by Izzy Grinspan
“Outsider art” is a strange expression; ever since the idea of bohemianism came into being, artists have been outsiders by definition. “Outsider musician” is an even weirder idea, given how many rock stars have made their names by proclaiming their outsider status. But rock has a long history of outsider artists—people like Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston, whose mental illnesses didn’t prevent them from recording bizarre, haunting albums.
Jews are no strangers to outsider status, as Eli Attie points out in his Jewsrock article on Richard Hell. So should it surprise us that the first outsider musician was a Jewish guy? Larry “Wild Man” Fischer was living on the streets and charging 10 cents a song when Frank Zappa discovered him. Captivated by his effortless weirdness, Zappa tried to make Fischer into a star. It didn’t work, as Josh Rubin documents in his new film Derailroaded. But it did result in what could be the theme song for Jewish rock alienation, “The Wild Man Fischer Story,” in which Fischer repeats a parental lament that half of the musicians on this site probably heard at one point or another in their lives: “Why can't you be like every other Jewish boy in the neighborhood, a nice decent boy?"