pay money to record something like this.”
Wild Man Fischer was known for his bizarre acappella songs performed on the beach or on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. He had often been homeless or institutionalised after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as a teenager. Still, in 1968, he recorded a double album with Frank Zappa, though their professional relationship would later end when Fischer threw a bottle that almost hit Zappa’s daughter.
In 1977, Fischer released the album that Korine would later listen to as a child, Wildmania, on Rhino Records. Discussing his impressions of the record, Korine noted, “It was just a lot of Wild Man Fischer screaming over instrumental tracks—some of them didn’t even have instruments. They were almost like perverse nursery rhymes, but he sounded so happy to be yelling.”
Fischer was known as “the godfather of outsider music”, with Korine giving him the title “the ultimate outsider banging against the walls.” The director would imagine the kind of person listening to Fischer’s Wildmania, which was “all about baseball” – including a song where Fischer would repeat, “My name is Larry over and over again”. The tracks of such an obviously experimental creator would not only influence Korine’s unique style – never fearing to colour his work outside the lines of expectation – but also his childhood, including one particular curious moment.
An interesting incident occurred in Korine’s childhood when he listened to Wildmania a little too much. When his parents went shopping one day, the future filmmaker stuck on Fischer’s record for a “couple of hours, and it messed with my head.” Korine proceeded to set his yard on fire with a magnifying glass while the record was still spinning.
“It was a weird scene,” the director said. The personalities Fischer represented would find their way into the esotericism and outsider qualities of Korine’s directorial debut Gummo, a challenging and uncomfortable film in which poverty, desolation and mental illness abound — the kinds of themes and motifs that Fischer invariably explores throughout his genuinely unique musical style. While the outsider musician can’t be heard in Korine’s world directly, it can be felt in most of the scenes he has produced.
Check out Wildmania below.
