Collector' Choice Music Reissues: Barnes & Barnes' Voohaba and Wild Man Fischer's Nothing Scary

Rejoice, aficionados of outsider music. Prick up your pointed little ears, Dr. Demento fans. Collectors' Choice Music has reissued three classics of weirdness: Barnes & Barnes's first album, Voobaha (with gushers of bonus tracks), and Wild Man Fischer's Pronounced Normal and Nothing Scary which were produced - cajoled into existence, one might say - by the aforementioned duo.

Larry "Wild Man" Fischer is a bipolar paranoid schizophrenic with a disturbingly entertaining take on the world, and songwriting talent to go with it. Frank Zappa recorded him in the late 60s (Fischer references Zappa in a couple of his Nothing Scary monologues) but he was too unstable to have a consistent career even as a wacky weird guy.

However, in the early 1980s, Barnes & Barnes (Robert Haimer and Lost In Space's Bill Mumy), of "Fish Heads" and "Boogie Woogie Amputee" fame, took on the challenge of tracking Fischer down, recording more of his vocals, and putting musical tracks to them.

Some of Fischer's output in the new sessions came in the form of shouts and monologues, but many were real songs. Fully conceived pieces like "All I Think About Is You," "The Rain Song," "Outside the Hospital" and "Love Love Love In Everything You Do" show a serious, original and actually quite mainstream songwriting ability. Snippets like "Ping Pong Ball Head," "One of a Kind Mind," and "Bad Leg" do the same on a smaller scale. That distinguishes Fischer from certain other, nowadays better-known outsider artists like Wesley Willis. It's no wonder Zappa took an interest in Fischer.

Unlike with most "sane" songwriters, Fischer's raw thoughts too are fascinating, which is no doubt why Haimer and Mumy captured the selections here that are not, strictly speaking, musical. Fischer's take on the music business is especially wry, bursting out in various monologues and harangues.

And a truly terrible business it is. I don't think Haimer and Mumy really sought to "make it big" in the music biz, though they put out quite a few albums both on Rhino (Fischer's label too) and elsewhere, some of which deviated from their successful novelty formula. I suspect if they had tried too hard to go mainstream they might have spoiled the senses of humor that made them stars of the Dr. Demento show.

I can almost guarantee that you've heard "Fish Heads" even if you've never listened to Dr. Demento or heard of Barnes & Barnes. You might even have seen the video. If not, do it now, then come back.