Track Listing - Liner Notes - Fan Reviews - Lyrics
Released as a vinyl LP on Birdman Records, Sing Popular Songs, credited to "Wild Man Fisher (sic) Meets Smegma", is a bootleg (in the sense that Fischer was not involved in its release) containing some jam sessions featuring Larry with the West Coast noise collective Smegma as well as other non-Fischer Smegma recordings.
Although it does provide the opportunity to hear Fischer at an "in-between" stage in his career (the jam was recorded in 1975, seven years after An Evening With and two years before Wildmania), the quality of the album is questionable (note the misspelling of "Fischer") and it stands as an interesting but inessential addition to Fischer's catalog.
Should you wish to purchase the LP, it is available on the web from two distinctly different companies: Forced Exposure and CDNow.
Side One
Stigmatize Your Mind
Midnight Train/Rock & Roll Star/Say It
Jimmy Durante
Dandylion Flower
Please Like Us
Side Two
Potato War
Stino
Breakfast With Bananas
Auto Suk #2
When The Saints Go Marching In
Fill The Boot
The Party's Over
All tracks recorded in Pasadena 1974-75 by Mike Lastra, except:
Side B track 3- Temple City "live" at Pumpkin Works
track
4- Sand Diego 1973 from Smegma Xmas vidio tape
tracks
6&7- Coronado "live" Jerry Lewis Fight M.S. Local Telethon 1974
On this record Smegma is: Amazon Bambi, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Dr. ID, Cheez-it-Ritz, Chucko Fats, Dennis Duck, The Ace Of Space, Dr. Odd, Reed Burns, Electric Bill, Bev, 2 Jasons, Dana, The Reverend Toadeater, Danton Dodge, and WILD MAN FISCHER.
In addition to the above, the album also contains an insert with information on Larry's association with Smegma. Special thanks to J.R. Williams for the transcripition ("misspellings & questionable grammar are the author's, preserved here for the sake of authenticity.")
I met Larry Fischer sometime late '74 at the old Ash Grove. He was opening for a show by the Roto Rooter Goodtime Christmas Band hosted by my friend Barret Hansen (actually as i recall he had just kind of showed up and was invited to do a few songs however i digress).
I was thrilled to have met him, having had been a big fan. I told him a bit about Smegma and gave him our number and to our great surprise he called. He took the bus from Hollywood to Pasadena fairly often and spent a good deal of time with us. Only 2 formal recording dates with Larry took place, the material spontaneous and whimsical as any of Smegma's or Larry's, and both sessions were quite different from each other.
The first of these (which includes primarily the legendary "Midnight Train To Georgia/I Used To Be A Rock & Roll Star" medley) took place on new years day 1975 in Smegma's newly formed BUB studio at 777 North Los Robles, Dr. Id at the helm of the control board. Largely due to the festive occasion, Smegma was an expanded ensemble on that day and included the very youthful Reverend Toad-Eater on guitar along with a rather wacky chorus of backup singers. The second session was a bit more deliberate, with almost a rock band setting with Reed Burns and R.T.E. on guitars, H.G. on synth, Dennis Duck on drums, Ju Suk or I might have played bass, and the rest on their various. Some of Larry's songs were attempted, although there were no rehearsals or preparation. Many of the songs were new to us all at the time, so some of these are the first recordings of songs he later did for the Rhino albums.
For Larry Fischer fans, these sessions provide a bridge between the "An Evening with" album and the 3 LPs for the Rhino label and show a side of the illusive Mr. Fischer that we are only too fortunate to have a document of. (not to mention the famous failed attempts to remake Larry's classic "Taster" which first appeared on the L.A.F.M.S. LP Blorp Essette volume 2, released in 1980). Wow.